The Making of a Christian Empire - 9780801477874

The Making of a Christian EmpireLactantius and Rome\nAuthor(s): Elizabeth DePalma Digeser\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Cornell University Press, United States\nImprint: Cornell University Press\nISBN-13: 9780801477874, 978-0801477874\nSynopsis\nThe work of the Christian scholar Lactantius provides an ideal lens through which to study how Rome became a Christian empire. Elizabeth DePalma Digeser shows how Lactantius' Divine Institutesseditious in its timeresponded to the emperor Diocletian's persecution and then became an important influence on Constantine the Great, Rome's first Christian emperor.\n\n The Making of a Christian Empire is the first full-length book to interpret the Divine Institutes as a historical source. Exploring Lactantius' use of theology, philosophy, and rhetorical techniques, Digeser perceives the Divine Institutes as a sophisticated proposal for a monotheistic state that intimately connected the religious policies of Diocletian and Constantine, both of whom u.