Constantine the Emperor by D. S. Potter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

With 2012 being the 1700th anniversary of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, our congregation spent some time exploring that event and its influences on Christian history. Shortly afterwards, I saw this book reviewed well in The Christian Century and decided to improve my understanding of Constantine, with whom I share a birthday. So, it was probably fitting that I read this biography over my birthday week.

This biography took the time to set Constantine within the larger context of his era of the Roman Empire. In so doing, it focused a great deal on his role as emperor and how he governed. The episodes of Christian history important during his reign -- the controversy with the Donatists, the Council of Nicaea -- were treated as administrative and governance problems that he handled.

Unlike many approaches to Constantine which blame him for everything from anti-Semitism to patriarchy in the Church, this biography did not do that. It demonstrated how on these various topics he simply was a creature of his era and not the source of the problem.

The book does conclude that he was the second most influential Christian after Paul and that he is the Roman Emperor who remains most influential on everyday life in the 21st century.

According to the biographer, Constantine valued hard work, loyalty, and efficiency. He attempted to maintain an ordered society. He looked out for the weak, but did not question conventional hierarchical structures. He believed that these traditional values could be expressed through a variety of different faiths and worked to find compromise and tolerance, while also using imperial power to compel it at times.

What I did not enjoy about the biography was its lack of narrative. What transpired most often was a discussion of what various surviving texts say. Sometimes it appeared as if the author assumed you knew the basics of the story and so he didn't take time to talk about them. I would have enjoyed more an attempt to reconstruct the story.

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