History 1113
The End of Civic Religion in Greece and Rome: The Path to Jewish and Christian Communities in Imperial Rome

I.  The Context: Mediterranean Religions at the Beginning of the Roman Empire:

A.  Official Religions


1.  Household worship
  


2.  Civic worship
    



3.  Problems w/ paganism
    



B.  Solution 1: Philosophy–religion for intellectuals

1.  Epicureanism
 



2.  Skepticism
    


3.  Stoicism
  



C.  Solution 2: Mystery Cults–popular religion for the masses






II.  Origins of Christianity
A.  Jesus of Nazareth
    

















    B.  Basic beliefs of early Christianity
    
















III.  Christianity in the Roman Empire
A.  Spread
  




B.  Reasons for the Rapid Spread
    












C.  Missionary Religion
  







D.  Persecutions

1.  Conflicts w/ state
  








2.  Martyrdom
  






Web-Lecture for Part I, the end of Section C plus Sections D & E on the spread, persecution and rise of Christianity
While the Pax Romana certainly did facilitate the spread of Christianity, as it did of many other creeds, ideas, people, and goods, it also demanded order of those living under it.  This meant that the Jewish yearning for independence in Judaea was not well thought of.  So, in 66 C.E. when an uprising against the Romans began the Romans opposed it vigorously.  When the conflict, known as the Jewish War, ended in 70 C.E. the Roman punished the population by destroying the Jewish temple in Jerusalem and forcing the Jews to leave Palestaine in a second Diaspora.  Of course, some of these Jews had become Christians so this second major displacement of Jews from Palestine actually helped to spread Christianity. 

This brings us to the second major reason that Christianity spread so quickly: it is a missionary religion.  Christians desired to convert others, it was in fact a religious obligation to do so.  Priests were sent out first within the empire and then beyond to gain converts.  The cities were first as within a city one could reach people easily.  In the early years of Christianity’s development, into the 4th century C.E. in fact, Christianity had no umbrella organization.  Rather, each Christian community in each locality had its own organization.  In this world the bishop served as the liturgical leader.  He said mass, performed absolution, administered penance, consecrated priests, and baptized converts.  Later on, of course, missioinaries went outside of the cities and even ventured beyond the empire, converting among others members of the Germanic tribes.

 Naturally enough, the Roman empire found Christians to be at least as problematic as the Jews in that they were monotheists who refused to worship the divine spirit of the emperor and therefore effectively refused to display proper allegiance to the Roman state.  And although Jews had been exempted from this civic religion, Christians had not received this exemption.  The Romans saw Christians as subversive radicals whose activities endangered the state.  Thus, Christians became convenient scapegoats for political and economic troubles in the empire, which would also be the fate of Jews within Europe later on.  Successive Roman emperors, then, did persecute Christians, but not consistently so persecution varied by time and place within the empire.  It did, however, happen often enough to provoke Christians to develop hiding places and shelters.  One such place was the catacombs of Rome, which consisted subterranean galleries and hallways where Christians met to worship and bury their dead.  Of course the Roman state managed to capture and kill some Christians who then became martyrs to the Christian movement with some being revered as saints.  The martyrs attracted others to Christianity as many considered that any religion that could produce such devotion must be worth joining.
   
Finally in the fourth century C.E. Christianity received official toleration.  By this time about 10% of the empire had already become Christian.  In 313 C.E. the emperor Constantine, who lived mainly in the eastern portion of the empire as it turns out, legalized and protected Christianity through the Edict of Milan.  Once it became a state religion Christianity spread quickly.  Subsequent emperors became Christian and then in 392 C.E., emperor Theodosius (emperor of the East 379-392 C.E. and of East and West, 392-395 C.E.) outlawed what had been the traditional Roman religion as well as all other tradition religions in the empire.  Thus, Christianity had moved from being a persecuted faith to being a faith on behalf of which political leaders were willing to persecute.  Indeed, Christianity ultimately preserved much of what lived on from the Roman empire after its collapse in 476 C.E.





Key Terms:
lares
penates
genius of Rome
spirit of the emperor
paganism
Mithraism
Bethlehem
Augustus
Mary Magdalene
Virgin Mary
Martha
Judaea
sadducees
pharisees
blasphemy
Messiah
Trinity
Old Testament
Zoroastrianism (c. 6th century B.C.E.)
St. Paul (10-65 C.E.)
sacraments
Edict of Milan (313 C.E.)
Arianism
Donatism
Pax Romana
Diaspora
Constantine (r. 306-337 C.E.)
Theodosius (emperor of the East 379-392 C.E., emperor of East and West 392-395 C.E.)

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