The historical myths surrounding the emperor Constantine, his conversion to Christianity and the claim he created the Bible at the Council of Nicaea are persistent and continue to be propagated in popular culture, despite being total nonsense. Unfortunately, leading atheists also perpetuate these silly ideas, with everyone from Richard Dawkins to Joe Rogan insisting that Constantine was not really a Christian, that he pretended to convert for political reasons and that it was he who set the canon of the New Testament. It is a sad testament to the poverty of these atheists’ historical knowledge that their understanding is stunted at the level of the airport thriller, The Da Vinci Code.
In this latest podcast episode, I look at the actual historical evidence and show how the caricature of history presented by these public anti-theists is hopelessly wrong.
Further reading
David L. Dungan, Constantine’s Bible: Politics and the Making of the New Testament (Fortress: 2007)
Bart D. Ehrman, The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World, (Simon & Schuster: 2018)
Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians, (Penguin: 1986)
Peter J. Leithart, Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom (IVP Academic: 2010)
Paul Stephenson, Constantine (Quercus: 2009)