The world’s largest religion contains over 2billion followers and is based upon the teachings of 1 man who lived and preached in the holy land some 2,000 years ago. Although the followers, for the most part, understand the basics of the religion, most don't know how Christianity rose to the massive following it has today.
This series is going to explore the beginning of Christianity and how a combination of events, along with Jesus, allowed for the massive shift in human beliefs and the Christian uprising.
INFLUENCE
When people think of Christianity they typically associate it with Romans. This association is due to the fact that the religious roots took hold within Rome and much of Jesus's teaching took place around the vicinity. Though it is necessary to include the Romans in the history of the religion, the actual contributions in regards to Rome was quite small and insignificant.
Many people have a flawed sense of Ancient Roman culture; we tend to think of Rome as being the most advanced civilization at the time that excelled in architecture, science, philosophy, and the arts. But in reality, the Roman people, by themselves, produced almost nothing of significance. Sure they contained the masterful creations like bridges, roads, and the aqueducts which exploited the arch, but the arch wasn't a Roman Invention.
The reality of ancient Rome is that the culture was a complete rip-off of the more superior minded Greeks. The Roman philosophers studied in Greece institutions and wrote philosophy in the Greek language, any attempts at writing in Latin gained little acceptance. The arts; plays and literature were of Greek origin. When it comes to entertainment, the theaters in Athens were most popular for all classes, while in Rome the most common form was inhumane battles between men to their death, or public execution of criminals.
The culture of Rome was thin, and there contributions to societies even thinner. The main issue with Rome receiving the immense amount of historical credit is that the Romans wrote the vast majority of history. In most regards, the Greek cultures and philosophies are more prominent when looking at Ancient Rome.
IMPERIALISM
Centuries before Christ, the largest most prominent city in the region was Carthage. This was the military stronghold of the western region where-as Rome was simply an insignificant town unknown to many. After Alexander the Greats massive empire began to split apart, the Greek kingdoms began to occupy themselves with fighting each other along with battles against the Celts who occupied land surrounding the Mediterranean. By engaging in these wars, the kingdoms were unable to aid Carthage in a battle that ended in the complete destruction of the City in 146 BC. Near the same time the Roman Military attacked and leveled the Greek City of Corinth. These significant battles allowed the Roman Empire to expand and within the next century, the entire Mediterranean was under Roman rule.
In the first movement of the newly acquired empire, the Roman rulers divided up the area into providences and then systematically plundered the land. By doing so, it brought immense fortune and wealth into Rome. During this time the citizens enjoyed no taxes and free food. The politicians would gather support by providing the people with luxuries and entertainment along with funding massive architecture projects. This truly was a great time to be in Rome and is what led many people to migrate into the city making it the capital of the west.
The Roman Empire was flourishing, and with it came the acceptance of many religious holy men and new ideas. The grand belief of the past was in the Greek Gods, but since the rein of Alexander the great, these beliefs had lost ground and essentially died with him. The masses could be easily swayed, and the population consisted of a variety of beliefs. This constituted the timeframe when Jesus was alive and the birth of Christianity as a religion came about.
Throughout the next few centuries, as more and more foreign people entered the Roman Empire, the decedents of the original Roman elites began to lose their status and reach. The citizenship standard became so broad in the 3rd century that instead of granting Roman status, it essentially removed the preferred status altogether. The free living was no more, and the elite began the systematic robbing of its citizens through taxes. Traditionally, only Roman decedents could vote, now there was no voting. Instead, many Emperors would be crowned, and then sooner murdered by the Imperial Elite if they became dissatisfied with his rule. This period marked the start of political breakdown and general misery within the populations. Being part of this strong empire meant having security, but at the cost of having no hope to live a life beyond the minimum. Heavy taxes left many without the luxuries that only the elites could afford, leading to outrage and hopelessness, and in effect, productivity was low. There were no clear religious faiths in the Roman Empire, but instead a melting of early religions where many have since faded from existence.
RELIGIOUS REVOLUTION
It was clear that the current world left little hope in any regards. The past Romans traditionally had worshiped Gods like the Greeks, and consequently there was no afterlife for humans under any circumstances. The falling away of previous traditions prompted the people to begin worshiping the current emperor, but this was hardly any sort of religion by the way we look at religions of today. With the general hopeless nature of life along with all the competing ideas concentrated within Rome, It was inevitable that a religious movement would happen; the only question in doubt would be as to which one would gain the most following.
Many of these early religions were considered cults, and the reason why so many existed within Rome was peculiar. During Rome’s expansion and conquest of adjacent territories, one of the valuable spoils of war was to enslave portions of that population. During this time of religious uncertainty, many of the Roman rulers allowed their slaves to practice whatever religions they desired. At first the Roman people objected to these new religious ideas, but later on the emperor had declared religious freedom as long as these movements didn't interfere with the Emperors specific cult.
Early on, religious cults practiced what it called peaceful rivalry, where in many cases; people would belong to multiple cults. The two most recognized beliefs that required exclusive membership, where a person could only belong to one faith, was Jewish and Christianity. These 2 faiths gained strong recognition at the time because of the belief in an afterlife, and the simple rituals to become accepted in the faith.
One strong competitor of Christianity was Mithraism which had a large following. This was the belief that the world was a battleground between good and evil, and Mithra was a good god seeking to provide salvation to the good people on earth. This religious group found themselves disadvantaged to Christianity because Mithraism required an initiation ritual of being bathed in the blood of a bull, where-as Christians only required baptism with water. In turn, many people interested in joining religious cults were more apt to join in Christianity and Mithraism soon faded out.
Now that the framework in history has set the scene for the Christian uprising, part 2 of this series will explore the roots of Christianity and how it formed through Jesus to become a competing religion in Rome.
Thank you for reading; I hope you found this piece interesting.
Comments are always welcomed.
Information credit can be given to various textbooks and readings but can mainly be attributed to these 2 sources:
"Before Philosophy" by H. Frankfort
"A New History of Philosophy" by Wallace Matson
Image credits:
unless source the photos are found here www.austindiocese.org