This class is a continuation of the previous study of “Early Christianity: Counter-culture to Christendom.” In current literature, Christendom is denounced as the worst evil of Christian history, affirmed as the golden age, or reinterpreted as the conceptual bridge over the divisions of Christianity in the current era. Catholic scholars tend to defend the concept, if not the history. The Classical Reformation (Lutheran and Reformed) was ready to break the shackles of Catholic control but not the bonds of church and state. Anabaptists of the Reformation viewed the rise of Christendom as the “Fall of the Church.” Secular historian Edward Gibbon blamed the fall of Rome on the otherworldly obsession of Christianity, the promise of pie in the sky by and by. The current rebirth of Christian Nationalism has revived the importance of understanding the notion of Christendom in the Western history of Christianity.

The question persists: What is the appropriate relationship of Christianity and the culture, the appropriate place of religion in politics? Until the US First Amendment to the Constitution, governments were expected to be closely aligned or married to a religious establishment. The mutual exploitation between the institutional authorities of Church and State have varied significantly from one generation to another, but Roman era Christendom has never disappeared into the mist of ancient history.