Constantine and the Bishops: The Politics of Intolerance

H. A. Drake is a historian of late antiquity, and this Johns Hopkins University Press book is his scholarly study of Constantine's relationship with the Christian bishops and the political dynamics behind the era's turn toward religious intolerance. Its strength is that Drake argues from close reading of the primary sources for a more nuanced, politically grounded account than older narratives of Constantine as either a cynical opportunist or a committed convert. Its limit is that it is one scholarly interpretation within an active historical debate about Constantine's motives, so a claim treating Drake's reading as the settled consensus should note it is argued against real alternative positions in the field.