The Rise of Christianity: Discuss the rise of Christianity. Why was this new faith successful in distributing throughout the Roman Empire? During the earlier periods of the Roman Empire, everyone worshiped the same Gods and followed the same faith. However, they did non pattern their faith with emotion. The Romans did non hold a personal relationship with their Gods. In clip, though, as the Roman Empire expanded its boundaries, a new faith began to organize. This faith was called Christianity and it rapidly gained many followings. This new faith, unlike the traditional Roman faith, focused a batch on personal relationships with God. Christianity was besides a monotheism ( idolizing of one God ) while the traditional Roman faith was a polytheism ( idolizing of more than one God ) .
The chief followings of Christianity were the Jews. This was because Christianity followed many of the same traditions and thoughts of the Judaic civilization. The Jews believed that there would be a Messiah, or Jesus who would convey them back their freedom. The Judaic land was conquered by Rome and turned into a Roman state. It was written that a Messiah would come and liberate the Jews. Subsequently, the Jews began to believe that their Jesus had come. This individual was Jesus.
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vitamin E THeTJesus was the chief individual who spread Christianity. He was a Jew born in Judea around four to six B.C. In the in-between portion of his life, Jesus began to prophesy God ‘s words. Harmonizing to the record, he besides preformed many miracles. Jesus taught that God had a particular and personal relationship with every individual individual. He besides focused on God ‘s love for people and how everyone should love Him excessively, every bit good as the people around them. Jesus taught his followings that God had created a land where people could populate merrily after decease.
Jesus ‘ message appealed to the multitudes of the Roman Empire. The people were really drawn to him and wherever he preached, big crowds ever gathered. The hapless people in Rome were particularly drawn to Jesus ‘ sermon. This was because Jesus did non care whether you were rich or hapless, whether you were a husbandman or a consul ( sort of like a president ) . Jesus did non pay attending to any of this. He merely paid attending to a individual ‘s virtuousness and actions. An illustration of something that would appeal to the hapless is found in the Sermon on the Mount. When Jesus gathered on a mountain to prophesy, one of the things that he said was, “ Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth. ” Jesus besides emphasized the love for people no affair what they do to you. This was a large measure from earlier doctrines and Torahs such as Hammurabi ‘s Code where the regulation was, “ and oculus for an oculus and a tooth for a tooth. ” Alternatively, Jesus taught that, “ Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other alsoaˆ¦Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee bend non thou awayaˆ¦But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that expletive you, make good to them that hatred you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. ”
Jesus was unhappily crucified on a cross by the Pontius Pilate. Jesus was accused a opposing the governments of Rome. Another ground for this crucifixion was that the Roman leaders were worried about Jesus ‘ turning popularity. They were afraid that if Jesus grew excessively popular, the Christians would shortly take over Rome ( many hapless Romans followed Christianity and the hapless made up the bulk of Rome ) . The Roman leaders were afraid so they came up with a strategy to hold Jesus killed. Harmonizing to the Bible, one of Jesus ‘ adherents betrayed him, went to the Pontius Pilate and told him who Jesus was. Jesus was arrested and crucified. However, it is written that on the 3rd twenty-four hours that Jesus had died, he reappeared in populating signifier to his adherents. This farther increased their religion and led them to distribute his instructions even more. In the beginning, most of the people who followed Jesus were Jews, because his instructions did non interfere with their normal Torahs. Subsequently, these followings created a faith that we know of as Christianity.
Another individual who helped distribute the Christian faith was one of Jesus ‘ apostles, Paul. Paul went around the imperium learning the word of God. He taught people that Jesus died to wipe out people ‘s wickednesss. He besides taught that Christianity was unfastened to any individual, no affair their faith ( Gentile, intending non-Jew, or Jew ) and no affair their old history. This “ catholicity ” allowed Christianity to turn past the Roman Empire and throughout the whole universe.
Since Christianity was a really unfastened faith, it spread more easy. Any individual, adult male or adult female, free or break one’s back, rich or hapless, were able to change over to Christianity. Christianity besides provided a sense of hope and security to those who antecedently felt none. Since Christianity did non value wealth but virtuousness, it appealed to those who could non “ maintain up ” with the prosperity of the powerful Roman Empire. Two more features of Christianity that likely caught the oculus of many people was that personal relationship with a really sort God and topographic point where you could travel and live merrily even after decease.
Even though Christianity had many protagonists and followings, they were still persecuted a batch. This is because they were feared by the authorities. The Roman authorities felt that the Christians defied the Roman authorization. However, everything changed at a turning point of the development of Christianity. This period was in A.D. 312. At the clip, a great military leader named Constantine was contending a civil conflict for power. Constantine was taking his military personnels to the Tiber River to conflict it out with his chief challenger. Prior to the conflict, Constantine had prayed for aid. Subsequently, he saw the mark of the cross, which is a symbol of Christianity. Constantine told his craftsmans to set the mark of the cross on the shields of his soldiers. When he won, Constantine gave recognition to the Christian God. Later, Constantine became the emperor of Rome. Since he believed that the Christian God helped him come into power, he decided that from so on, there would be an terminal to the persecution of Christians. In clip, Constantine even approved the Christian faith, doing it a faith that was approved by the emperor himself. After Constantine ‘s reign, an emperor named Theodosius finally declared Christianity the official faith of the Roman Empire.
The Roman Empire was the perfect environment for Christianity to distribute. One of the grounds for this was Rome ‘s huge web of roads. At first, these roads were used for military grounds. The military had to travel about and protect the imperium which is why the system of roads was created in the first topographic point. However, the roads were besides good for trading intents. The complex system of roads linked all of the parts of the imperium. It besides linked Rome ( the imperium ) to other topographic points such as Russia and Persia. This allowed a huge country of trade, conveying Rome much wealth. However, trade does non merely carry goods, but thoughts excessively. With this system of roads, Christianity could distribute to the farther topographic points of the imperium. This would do it much more powerful and widespread.
Another ground that the Roman Empire was the perfect environment for Christianity to distribute was the Pax Romana. The Pax Romana was literally translated as “ Roman peace. ” The Pax Romana was a clip of the Roman Empire where there was wealth and peace in Rome. This was when Rome would be at its tallness. During the Pax Romana, there was hardly any combat within the imperium. There was merely a small spot of contending along the boundary lines of the Roman Empire with outside folks. The Pax Romana was a clip of peace, so the Roman Empire was comparatively safe. This promoted a batch of trade and going. Trade carried the thought of Christianity along the roads to the far parts of the imperium. With the peaceable times traveling on and so much trade and going taking topographic point, Christianity spread really rapidly. It besides helped that there were common linguistic communications in the Roman Empire. These linguistic communications – Hellenic and Latin – allowed many people to understand the message of God. The new faith of Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire reasonably rapidly. This is because the message of God appealed to the hapless people in Rome, and the hapless made up the bulk of the Roman Empire. The features of the Roman Empire were besides perfect for the spread of Christianity because of its system of roads and its period of peace called the Pax Romana.
