Knowing the biblical history associated with Jesus (I.e. Pontius Pilate crucifying him to appease the Jews), how did Roman Catholicism end up becoming the dominant religion in the Roman world? It seem like they’d want to distance themselves from that, sort of like how it would be kind of awkward for Jews to accept Jesus as the messiah, ya know?
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The Catholic Church’s highly organized bureaucratic nature was very attractive to people like Constantine. Several Emperors prior to Constantine like Aurelian (Sol Invictus) and Diocletian (emphasized the traditional greco-roman religion) sought to establish unified religious practices and I tend to view Constantine’s decision to give favor to Christianity as coming from similar motives. By integrating Imperial Authority with the Church, it provided new avenues for control among the citizenry.
I’m sure Constantine had some Christian sympathies, but he continued to show patronage to the classical deities throughout his reign and I tend to think the vision he had before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 is either an exaggeration or creation of later Christian authors.
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