Seeing Jesus through your theory
A bible college student walked to the bathroom and threw up. She’d just heard a professor explain that Christians believe Jesus is fully God and fully man because an emperor said so. She’s now a bestselling religious author, but then Diana Butler Bass was a doctoral student at Duke, preparing for a career as a Church historian. And Professor Elizabeth Clark upset her world. Diana told the story in a series of tweets. People who argue about this kind of thing argued. The argument may look like an academic argument about ancient history. It’s really an argument about the nature of Christianity: Whether the Faith is given to us in great detail or it’s something we create as we go along. I would say the first. She would say the second. Constantine’s Christianity You may know the story. By the early fourth century, the long-persecuted Christians had gained some respect and freedom. The Church had grown so big it couldn’t be ignored or persecuted anymore. (See the historian