The past week had two days that are worth commenting upon. May 20th in the year 325 AD the council of Nicaea was convened. That is the council that produced the Nicene creed that we say in church on and off with the Apostle’s creed. This year, 2025 is the 1700 anniversary of that event. May 21st happens to be the veneration day of Saint Constantine who played an important role in that council – if not the role that Dan Brown and 1000 conspiracy theories have him play.
Starting with Constantine himself, his mother St. Helena, was the original Christian. She was the concubine of Constantine’s father who was the Roman nobleman and eventually the inheritor of one fourth of the Roman empire in the Emperor Diocletian’s succession plan. Technically he got the worst part, the far west including Britain. His father dies relatively early and Constantine becomes his replacement. And rather like the Biblical David, his life is one of warfare consolidating the Empire. In 312 AD, before the climatic battle of the Milvian Bridge, Constantine had a vision. Eusebius the church historian records that he saw the “Chi-Rho” which is the first two letters of the name of Christ. The vision told him “In this name, you shall conquer.” He had it painted on all his standards the next day and he did win becoming Emperor of the entire empire. In 314 AD he would issue the Edict of Milan which made Christianity legal in the empire for the first time. Maybe the biggest benefit of this was that churches could now own public space. Constantine’s mother would proceed to sponsor the building of the original edifices of most of the famous churches from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem to Old St. Peter’s in Rome.
The seed bed of the conspiracy theories comes from Constantine’s role in starting the Council of Nicea. He convened the council of Bishops from all over the Empire. Early Christianity had two ongoing doctrinal disagreements. The first was about the nature of God and the second very close about the nature of Christ. It really came down to the question of how did Jesus participate in the Godhood. One camp headed by a man called Arius held that “there was a time when Christ was not.” The godhood of Christ was derivative of the Father. The orthodox camp held what we find in the Nicene Creed – “begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.” The conspiracy theories operate much like any reporting on religion in our press today. Doctrine or religion isn’t a real thing. Politics is the only real thing. So the Nicene creed and the entire council were just an assertion of political power by the consolidating Emperor Constantine who was looking for a faith to unite the empire behind his elevated rule.
But just like our modern day journalists who don’t “get religion” and so view it only through the lens of politics, anyone who does get it could tell you betting on Christianity to unite a political movement is a losing bet. From stories of St. Nicholas (yes, Santa Claus) punching Arius at Nicaea to the 300 plus year aftermath, as the hymn says the church is almost always “by schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed.” Politicians in every age may try to make the faith utilitarian, but Christ himself is on the throne and such plans quickly come to nothing. But the creed – the symbol of the faith – is still in use 1700 years later.
The world we live in is a messy one. Its politics are pluralistic. Much like Constantine managing Pagans, Christians, Jews and every other form in the broad empire. And Satan still has his sway on this old earth. The church’s judgement of Constantine has long been contrary to a reductionist power politics view only. Jesus promised that the Spirit would lead his followers into all truth. And as any Christian would probably tell you the paths of the Spirit are often quite surprising. The church’s judgement has long been that God used the rule of Constantine to end the on and off Roman persecutions of his people. To gather the bishops together to make the formal statement of the faith that has stood for 1700 years. To build spaces of worship still in use today. And ultimately to allow the further proclamation of the gospel as the 300 – 600’s AD would not just Christianize the empire, but also well beyond its borders. Constantine may have thought the conquest would be his by means of arms. And on that one specific day it was. But the larger conquest was of hearts. “In this name – the name of Christ – you shall conquer.”