{"id":9816,"date":"2010-10-27T05:06:58","date_gmt":"2010-10-27T10:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/?p=9816"},"modified":"2010-10-25T20:24:45","modified_gmt":"2010-10-26T01:24:45","slug":"defending-the-real-constantine-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/27\/defending-the-real-constantine-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending the Real Constantine 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Peter Leithart, a polymath and a compelling thinker and writer, is laying down a challenge to the Anabaptists of this world and to the progressive Christians of this world \u2014 anyone who critiques Christendom, the nation-church connection that begins in earnest with Constantine and carried on for centuries.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Leithart\u2019s challenge does not lack nuance, but it also does not fail to make potent claims. Leithart\u2019s new book may well become a watershed argument, and here\u2019s one way he puts it:<\/p>\n

For all its flaws, though, I believe the project of Christendom \u2014 the project of seeking to reshape political and cultural institutions and values in accord with the gospel \u2014 is a direct implication of the gospel\u2019s proclamation that Jesus is Lord. Yoder, to his great credit, argued that Christians are called to live in conformity with the demands of the gospel here and now, and he even imagined what a more faithful Constantine might have looked like. His imaginary Constantine resembled the real Constantine more than Yoder realized. Christians disagree on how achievable that project [Christendom] is. It is, of course, full of risk and temptation, like everything else. I have a difficult time understanding Christians who object to the premise of Christendom.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Talk about challenging people to run the gauntlet. Leithart\u2019s book is called Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom<\/a>\"\"<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Leithart doesn\u2019t believe in the \u201cfall\u201d of the Church with Constantine, but instead that there is much to learn from Constantine about Christian politics. He says he is a \u201cmodel for Christian political practice\u201d (11). I\u2019m inclined at this point to say Leithart is grandstanding or at least being a curmudgeon just to make a point, a bit the way Rodney Stark did when he said the Crusades weren\u2019t all that bad. But Leithart is doing neither. He\u2019s dead serious.<\/p>\n

His eye will always be, like Constantine\u2019s, on empire. My eye, however, will also be on Paul Stephenson\u2019s exceptional study of Constantine, Constantine: Roman Emperor, Christian Victor<\/a>\"\"<\/em><\/strong>, which argues precisely the opposite of Leithart and which, when I had heard of Leithart\u2019s book, I read in preparation for this exercise in rattling the Anabaptist and Progressive cages.<\/p>\n

What does Constantinianism mean to you? And another: If Jesus is Lord, and being Lord also means ruling culture and politics, what would a Jesus-as-Lord politics look like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tell me, what do you know about Constantine? What are the problems with Constantinianism? What are the strengths?
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Peter Leithart, a polymath and a compelling thinker and writer, is laying down a challenge to the Anabaptists of this world and to the progressive Christians of this world \u2014 anyone who critiques Christendom, the nation-church connection that begins in earnest with Constantine and carried on for centuries. Leithart\u2019s challenge does not lack nuance, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,484],"tags":[2580,2579],"class_list":["post-9816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-church","tag-constantinianism","tag-peter-leithart"],"yoast_head":"\nDefending the Real Constantine 1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Peter Leithart, a polymath and a compelling thinker and writer, is laying down a challenge to the Anabaptists of this world and to the progressive\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/27\/defending-the-real-constantine-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defending the Real Constantine 1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Peter Leithart, a polymath and a compelling thinker and writer, is laying down a challenge to the Anabaptists of this world and to the progressive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/27\/defending-the-real-constantine-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-27T10:06:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-10-26T01:24:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/files\/2010\/10\/Screen-shot-2010-10-25-at-7.18.40-PM-188x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/27\/defending-the-real-constantine-1\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/27\/defending-the-real-constantine-1\/\",\"name\":\"Defending the Real Constantine 1\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-27T10:06:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-10-26T01:24:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Peter Leithart, a polymath and a compelling thinker and writer, is laying down a challenge to the Anabaptists of this world and to the progressive\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/27\/defending-the-real-constantine-1\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/27\/defending-the-real-constantine-1\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/10\/27\/defending-the-real-constantine-1\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Defending the Real Constantine 1\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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