Christianity and the Roman World

The Gospels were attempts by various early Christian writers to come to terms with the challenges facing the new religious community which still saw itself as being Jewish.

These accounts were written 40 to 60 years after the life of Jesus. Needless to say, each gospel gives a different account of who Jesus was and what his life and ministry meant to the community.

Who was St. Paul?•Originally called Saul, he was a Pharisee who believed that Christianity was a threat to the Jewish religion.

•He had a conversion experience on his way to Damascus. He changed his name from the Jewish “Saul” to the Roman name “Paul”.

•He became the greatest Christian missionary of the 1st century.

•Much of Christian scripture is his letters to various churches he started around the Roman Empire.

Paul was successful as a missionary for a variety of reasons:

•He spoke and wrote Greek, the language of the eastern half of the Roman Empire.

•Paul was a Hellenized Jew. He was familiar with Greek thought and culture and could frame the Christian message in a way that appealed to many in Greek society.

How Paul Changed The Christian Message:

Opened Christianity up to all people – no difference between Jew and Gentile –

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law (Torah). Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised (Jews) by faith and the uncircumcised (Non-Jews) through faith.”

Romans 3:27-30

•Christianity takes on a decidedly universalistic and egalitarian bent.

•Christianity becomes the spiritual equivalent of Roman citizenship.

The Jewish DiasporaIn 70 CE the Roman Empire decided to end the Jewish rebellions once and for all.The Roman Army entered Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple.Fleeing for their lives Jews and Jewish-Christians fled the city and moved to different parts of the Roman Empire.This Diaspora helped spread the Christian message to new parts of the empire.

It is the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple that leads to the writing of the first gospel – Mark.

It also seems to be the first attempt by the Christians to create an identity separate from Judaism.

Why Were The Christians Persecuted?

• Christianity met with much success but also with much suspicion.

• They denied the existence of the Roman gods and were therefore considered to be atheists.

• Their refusal to worship the emperor was considered treason.

• The actual presence of Jesus’ body and blood in the Eucharist was distorted into cannibalism.

• Because the Christians saw themselves as a separate and holy people they limited their contact with outsiders and were therefore considered ‘haters of humanity’.

Christ as Emperor

Persecuted for two centuries, Christianity in the 4th century found its status changed from outsider to imperial insider.

How Did Christianity Become The Religion of The Late Roman

Empire?•The classical ideals that had held the Roman Empire together were beginning to weaken.

•The sheer multiplicity of religions and philosophies made it impossible for a common, centralizing vision to hold all/most of the people together.

•Roman citizenship did not have the status it once had under Augustus and the “good emperors”.

•Constantine, if he was to hold the empire together, needed something to unify the empire once again.

•Christianity seemed to have the right mix of classical thinking and mystery religion influences to appeal to a wide spectrum of people.

•Its universalist message would allow all segments of society to join.

•Christianity inspired devotion which if harnessed correctly by the government could help rebuild Roman society.

•In 313 CE Constantine issued the Edict of Milan – Christianity was now to be tolerated like the other accepted religions of the empire.

•By the time of Theodosius I in 392 CE Christianity had become the state religion of the empire.

•Christian bishops now used their new found power to begin persecuting and stamping out the old religions of the empire.

St. Augustine

•Bishop of Hippo in Northern Africa (354-430CE)

•Attended school in Carthage where he studied the Latin classics.

•The problem of evil motivated his personal searches for truth.

•Was a Manichaean but eventually became a Christian through the influence of St. Ambrose the bishop of Milan.

•Was appointed bishop of Hippo in 395.

•Confessions impacts Western literature to this day.

•His most famous and influential work was:

The City of God

•In The City of God Augustine created what would be the Christian outlook for centuries and heralds the end of the Classical Age.

•Augustine believed that the ideal city on earth was impossible. Original Sin made it impossible to establish a perfect society. The only “perfect city” was in heaven.•Although reason was useful, by itself it could not discover nor comprehend the mysteries of the divine that were revealed through the person of Jesus

•Society would always have abusive aspects – the Christian can only hope to limit the extent of the abuse

•The City of Man (Rome) should not be confused with the City of God (Heaven). Therefore, the sacking of Rome did not impact the validity of the Christian Faith.

In 529 CE Plato’s academy in Athens closes its doors forever. It is the same year that St. Benedict opens his monastery in

Monte Cassino.