The book I found is titled, “Early Christianity and the Roman Empire.”  I have enjoyed learning about how christianity was influenced by the Roman Empire and Constantine.  I am especially interested in how the religion changed during the 1st century of its existence and how it became defined by the doctrinal ecumenical councils.  It is interesting to me how the Christian traditions that continue today were defined and rooted in the people in the ecumenical councils.

Initially I used the library catalog’s website to find relevant sources.  I used keywords combinations like, “Rome, Christianity, Influence, Orthodox, Origin.”  Initially I found some very obscure titles and articles that related to other aspects of judaism and christianity, but after some browsing I found some very useful texts.

The book I discovered was published in 1984 and has a plain light blue cover with a simple title on the spine.  It was found on the second floor in a section with other books about Christianity and Rome.  The books adjacent to the one I found had titles such as, “Late Ancient Christianity,” “Last Pagens of Rome”, “The Roman Revolution of Constantine,” and “The Rise of Christianity.”  The shelves above and bellow contained books about christianity in the middle ages and renaissance.

I looked through the table of contents and found a section titled, “Lactantius and Constantine.”  The chapter details the influence that Constantine and Lactantius, the advisor to the first Christian Roman Emperor, had on Christianity.  The influence the men had on christianity included, theological progression, propaganda, and political movements.  I think this book could be useful for a paper on Early Christianity and Rome.