This week, thinking about contemporary “Christian” nationalism and “Christian” leaders, I offer a brief historical reflection about Christianity and civil authority.

In the old Roman Republic (c. 509 – 27 BCE), the Pontifex Maximus was the high priest in the state religion. The word pontifex is derived from the Latin words pons (bridge) and facere (to make), literally meaning “bridge-builder.” This title was associated with the chief priest, the Pontifex Maximus: the great bridge builder between the Roman gods and humans.

After the establishment of the Roman Empire, Julius Caesar (100 BCE – 44 BCE) became Emperor and Pontifex Maximus in 63 BCE, making him the “chief high priest” of the Roman state religion. But when Constantine the Great (c. 280 – 337 CE) became the first “Christian” Roman Emperor, in the fourth century CE, the official religion of the Roman Empire began to shift toward Christianity. Constantine called and supervised the First Council of Nicaea in 325, attended by at least 200 bishops. This council was the first of many efforts to reach a consensus in Christian leadership through an assembly standing for all Christendom.

Constantine used Christianity and Christian bishops in his imperial exercise of power but was only baptized on his deathbed in May 337. Today he is still venerated as a saint in Eastern Christianity; but whether Constantine was a “genuine” Christian is a matter of ongoing debate among historians and scholars. While Constantine favored Christianity and played a pivotal role in its rise to prominence in the Roman Empire, his actions and beliefs were complex and not always aligned with traditional Christian belief.

The fourth century, in any case, brought a major change in thinking about Christianity and civil power. The century began with the Roman Pontifex Maximus Galerius, Emperor from 305 – 311, torturing and murdering Christians to please and placate the Roman gods. It ended with Gratian, Emperor from 367 to 383, giving the Bishop of Rome the title Pontifex Maximus in 360 and Theodosius, Emperor from 379 to 395 issuing the Edict of Thessalonica in 380 which established Christianity as the official Roman imperial state religion. Then Christians began torturing and murdering non-Christians to please and placate God by destroying people they considered God’s enemies.

In the fifth century, when the Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476, all civil power and authority moved into papal hands and the popes began to dress and behave like Roman Emperors. Institutional Christianity became a militant religion.

 A high point for Papal Pontifex Maximus power would come with the Crusades, the series of religious wars from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, started, supported, and at times directed by the Pontifex Maximus Pope in Rome.

The last pope to use the title Pontifex Maximus was Pope Benedict XVI, pope from 2005 until his resignation in 2013. Benedict replicated, red shoes and all, the old Roman imperial style and authority in grand style. Benedict was a conservative authoritarian.

Pope Francis, who was pope from 2013 until his death in 2025, greatly downplayed the papal imperial pageantry so greatly loved by Benedict and his illustrious predecessors. And now we wait and see what Pope Leo XIV will do.

Authentic Christianity, however, is not about power and authority OVER people. God is love and Christianity is about reaching out to people, offering forgiveness, calling to growth and conversion. We show our love for God by loving the people around us. Jesus was hardly a power-crazed manipulator of men and women. He did not exercise power over people but empowered people to take responsibility for their lives and those around them.

Questions about Christianity and power and authority, are certainly very much with us today, especially in America, because contemporary “Christian” nationalists seek an America where only a small group of white, ultra-wealthy “Christians” get to enjoy the freedom, civil rights, and safety that everyone deserves.

More about this in a future post…

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I conclude this week’s reflection with an announcement about my new book.

This is an announcement and not a sales pitch.

 

This book is titled Another Voice: Contemporary Theological & Ethical Reflections. That title comes from T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) whose words in his poem “Little Gidding” capture for me the focus of historical theology: “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice.”

As my theological mentor Edward Schillebeeckx so often stressed theological development arises from a critical translation of Christian experience from one historical era to the next.

My blog Another Voice was the inspiration for my new book, which is available as an ebook or a paperback from Amazon.

• Jack