How Did Christianity Change Over Time

When Constantine was battling for control of Rome, he prayed for divine interference and saw a cross, the sign of Christianity. He put a cross on all of his soldiers, and they were victorious, with Constantine crediting his triumph to the Christian God. After Constantine took power in 313 AD, he announced the end of Christians persecutions. Later, in AD YEAR, Constantine converted, and Christianity grew faster than ever. Of all factors that influenced Christianity development, Constantine’s conversion was one of the most important, because he made it acceptable.

‘Christians to the lions’ as Trajan would say, an emperor in the early centuries Christianity to them have alienated the favour of their gods which has and would continue to cause disasters in the Roman Empire. The misfortune of Christians did not stop during this period, but it did come to a composed halt as Galerius, gave Christians the right to worship in some sense. Christianity during the early stages was clearly a course of persecution and forced pagan accusations. Constantine dramatically changed the recourse of religions with the battle of Milvian Bridge as Christianity became the predominant religion of the Roman Empire.

From the third to the fourth century, the Roman Empire witnessed a widespread attempt to stop the spread of Christianity. Initially, leaders of the church were predominately targeted, but later anyone admitting to Christianity became a target. The persecutions hit a climax during Diocletian’s reign. These persecutions actually helped the spread of Christianity by glorifying Christians and beginning a tradition of martyrdom that shaped the Church, and the strength that Christians displayed shows that the persecutions could not have possible stopped the spread of Christianity.

The Pax Romana allowed Rome to expand, and created a period of peace that would spread the important religion of Christianity throughout the strong empire. The new religion of Christianity was Jesus’ interpertation of monotheistic religion, Judiasm. Christianity was unlike the polytheistic Roman religion which infuriated many Roman rulers. Despite the hatred of rulers it spread quickly throughout the empire and continued even after Jesus died. Although Christianity followers were persecuted they felt strongly about their beliefs and eventually the Edict of Milan was passed whih meant that Christianity was a religion approved by the emperor. Christianity changed from a sect of persecution to a state religion within the Roman Empire because

Constantine is best remembered in modern times for the Edict of Milan in 313, which fully legalized Christianity in the empire for the first time. Constantine’s edict gave Christians the right to openly practice their faith. Until then, they had met in the homes of fellow believers. Within a year of edit, Constantine ordered the building of churches throughout the empire. Although some Christians were very worried about the future of the churches if it became too close with the empire. The only people edit mentioned by name were the Christian, and the laws that came afterwards radically limited the rights of Jews as citizens of the Roman Empire.

When we look back at Christianity over the years, there are several people who are remembered for their impact on the religion. The first most important figure was Jesus Christ. However, if we travel forward a bit, into the 4th Century we come across Constantine. Historians agree that Constantine served as an important component in the spread of Christianity. Although he spread the religion in a massive way, others wonder if his methods were more harmful then anything. In this paper I will be discussing Constantine in his rise to power and his impact on Christianity. Constantine provided a mean for the word of God to be spread, which is a major benefit. However, He also used violence and hate as

The conversion of Roman Emperor, Constantine, marked the start of a reform that would change Rome forever. A once pagan society, Rome was one of the last to grasp the Christianity concept. The start of “Christianizing” Rome began with two of Jesus’ disciples, Peter and James, as well as the apostle Paul in the Roman province of Antioch during the first century ("New Women of Color Study Bible" 1742). From this, Christianity spread all over the province, by the time it got to Rome it was not widely practiced. It wasn’t until the reign of Constantine that Christianity took its place as the empires forefront religion. Since Rome was known for its worship and idolizing of gods, how and for what reasons did Constantine transform his subjects’ beliefs? According to authors, Ramsay MacMullen, John Curran, and A.H.M. Jones, a number of tactics were used to sway the masses’ minds. Use of coercion, money, and campaigns aided Constantine’s questionable Christian “cleanse”.

People would only do things, if there was money in it for them. In Rome, the rise of Christianity started and people joined to worship Jesus. The Roman government was not a fan of Christianity. For years they tried, and tried to end the religion once and for all, but their attempts were in vain. Most emperors thought Christianity was a barbaric religion, until Emperor Constantine declared that he was Christian. Unlike Constantine, his father believed in the Roman gods, which led him and his father declared a battle on each other. Constantine ended up winning the fight, and made sure the government would stop harassing people for being Christian. After Constantine won, uproar in Rome started over Jesus, and their beliefs. After trying to solve the uproar in Christianity, Constantine changed the location of the Roman capital, and renamed it to Constantinople. He then tried to convince more noble families of Rome to move there. This caused the empire to split into two. The two sides also adapted two different forms of Christianity. They were also separated from each other, which caused them to fall at different times. Augustine then finally decided to put his faith into

To fully comprehend how Constantine veritably changed Rome, as well as how his arts reflect his beliefs and his efforts, one must first know the state of Rome before he came to power. In the third century, Rome had seen its share of trouble, and it was steadily collapsing. Troubles with barbarians, wars in the east, and constant instability in the government were weakening morals, and Rome itself, from the outside, as well as from within. In terms of religion, the Romans thought of it as a government division, placing importance on having the government please the gods. The religion of paganism was essentially shared, and practically the only thing keeping Rome together at that point. It was, however, being challenged by a fairly new, and steadily growing, religion: Christianity. At this time, Christianity was not exactly scrutinized with a positive light by Rome's government: “Under the emperor Diocletian (AD 284-305), the Christians suffered the most serious and prolonged persecution that they had yet faced. Persecution, however, [did not] seem to hinder Christian expansion, which was apparent in the new role religion was playing in politics (Willems, Katharine. “Constantine and Christianity: The Formation of the Christian State Church”)”; basically, Diocletian's government did not trust Christians, and so constantly treated them with hostility. That would

Although scholars debate whether he was actually a convert to Christianity, Constantine’s legalization of the religion helped to spread Christianity and secured Constantine’s political authority over a large geographic region. During the 30 years of Constantine’s reign, many changes were made to the status, structure, and beliefs of the Christian Church. These changes helped to secure Constantine’s power and ensured both the survival of the Christian faith and its proliferation.

As the founder of the Christian empire, Constantine began a new era. He was an absolute ruler, and his reign saw the end of the tendency toward despotic rule, centralized bureaucracy, and separation of military and civil powers evolved by Diocletian. Constantine's legal reforms were marked by great

Constantine brought about many changes in the empire. Here are some of the good changes which he made: “he abolished executions by crucifixion, he called a halt to the battles of gladiators as a punishment for crimes and in 321 he made Sunday a public holiday”, (Shelley, 100). Constantine tried to help the Christian church in many ways. He chose Christian men as his advisers. Constantine frequently used the word "Catholic" to describe the Church. The word Catholic means universal. Constantine wanted all men everywhere to embrace the Christian faith and he wanted Christians to be united together. He thought that Christianity was the one thing that could unite his empire and make it great. Nonetheless, at the age of 65 when death was approaching

Constantius’ reign and the Council of Nicea helped Rome in gaining more Christians since they were under the rule of a Christian ruler. This did not last long as a Pagan ruler followed. In 361, emperor Julian came into power and restored Paganism in the Roman Empire. Julian felt the need to restore Paganism. His goal was to rid Christians from the highest orders of government. He did not want any Christian judges so that no Christian laws would be passed. Julian targeted the wealthy Christians as he was not as concerned with the common people. He believed that if he could get Christians out of political power, people would convert back to Paganism. This time in history brought Pagan conversions and Pagan members of political authority. After Julian was killed in battle in 363, his successor came into power to restore Christianity. He passed laws that made worshipping Pagan gods punishable by death. Christianity went from the minority religion to the majority religion in fifty years due to converts in favor of the religion of their political leaders. Christian law remained unchanged until 382 because Rome was in a crisis. This was extremely influential in gaining Christian converts.

Although Christianity was initially practiced within Semitic populations of the Roman Empire, by the 4th century A.D the Christian religion had a huge impact to the Greeks and also the early Byzantine Empire. But by this time Christian communities had been established in all the important cities in the Roman Empire. In 313 the next emperor Constantine legalized Christianity throughout the empire. He also

In 312 CE, Roman Emperor Constantine achieved a victory at the Milvian Bridge. The night previous to this battle, Constantine dreamt of a cross inscribed in hoc signo vinces, in this sign you will conquer. As trivial as this dream may seem, it ultimately signified the beginning of the rise of Christianity. With his victory, Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and supported and encouraged it throughout the empire. In 313 CE, another milestone occurred as the emperors, both Constantine I of the West and Licinius of the East, signed the Edict of Milan declaring that the Diocletianic Persecution would end, and Christianity would be tolerated in the Roman Empire. This religion began to flourish as people quickly converted from pagan