Constantinianism

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article has been nominated to be checked for its neutrality.
Discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page. (December 2007)

Constantinianism is attributed as a Christian heresy or Catholic doctrine or dogma, and as a political policy.

Contents

[edit] Etymology

Constantine the Great
Constantine the Great

Constantinianism is the name often given by Anti-Catholics to the post-Tridentine Catholic doctrine requiring societies and states to confess the Christian faith or cultus and to exclude non-Catholic religions (or cults) from the public forum.

This is also more commonly styled as the Constantinian shift, and even as the Constantinian heresy.

The charge is that Christianity does not require states to confess Christianity and to adhere to Christian orthodoxy, but that states must be neutral (or "secular", in modern parlance); that the Emperor Constantine I made Christianity the religion of the Roman Empire in violation of the principles of Christianity. The charge is even made that Constantine renamed the ancient Roman pagan religion as Christianity and made it the official religion of state in an effort to preserve Roman paganism, and that this act is the origin of Catholicism, or, as it is pejoratively called, Romanism.

The teaching is typified by the catchphrase "Error has no rights!" and is considered a form of spiritual and political authoritarianism by its critics.

This doctrine was emphasized by Pope Pius IX in his Syllabus of Errors, and by his successors, Popes Leo XIII, St. Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI & Pius XII.

Catholicism, while teaching this doctrine, has not assigned any specific name to it. The opposite positions are styled Secularism, Laicism (in France) and Religious liberty.

[edit] Catholic quotes

We now come to another important cause of the evils which we regret to see the Church afflicted, namely indifferentism, or that wrong opinion according to which... man can attain the eternal salvation of his soul by any profession of faith, provided his moral conduct conforms to the norms of right and good... From this foulest source of indifferentism there flows the absurd and wrong view, or rather insanity, according to which freedom of conscience must be asserted and vindicated for everybody. — Pope Gregory XVI, Encyclical Mirari Nos Arbitramur, 1832.
Everyone is free to follow and to profess the religion which the light of reason leads him to judge to be the true religion. — Pope Pius IX, Condemned Proposition # 15, Syllabus of Errors.
The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church. — Pope Pius IX, Condemned Proposition # 55, Syllabus of Errors.
In our age it is no longer advisable that the Catholic religion be the only State religion, excluding all other cults. — Pope Pius IX, Condemned Proposition # 77, Syllabus of Errors.
Therefore it is praiseworthy that in some Catholic regions the law has allowed people immigrating there to exercise publicly their own cult. — Pope Pius IX, Condemned Proposition # 78, Syllabus of Errors.
It is false to assert that civil freedom of cult and the full right granted to all to express openly and publicly any opinions and views leads to an easier corruption of morality and of the minds of people and helps to propagate the pest of indifferentism. — Pope Pius IX, Condemned Proposition # 79, Syllabus of Errors.
(A certain sect), putting on airs of piety and liberality, professes what they call 'tolerantism' or indifferentism, and extols it not only in matters of politics, about which We are not speaking, but also in matters of religion. It teaches that God has given to every man a great freedom, so that man can embrace and adopt without any danger to his salvation any sect that attracts him according to his own private judgement and opinion. (cf. Rom. 16:17f) — Pope Leo XII, Encyclical Ubi Primum, 1824.

[edit] Contemporary Catholicism

With the de facto adoption of Modernism by Pope John XXIII and by the Latrocinium of Vatican II, among the Catholic doctrines jettisoned was this teaching, and states that explicitly enshrined Catholicism in their constitutions, such as Colombia, were pressurized by Paul VI to de-Catholicize.

However, some conservative Catholics reject Modernism and its concomitant repudiation of an authoritarian past. Moreover, orthodox Catholics usually do not recognize, acknowledge or use the terms Constantinianism, Constantinian shift or Constantinian heresy. This may be rooted in part to a historical mistake: in actuality, the Emperor Constantine, despite his mother being a Catholic, was personally an adherent of the Arian or semi-Arian heresy.

[edit] Protestantism

The more significant original Protestant groupings - Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Anglicanism - originally retained this doctrine, largely reformulating it in a manner compatible with the nation-states in which these churches were based. The Lutheran state churches in Scandinavia and Germany developed along Erastian lines, which meant that the monarch became the supreme head of the church within his realm, a corollary in some instance to the notion of the divine right of kings. The Church of England, although torn doctrinally between Protestant and Catholic factions, espoused a similar policy.

However, due to the internecine sectarian wars among Protestants, and due to the influence of sects opposed to this doctrine, such as those of the Anabaptists, much of Protestantism gradually came to embrace the position that is called Separation of Church and State. This is the position of most Protestant sects today, especially on the North American continent.

[edit] Eastern Orthodoxy

The various Eastern Orthodox sects, including the Russian Orthodox Church, continue to emphasize this doctrine.[citation needed]

[edit] Reconstructionism

The doctrine has been revived in varying degrees by some Protestant sects, largely Neo-Calvinist, under the names of Reconstructionism & Dominionism.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links