A.D. 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State

Charles Freeman presents an excellent, readable, and surprising history of Christianity, filled with many unknown facts, that focus around the events of the year 381 when the Roman Emperor Theodosius issued a decree mandating that all Christians believe in the Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, an idea not contained in the New Testament and rejected by most Christians at that time. Theodosius called those who refused to accept his view "demented and insane heretics." Freeman shows how many early Christians enjoyed a diverse spiritual life. The court orator Themistius, for example, wrote in 360 that religious belief should not be controlled by the state or by the inclinations and motivations of certain popular clergy. He said that God "enjoyed being worshipped in a variety of ways." Freeman writes: "It is one of the tragedies of western thought that this approach was, in effect, suppressed as a result of Theodosius' decrees against `heretics' and pagans in" 381. As a result, countless thinking men and women lived under the continual threat of excommunication and the promise of eternal punishment in fiery hell, a concept and threat that had not existed previously. It was not until the seventeenth century that religious toleration was reinstated, and then only partially. This insistence upon acquiescence to a single idea is startling since it ignores Church history. Only sixty years earlier, in 313, the emperor Constantine had issued an Edict of Toleration in which he had removed Christianity from being a despised religion and promised "that no one whatsoever should be denied freedom to devote himself either to the cult of Christians or to such religion as he deems best suited for himself." Now, the religion that had been despised was despising many of its own faith. Freeman shows how emperors and clergy with non-religious motivations brought about many Christian innovations. Besides the court decrees of Constantine and Theodosius and other government officials for civic reasons, to assure peace, priests pushed ideas to help their advancements and the money and freedom from taxes that accompanied it. "The high level of religious violence (to secure higher level priestly posts) has been largely ignored by historians...almost every vacant bishopric gave rise to murder and intimidation as rival candidates fought for the position." Freeman's book has many other insights and whether one agrees with his history or not, it is worth reading since it offers many facts and is thought provoking.

Having just finished A New History of Early Christianity, also written by Charles Freeman and thoroughly well-done, I determined that I was ready to tackle A.D. 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Christian State. I was not let down. Freeman does a wonderful job presenting an overview of the series of historical events leading up to the ominous date of 381, including events preceding the coming of the Christian state and theological arguments about Jesus' status; then, he describes in clear detail the events surrounding the edict of Emperor Theodosius regarding the Christian trinity in 381; and, finally, he explains the outcome of the edict, including the effects on paganism, and the collapse of the Christian West. As usual, Freeman gives very good background fodder to aid one in understanding the big picture of his primary subject matter. A.D. 381 reads easily and is engrossing -- something that cannot be said about a good many historical books. My only wish concerning the book is that it would have been longer -- at just over 200 pages, it went by altogether too quickly. However, I readily recommend A.D. 381 to anyone interested in early Christianity or Roman history. And, who knows, perhaps one day some of Freeman's work will be available in audio format -- that would be a treat.

Once again, the gaps in my education from parochial grade and high school shows through. Sure we were taught about the Nicene Creed and the council that wrote it, but we were never given the insight into the pressure and arguments that were involved. This extremely well-written book fills in those knowledge gaps for me. Some of this ground was covered in "When Jesus Became God", an excellent book I read several years ago. This one, however, gives the reader the "big picture", covering both the Eastern and Western Empires, and the doctrinal fights that led up to (and beyond) the Creed. There are very helpful mini-biogrqaphies of the most important players, and we see fairly clearly the issues involved. Most of the fights involved the Trinity, what it is and how it is composed, and how Christ related to it. There was also the ongoing struggle over the nature(s) of Christ, human and divine. I'm not even going to go into that, becaue trying to think about the Trinity makes my mind hurt, so I understand the passion involved on both sides, when religious discussion was the most interesting happening in the known world. The author concludes that the Creed, and the nature of the Trinity accepted by it, was the result of political pressure from the Eastern Emperors and their adherents, in opposition to those who believed otherwise. The fact that many respected church writers were named heretics ex post facto is shocking, but probably shouldn't be considering the long history of my Church's dealing with those who had differing opinions. It's true that "history is written by the winners" and the theme of this book is a perfect example of it. I enjoyed it tremendously, and if early church history and controversy interests you, I know that you will thoroughly enjoy this book.

I have noticed that, over time, and in this case almost 2,000 years, the subtleties and complexities of discussions disappear and all we are left with is the "PowerPoint" version of them. So it is with the Nicene Creed which we recite every Sunday. This book explains the myriad opinions, personalities and politics that were part of the recipe. A true sausage, it was! It asks questions that have long gone unanswered. An exciting and stimulating book. It does have relevance to today, when so many groups want to silence the voices and opinions of others and certainly don't want to have a thorough-going debate about important matters. (I am thinking about the Sunday morning "shout-downs" on TV as an example.)

AD 381 refers to the year in which Emperor Theodosius I announced a new law requiring his subjects in the Roman world to believe in the Trinity. In promulgating this law, the Emperor hoped to settle a vexatious issue and restore law and order in his realms. Law and order was restored, after a fashion, but at the cost of massive persecutions not just of non-believers but also of Christians who held different views on the nature of Christ and his relationship to God and the Holy Spirit than those codified at the Council of Nicaea. This more hostile religious climate, very different from the tolerance which prevailed before Christianity became the dominant Roman religion, prevailed through the next millenium and beyond and still has an impact on us today. Charles Freeman has done an excellent job of describing the confusing theological climate which prevailed in the centuries after Jesus' death and the beginning of Christianity. Christians agreed on little or nothing, it seemed, until their religion gained legal acceptance and then official status. Then political leaders, aided and abetted by sometimes unscrupulous bishops and priests, sought to make sense out of the confusion and come up with a single theology which all Christians were bound to accept. Freeman recreates the personalities of politicians like Constantine, Theodosius, and the many other Emperors, as well as those of Church leaders like Ambrose and Augustine, and helps us understand how they contributed to what became established Christian dogma on the Trinity. I found particularly interesting his final chapters, in which he traces the official Christian teachings through the European Middle Ages. I was intrigued, as well, by his chapters in which he traced connections between Christianity and Plato and Aristotle. This is a scholarly work which is accessible to non-specialist readers. It helped me better understand some of the underpinnings and rationales behind Chrstianity as we know it today, and the "other" Christianities which were pushed to the sidelines.