Quotessence
Home / Books / Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity

Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity

Book by Elaine Pagels · 5 quotes · History Of Religion, Absurd, Bases

Filter quotes by topic

Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity Quotes

“[W]hat made Christians especially dangerous to the Roman order was their refusal to pay what Romans regarded as ordinary respect to their Roman rulers; and this brought some of them into direct and total opposition to the temporal as well as the divine authorities - to the emperors and to their divine patrons, the gods.”

“[W]hen the emperor Constantine abruptly changed Roman policy from one of persecuting Christians to protecting and favoring them with massive gifts of money, tax exemptions, and enormous prestige, the bishops, now in political favor, sometimes used these new resources to promote unanimity; thus in 381, the Christian emperor Theodosius made "heresy" a crime against the state.”