Christianity And Cholianity

Christianity began its succession into the most dominant worldwide religion after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days build another made without hands.” Upon Jesus’ death and resurrection, he completed this task setting forth the development of Christianity. Since Jesus left no formal authoritative power, organization, or agreed upon scriptures, a wide variety of sects gained popularity in the development of Christianity. Most of these sects were later deemed as heretic, one of the most notable being Gnosticism. Gnosticism was a dualist religion believing the material world evil and the invisible spirit realm good. This belief obligated Gnosticism to follow Docetic interpretations. Docetism is the belief that Jesus was never truly man but rather a divine from the spirit world. All forms of Christianity, however, believe Jesus is son of God sent as humanity’s savior from damnation. Docetism, along with other aspects of Gnosticism, drove other Christians condemn Gnosticism as heresy. Gnosticism, however, is more comparable to Canonical Christians than realized. Specifically, the distinction between Docetism and strict Canonical belief is not only insignificant but also justifiable due to Canonical contradictions surrounding Jesus’ existence.

The positive influence of Christianity is far reaching especially in the rich history and culture of Western Civilization despite a long standing ignorance or adamant denial of its contributions. The Bible itself is responsible for much of the language, literature, and fine arts we enjoy today as its artists and composers were heavily influenced by its writings. Paul Maier, in writing the forward to the book How Christianity Changed the World by Alvin J. Schmidt, says this about the profound impact Christianity has had on the development of Western Civilization:

Christianity was born and flourished in an empire where the common language was Latin and Greek. Two important people like Paul and Constantine further influenced and were a major part of the development of Christianity. The history of the Jews leading up to the time of Jesus had a major impact on the development of Christianity. “When Christianity was clearly identified as a distant religion, the new religion was considered by its members to be the fulfillment of Judaism rather than a new religion.” “Since Jesus was a Jew and preached to the Jews, Christianity was closely linked to Judaism.” The development of Christianity was due to several historical, political, and social circumstances.

Religion is the belief and worship of a higher power which is in control of the universe. The most popular religions in the world today are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. All four of these religions teach peace. However, followers do not always get along with each other peacefully. All of these religions have a moral code to live by and encourage devotion and prayer.

Christianity and the Roman Empire shared an important bond. Christianity offered the Roman Empire joy, hope, a shift in their world view, and a monotheistic God. Rome offered Christianity a more efficient way of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Although the small group of church goers were mostly elderly Caucasian people, they were diverse and friendly towards new individuals. Those who wore the traditional, elegant attire of a Sunday worship service greeted with a firm handshake and a gentle smile. On the other hand, those who preferred to wear casual outfits greeted with tight hugs and hearty laughter from seeing a new face. After talking to more than half of the attendants, it was evident that everyone knew a lot about each other. It was nice to hear that most of them had overwhelmingly positive words to say about the church itself. Then, I finally met the middle-aged pastor who was glad to see someone new and introduced me to his wife. She had a stoic expression and had nothing to say. Honestly, the wife’s silence struck me as surprising considering how the other people were talkative, but it is nothing to be overly concerned about. After all, it was almost time for the Sunday service to

Upon arrival, I was immediately surrounded by many diverse and intelligent individuals. Everyone was accepting toward people of different backgrounds, but I, on the other hand, was not so accepting toward myself and had a difficult time with becoming comfortable with my sexuality. Because I was not comfortable with myself, I found it difficult to be comfortable around people who were the same way as me. Fellow students and staff

He introduced himself and told me where to find a Torah. After he continued to welcome the other guests, I felt a little isolated because no one else seemed to be very welcoming and willing to speak to me. This was a little upsetting because I thought they would be more welcoming to guests, and hope that they would come back for the next service. I didn’t let it bother me too much though, and I went inside and grabbed a Torah and sat down. Right away, I noticed that the church had many stained-glass windows, that were filled with beautiful mosaics of the Star of David. This I very similar to my church, because we have many stained-glass windows too. So because of the similar setting and looks of the room, I felt more comfortable with the situation once I sat down. I was surprised to see that everyone seemed to be very casually dressed, although, some people wore small, circular, flat hats on their head, which I later found out were called Yakama’s. I also noticed that there were many people of different races. I guess I had just assumed that there would only be Jew’s, and I never considered the fact that other races can practice the Jewish religion. So, other than not wearing a Yakama, I never felt out of place, or like a minority, due to my race or how I was dressed. I also never felt like a minority due to my sexual beliefs. Sexual preferences never really came up

"Judaism is ethnic; Christianity is non-ethnic." Many people feel that this is an accurate statement. It is widely believed that Jewish nationality and Jewish faith are one in the same. Some people base this belief upon the covenant that God shared with the Isrealites, who were his followers. This is found in the Bible at Genesis 14,verse 14. It is prophesied that Abraham would be the father of many nations and rulers (Bethel University,2010). So it would be easy to assume that Abraham and his following descendants would all be of Jewish faith. This statement is partially true but there are other factors to consider.

After a long fought battle by Christians to belong Christianity flourished and spread throughout the Roman Empire. “Christianity, the core religion of the West, was born within the Roman Empire and was greatly influenced by Roman law and organization”(Perry 167). Whether or not Rome wanted Christianity it was there to stay. According to Spielvogel “Christianity fulfilled the human need to belong”(175). Christians formed a bond and communities where people could express their love by helping each other and assisting the needy. It made people feel more like the belonged in a way that just the Roman Empire could not do. The Roman Empire was way too big and impersonal that people needed an outlet and needed a way to feel like they were apart of something bigger than themselves. “The ideal of a single Christian society embracing many different nationalities, so dear to medieval thinkers, was superimposed on the model of the Roman Empire” (Perry 167). No matter what Christianity was spreading rapidly and the Romans were going to embrace this new religion and ended up building a successful empire around its ideals. Much like the Roman Empire the founders of the United States built this country off of Christian ideals.

The question of whether or not Christianity has a connection to the pagan world is deeply controversial and is thought to be a conspiracy theory by conservative Christians. So what does the world’s largest religion have in common with Paganism? Through research and art examples, parallels will emerge showing that Christian religion is in fact pagan at its roots.

The term religion is defined as the belief in and worshipping of a power superior to that of humans. Basically, all religions have the same purpose, but the way this purpose is pursued can be very distinctive. The approach of these religious traditions can allow them to become very prosperous and dominate. All religions possess a cherished text that contains the beliefs and practices specific to those followers. In order to attain a successful religion, there must be a designated place and day for worship. Also, it is critical to have a trusted and honorable leader that is able to guide the congregation into a successful worship service, or to act as the religious authority of a community. The ancient religions of Judaism, Christianity, and

Religion has existed for countless centuries. Christianity is one of the major religions in this world, which had people be criticized, battle in wars, and killed for, but it still survived to this day. The purpose of this paper is to study the source of the religion, recognize the teachings, observe its spread throughout the world, and to identify how it stands among people today. Approaching this paper by a factual report I will explain these major points and why we need to know about this religion and other religions that existed before our generation.

Throughout history, Christianity always had a reputation, or a “name” following it. Different perspectives approached the reputation that was attached to Christianity in different manners. Justin Martyr and Porphyry had objectives when defining whether this “name” really defined Christianity and the past. They wondered whether the past really represented Christianity. Additionally they honed in on the question of was the past that people represented as Christianity really the roots of Christianity? All around Porphyry and Justin was perceptions of what Christianity rooted from and stood for.

The first part of this paper will explore the mystery-religions, the reasons behind their popularity, and the Hellenistic world in which they grew that began with Alexander the Great. Next, their characteristics and connections first with Judaism and later with Christianity will be more deeply discussed. In the second part it will be shown that the mystery-religions helped to clear the pathway for the Christianization of the Greco-Roman world by men such as Paul the Apostle. Finally, the Emperor Constantine’s role in this story will be mentioned, during whose reign the mystery-religions declined and Christianity became the major religion of Europe and the near east. The paper will conclude with a brief speculation about the significance of