The Spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire: A Historical Analysis

Extract

[...] The advent of an anti-pagan religion Christianity and paganism were diametrically opposed from the 1st century onwards. Their differences were so great that any coexistence seemed impossible very quickly. On the one hand, the Christians could not submit to the cult of the emperor, since he was just a man like any other, nor to the Roman gods, the first commandment demanding 'to honor and love perfectly one God.' As a result, they became outlaws by not being able to respect the Roman religious and civic customs. [...]

[...] The progressive diffusion until Rome The diffusion of Christianity was, however, tumultuous. In fact, if the early 40s saw the foundation of the first Christian communities in Palestine and east of the Jordan, the conquest of the Mediterranean basin was very progressive. The Aramaic-speaking Jewish milieu was the initial terrain of Christianization. However, the separation between Christianity and Judaism was established very quickly since Jesus himself had forbidden circumcision and had suppressed Jewish dietary practices in his religion. The apostles, like the disciples later, allowed the spread of the word of Christ in the East. [...]

[...] The end of the Republic had also crystallized the searches for mystery cults by the Romans. Titus Livy mentioned the insertion of mysterious foreign deities, while the cult of Mithra developed in the 1st century among the middle and lower classes of society, offering a cult including an initiatory rite and grades among the practitioners. The development of this type of religion thus allows us to justify the breakthrough of Christianity in the Roman world, at a time when the slowdown of civil religion opened the way to other religious practices, new and different. [...]

[...] Thus, the texts told how all continents and peoples had been in contact with Christianity, from its creation. In fact, the first century saw the conversion of Near Eastern peoples, largely thanks to Paul who was interested in the Jewish diaspora. After converting the city of Antioch, he established a large number of communities around the Aegean Sea with which he maintained an important correspondence, very fertile in terms of doctrine. However, the conversion of more distant areas was later, since even in the 4th century, conversion actions were being carried out. [...]

[...] A man at the base of Christianity: Jesus, a Jew born in Nazareth. A common sacred text with the Jews: the Bible. A new word: the New Testament, constituting the entirety of religious knowledge, with religious tradition. In fact, if the theologian and bishop of the 2nd century Melito of Sardis thought that the Roman Empire was the 'providential framework for the preaching of the Gospel,' Christianity has also had a very strong political, cultural, and intellectual role. Thus, it may be legitimate to ask how Christianity developed from the Judean basin to become a religion that conquered the entire Mediterranean basin and spread a new religious message. [...]