WI: Constantine Does Not Convert to Christianity

Ok, so the OTL story goes that the day before a big battle Constantine claimed that in a vision he saw a symbol in the sky, and interpreted that symbol to be telling him to convert to Christianity. Well he does so, wins the battle, conquers the western empire, and legalizes christianity and makes it the official religion. Now of course there are plenty of people claiming Constantine's real reason for converting to and legalizing Christianity was for political reasons.

For the sake of argument let's say that everything he did IOTL was sincere. Now, what if he didn't have that vision? What if he didn't decide to convert to Christianity and legalize the religion? What becomes of Christianity? What about Judaism, or any of the other religions of the empire? Does this prolong the empire's existence, or hasten it's downfall?
 
It depends on what religion he chooses instead. He wanted to have some unifying religion with one God IIRC, so Sol Invictus would be a good bet. Though being Constantine, he has a tendency to involve himself in religious disputes and only make them worse, so whatever religion he tries to make the state religion, there's gonna be some problems arising in it most likely.


Though you still have the problem that CHristianity was gaining popularity anyway.

Another interesting thing I just thought of. What if he presses Mithraism as the state religion? Could he attempt to reform it from just a mystery cult that only appealed to soldiers, to something more? Maybe adopting ideas from Christianity and Sol Invictus and Isus? It would certainly be a good way to win the popularity of the soldiers.
 
Eh, the whole vision biz was really just Post-Constantine Propaganda. More then likely it never happened.

Either way, Constantine was a rather shrewd individual that wanted to assert state and religious control over the Roman Empire especially after the whole Civil War after Diocletian. If he did not take steps to control Christianity then he would probably take steps to destroy it or limit its influence to negate any backlash against his or future rulers.

If Christanity does not get centralized under Constantinan then it would continue to be feuding, factional doctrines spread across the Empire for some time. A figure could rise to unite them but, if Constantine takes steps similar to Julian and lays the foundation for a Hellenist Revival...
 
Eh, the whole vision biz was really just Post-Constantine Propaganda. More then likely it never happened.

Either way, Constantine was a rather shrewd individual that wanted to assert state and religious control over the Roman Empire especially after the whole Civil War after Diocletian. If he did not take steps to control Christianity then he would probably take steps to destroy it or limit its influence to negate any backlash against his or future rulers.

If Christanity does not get centralized under Constantinan then it would continue to be feuding, factional doctrines spread across the Empire for some time. A figure could rise to unite them but, if Constantine takes steps similar to Julian and lays the foundation for a Hellenist Revival...

The whole problem lies in that Constantine had Christian sympathies already. His mother was a Christian for example.

While he might not convert, I doubt you'd see any action on his part against the Christians. If he doesn't convert, he will at least make Christianity a tolerated religion of the Empire.

However, if he lets Christianity expand on its own naturally, then yes, it probably will be more fractured.

A more fractured Christianity from the get go has interesting possibilities on its own. Without Orthodoxy winning out and beating all the other variants (at least in the Mediterrean region), you might have some interesting philosophical developments in early Christianity apart from "Grrr, heresy, must destroy."
 
Another interesting thing I just thought of. What if he presses Mithraism as the state religion? Could he attempt to reform it from just a mystery cult that only appealed to soldiers, to something more? Maybe adopting ideas from Christianity and Sol Invictus and Isus? It would certainly be a good way to win the popularity of the soldiers.

Didn't that happen anyway?

Iirc, December 25th was originally Mithras' birthday, not Christ's, and even the Cross itself was a Mithraic sun-symbol as well as a Christian one, hence the increasing emphasis on it at the expense of the earlier fish symbol. Christianity (whether on its own initiative or under Constantine's prodding) adopted massive amounts of Mithraic belief and ritual, to the point where one could almost say that a merger took place. And, given how Christianity had already withstood three centuries of hostility from the Roman state, it was probably predictable that it would be easier for it to assimilate Mithraism than vice versa.
 
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