Free excerpt of Rethinking Constantine

Through the kind permission from Wipf and Stock Publishers, a free excerpt of Rethinking Constantine is now available for download HERE. The excerpt features Glen Thompson's excellent chapter, "From Sinner to Sinner? Seeking a Consistent Constantine." Here is a taste: 

Seventeen hundred years after gaining control of the western Roman world, Constantine remains one of only a handful of Roman emperors whose name is still widely recognizable. This is due primarily to the new relationship that he formed between himself, the Christian church, and the empire and its legal system. Yet even some of the most basic aspects of that relationship are still hotly debated by scholars. This chapter presents a brief overview of the past several decades of Constantinian scholarship and then addresses several areas where history and theology converge and where consensus is still lacking. In particular, an Augustinian approach is used to examine the motives for and timing of Constantine’s conversion and to evaluate his Christian “walk.” The final section examines how both Christians and pagans viewed the emperor in the years following his reign, and this serves as a further check on the earlier sections.

The book can be purchased at a discount from both Wipf and Stock and Amazon.

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