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The Christianity of Constantine the Great. By T. G. Elliott. Scranton, Pa.: University of Scranton Press, 1996. x + 366 pp. $24.95 cloth; $19.95 paper.
Thomas G. Elliott, a professor of classics at the Erindale College campus of the University of Toronto, has boldly challenged many of the ancient literary sources and the majority of modern scholarly opinions about the first Christian emperor in his new book on The Christianity of Constantine the Great. Among the many challenging propositions that he has offered in this tome are that Constantius and Helena, Constantine's parents, were closet Christians who raised their son in the faith; that Constantius and Constantine feigned paganism out of necessity during the Diocletianic Tetrarchy and the Great Persecution; that it was the persecution of Christians and not the miracle of 312 that inspired Constantine in his mission to Christianize the Roman world; that Constantine did have a visionary experience during the campaign against Maxentius that induced him to use Christian signs on his war implements, but that Eusebius invented and interposed the unnecessary conversion elements into this episode of his life; that the emperor did not attempt to use legislation to further his Christianizing mission; that Constantine was an intelligent and well-educated man with a deep knowledge of Christian doctrine;...