http://www.boston.com/news/world/mid...ncient_church/

"Archeologists said the church dated from the third century, decades before Constantine legalized Christianity across the Byzantine Empire."

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JMS gets another English lesson:

Quote:

there is no "mostly unique;" thats like saying "sometimes always," its an oxymoron - its either one or the other.

The result:

Quote:

By the mid-19th century unique had developed a wider meaning, “not typical, unusual,” and it is in this wider sense that it is compared. The comparison of so-called absolutes in senses that are not absolute is standard in all varieties of speech and writing.

I don't think anyone ever said Constantine "invented" Christianity.

The argument is typically that Rome altered Christianity greatly to serve its purposes. And the books we know from the canon tend to come from closer to that time and the canon was itself assembled around that time.
But only a wacky few deny the existance of Christian cults that existed all over the place from around the time of Jesus.

Constantine, with the power of Rome behind him, forever changed the face of history. But I've never heard anyone claim he invented Christianity. But I would say if he never converted next to no one on this board would be Christian. It would just be another ancient faith long forgotten.

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This space for rent.

there was an argument on this board that Jesus never existed and some backed the claim that he was essentially the invention of Constantine (as perpetuated by the Dan Brown book "Da Vinci Code"). They stated that he was never born, that no one believed him to be the son of God, the New Testament was fake, etc etc.

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JMS gets another English lesson:

Quote:

there is no "mostly unique;" thats like saying "sometimes always," its an oxymoron - its either one or the other.

The result:

Quote:

By the mid-19th century unique had developed a wider meaning, “not typical, unusual,” and it is in this wider sense that it is compared. The comparison of so-called absolutes in senses that are not absolute is standard in all varieties of speech and writing.

I have never, ever read that Constantine "invented" Christianity...

Oddly... Constantine's conversion to Christianity happened on his deathbed. He may not have been conscious. Further, he was baptized by Arian Christians (followers of Arius); a subdivision of religionists later deemed heretical by the orthodoxy. Take a look at the coin of the realm under Constantine. It had his face on one side and the sun, symbol of a "false"god, on the other. Constantine embraced multiple gods.

I have ever heard in relation to Constantine was the invention by the Church of his kind 'Donation'...

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"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened."

Oh yes, the one that supposedly gave the Pope power over kingdoms in the temporal world.

was very convenient

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"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened."