• The Triumph and Shame of Christianity in power: CHAPTER 4 •
Christianity Post-Constantine has been tempted repeatedly to see the contemporary governmental structures and other forms of power (whether it political, economic or cultural) as potential allies. This Christian view considers the world to be a place that must be contested or fought over in order to achieve self-preservation and again turn society (from the top-down) into something that more or less resembles the Kingdom of God. However, that is quite a questionable methodology in light of the Bible and history. The early Church’s testimony is a defiant example of opposition to a Christianity captive to the State’s tools and forms of legitimization. In the New Testament, there are plenty of examples of how the first Christians saw the State. They did not see it as a mere space for the dispute of power, but, instead, as a system that competed directly with God and that often assumed the category of a rival God.