The Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire

The Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire

2 "The Roman Empire made Christianity possible, and Christianity made the Roman Empire eternal." The first part of this quotation suggests that without the historical backdrop of the Roman Empire, and without the cultural and political directives it brought to bear, the Christian religion could never have come to be, at least not in the form that we know. The second portion of the quotation suggests that the Christian religion has preserved the memory and something of the auspices of the Great Empire, as a necessary component of cultural transmission--as a necessary if incidental consequence of preserving and furthering itself. In large measure, both assertions are true. The Roman Empire made Christianity possible, first by bringing relative order and stability to those under its governance. Without the rise of the Roman city-state under a central power, it is easy to imagine small, disparate tribes of rural, agrarian folk remaining close to the cycles of nature and loyal to the simple ritual observances of old pagan polytheism. Next, for all its dealings with the eternal, Christianity is a religion with strong historical and political roots. The historical embeddedness of this religion is undeniable. As Harold Mattingly points out, "All the great religions of the world speak to the passing generations of that which is outside the time order, the Eternal, that 'which was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be.' Some of these religions--not all--are very closely related to history. Mohammed, great prophet of Islam, rose to sudden greatness at the very moment in the seventh century when the empires of Rome and Persia had fought one another to a standstill. Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word, 'who was in the beginning with God', was born in the Palestine of Herod the Great and, as we repeat in 2

3 the Creed, 'suffered under Pontius Pilate'. The sacred history of Mithras, on the other hand--his birth from the rock, his solemn meal with the Sun-god, his slaying of the great bull--is quite outside time. The early history of Christianity cannot be fully understood without a knowledge of the world into which it came" (5). The world into which this new faith emerged was characterized by expanding empire, with the burdens of increasing taxation to fund the political and military machine and establish the benefits of relative peace, political unity and solidarity under the Roman Emperor. This was also a world where people maintained a belief in many gods and observed ritual sacrifices to those gods in exchange for good fortune. The statues and temples of these gods were visited and given homage by people of all stations, including the Emperor himself. Iconic images were engraved upon the coinage of the Empire, and the line between fidelity to the old gods and fidelity to the Empire of Rome was often blurred. Therefore, the emergence of an exclusive, monotheistic religion, that shunned all the vestiges of the older religions, offered a certain threat to political stability. The attitudes of the Roman Emperors and their officiators toward the Christians, in the first centuries of the new faith, varied from blind indifference to outright persecution, depending upon the emperor and the climate of the times. Likewise the attitudes of the Christians toward the Roman State varied, from individual to individual and from time to time, as the new religion grew. According to Grant, "Within the Christian communities of the second century two different but equally extreme minority positions were assumed. On the one hand, there were those, especially in Asia Minor, who under the influence of apocalyptic prophecy insisted upon an intensified expectation of the imminent end of society and the descent of the "heavenly Jerusalem" in Phrygia. 3

4 On the other, there were those who turned their backs on the world and took the gospel to the world through the planetary spheres above and come to the otherwise unknown Father whom Jesus had proclaimed. "Both of these positions were rejected by the majority of Christian leaders, who recognized the reality of the world and its social structures and looked for their gradual conversion to Christianity before the coming of the end. These leaders were loyal to the Roman government and were able to find much of value in what they regarded as the best of Graeco-Roman culture. Intimations of their basic attitude were to be found in Paul's comments on the validity of 'the existing powers' (Romans 13) and in the address at Athens ascribed to him in Acts 17. They had also learned much from the Hellenistic Judaism represented by Philo and Josephus, as well as from the fate of those Palestinian Jews who rebelled against Rome in the first and second centuries" (xi-from the Preface). We may surmise from this a majority preference, in the second century, for peaceful integration with Rome and the slow increase of political status through mass conversion to the faith. By this time in history, the Christian religion was making converts in all stations of society. Yet this religion had begun almost exclusively amongst the disenfranchised, the marginal, the slave class. And many had suffered as martyrs for the faith. Those of wealth and social status had more invested in maintaining the old ways that were still a part of the status quo. As Mattingly tells us, "It was as a rebel against Rome that the Jews delivered up Jesus to Pilate, as a rebel that Pilate sent Him to be crucified" (16). As Christianity slowly gained prominence in the Roman Empire, it became the religion of the urbane and privileged classes. City dwellers who lived within the main thrust of the Roman Empire, aware of the latest edicts from the 4

5 Emperor, the latest expansions of the Empire and other happenings, were also those who began to embrace this curious new monotheistic faith that was open to gentiles. In a great stroke of irony, those rural folk in the outlying regions, distant from Rome, were the last holdouts for the old polytheistic religions that we now associate with the word "pagan." A major turning point in the conversion of Rome to the formerly suspect new religion was the conversion of the Emperor Constantine circa 321 A.D. This was a tipping point and shortly thereafter, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman State, and from there on it became a major religion of the world. As Gibbon tells us, "The Victories and the civil policy of Constantine no longer influence the state of Europe; but a considerable potion of the globe still retains the impression which it received from the conversion of that monarch" (293). In all of these ways, Christianity and the Roman Empire became deeply infused together. We might even call Christianity the one coin of the old empire that is still in circulation; however, the survival of Graeco-Roman culture into our own times has as much to do with the practical ingenuity and statesmanship of the Roman and the incomparable sublimity of the Greek mind for art, philosophy and literature, as it does with the teachings of the Galilean. The Roman Empire certainly made Christianity, as we know it, possible. The resistance to the new faith and the martyrdom of many early proponents were galvanizing forces. However, on the reciprocal side, Christianity can be said to have made the Roman Empire eternal only to the extent that modern people of even limited education know the name of Pontius Pilate, Herod the Great, and other facts of Roman times, and know these things only through ecclesiastical exposure; that is, from 5

6 going to church, rather than the university or the library. The Roman Empire is a world of meritorious historical study unto itself. Christianity is only one of its many and longlived cultural artifacts. Works Cited Gibbon, Edward. History of Christianity. Pub. Peter Eckler, No. 35 Fulton Street, New York, 1883. Reprinted by Arno Press and The New York Times, New York, 1972. Grant, Robert M. Augustus To Constantine: The Rise and Triumph of Christianity in the Roman World. Harper and Row Publishers, San Francisco, 1970. Mattingly, Harold. Christianity in the Roman Empire. WW Norton & Company, New York, 1967. 6