naive Wrote:There are a lot of different sources about the influence of Constantine on the bible, but essentially he formed the council of Nicaea which selected which of the numerous books would be included in the canon of the bible. It wasn't until the council of Nicaea that Christians began unilaterally worshiping Jesus Christ as god. They chose books that portrayed him in the way that they decided, and other books were put under lock and key or possibly destroyed. The council of Nicaea essentially decided which books and testimony would be considered as valid, and all others were considered to be written by false authors (lots of controversial opinions, all claim divine influence). If you're a Christian, you probably know the Nicene creed, this was created by Constantine's nicaea council and was created in order to further establish Jesus Christ as being the same as god.

  There is controversy over whether or not Constantine was an actual convert but he is widely regarded as having only used religion for political reasons. His religious activities were a response to the political climate of the time, as there were many people from many religions all arguing with each other and dividing the Roman empire. Christians were the least adaptable as the constant persecution of them until Constantine's reign proved, so pagan religions were incorporated into Christianity as opposed to vice versa (saturnalia became christmas, etc).

I don't know of any definitive unbiased sources that touch on everything, here is one that reflects a lot of information I have come across of Constantine though. http://www.thinkatheist.com/notes/Council_of_Nicea


Here's a less biased source for some more info: http://atheism.about.com/library/glossa ... antine.htm