I know that different people have differing views when it comes to Constantine and his role in the development and progress of Christianity. I look extremely favorably upon him and do not buy into any narrative spin that would see this institutionalization as the beginning of the Church's corruption that would later need to be corrected during the reformation. I think that kind of argumentation tends toward the same argumentation used in cults like Mormonism and Jehovah's Witnesses; that Christianity was corrupted very early on and had to be rescued and redefined by insert historical figure. If Christ Jesus promised that his Church would be guided by the Spirit into all truth (John 16:13); that the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18); and that he, Jesus Christ himself, would be with his Church even to the end of the age (Matt. 28:20). These promises do not allow for a view that the entire Church can utterly fall into apostasy and false doctrine. I also don't believe the other extreme that would suggest that the Church cannot err in any way, just that she will ultimately be indefectible and not utterly lost.

Thus, as I examine Constantine, I believe he was a force for profound good in the life of the Church. He allowed Christianity to not only become legal but also eventually the religion of the Roman Empire. This enabled the theology of the Church to take on a much more visible dimension, with more elaborate liturgy, vestments, and public religious piety. The clerical roles took on a more visible hierarchical dimension and the diocesan model of the episcopate became, as far as I can tell, universal. Councils of bishops to settle matters of faith were called at the command of emperors which enabled doctrine to be hammered out in ways that would have been impossible on a universal level before. Furthermore, it also enabled the Church to truly exert greater evangelical influence within the Roman Empire and surrounding regions.

Without Constantine's conversion to Christianity, I'm not sure we would be living in a Christian West (in terms of its foundations). To this day, we are standing on the backs of giants who came before us and inaugurated the first great Christendom. Likely, theological progression would have happened on a more local level, with no ability for universal consent. Churches would have continued to predominantly meet in homes and secret, never fully ridding themselves of the assumption that they were simply a heretical sect of Judaism. Arguably the most significant reality that would have been impacted had Constantine not become a Christian would have been the lack of Christian influence in the foundation of Western civilization, which might indeed call into question the existence (or the potential for the existence) of nations like America, who are founded upon these Western Christian values enabled by the conversion of the hub of the West.

It seems to be that the conversion of Constantine was a work of God's Holy Spirit, apart from which Christianity would be a small, secret, and culturally irrelevant faith. I thank God for Constantine and ask that he will raise new leaders with the same boldness to once again restore Christianity as the religion of the West.