Review: A.D. 381 by Charles Freeman

It's unfortunate, but perhaps not unexpected, that for the first time in the history of Greco-Roman civilization, a ruler issued an edict that destroyed free thought and free exercise of religion.  That it was in support of Christianity was perhaps also not unexpected.  The edict` of Theodosius in 381 A.D (some historians say 380) forbade belief and practice of any religious practice that did not recognize the singularity of the "godhead," i.e. the idea of the Trinity as solidified at the Council of Nicea in 325 under Constantine -- they were equal in majesty (whatever the Hell that means.) This edict and the removal of the Bishop of Constantinople, an adherent of Arianism, a belief Jesus was created at a point in time, divine, but subject to the Father. (I get shivers of ridiculousness and have to restrain my natural tendency to overheat my crap detector as I recount some of this. Nevertheless it's quite interesting.)  Freeman argues that Theodosius' edict and the subsequent suppression of paganism not only brought an end to the diversity of religious and philosophical beliefs throughout the empire but created numerous theological problems for the Church, which have remained unsolved. The year AD 381, Freeman concludes, marked 'a turning point which time forgot'.

 

The biggest issue was whether Jesus was God. It took a substantial amount of twisting to

figure out how the Trinity was supposed to work, the Aryans arguing that if Jesus was God then there was no sacrifice on the cross, the Athanasians supporting Trinitarianism.  One of the hurdles for Trinitarians was Mark 13:32 when Jesus was to have said ""“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."   This was interpreted to mean that Jesus was not God.

 

This book was theologically much more detailed than When Jesus Became God by Richard Rubenstein [https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/37674110] which deals with the same topic. Freeman continued his discussion more extensively in his book The Closing of the Western Mind: The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason, an examination of the effects of events covered in AD 381.