Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Christmas: A Note


For your holiday pleasure, I heartily recommend this week's podcast from Start the Week With Andrew Marr. The discussion centers on the Roman Emperor Constantine, who decided it would be politically useful to appropriate a carefully edited version of Christianity for his Empire. The result is nicely summarized in the Nicene Creed, which covers these aspects of Christ: Birth, Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. Carefully omitted from Constantine's religion: Jesus's Ministry. It seems the actual words and deeds of Jesus were too controversial; they didn't serve the Emperor's political agenda.

The podcast explains this much better than I do. But the next time you hear public figures bloviate about their devotion to Christianity, without actually showing any familiarity with the teachings of Jesus–well, perhaps you have Constantine to thank.