The Conversion Of Constantine Essay

Constantine converted to Christianity, but was his conversion good or bad for the Church? The conversion of Constantine “happened during a war against his brother-in-law and co-emperor, Maxentius” (Ferguson and Grupp). The reason that he converted to Christianity at this point was to get guidance from God for the upcoming battle, which showed some interest that he had for the faith. Although he had an interest in the faith he never really followed with what was taught about the faith, like how he did bad things and associated them with God’s name. Although he did things that shed God’s name in a bad light along with the Christian Church, Constantine also did positive things for the faith like expanding the church and allowing Christians …show more content…
One of the main points that they could use is that Constantine brought Christianity out of the shadows. Before Constantine passed the Edict of Milan, it was illegal for Christians to be seen worshiping God in public when Constantine became emperor and Christian is when he decided that they no longer had to worship in secret. Going along with this fact people could say that he built places of worship and printed more copies of the bible, as well as expanded the faith. The numbers of Christians grew because of Constantine, but not for a good reason. Most people who did not want to be Christian said that they were so that they would not be killed; Constantine forced Christianity onto the Roman empire. The expansion of faith could also be something bad because Jesus told his disciples of many nations, he never specified that the number of people had to be massive, but that there were people of diversity in the Christian faith. The Edict of Milan was a good thing, but Constantine used it to his benefit, he thought that if he were to bring the Christians out of hiding than he could use their religion to his advantage in making the roman empire