Posted on 11/12/2006 10:29:21 PM PST by blam
Space impact 'saved Christianity'
By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor
Did a meteor over central Italy in AD 312 change the course of Roman and Christian history?
About the size of a football field: The impact crater left behind
A team of geologists believes it has found the incoming space rock's impact crater, and dating suggests its formation coincided with the celestial vision said to have converted a future Roman emperor to Christianity.
It was just before a decisive battle for control of Rome and the empire that Constantine saw a blazing light cross the sky and attributed his subsequent victory to divine help from a Christian God.
Constantine went on to consolidate his grip on power and ordered that persecution of Christians cease and their religion receive official status.
Civil war
In the fourth century AD, the fragmented Roman Empire was being further torn apart by civil war. Constantine and Maxentius were bitterly fighting to be the sole emperor.
Constantine was the son of the western emperor Constantius Chlorus. When he died in 306, his father's troops proclaimed Constantine emperor.
But in Rome, the favourite was Maxentius, son of Constantius' predecessor, Maximian.
With both men claiming the title, a conference was called in AD 308 that resulted in Maxentius being named as senior emperor along with Galerius, his father-in-law. Constantine was to be a Caesar, or junior emperor.
The situation was not a stable one, however, and by 312 the two men were at war.
Constantine overran Italy and faced Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge over the Tiber a few kilometres from Rome. Both knew it would be a decisive battle with Constantine's forces outnumbered.
'Conquer by this'
It was then that something strange happened. Eusebius - one of the Christian Church's early historians - relates the event in his Conversion of Constantine.
"...while he was thus praying with fervent entreaty, a most marvellous sign appeared to him from heaven, the account of which it might have been hard to believe had it been related by any other person.
"...about noon, when the day was already beginning to decline, he saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the Sun, and bearing the inscription 'conquer by this'.
"At this sight he himself was struck with amazement, and his whole army also, which followed him on this expedition, and witnessed the miracle."
Spurred on by divine intervention, Constantine's army won the day and he gave homage to the God of the Christians whom he believed had helped him.
This was a time when Christianity was struggling. Support from the most powerful man in the empire allowed the emerging religious movement to flourish.
Like a nuclear blast
But what was the celestial event that converted Constantine and altered the course of history?
Jens Ormo, a Swedish geologist, and colleagues working in Italy believe Constantine witnessed a meteoroid impact.
Drill rig: Sampling the crater
The research team believes it has identified what remains of the impactor's crater.
It is the small, circular Cratere del Sirente in central Italy. It is clearly an impact crater, Ormo says, because its shape fits and it is also surrounded by numerous smaller, secondary craters, gouged out by ejected debris, as expected from impact models.
Radiocarbon dating puts the crater's formation at about the right time to have been witnessed by Constantine and there are magnetic anomalies detected around the secondary craters - possibly due to magnetic fragments from the meteorite.
According to Ormo, it would have struck the Earth with the force of a small nuclear bomb, perhaps a kiloton in yield. It would have looked like a nuclear blast, with a mushroom cloud and shockwaves.
It would have been quite an impressive sight and, if it really was what Constantine saw, could have turned the tide of the conflict.
But what would have happened if this chance event - perhaps as rare as once every few thousand years - had not occurred in Italy at that time?
Maxentius might have won the battle. Roman history would have been different and the struggling Christians might not have received state patronage.
The history of Christianity and the establishment of the popes in Rome might have been very different.
Thanks!
Let's not forget though, that God is nature,
//////////////
In the judeo christian tradition God resides outside of nature.
Only in Eastern philosophy is god nature.
Did Constantine himself convert to Christianity?
I would further argue that his imprimatur did not "save" Christianity, it may have destroyed it..
Christian beliefs were varied at that time, and many different sects and beliefs existed..
What we ended up with would probably not be recognized as Christianity by the believers of the time, and would likely be considered blasphemy by many..
Today's christianity is the result of a religious committee of "standards and practices"....
////////////////////////
The arian heresy and sundry other oddities are well represented by the moslem views of Jesus. what Mohhammed saw as representitive of christianity was revealed by the gnostic gospels dug up in egypt in 1947.
I believe he did, he stated there is only one God, one Empire and one Emperor. Now this was a tad self serving since stating it started a civil war which Constantine won and because the sole Emperor of Rome. But it does indecate a conversion to the Christain faith.
This is not a belief question. Either he did or he didn't. I heard he did not. I also heard that Napoleon was Moslem, and his foxy wife Josesphine, too. How about that one? Yes or no.
While I am pretty good at history and believe that Constantine converted to the Christan faith, I can not state that as fact. It certainly looks like he did and he is on record as saying the believed in the one G*d, the Christan God. But it is also noted that he made such statement when it served his political advantage.
Re meteor, no one knows what Constantine and his army saw that day, only that it was an unmistakable sign from G*d and caused Constantine to fight under the banner of the Christan God. Something a Roman elite would find unthinkable at that time. A clever ploy by Constantine? A true conversion? Beats me, but something happened, something big. The body of evidence seems to point at conversion. Maybe papers written by Constantine himself will be discovered and we'll find out.
I heard he continued to pray, etc., at his old pagan altar, but that the next emperor and forever after was Christian. He needed soldiers and there were a lot of Christians by then, so he let them in.
Did a little digging, Constantine converted, no doubt about it IMHO.
Don't want to trust Wiki at all, but this is pretty much what I have read elsewhere.
'His reputation as the "first Christian Emperor" has been promulgated by historians from Lactantius and Eusebius of Caesarea to the present day, although there has been debate over the veracity of his faith. This debate stems from his continued support for pagan deities and the fact that he was baptized very close to his death.'
I wonder: What did the other guys think of this meteor and impact?
To Constantitine it was a blessing, to Maxentius it was what?
Meteors and comets are usually evil omens. Constantine was somewhat unique in being quick off the mark and making it a powerful positive augury and slogan.
"Rome's famous Arch of Constantine was completed in time for the beginning of Constantine's decennalia (the tenth anniversary of his acclamation). [[17]] There were all manner of festivities, but Constantine pointedly omitted the traditional sacrifices to the pagan gods. "
"Whatever vision Constantine may have experienced, he attributed his victory to the power of "the God of the Christians" and committed himself to the Christian faith from that day on, although his understanding of the Christian faith at this time was quite superficial. It has often been supposed that Constantine's profession of Christianity was a matter of political expediency more than of religious conviction; upon closer examination this view cannot be sustained. Constantine did not receive baptism until shortly before his death (see below). It would be a mistake to interpret this as a lack of sincerity or commitment; in the fourth and fifth centuries Christians often delayed their baptisms until late in life.[[14]] "
Yes. The essence of Christianity is in the annointing or baptism, which often is the naming ceremony. Sprinkle, dunk, or oil, it's not official until that.
Constantine instituted several legislative measures regarding the Jews: they were forbidden to own Christian slaves or to circumcise their slaves. Conversion of Christians to Judaism was outlawed. Congregations for religious services were restricted, but Jews were allowed to enter Jerusalem on Tisha B'Av, the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple. Constantine also supported the separation of the date of Easter from the Jewish Passover (see also Quartodecimanism), stating in his letter after the First Council of Nicaea: "... it appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul. ... Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Saviour a different way." [6]. Theodoret's Ecclesiastical History 1.9 records the Epistle of the Emperor Constantine addressed to those Bishops who were not present at the Council: "It was, in the first place, declared improper to follow the custom of the Jews in the celebration of this holy festival, because, their hands having been stained with crime, the minds of these wretched men are necessarily blinded. ... Let us, then, have nothing in common with the Jews, who are our adversaries. ... avoiding all contact with that evil way. ... who, after having compassed the death of the Lord, being out of their minds, are guided not by sound reason, but by an unrestrained passion, wherever their innate madness carries them. ... a people so utterly depraved. ... Therefore, this irregularity must be corrected, in order that we may no more have any thing in common with those parricides and the murderers of our Lord. ... no single point in common with the perjury of the Jews."
These quotes pretty much settles the argument as far as I am concerned.
Translations from Latin tend to be relatively verbose. One thing for sure, Constantine was continuing the Roman campaign against the Jews.
LOL, well baptism also washes away all sin so there is a practical reason for waiting till the end. And Constantine as Emperor of Rome had many many sins needing washing away.
Yeah, and the meteor even knew Latin. Guess some meteors are smarter than others.
We could use an encore.....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.