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Early Christianity in Ancient Rome and Today (1) The extent, to which Christianity has rooted itself into the public consciousness, can be measured by the simple fact, that we, whatever our attitude towards this religion might be, are still using the calendar, which has the birth of Jesus Christ as its starting point. When one begins to study ancient history, he gets to experience a certain psychological discomfort, related to the dealing with this counter wise conception of time. On one hand, there is a continuous development, cultural exultation, perfection in forms, skills and knowledge, heyday of all sciences, on the other this counter wise countdown, that usually precedes the launch of a missile or the test of nuclear weapon. It turns historical process inside out, while creating the illusion of time disappearance.
The probability of getting a comprehensive response to a question in what year was Jesus Christ born? is going to be very low, despite the fact that everybody knows the answer. It appears that Christ was born beyond time, in year 0. His birth has inaugurated the beginning of the end, of what in time of overwhelming domination of Christianity Middle Ages, will be referred to as golden age. Such was the conclusion of the First Coming. Greek and Roman ideals of beauty and perfection, embodied in their sculptures (almost all of them were destroyed by Christians), yielded to midgets, hunchbacks, lunatics and impotent's.
The same thing happened in the intellectual domain, as well. Ancient science, which was a veritable science in most of its notions, was replaced by so many pseudo sciences, that their brief survey would represent an encyclopedic task. It was very difficult for the science to break out of Christian imprisonment. The number of intellectuals, killed by Church, many times overextends the number of Saints and Holy men, who were killed, mostly under accidental circumstances. Fortunately enough, we live in time when Christianity has entered its twilight. It is being shaken by the findings of philosophers, scientists and engineers and even by those, who were supposed to protect it from harmful influences professors of theology and Christian leaders such as Jan Hus, Martin Luther, patriarch Nikon.
By dividing Christian land between patriarchs of Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, Christianity has organized itself into the system, which was structurally doomed for slow and painful self-annihilation. (2) The origins of Christianity can be traced back to the Jewish sect of Essenes, which was founded around 100 BC. Essenes strived to transform the Jewish tribal god Yahweh into universal deity, who loves people without regard to their racial and cultural affiliation. Essenes even claimed that one of their prophets was killed, only to be resurrected later, which unmistakably points out to the fact that early Christians were spiritual descendants of Essenes. Many Jews were being influenced by the teachings of Essenes, which in its turn, was a major factor that enabled the convergence of Christianity into Roman society. After Judea was being occupied in 64 BC, many Jews began to move to Rome, where they were immediately beginning to get involved into variety of shady pursuits, such as commercial speculations. This resulted in the rise of anti-Semitic feelings among Romans, who prior to this, were known for their religious and cultural tolerance.
In 19 AD, Emperor Tiberius formally barred all Jews from Rome and deported all those he could find in the city. It helped Jews to realize that Roman society, at the time, was too healthy, in order to be exploited. A new religious doctrine needed to be invented, which would undermine the mental health of Roman citizens. Such doctrine became Christianity. It started with seemingly harmless sermons of a bum, without definite occupancy, in a remote province of Roman Empire and for a while, it looked as if it did not have a chance for success. However, the series of favorable circumstances, namely intellectual decline of Roman elite and convergence of Asiatic elements into the Roman society, made possible something utterly improbable: Roman patricians started getting intrigued by such an original concept.
Anything can be done out of bellyful idleness. In Roman Empire, at the time, there was a fashion for Eastern exotic, just like nowadays in Western countries. The healthy society inevitably chooses in favor of philosophy of life. It is a well-known fact that children always laugh when they talk about death. Christianity, which emphasizes on the idea of redemption, by the mean of destruction of flesh, cannot be considered as such philosophy. It is only in society, where the number of healthy individuals continuously declines, that Christianity could become popular.
In Rome, Christianity prevailed only because of drastic reduction of individuals that were attracted to life more then they were attracted to death. This coincided with dissipation of Roman aristocracy and plebs, as social classes that were behind the creation of Roman Empire, in the first place. The paradox lies in the fact that, at the time when Christianity was being brought to Rome, the Empire was expanding territorially, while the number of Roman citizens was rapidly declining, in proportion to multicultural barbarians, who settled within Roman borders. The flow of gold had turned rich citizens into leisured degenerates, while poor people were being concerned only about filling up their stomachs and attending public spectacles, such as gladiators fights. This created a necessary precondition for the masochist doctrine to become popular among great many people. The same processes are happening in the Western countries today.
Let us imagine the emergence of new obscure religious cult. Its members do not take bath, do not shave, do not bury dead bodies and often cut off their own genitals for the glory of God. They deny every principle, upon which the society is based. They even refuse to cross streets on green light and for their symbol, they adopt guillotine. Such were early Christians. Therefore, it is quite explainable why many Roman politicians and philosophers resisted the spread of Christianity.
There were about 200 different religious cults in Rome, at the time. However, neither of them was quite as anti-social as the religion of love and tolerance. This was the main reason why Roman authorities began to consider Christianity as something that posed an immediate danger to the very existence of Roman Empire. The first Roman Emperor who realized it was Nero. In 48 AD, first Christians started to participate in gladiators fights as victims. They were often being fed to the lions.
However, Nero failed to understand that this would only add Christianity more popularity, because the most important principle of this religious doctrine is martyrdom. As history shows, peoples masochistic impulses adopt different forms. In the time of Nero, Christians strived to be tortured and killed in the same way that religious peasants in Bolivia and Venezuela strive to be whipped and crucified, during the celebration of Easter. We can say that, by killing Christians, in order to entertain public, Nero had simply poured some oil onto the fire.
More and more marginalized people were succumbing to promises of eternal bliss, which could only be achieved in the kingdom of heaven. Today, many respectable Christian leaders refer to newly founded religious sects as such that represent spiritual danger, especially to young people. However, they never mention that Christianity itself started as obscure cult. By 200 AD, Christianity was firmly established as underground religion, which was equally popular among aristocracy and ordinary citizens. Roman authorities began to realize that repressions against Christians backfired, therefore, a new method of dealing with Christianity needed to be found. Many Roman philosophers of the time, such as Pliny the Younger, were suggesting that Christianity would lose its popularity after being legalized.
It is quite impossible to be absolutely sure about whether Emperor Constantine's decision to give Christianity the status of state religion came as a result of political manipulations, on his part, or whether it was motivated by his religious considerations. The fact remains in 313 AD, Constantine entitled Christianity with legal status, while converting to this religion himself. The legend states that the reason why he converted to Christianity was the fact that he had a vision of cross in the sky, before entering battle with one of his rivals for the throne. This, of course, has nothing to do with historical truth. Christians always wanted to represent their dealings as something that was being inspired by God himself. It is known that Constantine was often referred to by his contemporaries as mentally ill person.
Therefore, it is most likely that the cross, he saw in the sky, only existed inside of his mind. Nevertheless, the fact of Constantine's conversion affected the development of Western civilization more than any other historical event. Up until 16 th century, the political authority of Catholic Church was based on so-called Donation of Constantine a document that entitles Pope with political power over Roman Empire. In 16 th century, this document was proven as forgery.
Thus, for 16 centuries Church claim of having a legal ground to intervene in Earthly affairs, was backed up by faked document. When Emperor Julian assumed the political power, after the death of Constantine, he tried to stem out Christianity, which he rightfully thought of in terms of spiritual poison. However, unlike his predecessors, he did not resort to killing of Christians. Julian had simply deprived Christianity the status of state religion.
Christians were allowed to practice their religion, for as long as they were willing to accept that believing in other Gods, was one of the essential civil rights, which Roman citizens were entitled to. As a result, the political influence of Christianity, during Julian's reign, was severely undermined. In fact, Julian almost succeeded in stumping out this Asiatic religious cult. Had it happened, we would never know that son of God came to save us. There would be no Inquisition, which tortured and killed millions of people, and there would be no religious wars between Catholics and Protestants in 16 - 18 th centuries, which reduced the population of Europe by half. (3) In 75 years, after the death of Jesus, Christianity had entered its mythological phase. It was the time when Apostles were finishing their work on Gospels.
It was just a matter of few years, before the last witnesses of actual events, related to Jesus preaching, would die. Christian activists began to focus on converting the members of Roman elite into Christianity, which later proved to be very effective, as religious strategy. In another words, even though the facade...
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Research essay sample on 16 Th Century Roman Empire
