• The Triumph and Shame of Christianity in Power: CHAPTER 2 •
There is a specific word that we can use to describe the early Christians in their context: alternative. The first Christians did not need legitimation, help, or the approval of the State to put into practice the principles of the Kingdom of God. But a series of events in the fourth century changed the future of Christianity forever. In the year 313, Constantine proclaimed the Edict of Milan, in which he removed the ban on Christianity. Years after Constantine, Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. The alliance between the Church and the Empire drastically distorted what Christianity in its origin had proposed. When the Church lost what made it special, it became the official legitimizer of the status quo.