A.D. 381: Heretics, Pagans, and the Dawn of the Monotheistic State

摘要

By Charles Freeman (252 pages, February 2009), explores the crucial year of 381, when the Council of Constantinople ratified the edict of Roman Emperor Theodosius 1, who decreed in 380 that the Nicene version of the Christian Trinity (where the Father and Son, but not quite the Holy Spirit, are equal and of one substance) would become the state religion in the east. In addition, he criminalized all other faiths, both Christian and Pagan, calling them 'demented and insane [and] shall carry the infamy of heretical dogmas." Freeman points out that the Council's acquiescence was far from a democratic decision (since many would-be dissenters were not invited or in hiding) and in fact was a politically expedient move by the Nicene bishops to extend their power as Theodosius attempted to patch the cracks in the empire.