Christianity is a faith that takes its doctrines and tenets from the teachings and character of the son of God, Jesus Christ. The most popular faith in the world is called Christianity, and it is based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. The Apostle's Creed serves as a succinct synopsis of Christian doctrine.According to the Apostle's Creed, Jesus went through a lot of pain before dying and being buried. He then went down into purgatory and came back up on the third day. Because his execution and resurrection were the only means of atoning for sins, the latter makes it simple for believers. The religious conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine continued to spread in Rome even after his death. The religious relationship between Rome and Christianity continued to improve which made Christianity the dominant religion in the recent and the current century. Even though this is the case, the spread met a lot of active opposition and enmity that slowed the spread. One of the major factors was the fact that Constantine’s son Constantius II was an anti-Christ and supported Arianism while the other factor was major competition from other religions such as Paganism.( Eusebius 9)
The widely renowned Christian persecution in Rome ended. Christians in Rome were persecuted because the Romans felt that Christians were traitors since they met in secret with the emperor but did not worship him and also that the Christians endangered their city by not giving offerings to the gods. Some Romans embraced Christianity as they were intrigued by the Christian charity while others found Christian teachings appealing as it granted them hope of restoration in moments of despondency(Oliver 10). This made Christianity to gain more acceptance in the Roman Empire.
Christianity replaced the wide idol worship. Constantine made a choice of Christianity after observing that all those who sprouted by idol worshiping collapsed just as fast as they rose. Apart from this, Constantine felt that the military forces could not offer him aid powerful enough to vanquish the wicked and magical enchantments of the tyrants, so he resort to divine help.
Eusebius portrays Constantine as immortal (Eusebius 32 ), and this works to give tone to the entire work. Comparing Emperor Constantine to the Biblical Moses as is portrayed by the Eusebius is an outlook on the life of Moses which is a clever way of using imagery which makes the diction quite interesting and of easy flow and comprehension,“God appeared to him in his Sleep, and commanded him to use in his Wars a Standard made in the Form of the Cross”. All these serve to accentuate the point and the theme of the work. Moses’(Eusebius 61) story is widely known by many, so it’s easy to understand the flow of the Eusebius. The Labarum also works to bring imagery to the work as it contains Roman Empire military symbols(Oliver 8).
Eusebius tries to marry legendary stories with the real text making it difficult to rely on fully. However, many find the text very reliable to them as they other it from a different view compared to other scholars. He mostly bases his text on Nicaea council and the Licinius other than touching on all spheres of Constantine’s reign basing his text mostly on politics(Oliver 12). The text might be biased since Eusebius was a participant of the Nicaea council and yet in the same context describes himself as being very close to the emperor, which forms a huge contradiction.
Eusebius tries to prove that despite the fact that he was a member of the Nicaea council, he forged a close relation with the Emporer but then the fact is that Eusebius resided out of the Capital and the legislations that were out in place made it difficult to even exchange written correspondences with the Emporer. Eusebius also uses the past in his text to show how the Emporer made certain choices and how the Emporer;s past helped in molding him to what he became.
Works Cited
Eusebius, and Philipp Schaff. The Sacred Writings of Eusebius Pamphilus. Altenmünster: Jazzybee Verlag, 2012. Internet resource
Oliver, Willem H. "The Heads of the Catechetical School in Alexandria: Original Research." Verbum Et Ecclesia. 36.1 (2015): 1-14. Print.
