THE EMPEROR’S NEW MIND: ON CONSTANTINE’S I DECISION TO LEGALIZE CHRISTIANITY
CONSTANTINE BOURLAKIS
Abstract:
Emperor Constantine’s I Edict of Toleration in 313 CE ended the age of Christian persecution in the Roman Empire, and heralded the era where Christian monotheism started displacing the dominant Greco - Roman paganism. Secular power and religious authority aligned together to govern the empire, so monotheism in the form of Christianity and Greco - Roman polytheism became strategic complements, as the Emperor lowered the existing “higher price” for Christian monotheism. Was Constantine’s I decision right? By moving the capital from Rome to Constantinople, Emperor Constantine I had to solve a coordination problem among rational players throughout the empire. Adoption of rituals within a society results in the reinforcement or the inculcation of shared beliefs and values. Following Schelling (1960), when persons are confronted with coordination problems often seem to do surprisingly well when focal points provide to them a point of convergence for individual expectations. I argue in the present paper that Constantine’s I decision to legalize Christianity was followed by a set of carefully chosen strategic decisions essential to promote social coordination, and with the aim to convert the city of Constantinople into a strong focal point of religious rituals. The building of the Church of St Eirene (“The Church of Hagia Eirene”) and other Christian churches, alongside the exploitation of the administrative organizational structure of the Christian church that existed within the empire, were all part of expansion - deterrence strategies against the old pagan world, and also the need to create a strong focal point of religious rituals away from the Holy Land.
Keywords:
Economics of Religion; Christianity; Church; Focal Points; Rituals; Economic History;
DOI: 10.52950/SS.2016.5.1.003
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APA citation:
CONSTANTINE BOURLAKIS (2016). The Emperor’s New Mind: On Constantine’s I Decision to Legalize Christianity. International Journal of Social Sciences, Vol. V(1), pp. 47-59. , DOI: 10.52950/SS.2016.5.1.003
Data:
Received: 13 Nov 2015
Revised: 31 Dec 2015
Accepted: 6 Feb 2016
Published: 20 Feb 2016
Copyright © 2016, Constantine Bourlakis et al, cbourl@aueb.gr