The Donatist Controversy

Maybe it’s just that I’m a church nerd. Maybe it’s because I love history. Regardless of what it is, church history is interesting to me. Especially the controversies that the church has had to deal with over the centuries.

Today has me thinking of the Donatist controversy. What, pray tell is the Donatist controversy? I’m glad you asked. If you’d like to read a paper on it, I recommend this site. It has a nice full description of the full history from the Diocletian persecution, to the resolution and ending of the Donatist church.

Don’t have time for that? Here’s the summary version. The Roman Emperor Diocletian persecuted Christians. Some of the Christians decided that saving their own necks was more important than dying as a martyr, so these Christians fell into a few camps. There was the church of the “traitors” and persecutors. And there was the church of the martyrs. The traitors were aptly named because they actively handed over people and documents to the Romans in order to save themselves.

After Diocletian retired, Constantine became emperor and signed the Edict of Milan, which essentially gave freedom of religion to everyone and returned church property.

At that point, the church had a fight over what to do with the people who had betrayed their faith in order to save their lives. Was the church going to focus on purity and reject those who rejected the faith to save their life, or would the church offer forgiveness and move on? The Donatists argued for purity, calling into question…