Before the 3rd Century C.E., it is completely understandable that the Romans and the Roman Empire itself would be extremely fearful of the rising religion of Christianity. As the Roman Empire grew, it began to take over new lands and with them came many new customs. One of the more terrifying of customs to be introduced to the Romans was that of Christianity. When a group of people start to follow one person as a God figure rather than see their emperor as the symbol of supreme power, obvious problems will occur. This shift in the power dynamic threatened the Roman Empire’s grasp over this foreign territory they were occupying, showing that their power could be challenged.

When the story of a man being the living form of God spreads across an empire, hysteria can be expected to follow. This man directly upsets the control that an emperor has over his subjects. It poses the question that if God can be found on our Earth in human form, then why should the citizens of Rome submit to an emperor? If Jesus is all powerful, why would people follow anyone else? When faced with these questions, any emperor of Rome would feel extremely threatened and anxious at the thought of losing his power and control.

Seen through the correspondence between Pliny and Emperor Trajan, drastic measures were taken in order to uproot the rising conflict between Christianity and Rome. Execution, torture, and imprisonment were all means that were used in an attempt to stop the spread of this religion, setting a precedent for future followers of Christ. Pliny acted in a way that he thought would preserve the image of Emperor Trajan, persecuting any and all suspected Christians and making them renounce their religion and praise the Roman gods. As heinous as these acts were, they were meant to secure the power of the Roman Empire. With this in mind, as an empire, the Romans had the right to oppose any opposition that threatened their control. They treated Christianity as a foreign invader and attempted to crush it at its roots rather than give it the chance to grow into a force to be reckoned with. It may not have been the most morally sound decision made by the empire, but it was viewed as a necessary act that would show the superiority of any emperor over any challenger to the throne.

Word Count: 402

By Michael Shubert

Christianity Through the Lens of Polytheism

Before the 3rd c. CE, Romans held Christians in deep suspicion and considered their practices immoral and a threat to the stability of the empire. This is a valid fear since early Christians were commonly misunderstood due to their unique beliefs.

To begin, early Romans typically believed in many gods. The thought of only having one god was foreign and strange to most Romans. It’s hard to imagine Christians being persecuted in today’s society with it being well-known and practiced. It is also hard to imagine why Christians in the past would have been persecuted for the same reasons. But, early Christianity was a minority religion in Rome, where as today it is a well-known and widely practiced religion. One must also understand that it would be easy for Romans to criticize Christians in early Rome. Romans knowing little about Christianity, Christians having few numbers, and with texts that seem to mimic a cult, Romans could easily persecute Christians. For example, Christians believe in eating the skin of Jesus Christ and drinking his blood. To an outsider, eating someone’s skin and drinking their blood seems barbaric and uncivilized. Romans not knowing any better could have easily thought that Christians were blood thirsty cannibals. Even in today’s society, it’d be hard to imagine a sane person being okay with cannibalism. People also fear what they do not know. This can be seen in our society with the events that happened on 9/11. Many people began to fear Muslim people and their religion. There was a lot of blame put onto the Muslim faith itself rather than the extremist group that carried out the attack. The American society had to implement new teaching reforms in order to prevent the spread of extreme racism. An example of 9/11 in ancient Rome is the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD. Although, the fire was not a terrorist attack and was not started by Christians, the easy scapegoat became the few Christians located in Rome. Christians were executed by the Roman Emperor Nero in order to cover up his own failings. The Romans were fearful of what the Christians brought upon them and were angry about the devastation caused by the fire. It was easy to fear and to blame an entire religion that was not widely practiced and misunderstood.

Overall, it is hard to see and understand the viewpoint of a persecutor. But, when looking at the Christian faith from the standpoint of Romans, it is understandable why Romans would fear Christianity. There are practices in every religion that seems strange to outsiders and with Christianity being somewhat new and misunderstood, Romans were right to be fearful of possible cannibals living next door to them. Although, not all Romans thought Christians were blood thirsty cannibals, it is not so hard to see that the new religion could have been a threat to the stability of the Roman Empire and the safety of its citizens.

498

https://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/empire/christians.html

The Romans were a polytheistic nation, and believed that there were many Gods that had to be satisfied and appealed to in order to ensure a good life. With the rise of Christianity, there was a drastic shift in believing in many Gods, to believing in one single God. Roman religion consisted of Gods pulled from Greek religion, and also believed that “spirits inhabited everything” (Wasson 3). Due to the fact that Christianity is the polar opposite of polytheism, the Romans early resentment towards Christianity is definitely justified. When dealing with something as important as religion, there are many different viewpoints and strong opinions on what is considered right and what is considered wrong. On top of this, human nature leans towards accepting things that have been put down in the past. It can be seen easily how the Romans would have felt towards a new religion appearing that only believed in a single God. Not only did the Romans feel threatened by this new religion, but they also felt that those worshipping this new God would anger the Gods that they had been working so hard to gain favor from. I believe that the Romans did have the right to stamp out Christianity, as they believed it was an imminent threat to their wellbeing, and that the Christians would result in a direct destruction of their way of life. The fear was very valid, as they had no idea what the possible implications could be. Those who believed heavily in Polytheism most likely feared that the rise of Christianity would be the downfall of Rome, due to angry Gods. Another reason for the validity of their fear stems from the fact that Polytheism had been around for ages and ages, while Christianity was a new religion that had just started to appear. It is human nature to stick to things that your parents taught you, and to also stick to things that you had seen growing up. All of these things were threatened by Christianity. It can be seen from history in the United States that change is never welcomed readily by the majority. It took many years for small changes to occur in the United States, such as changing the legal voting age. These things would be considered very trivial in comparison to religion in Rome, and to bring a change in so drastic would definitely receive a large amount of resentment.

-Ben Everett

https://www.ancient.eu/Roman_Religion/

WC: 404

Christianity and Rome’s Impending Doom

 -Pepe Tanuvasa

Seeing through the eyes of the Roman Empire, the spreading of a foreign religion would understandably raise suspicion and cause a close eye to be put on its followers. As individuals we each identify with unique things that divide our loyalty, religion being an essential aspect of this loyalty. When introduced to any new religion, it is easy to question how that will change the loyalty of those people, especially when such horrific tales about this religion were passed.

A main difference between the Roman theology and this new Christian religion was the singularity of the Christian God and how He was viewed. Unlike Romans, who believed that their gods and goddesses expressed human qualities and were subject to making mistakes, Christians believed in one God who was Almighty and perfect.  The difference in the way that they view deity causes a lack of understanding, as the Romans were unable to comprehend one omnipotent being, who confusingly is also three different beings. In a debate at Mongke’s court regarding the number and supremacy of God or gods, William of Rubruck argued “’It is not God who created evil. Everything that exists is good.’ All the tuins were amazed at this statement and recorded it in writing as something erroneous and impossible…” (The Mongols and Their Successors 307). Seeing how this council reacted, it is easy to see the parallel to the reactions in Rome.

Along with this new religion came their practices, which when misconstrued, sound devious. In the words of a Roman governor Pliny the Younger to Emperor Trajan, “They had met regularly before dawn on a fixed day to chant verses alternately among themselves in honor of Christ, as if to a god” (Rome and Christianity 147).” Hearing of this news along with regards to what Christians referred to as ‘communion,’ where bread and wine was turned into the flesh and blood of their God, paints Christians as an inhumane cult. If those rumors weren’t enough to make a person wary, then hearing of a Christian baptism, where they died and then were reborn, would do just that.

All in all, the Roman public was understandably concerned with the rumors that surpassed the Christians, and were validated in its persecution of those followers. They were righto fear this foreign religion and their hostility towards its people is admissible, as it was for the good of their Empire.

Word Count: 409

Before Third Century AD, the Romans viewed Christians as a mysterious and threatening group of people to their empire. As a Roman, polytheism was the held religious belief. Before the Edict of Milan, Romans were known to persecute Christians upon the discovery of their faith. According to Religion Facts, this is because “religion was first and foremost a social activity that promoted unity and loyalty to the state.” By accepting the polytheistic beliefs of Rome, a citizen could prove that they were fully devoted, in a sense, to the empire. This religious attitude was known as “piety.” It was a popular belief that if piety disappeared, the rest of Roman society would as well. While Romans were tolerant and accepting of many other religious beliefs, they were not tolerant of Christianity due to its teachings. Pliny, one of Rome’s governors, “called it ‘superstition taken to extravagant lengths.’” Due to the Roman government’s stance on Christianity, it was portrayed as a bad choice for society.

I believe that this is a rational fear for a Roman empire that was attempting to keep their society and culture together as one. While the fear may have not been rational, I do believe that it had a legitimate sense of fear and purpose behind it. The rationality of this fear may be put into question, but how the Romans portrayed Christianity affected how the people also viewed it. Unity seems to have been a large decision making factor for the Romans. It was their belief that if their people were united, they could not fall. Christianity did pose a threat to this style of thinking, as some of the more radicalized views of a “son of Christ” posed a threat to the Roman style of thinking. The pantheon of gods that was accepted by Rome did not align with the teachings of Jesus Christ. Rome had typically taken over lands and allowed their religious deities to exist, only adding them to the Roman pantheon and giving them new names. However, with Christianity, the teachings stated that there is only one true God and gives a specific list of rules (or commandments) that explain how a person should live their life. They also condemn the existence of other gods. If a person was not willing to identify with the teachings of Rome, specifically polytheism, then they should not exist within Rome. According to Pliny in a letter to Emperor Trajan, he speaks about ordering proclaimed Christians to death. When explaining why, he says, “For I had no doubt that, whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserve to be punished.” Through this quote, we can see how Rome not only viewed Christianity’s teachings as wrong, but also as ignorant and stubborn. This stubbornness can prohibit the empire of Rome from banding together because if Christianity gains popularity, the citizens of Rome will refuse to accept the teachings and philosophies accepted by the empire. The only way to prevent the spread of this stubbornness is by persecuting or executing the belief before it can spread.

Additionally, it had to be quite a shock to the vast majority of Rome when they acknowledge multiple higher beings but are suddenly hearing about one man who is claiming to be the son of God. Hearing such a statement would make more skeptics out of the Roman polytheistic beliefs, so this faith needed to be quieted as soon as possible. It is quite obvious that Romans believed everyone should be unified and Christianity only drove a deeper stake through the heart of the people. For these reasons, I believe that they had a legitimate reason to worry and be suspicious of Christianity and how it would affect their culture.

As an aside, this is an interesting parallel of a stereotype today. As stated in the prompt, today we tend to view Christianity as the default religion of the United States. Today, many terrorist organizations and cells align with the Islamic faith, thus creating a stereotype that terrorists are Muslim. This is an irrational fear and quite an uneducated assumption to make that all terrorists are followers of the Islamic faith, but it aligns closely with how the Romans viewed Christianity. This fear scares the people of the nation and how the government (or today, the media) portrays the designated religion will determine how the people react.

Words: 596

Sources:

http://www.religionfacts.com/persecution-early-church

Pliny, Letters 10.96-97

              The Romans should fear the end of their religious traditions. Jesus is the new wave of Roman tradition. He is a leader of the Christian faith and he gives hope to the poor and all of those who worship his God, with the promise of salvation. Similar to Jews, Christians refuse to worship any other God than their own. The Romans are skeptical of both groups because they do not depict their gods in any paintings or images, an uncommon practice. In contrast, the Romans glorify the ground of the emperors with sacrifice and worship. Hence, the suspicion by the Romans on the Christians. The first red flag against the Romans happens when the Jerusalem Temple of the Jews, “their center of worship” and place that contains their scriptures, survives the Roman conquest of Judea in 63 B.C.E.(Voyages).The Romans attempt to govern the leadership of the temple after transitioning into power in Judea. Many Jews challenge the Roman authority of leadership in the temple which marks the first threat to the Roman Empire. Christianity is comprised of some of the Jews who challenged the Romans in Judea. In the eyes of the Romans, Christianity is seen as a branch of Judaism because of their monotheistic views. Christians believe in one god who is the father of Jesus. Jesus welcomes everyone to believe in his god, even the poor. By appealing to everyone including the poor, Jesus gathers more followers and converts to join the new church with the promise of salvation. The church praises heaven and includes all spirits to join, as said in the Christian bible, even the “poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”(Matthew 5:3).

              Jesus is gaining momentum and begins preaching of his plans to “reform and challenge the abuses he saw” under Roman rule (Voyages). At this point, Jesus is basically claiming his throne as a king and the Romans start freaking out and need to take drastic measures to confirm that their governance will remain intact. The Romans are justified in fearing the threat to their empire because Jesus has enough influence to lead an uprising against Roman rule. In order to end the movement of political threat to Rome, Pontius Pilate crucifies Jesus. Unfortunately for the Romans, Jesus’ believers took his death as a beneficial teaching to Christianity which further expanded the Christian religion in the empire. Christianity gradually invaded the land until it was banned by the Romans. The Romans feel threatened because the tradition and culture they have worked so hard to instill in the public, in regards to worship and sacrifice, is being overshadowed by the newfound religion of Christianity. The very act of Christians opposing typical Roman religious customs is a sign of disrespect and can compromise the integrity of the culture. It would look even worse for the Romans if the newfound religion of Christianity overthrows centuries of Roman culture. Should the Christian mindset and religion take over the Roman Empire, which is does, the stability of the empire will change because Christians oppose the current one. Therefore, the Romans have a valid fear for their normalcy and way of life being compromised.

Source: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1p5KUTpKDxZjq1kx5dsg7QDSTkaiN86fn

Word Count: 510

Christianity’s rise and spread throughout the Western world is an interesting story still studied by scholars around the world. Growing from a small, persecuted religion to a widespread, established religion around the West was one of the most significant transformations in history. This shift in the dominance of the monotheistic Judaeo-Christan belief spread all across the West, most notably throughout the Ancient Roman Empire. When Christianity first spread throughout the Roman Empire, many Romans feared that its spread would cause a massive threat to the stability of the empire. Specifically, many Romans believed that the acceptance of Christianity would damage the polytheistic religious system already established. Since religion is a central part of the Roman Empire, this viewpoint was valid because many of the Roman people believed that the spread of Christianity would endanger a long-established Roman religious tradition and cause massive political and social unrest if accepted.

The long-established religious tradition was very crucial to the social and political hierarchy of the Roman Empire. The Roman people believed that the Empire was protected by an agreement with the gods, called pax deorum. Across the Empire, Romans worshiped and sacrificed to the gods in return for the gods’ protection of their cities (Grant 2016). This view was completely antithetical to the Christan viewpoint. Christians refused to worship and sacrifice to the Roman gods because they believed that there was only one true God to worship. Furthermore, Christians did not believe in the divinity of the Roman emperor and the sacrifices the Romans made to him. They believed that the only beings that deserved divine worship were God and Christ. Prior to its spread to the Empire, the Romans had a complex religious system established with protective gods and worshiping traditions. One day, the Christians came into the Empire and began to spread their aileen religious beliefs and turn-down the Roman religious beliefs. The Romans had every right to feel suspicious and threatened of Christianity because it possessed the potential to completely redefine the Roman way of life. For many Romans, that was scary enough to begin shunning and persecuting Christians to protect their tradition.

Ultimately, the Romans feared the Christians because they possessed different views about how mankind should view the world. Although today Christianity’s monotheistic belief is the most common faith viewpoint of mankind, the pagan ancient peoples of the 3rd century CE saw it as a barbaric concept. The Ancient Romans were so close-minded to the spread of Christianity because they believed that it would wreak havoc on an already peaceful empire. While Christianity slowly started to trickle into the Roman society eventually, the Romans had every right to combat its initial spread.

Word Count: 445

Works Cited:

Grant, Michael. “Roman Religion.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2 May 2016, http://www.britannica.com/topic/Roman-religion.

Humans are naturally skeptical of new ideas, especially those ideas which challenge a person’s own personal beliefs and traditions. It is very difficult to completely change a cultures way of thinking, and even more so when that culture has been established for a period of time. So it is not surprising that when Christianity began to spread, the Roman Empire did not welcome it with open arms.

Christianity came at a time when most nations practiced a religion that believed in many different gods. The Romans were no exception. Similar to the Greeks, the Romans worshipped a multitude of gods.  Some of the major gods include Jupiter, Pluto, and Neptune- equivalent to the Greek’s Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon. The Romans based their religion on the idea that everything around them was embodied by spirits. They believed in strict rituals, and that worship was not to take place inside the temple itself, but rather just outside. Even though the Romans and Greeks differed in the way they worshipped their gods, they shared many similarities in between the gods themselves. This is largely due to the fact that the Romans and the Greeks were in such close proximity to each other. The Romans also tended to adopt and blend many beliefs of conquered nations into their own customs.

One of the reasons the Romans were so strict with the way they worshipped the gods was because they did not want to fall out of the gods’ good graces. It also set an across the board standard for the entire empire, and while the Roman Empire consisted of many different nations, they were united in their religion. This is part of the reason why Christianity was seen as a threat to the stability of the empire. Shared religion is a major factor in successfully bringing large groups of people together as one, and in a peaceful way. So to have this new religion that no one knows a lot about that appears to directly contradict the exact thing that helped bring unity across the empire is very scary for an emperor.

Another reason Christianity seemed like a threat was because it talked about a much higher power, God, who was in charge of all the universe. God alone was only one who could bring us to salvation. As a ruler who claims to be part divine, this statement in a religion completely negates the emperor’s claim to divinity. Lack of communication is another reason Christianity might have seemed a bit scary to the Roman Empire. It was very hard for word to pass in its entirety because the primary way to communicate something was through word of mouth. This can be problematic because there is a lot to Christianity that is metaphorical and has a much deeper meaning that what is being said. It takes a deep understanding and a lot of practice in the faith to even begin to fully comprehend the religion in its entirety. As a result, when people talk about drinking blood and eating flesh, the first thing that comes to mind is a cannibal. This is a very scary thought and human nature is designed so that once a sense of fear is established it is very hard to see something as it actually is rather than how you see it. The Romans did not understand the meaning behind the words being said and that Christians were not, in fact, making human sacrifices. This also contributes to why the Romans believed Christianity to be immoral. Not only did Christians openly refuse to worship the Roman gods and pay the respect that was due, but they were eating a person’s flesh and blood.

It wasn’t until Constantine came into power and passed the Edict of Milan that the Roman Empire was fully introduced to Christianity. Once this happened, Christianity was able to grow at a much faster rate, and eventually it did overtake the old Roman faith and worshipping of many gods.

word count: 676

Sources: https://www.ancient.eu/Roman_Religion/

15 October 18

The Romans, I believe, did have a valid reason for fearing the Christians and their belief in only one god. The Romans were known to pray and worship many gods and deities for whatever they needed. They prayed to specific gods for specific things they needed in their life such as water, love, war, etc. Different gods represented different and important things in the Romans’ lives and their religion played a very strong and central part of their lives. Due to this difference in the Romans’ and Christians’ beliefs, it led to a division within the Roman Empire. Christians were not willing to follow emperors because the emperors held polytheistic beliefs and Christians could not support this. Christians believed in one god instead of multiple and they relied on that one god for all their needs instead of specific gods for specific needs. Because religion played a huge role during this time period, you can see why the Romans wanted to suppress Christianity. They feared that it would weaken their empire and would also cause backlash on them from the gods they worshiped. If the Christians refused to participate in the Roman religious rituals, the Romans feared that their gods would not give them what they needed. This division of religious ideas between the Christians and Romans caused for a large division of the Roman Empire and caused a large threat to the Emperors. If the Emperor could not get everyone to follow him, then it could be seen as a sign of weakness which would lead to a loss of more supporters. This in turn would lead to a less stable empire. An analogy I can think of that would better show this situation and the mess it caused within the empire would be: if you had been living in a house for multiple years and all of a sudden, people moved in with you and started rearranging your furniture and not following the rules that have been in place since you first lived there, it would cause a panic. You have only ever known your way of living and then all of a sudden, these people come in and don’t follow your traditions and cause division within the house. These people though are doing what they have always known though too. This is how I view this situation with the Romans and the Christians. The Romans feared this change and threat to the empire because of a lack of understanding. They have always known the polytheistic ways of praying to multiple gods and do not understand the idea of there being only one god. I believe this fear was valid and that their concerns were also valid.

Kody Crider