Soldiering for God: Christianity and the Roman Army

by John F. Shean

This new study argues that the religious attitude of the Roman army was a crucial factor in the Christianization of the Roman world. Specifically, by the end of the third century, there was a significant Christian presence within the army which was ready to act in the interests of the faith. Conditions at this time were thus ripe for the coming to power of a Christian when Constantine converted to Christianity he could rely upon the enthusiastic support of his Christian soldiers. Constantine strengthened his Christian base by initiating policies which accelerated the Christianization of the army. The continuation of these policies by Christian Roman emperors eventually allowed them to use the military as a vehicle for the suppression of paganism and heretical Christian sects.

476 pages, Hardcover

First published August 23, 2010

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent discussion of Christianity in late antiquity. It persuasively argues that the early Church was never uniformly pacifist and that this is a later construction of 20th century theologians reeling from the experience of total war. Some of the Church fathers were pacifists, but there was also a lot of admiration for Roman soldiers in the New Testament, particularly the Centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servants (Luke, Matthew), and the convert Cornelius (Acts). There is lots of evidence that Christians were serving in the Roman army before Constantine: tomb inscriptions, barracks churches, miracle stories (the thundering legion), and soldier martyr stories.

Unfortunately, the book loses focus halfway through and part of the author’s argument is not very convincing at all. After the necessary chapter on Constantine, the text becomes a high level re-hash of Christian politics in late antiquity, and the average Roman soldier makes few appearances compared to Bishops, Emperors and Theologians. There isn’t any convincing evidence presented about the number of Christian soldiers in the 4th century, but the author thinks they must have been there in large numbers if they allowed paganism to be destroyed. This is plausible, but there’s not much to back it up, aside from a few mentions of Christian soldiers assisting in the destruction of pagan temples.

The least convincing section is the approximate comparison between the Christian Roman Empire and a modern totalitarian state. Yes, elites and urban mobs in late antiquity clearly fought over religion, but what effect did this actually have on most people who probably could not articulate theology well? The author painstakingly argues that pagan persecutions of Christians were not effective or systematic, which begs the question: how did the Christians refine persecution and create a proto totalitarian state? Diocletian’s authoritarian reforms of imperial society are supposed to explain the ability of Christians to persecute pagans more effectively, along with the rise of powerful Bishops who could influence policy. I’m sure there were attempts to persecute and compel conversions en masse, but again, the problem is that this is merely plausible and not strongly supported with evidence. Most people in the Roman Empire (80-90%) were illiterate peasants living in rural areas. It beggars belief that a pre-modern state could successfully police average people like this in the way this book suggests. Despite its flaws, however, it’s still a very intriguing read.