RT Article
T1 Constantine the Populist
JF Journal of early Christian studies
VO 27
IS 2
SP 241
OP 270
A1 Cooper, Kate 1960-
LA English
PB Johns Hopkins Univ. Press
YR 2019
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1694315274
AB It has long been acknowledged that although the reign of Constantine (d. 337 c.e.) brought new prosperity to the Christian churches, it was also an age of ever-escalating division. This essay suggests that recent scholarship on populism can help us to understand the role of conflict in Constantinian Christianity. Structured conflict, we suggest, had a recognized value as a tool for cultivating the loyalty of a following. The creation of factional loyalty, rather than spiritual unity, seems to have been the aim of the fourth-century Christian bishops and clergy. Yet it is less clear whether this goal was shared by the emperor himself.
DO 10.1353/earl.2019.0020