Christianity in the Roman Empire
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In discussing Christianity in the Roman Empire one is immediately confronted with a problem: all too many people, in-fluenced by Hollywood, have preconceived notions of mass Christian persecutions complete with lions and the roaring crowds. And al-though these have a basis in truth, these persecutions did exist at certain stages of Rome's relations with Christianity, to view them as characteristic of Roman policy is to greatly misinterpret it. Rather, I suggest that Christianity was an intellectual movement that triumphed with surprisingly little violence. It was initially viewed with the toleration characteristic of Rome's dealings with other religions; only when it came into conflict with Rome's political ideas and motives was persecution sanctioned on a wide scale, and even then, these generally did not last for any great length of time. In dealing with the Roman religion one notices its political nature, its inseparable ties to the state. As historian R. H. Barrow has put it, "[The Roman] tended to think of religion in terms of history, and history was the history of Rome" (Barrow 141). The religion had little in the way of strong personal appeal; rather, the individual felt that he was incorporated into the state, a vast organization whose history and destiny was dictated by divine powers. No elaborate theology was developed, nor was the intellectualizing associated with Christianity characteristic of the Roman beliefs. Religion tended to support the state and w
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hreat from the neo-Persians in the East and the Germanic menace in the North, the emperor feared Christianity as a dis-integration from within the Empire (Heichelheim 370). The Christian refusal to do military service, along with their refusal to observe state religious practices seen as necessary to state security, contributed to the incompatibility of Christianity and the Empire. Furthermore, the clandestine nature of the religion and the growth of a highly organized hierarchical structure was seen as a threat to Rome's dominance. A reckoning between these two powerful forces, so opposite in belief and nature, seemed to be inevitable.
At this point I wish to digress briefly and discuss Christ-ianity as an intellectual movement. As I have already mentioned, the second century was one of great advances for the religion. Initially, Christianity had been embraced mainly by the lower levels of society, those people whose poverty enabled them to readily accept the Christian idea of a kingdom not of this world. However, Christianity was not confined to the lower classes for long. Christianity represented a revolutionary view in a material-istic, pagan world, a view which, in its profound differences, could not help but arouse
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2879
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)
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