Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Objectives:
• Know the basic path of Jesus’s life.
• Also, for what reasons he was executed.
• Know the importance of Paul to the spread of
Christianity (and what he did that was so important to
the spread).
• Know what factors helped the faith spread (both
logistical, like the Pax Romana, and why the faith was
appealing to people).
• Know why Christians were persecuted for their faith.
• Know the importance of Constantine to the rise of
Christianity and the effects of what he did.
• Also, what led him to legalize it.
• What were the downsides of Constantine?
By 63 BC, Rome rules Palestine.
•And
“Crucio!”
•The
cruciatus
curse.
After his death, his
apostles carry on his
mission.
Primary spreader of the
faith was Saul of
Tarsus, aka the
Apostle Paul.
• Was originally a
persecutor of
Christians, but then
became its main
supporter after a
conversion
experience.
Paul visited a number of locations, starting churches in
different cities.
• He would also write letters to many of these churches
supporting them and giving advice.
• Many of these letters are now books of the New
Testament. They have the names of the cities or
people to which/whom they were address, e.g.
Galatians was to the church in Galatia, Ephesians
was to the church in Ephesus, 1 and 2 Timothy are
to a disciple named Timothy, etc.
• Paul even visits the acropolis in Athens and argues with
some Stoic and Epicurean philosophers.
• He’s eventually executed in Rome, beheaded around
64-67 by the Emperor Nero.
Persecution
• Christianity slowly started spreading around the
empire.
• Aided by the Pax Romana and the fact that Romans
tended to be tolerant and accepting of other
religions.
• They wanted to make sure they weren’t missing
any gods after all.
• The Roman tolerance, though, was that you could
worship your own gods, but you had to recognize
Roman ones too, including worshiping Caesar.
• This wasn’t too big a deal for most polytheistic
religions. For the monotheistic Christians, it was a
non-starter.
• So the problem wasn’t that Christians had their own
god, it’s that they didn’t recognize or worship the
Roman gods.
• This was viewed as undermining Roman authority.
It was also seen as dangerous that people weren’t
worshipping the Roman gods because then the gods
could turn their backs on Rome.
• As Roman society started frowning on Christians, the
Christians started meeting in secret: in catacombs,
sewers, caves, etc.
• This only increased the misconceptions of Christians:
rumors swirled that they engaged in depraved acts:
sexual depravity, child sacrifice, even cannibalism
due to misunderstanding communion.
• So the Romans were naturally suspicious of these
strange folks.
• The first big persecution comes after the great fire in
Rome in AD 64.
• Emperor Nero blames it on the Christians (they were
good scapegoats).
• Nero proceeds to round up and execute some
Christians.
• The succeeding emperors such as Vespasian and Trajan
don’t worry themselves too much about the Christians,
though the Romans still didn’t like them.
• As the Roman Empire
starts its decline,
persecution steps up as
Romans blame the
Christians for their woes.
• Some were crucified,
others burned alive, still
more killed in the arena.
• Christians
disapproved of the
arena and gladiatorial
sport in general… it
was too easy to get
hooked on the
bloodsport.
• When put in the arena,
a popular method was
for them to be killed by
wild animals.
• A problem the
Romans faced is that
the Christians
welcomed death and
the chance to be
martyred. They took
joy in death… which
the Romans found
unfathomably
bizarre.
• They would even
taunt the crowd to
kill them. St. Ignatius
• Case of Saints Perpetua and Felicity
• Some Christians went to extreme lengths to avoid
persecution, such as at Cappadocia.
• This was a labyrinth of caves Christians carved
into a mountain and down into the ground.
• It was 18 stories deep and had miles of tunnels.
• The complex housed around 20,000 people who
rarely left the underground system.
• Was complete with living quarters, grape juicing
rooms, churches, ventilation shafts, and wells.
• Was complete with secret doorways that closed
tight from the inside.
• Despite the Roman attempts to use brute force to
stamp out the Christians, the religion continued to
spread.
Spread due to 5 main factors as put in the book:
1. Embraced all people – men, women, slaves, poor,
nobles.
2. Gave hope to the powerless
3. Appealed to those who were repelled by Roman
extravagance.
4. Offered personal relationship with a loving God.
5. Promised eternal life after death.
As the faith spreads, it takes on an organizational
hierarchy.
• There are local priests and then regional bishops.
• Eventually, the bishop of Rome becomes the pope.
Official Religion
• In 313, Emperor Constantine (the same guy who
moved the capital to Byzantium/Constantinople) ended
all persecution and legalized Christianity in the Edict of
Milan.
• His mother was actually a Christian and he credited
God with helping win a major battle.
• The Labarum: chi rho: