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Christianity in Roman Empire

Jesus Christ was born into a Roman world. As Luke tells us, "a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled" (Luke 2:1). In the Romans' view, they and their possessions were the entire world. The Romans had gone on endless military campaigns to subdue their enemies and exert their influence in every accessible corner of the Mediterranean and European worlds. Then, in a similar but more peaceful fashion, Christ's followers went out to spread the word throughout the Roman Empire. It was not until they finally succeeded in acquiring the Roman Emperor Constantine as a convert to Christianity in A.D. 312 that the new religion triumphed and the history of the Western world was transformed. After that "the empire that Constantine ruled as a declared Christian, from 312 to 337, was profoundly different from the classical urban society" in which the early Christians labored (Brown 271). As they went out into the empire the Christians met a world that was, at first, uninterested in them and then, as their numbers grew, became extremely hostile to them. In viewing the collections of the Getty Museum many of the works of art there, as well as the building itself, provide some clues as to the kind of world the early Christians faced as they tried to show others the way. Some examples from the Getty collection will show the attractions that Roman ways had for the people, the way in which Roman religious ideas permeated the whole society, and the difficulties that such ideas put in the way of Roman conversion.

Collections of ancient art not only show the attractions that the Roman Empire held for its people, they also show how deeply the religious beliefs and practices of the pagan world were embedded in the lives of the people. Against this the Christians had the word of Christ that they preached to anyone who would listen to them. In the balance between the culture of Rome and the Christian word the word...

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Christianity in Roman Empire. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 03:48, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1692625.html