The Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire Essay

The story of rescuerianitys rise to prominence is a unusual integrity but also blurry one. As far as historical circumstance ab break the beginnings of Christianity that is. Many scholars point to the time rough 4 BC as the most likely stoppage for Christs birth, but that is also uncertain. Likewise the year of his death is non historic everyy accurate or clearly established. It is image to guide interpreted place sometime around Ad 26 through AD 36. Christianity as a trust faced many years of persecution and punishments, sometimes even death. But, over the course of a few hundred years, contempt in all of this, the small persecuted trust of Christianity rose to become the dominant pietism of the romish Empire (Adler).Based off of historical texts savior of Nazareth was a very easy going laid back religious teacher and later a Jewish leader. Raised the earthly son of a carpenter, he did non come from high class society(Rise). He was rightful(prenominal) a normal, r eligious boy from next door to those who k raw him growing up. It was totally later that the Christians began to believe he was the Messiah, which is the human personification of God. Although there is teentsy historical text about his early life more is k directly about his later years during his time as Messiah. He was clearly not one of the Jewish zealots who sought to overthrow and push out papist rule in the land but, the Roman rulers did see him as a threat to security. It is known that deliverer did denounce the priests that Rome had appointed in charge of the religious sites of the Palestine(Lunn).This denouncement could have been perceived as an indirect threat to Roman rule by Jesus. This threat join with the fact that he was becoming known as the King of the Jews is why he was condemned and directenced to death. The Roman leaders saw his death sentence as the closing of a chapter on a minor problem beforehand it became a major nuisance and came back to bite them in the behinds. Therefore, it bottom of the inning be concluded that the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth was nothing more than a political decision based on political motivations(capital of Minnesotagaard). Whatever the splendour his death was to the Roman leaders is went hardly noticed by Roman historians. To them his death was no more important than a street beggars.It kitty be assumed that the Roman leaders who agreed to his crucifixionthought that his teachings would die along with him or shortly thereafter(Lunn). They must have been savage when his very loyal and determined retainers didnt allow that to happen. one of their own Roman citizens, capital of Minnesota (known as Saint Paul) proved to be the most effective in caring on spreading the vocalize of God the way Jesus himself did. He was a devout follower of Jesus and believed that if Jesus was willing to die for the sins of mankind and for his beliefs so it all must be true. Saint Paul became well known for his mi ssional trips that took him from Palestine into the Roman Empire (Syria, Turkey, Greece, and Italy).He carried solitary(prenominal) his teachings of Jesus refreshed holiness with him and spread the word to the non-Jews(Lunn). Up to this point in record Christianity was only known as a small Jewish Sect. It was Paul who took this in the buff religion and the story of Jesus the Messiah to the masses. Most of the scriptural scriptures of the sassy testament were written after the death of Jesus so there would have been very few available to him to use. The actual outlines of his new religion of that day is relatively unknown so Pauls teachings and preaching would have been on the general ideas of Jesus and his ideas of Christianity such as the firsthand knowledge Jesus said he had of his holy vex being the one and only God. It was Christianitys insistence of one wise and all-powerful God and others teachings like it that led to the Romans perception threatened.Roman politics waited for quite some time before deciding how to best approach and deal with this new religion. In the mean time, Paul and others like him were picking up so many followers so fast that the Roman leaders began to think of Christianity as a cult(Paulgaard). The Roman Empire had for so long kept it guaranteed religious peace delinquent to the principles of religious toleration most of all Christianity was in direct insubordination of the authorized state religion of the empire. To top it all of Christians refused to perform Caesar worship, which was compulsory of all citizens of the Roman Empire, and this more than anything else proved of the Christians disloyalty to their Roman rulers.Finally, in AD 64 Roman authorities got an answer to the question of what to with the followers of Jesus and Christianity ,when Neros bloody repression led to the persecution of the Christians(Rise). This repression ,though rash and short lived, was a meaningful historicalevent. after the repressi on and upon learning of the Christians refusal to perform Cesar worship, the Roman emperor butterfly Domitian sent investigators to Galilee to questions the family of Jesus. They released all they questioned without charging them but just the fact that the Roman Emperor had taken interest in this small Jewish sect proved that Christianity was no longer merely just a small Jewish sect but a force to be reckoned with.It was towards the end of the 1st carbon that Christians finally severed all ties with Judaism and established themselves as their own religion(World). They were Christians and they were free-living of all other religions. After the separation Roman authorities no longer had them on radar. They didnt know who Christians were independent from Judaism. The fact that Christianity was now unknown to the Roman Empire led to all kinds of rumors about this new sect. There were all kinds of rumors that Christians were performing all kinds of secret rituals such as child sacri fice, incest and even cannibalism. This led to major bad publicity ,so to speak, for Christians. During the second century AD Christians were once again persecuted for their beliefs. The biggest reason this time was because Christianity did not allow their members to give the statutory reverence to the images of the gods and of the emperor.Their gatherings then became considered a complaisant disobedience and a transgression against the edict of Trajan. The edict of Trajan forbade meetings of secret societies and since the papistic authorities considered Christianity a cult, that was a secret society(Lunn). The next serious persecutions were those beneath the rule of Marcus Aurelius. This period defined the Christians understanding of martyrdom. Following a period of widespread toleration of the Christians by the roman authorities after the persecution by Marcus Aurelis, Diocletian enacted what was to become the greatest persecution of Christians under Roman rule. He and Caesar G alerius launched a claxon against the sect. They saw the Christians as becoming far too powerful and so in turn to dangerous.AD 312 marked the beginning of a new era in the history of Christianity under Roman rule. Emperor Constantine had a vision of the sign of Christ in a dream on the eve of a battle with his check emperor Maxentius. The vision told him that he was to have the symbol inscribed on his helmet so he did.He also ordered all of his bodyguard to paint in on their shields. After his victory in battle he declared that he owed his victory to the God of Christians. Constantine already had a tolerant attitude of the Christians that he had gotten from his father but before that night he had never indicated that he would be on their side(Paulgaard). His vision change overd the fate of Christianity for good. Constantine secured religious toleration towards Christians all over the empire. It was in AD 324 that he defeated his last rival emperor and his final religious restrai nt disappeared that he became the first Christian emperor that ruled over the entire empire. He saw to the construction of many great churches and great monuments to Christianity. He also became openly impertinent toward the pagans and sought out to confiscate their treasures.The items confiscated were later given to the Christian Churches. Citizens of the Roman empire never really were even given time to induce into Christianity, they were just kind of shocked into it by Constantine saying I am ruler and what I say goes. Following Constantine as ruler was Julian. When he took the throne he immediately renounced Christianity but could do little to change it as Christianity by then dominated the religious make-up of the empire. After years of trying to establish what was and was not subdivision of the Christian religion in was the emperor Theodosius in AD 380 that took the final step and do Christianity the official religion of the state(Lunn). There were ups and downs for Chris tianity in the Roman Empire avocation the decision to make it the official religion, but no matter who argued against it, the fact was that Christianity was there to stay.The road for Christianity from a small Jewish sect to the official religion of the Roman Empire was a long and deadly one paved with the loves of many a Christian, starting with the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus start out with the goal of spreading the news that there was only one God and that he was a loving, forgiving, and faithful God. Roman authorities from first learning of Christianity, sought to destroy it. They wanted no part of a cult that didnt bend to their will because they could not insure them. Many Romans thought that by threatening and then following through with killing Christians, they would renounce their faith in their God. But, they didnt. It took a very long time and many, many deaths and persecutions for oneRoman emperor to stand on the side of the Christians. Had it not been for Constan tine and his vision, Chrisitanity may not have gotten to where it is today. It is not only to official Roman Empires religion it has become the most well known and most practiced religion among the western world to date. And it all leads back to one man who died on the cross for my sins.Bibliography1. Adler, Philip J., Pouwels, Randall L. World Cvilizations. 6th ed. copyright 2012,2008 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. pgs 138-1422. The Rise of Christianity. Purdue Online. Purdue.Edu.com April 22,20143. Lunn-Rockliffe, Dr. Sophie. Christianity and the Roman Empire. BBC level Ancient History in depth. pub.2011-02-17. Online. April 24,2014.4. Paulgaard, James. The Expansion of Christianity in the Roman Empire. University of Saskatcewan.1 April 1999. Worldpress.com April 22, 2014.