When Our World Became Christian: 312 - 394

Acknowledgements vii

1 Constantine: The Saviour of Humanity 1

2 Christianity: A Masterpiece 17

3 The Church: Another Masterpiece 33

4 The Dream of the Milvian Bridge: Constantine’s Faith and his Conversion 46

5 The Motives, Both Major and Minor, for Constantine’s Conversion 58

6 Constantine, the Church’s ‘President’ 73

7 An Ambivalent Century, with an Empire at Once Pagan and Christian 84

8 Christianity Wavers, Then Triumphs 98

9 A Partial and Mixed State Religion: The Fate of the Jews 107

10 Was There an Ideology? 123

11 Does Europe Have Christian Roots? 138

Appendix: Polytheisms and Monolatry in Ancient

Judaism 150

Notes 177

Supplementary Notes 236

Index 242