In the Shadow of Empire

Abstract This chapter details Christian attitudes to the pagan Roman Empire, showing that some early Christians developed a view of politics as secular in order to decouple their political and religious loyalties. Such strategies eventually also proved useful for pagan emperors, as well as Constantine and his Christian successors: maintaining the sacred nature of the emperor alongside neutrality on questions of religious identity was beneficial in the religiously diverse Roman Empire of the fourth and fifth centuries. The chapter explores the writings of Christian thinkers such as Ambrose and Augustine to show just how slow and partial any ‘Christianization’ of politics was and how nuanced were relations between bishops and rulers. After the reign of Theodosius the Great a complex consensus position emerged where emperors had a duty to uphold correct Christianity and recognize the independent spiritual authority of bishops, while in practice also accepting and working with religious diversity.