In This Sign: Constantine the Great, Book II (Tony Jones) - A Review

IN THIS SIGN: Constantine the Great. Book II. By Tony Jones. Crucible Creation, 2026. 325 pages.

Although not everyone is ready to give up Christendom, it is said that we are living in a post-Constantinian era. Whether that is true or not, it is commonplace to blame Constantine for just about everything that is wrong with Christianity. Many Christians dream about going back to the pure Christianity of the pre-Constantinian era, perhaps as far back as the first century (I belong to a tradition that sought to restore New Testament Christianity). The belief is that if we could go back to the days before church and state joined up under Constantine and his successors, then everything would be wonderful. It is an attractive supposition, but would things be better than they have been since Constantine? History is a complicated thing because it involves human beings, who are both complicated and imperfect beings. That means that because Constantine was human, his story is rather complicated.

Constantine lived some 1700 years ago. He rose to a position of immense power, becoming one of the most powerful and successful Roman Emperors. Although we have a few documents from that era that give an account of his rise to power and his reign, including a biography written by Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, who also wrote an important history of the early church, there is a deeper question that needs to be answered. That question involves Constantine the person. Perhaps the best way to explore that question, especially if you are not a historian of the Roman Empire during the third and fourth centuries of the Common Era, is through historical fiction.  Fortunately, someone decided to tell Constantine’s story, warts and all. The person who chose to write this fictional account of Constantine’s life is Tony Jones. Jones is an ordained minister, former executive director of Emergent Village, professor, and author. He also holds a PhD in Practical Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary. Being an author myself, along with being a minister with a PhD in Church History, I know how difficult writing can be. I  haven’t tried to write fiction, but I know that it takes a special skill, and not everyone has that skill. Having read two volumes in Tony's three-volume series of historical novels about the life of Constantine the Great, I can say that Tony has that skill.

In the first volume of his trilogy about Constantine the Great, titled Son of Helena, Jones introduces the reader to the early years of Constantine’s life, taking us from the age of twelve to the point in his life where he joined his father Constantius Chlorus in Britain after Constantius was elevated to the rank of Augustus. The title of that first volume, Son of Helena, refers to Constantine’s mother, who raised Constantine largely by herself. Of course, Helena was a Christian who prayed that her son would not only become a great leader in his own right but a Christian. Volume Two in Jones’ trilogy is titled In This Sign. It picks up Constantine’s story at the time of his father's death in York in 306 CE, at which time his father’s legions declared him to be his father’s successor as Augustus of the Western Half of the Empire. The story continues from that point until Constantine made his way to Rome after defeating his imperial rival, Maxentius, son of his father-in-law Maximian, in the famous battle at the Milvian Bridge. A thread runs throughout the first novel that involves significant resentment against his father, which serves as a driving force in his development. In large part, this is due to how his father treated his mother, such that Helena serves as a primary influence on his life. Right before his father’s death, the two reconcile, setting up the next stage of Constantine’s life story.

Volume Two of the trilogy, titled In This Sign, tells the story of Constantine’s life through the eyes of the Christian apologist Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius (c. 250 AD – c. 325 AD). Lactantius served as the tutor to Crispus, Constantine's oldest son, and an advisor to Constantine. While Lactantius is known for writing the apologetic text, The Divine Institutes, for the purpose of this volume, Jones has created a fictional biography of Constantine, written by Lactantius. This fictional biography is styled as a lost biography of Constantine, written by Lactantius, that was discovered in Istanbul in the late nineteenth century. This text is said to have been translated into English in 1972 by a man named A.J. Hawthorne in 1972. Of course, Hawthorne is a fictional character, which means that Jones takes on the guise of the translator of this document that was supposedly written by an advisor to Constantine. Oh, and according to Lactantius, he was a rival to Eusebius, who also wrote a biography of Constantine.

The title of the book, In This Sign, speaks of the famous sign that Constantine supposedly saw in the sky, which he came to believe was from Christ. According to tradition, Constantine had a cross or the Chi-Rho symbol painted on the shields of his legions as they met Maxentius. In Jones' (Lactantius) telling, it's not quite that cut and dry. You will have to read the book to find out what was involved in this famous sign. Although Constantine's mother, Helena, was a major influence on Constantine and did her best to convert her son, including drawing in leading bishops, in this telling, Constantine resisted her efforts. As for Lactantius, he hoped to gain Constantine's conversion but was much more circumspect about it than Helena or the bishops. As we learned in the first volume, early in his life Constantine embraced Sol Invictus as his patron, along with participating in the rites of Mithras, a religious movement popular with the legions. In this volume, we see Constantine becoming open to the faith of his mother and of Lactantius, such that he ended persecutions in his regions, especially since growing numbers of his legions were converting to Christianity. In other words, Constantine did not initially take the lead in opening the empire to Christianity. He followed the lead of others, including his soldiers.

Among the characters we meet in this volume, besides Constantine and our narrator and participant in many important events in Constantine’s rise to power, Lactantius, are Constantine's oldest son Crispus, his second wife, Fausta, who was the step-daughter of Maximian, Crocus, the Alemannian king who was the power behind the throne early on in Constantine's reign, Martinian, a leading general who would later break with Constantine, and Ossius (Hosius), bishop of Cordova, who would become a leading religious advisor to Constantine. It is interesting how Jones portrays Hosius (through the eyes of Lactantius). According to this account, Lactantius, who is a layperson, takes a great dislike to the bishop. I have to wonder if this portrayal reflects Tony’s own embrace of a flatter ecclesiology (see his book The Church Is Flat). Thus, in this portrayal Ossius is something of a boor. There are many other characters who play important roles, but this list gives a sense of the people who played important roles in Constantine’s rise.

As the volume ends, Constantine will have embraced Christianity, without fully breaking with the other traditions he had followed. You can understand why a full break might be difficult at that point. Christianity was on the rise, but the empire was still religiously diverse. As for our narrator, Lactantius, he comes across as a rather appealing figure. While he is committed to his faith, he does seem to understand the challenges facing Constantine as he navigates new realities. In so doing, he allows Constantine's complicated character to be revealed, such that we gain a better understanding of who Constantine may have been behind the scenes.

In writing this series, Jones helpfully reveals dimensions of Constantine’s story that we often miss. When it comes to the famous sign, it’s quite possible that Constantine had a life-changing vision that had physical properties. Thus, in his author's note at the end of Volume II, Jones shares a possible explanation for what the sign that Constantine and his troops allegedly saw involved. This explanation involves a weather-related event that happens occasionally, an event that Jones himself experienced. However, that event may have taken place several years before the battle at the Milvian Bridge. Whether this is what happened, this explanation is suggestive and should interest readers. Jones also addresses the way that Constantine has become something of a straw man for many critics of Christendom and Constantine’s role in its establishment. As a result of his own study, Tony concludes that Constantine is not the straw man of his critics, but rather a complicated figure who was a soldier and leader, who came to embrace a relatively new religion that was on the rise. Thus, "like most great, historical figures, he is not simply a hero or a villain, but a mixture of virtues and vices, good decisions and bad" (p. 319). This is the person we meet here in Volume Two of Jones’ trilogy Constantine the Great, which carries the title In This Sign. Of course, this is a fictional account, so much of the dialogue has been created to further the story. But it is also based on significant research into the life of Constantine. So, if you’ve not read Son of Helena, read it first, then pick up In This Sign to continue the journey with Constantine and his advisor Lactantius. 

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