H. A. Drake

This book paints a very comprehensive and interesting portrait of political processes brewing behind the scenes when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. The author works hard on presenting this historical period through a political lens and succeeds admirably well. The first conclusion of his argument is that Constantine's conversion and the events that followed were not primarily religious in character. They were political. The second conclusion is that the Christian intolerance which ensued and which so strongly shaped subsequent European history was not inherent in Christianity itself and definitely not a deliberate policy adopted by Constantine. Intolerance probably prevailed for other, more or less fortuitous historical reasons. I particularly enjoyed the first 200 pages of the book where the argument proceeded on a fairly general level. Towards the end of the book the author dived into much more detailed discussions of various persons and their writings. The second half of the book is therefore best suited for specialists, but I still recommend this book to all persons with a serious interest in political history.… (mehr)