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their treasures—bronze doors, gilt idols, and even their Further Reading
gold-shingled roofs—which disastrously affected the Drake, H. A. (2000). Constantine and the bishops:The politics of intoler-
ance. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
pagan cause. He even engaged in the first persecution of
Elliott,T. G. (1996). The Christianity of Constantine the Great. Scranton,
non-Christians by Christians. Between this clear PA: University of Scranton Press.
favoritism and instructing his children in the new faith, Jones, A. H. M. (1979). Constantine and the conversion of Europe.
Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
Constantine sent the message that the route to power, Lieu, S. N. C., & Montserrat, D. (1998). Constantine: History, historiog-
influence, and riches now lay through Christianity. raphy and legend. London: Routledge.
MacMullen, R. (1984). Christianizing the Roman Empire A.D. 100–400.
To his horror, Constantine found that rather than a
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
universal monolithic hierarchy, the Christian “church” MacMullen, R. (1997). Christianity and paganism in the fourth to eighth
consisted of mostly independent house-churches loosely centuries. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Rousseau, P. (2002). The early Christian centuries. London: Longman.
confederated with no standardized doctrine, ritual, or
scripture. As reported by Eusebius, Constantine consid-
ered himself a bishop, a new kind of Christian Pontifex
Maximus, or priest-king, charged with the protection
and promotion of Christianity—an example followed by Consumerism
his successors for the next millennium and more.To this
end, as soon as he gained control of the whole empire, onsumerism involves a devotion to the acquisition
he called Christian leaders to a council at Nicaea (325 – Cof goods not needed for basic, or even embellished,
326 CE), where his insistence on standardizing beliefs and subsistence. It is further associated with a desire for nov-
practices defined “orthodoxy” and pushed Christianity elty, even a commitment to faddism, rather than con-
into a monolithic hierarchical autocracy; his insistence on tentment with established styles sanctioned by tradition.
standardization also led to the first state-sponsored per- The spread of consumerism, socially and geographically,
secution of Christians (the “Donatists”) by Christians, set- is one of the most significant developments in world his-
ting yet another dubious example for his successors. tory over the past two to three centuries. Growing com-
Constantine was both the best and the worst thing that mitments to consumer culture represent not only a sign
ever happened to Christianity.Without him, Christianity of economic change and growing prosperity, but also a
would never have become the critical cultural, political, significant shift in values.
and religious force that it did, since nowhere has it
become a majority religion without state-sponsored Beginnings
favoritism and persecution. Constantine’s insistence Consumerism is not, of course, entirely modern. Elites in
on hierarchical autocracy, an orthodoxy of ritual and various societies indulged in aspects of consumerism
doctrine, and the persecution of nonbelievers ensured from the advent of civilization if not before.Bursts of con-
Christianity’s triumph (and some of its greatest crimes). sumerism occurred,for example,at various points in Chi-
It also laid the foundation for three critical events in Euro- nese history, as wealthy landowners and aristocrats built
pean and world history—the Papal Revolution, the Cru- houses with showy furniture and fancy gadgets, and
sades, and the Protestant Reformation. Without showed off a parade of eye-catching costumes.The passion
Constantine’s conversion, the modern world as we know of Roman elites for Chinese silks was an example of con-
it would not exist. sumerism,and so was the domestic indulgence in jewelry
common in wealthy Muslim homes in the Middle East.
Jerome S. Arkenberg
There were, however, several constraints on consum-
See also Byzantine Empire; Roman Empire erism in traditional societies. One was the poverty of the