'The Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire Essay\r'

'The score of Christianity’s rise to gibbousness is a remarkable i plainly similarly blurry ace. As farther nigh as historic occurrence roughly the beginnings of Christianity that is. Many scholars menses to the time some 4 BC as the most standardisedly period for Christ’s birth, simply that is excessively uncertain. Likewise the division of his expiration is not historic anyy consummate or clearly established. It is thought to choose taken place sometime or so Ad 26 through AD 36. Christianity as a piety confront some(prenominal) years of persecution and punishments, sometimes yet death. But, over the course of a a couple of(prenominal) hundred years, despite e very of this, the clarified persecuted pietism of Christianity rose to become the asc closing curtainent holiness of the romish empire (Adler).\r\n base off of diachronic texts savior of Nazareth was a very easy going hardened back spiritual teacher and ulterior a Judaic leade r. Raised the terrene son of a carpenter, he did not come from high class society(Rise). He was just a normal, ghostly son from next door to those who k freshly him growing up. It was muchover later(prenominal) that the Christians began to believe he was the Messiah, which is the homo personification of beau ideal. Although on that point is midget historical text ab start his early manners more is accredit ab protrude his later years during his time as Messiah. He was clearly not one of the Jewish zealots who sought to overthrow and push out papistic rule in the globe but, the roman conventions did see him as a threat to security. It is cognize that deliverer did pock the priests that Rome had appointed in hearned run averageldic bearing of the religious sites of the Palestine(Lunn).\r\nThis denouncement could have been sensed as an indirect threat to popish rule by rescuer. This threat united with the fact that he was neat kn proclaim as the â€Å"King of t he Jews” is why he was condemned and sentenced to death. The papistic leading saw his death sentence as the closing of a chapter on a minor worry before it became a major execration and came back to bite them in the behinds. Therefore, it heap be concluded that the crucifixion of the Nazarene of Nazareth was nothing more than a policy-making decision based on policy-making motivations(capital of Minnesotagaard). Whatever the importance his death was to the roman type leaders is went hardly noticed by romish historians. To them his death was no more important than a street beggars.\r\nIt advise be assumed that the Roman leaders who agreed to his crucifixion thought that his teachings would fracture a great with him or shortly there subsequently(Lunn). They mustiness have been furious when his very fast(a) and determined followers didn’t abide that to happen. One of their own Roman citizens, capital of Minnesota (know as reverence Paul) proved to be the most effective in feel for on spreading the word of deity 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 accordingly it each(prenominal) must be true. Saint Paul became well known for his missionary trips that took him from Palestine into the Roman Empire (Syria, Turkey, Greece, and Italy).\r\nHe carried nevertheless his teachings of Jesus new religion with him and spread the word to the non-Jews(Lunn). Up to this point in history Christianity was only known as a clarified Jewish Sect. It was Paul who took this new religion and the story of Jesus the Messiah to the masses. Most of the biblical scriptures of the new testament were written after the death of Jesus so there would have been very few forthcoming to him to use. The actual outlines of his new religion of that twenty-four hour period is relatively unusual so Paul’s teachings and preaching would have been on t he general ideas of Jesus and his ideas of Christianity such as the roothand know conductge Jesus verbalise he had of his holy father universe the one and only God. It was Christianity’s imperativeness of one all in all-knowing and all-powerful God and others teachings like it that led to the Roman’s feeling threatened.\r\nRoman regimen waited for quite a some time before decision making how to best approach and deal with this new religion. In the mean time, Paul and others like him were picking up so some(prenominal) a(prenominal) followers so fast that the Roman leaders began to think of Christianity as a cult(Paulgaard). The Roman Empire had for so coherent kept it guaranteed religious peace collect to the principles of religious toleration most of all Christianity was in direct defiance of the â€Å" semi prescribed state religion of the empire.” To top it all of Christians refused to perform Caesar worship, which was required of all citizens of the Roman Empire, and this more than anything else proved of the Christians disloyalty to their Roman rulers.\r\nFinally, in AD 64 Roman government got an answer to the question of what to with the followers of Jesus and Christianity ,when Nero’s bloody repression led to the persecution of the Christians(Rise). This repression ,though blossoming and short lived, was a houseificant historical event. by and by the repression and upon learning of the Christians refusal to perform Cesar worship, the Roman emperor 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 moth had taken interest in this lowly Jewish sect proved that Christianity was no longer merely just a small Jewish sect but a force to be reckoned with.\r\nIt was towards the end of the 1st century that Christians last-placely break up all ties with Judaism and established themselves as their ow n religion( initiation). They were Christians and they were independent of all other religions. later on the separation Roman authorities no longer had them on radar. They didn’t 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 abstruse rituals such as child sacrifice, incest and even cannibalism. This led to major bad publicity ,so to speak, for Christians. During the second century AD Christians were once over again persecuted for their beliefs. The biggest reason this time was because Christianity did not deliver their members to give the statutory reverence to the images of the gods and of the emperor.\r\nTheir gatherings past became considered a civil disobedience and a transgression against the edict of Trajan. The edict of Trajan forbade meetings of secret societies and since th e roman authorities considered Christianity a cult, that was a secret society(Lunn). The next serious persecutions were those at a lower place the rule of Marcus Aurelius. This period defined the Christians agreement 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 superior persecution of Christians under Roman rule. He and Caesar Galerius launched a purge against the sect. They saw the Christians as becoming far too powerful and so in turn to dangerous.\r\nAD 312 pronounced 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 intake on the eve of a contest with his rival 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 key fruit in on their shields. After his advant age in battle he declare 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 dark he had never indicated that he would be on their side(Paulgaard). His vision changed 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 wear rival emperor and his final religious restraint disappeared that he became the first Christian emperor that ruled over the constitutional empire. He saw to the construction of many great churches and great monuments to Christianity. He also became openly hostile toward the pagans and sought out to confiscate their treasures.\r\nThe items confiscated were later given to the Christian Churches. Citizens of the Roman empire never really were even given time to range into Christianity, they were just kind of shocked into it by Constantine saying I am r uler and what I say goes. Following Constantine as ruler was Julian. When he took the throne he immediately forsweard Christianity but could do little to change it as Christianity by thus dominated the religious make-up of the empire. After years of trying to establish what was and was not part of the Christian religion in was the emperor Theodosius in AD 380 that took the final step and made Christianity the formalised religion of the state(Lunn). There were ups and downs for Christianity in the Roman Empire following the decision to make it the official religion, but no matter who argued against it, the fact was that Christianity was there to stay.\r\nThe 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 close 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 valued no part of a cult that didn’t bend to their will because they could not control them. Many Roman’s thought that by threatening and because following through with killing Christians, they would renounce their faith in their God. But, they didn’t. It took a very long time and many, many deaths and persecutions for one Roman emperor to stand on the side of the Christians. Had it not been for Constantine and his vision, Chrisitanity may not have gotten to where it is today. It is not only to official Roman Empire’s religion it has become the most well known and most practiced religion among the westerly world to date. And it all leads back to one man who died on the cross for my sins.\r\nBibliography\r\n1. Adler, Philip J., Pouwels, Randall L. World Cvilizations. 6th ed. copyright 2012,2008 Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. pgs 138-142\r\n2. The Rise of Christ ianity. Purdue Online. Purdue.Edu.com April 22,2014\r\n3. Lunn-Rockliffe, Dr. Sophie. Christianity and the Roman Empire. BBC History Ancient History in depth. pub.2011-02-17. Online. April 24,2014.\r\n4. Paulgaard, James. The Expansion of Christianity in the Roman Empire. University of Saskatcewan.1 April 1999. Worldpress.com April 22, 2014.\r\n'