Religion In Roman Culture Essay

When you think about Christianity, you don’t think about it being a bad thing. Christianity is the religion derived from Jesus Christ, based on the Bible as sacred scripture, and professed by Eastern, Roman Catholic, and Protestant bodies. This religion came to be one of the largest and most influential religions today. When the Romans thought about Christianity, it was considered a sin. But what exactly was the nature of the conflict between Christianity and the Roman government? The conflict between Christianity and the Roman government was that Christians refused to recognizes the romans beliefs in their religion.

Throughout the ancient world, the aspects to which a successful society thrive under have been skewed, except for that of religion. Although a universal religion has never been adopted, most empires tend to follow a basic outline similar to one another. In relation to Greeks and Romans, this ideology still holds true. Religion between these two societies have had their differences, but for the most part they have kept the same values held high. Women and their impact on Greek and Roman religion is what shaped these regions to flourish and is what held the empires together through all war and turmoil that came their way.

Religion played a key role in the daily life and social system of Ancient Rome. Religion included the worship of many gods and more gods were often adopted from conquered areas. Because most religions were polytheist at the time, the Romans rarely disallowed a cult from a conquered region to continue. A few cults ran into controversy and opposition from citizens or government, such as the cult of Deus Sol Invictus, and that of Isis. Romans were also not keen on monotheistic religion which explains their separation from the Jews. But above all other religions, the Romans disagreed with, persecuted and were threatened most by Christianity.  The introduction of Christianity to the Roman Empire

During the 17th to 18th century, The Roman Empire had gone through a cultural and religious metamorphous. Throughout this time, the roles of religion in the Islamic, Byzantine and Western European worlds altered the period of 600-750 with their similarities adhering to monotheism for one, and differences in regards to perspectives. These three cultures were all pretty diverse but they also shared some of the same roots and became heritors of the Roman Empire, built on different ideologies. The different ideologies of the Islamic, Byzantine and Western European worlds, consisted of different founders, places, and elements of worship, thus portraying how religion was indeed prominently central to governmental and social structures because of the large impact towards political laws.

Factors Which Led to the Spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire Christianity was not born in a vacumn. There were many social, geographical, historical and religious issues prevailing at the time of Christ and all of which were favorable to the spread of Christianity. Geograpicly, Christianity came into being in the Meditation world, the largest of the various centers of civilization at that time. Israel stands almost central to the five continents, dividing the east and west.

Then and now religions shared common dimensions that provide society with a doctrine, narrative, ethics, ritual, experience and a social institution. These six dimensions that Ninian Smart derived spell out the framework for comparative study of religions1. The six dimensions hold true when comparing the daily routine Roman religious thought to modern Christianity. Interwoven into the core of both cultures is a strong unifying spirit that built a strong communal bond for its people.

The religious practices of the ancient Romans are best remembered with grand temples, great festivals and Christian persecution to the final acceptance of Christianity within the Roman empire over the

Religion played a significant role in the Roman civilization but, “many people believe that Rome was not a religious place. What they probably mean is that it was not a moral place.” (Burrell, 65) The Romans had innumerable gods that they worshiped which included giving gifts and sacrificing for their gods. Sacrificing animals was common for ancient Roman civilization. The idea of sacrificing came from the people before the Roman Empire was built. Religion primarily used sacrificing as a means of showing appreciation to the gods but later became a way to get things from the gods. The increases in the expansion of Rome lead to an increasing number of sacrifices. Roman sacrifice was done in many different ways and there were numerous

(Nepos, 1). After him, religion helped to introduce Romans with many civil customs. No one could compete with Romans in state of fear of the God, which contributed all senate’s enterprises and Roman leaders. Therefore, religion was holding such a strict position in Roman culture that nothing else could be compared.

On observation of the many ideologies that have gathered followers and made their mark in Ancient Rome, two draw attention as having been particularly prominent in their influence of the state and the attitudes they had gathered towards themselves within the Roman Empire- these being the Roman state religion and Christianity. These two ideologies contrast in their ideas, structure and the time period in which they reached their height in popularity and persecution. The polytheistic and ritualistic Roman state religion was widely in practice within the Roman Empire until its major decline in 4th century AD, during which it was supplanted by Christianity, a monotheistic ideology with more emphasis on individual faith and morality, as Rome’s official religion, the formal declaration of this being the Edict of Thessalonica issued on 27 February 380AD. The general attentive desire to upkeep the traditions of the state religion declined with increasing dominance of Christianity which during the first four centuries Anno Domini was in turn tolerated, persecuted, accepted and revered. The attitudes toward both of these ideologies (in Rome before 392 AD) can be better understood with the exploration of the reasons behind them and the changes that they undergo.

Although there was a great deal of hesitation among many of the aristocratic families concerning conversion, especially doing so on a public platform whilst it was punishable by law, several would, eventually, convert. One by one, the aristocratic families were converting to Christianity almost as if in units; one whole family, followed by another entire aristocratic family. Even so, it was not exclusively these upper class, politically powered families that were becoming Christian. In fact, according to historian Michele Renee Salzman, the aristocrats were among the last of the ancient Roman people to convert. According to historical records, those who identified themselves as Christian began, as previously stated, with the minority groups

In the Roman Civilization where the prevalent worship of roman gods were impersonal and did not provide a moral base or a message of hope, in the fourth century Christianity was formed, born as a movement within Judaism Christianity emphasized the personal relationship between God and people slowly spread through the Roman Empire until ultimately dominating the western culture. Three of the several factors that aided to the growth of Christianity in the Roman Empire were; the central beliefs and value of Christianity, prominent figures, and Christianity appeal to women.

The book of Romans is considered, by many in Christianity, to be the greatest book comprised in the Holy Bible. This is a very strong view to hold, considering the great details of Jesus and His ministry that are given in the book of Luke, the direct, to the point style of truth written by James, and the great lessons of faith in Hebrews. The other books in the New Testament are all great within themselves also but, Romans is very distinctive in itself. Written by the Apostle Paul, Romans can be viewed as the Christian Life handbook or the Christianity 101 manual. When we read Romans, we can see that Paul took every thought and possible counter thought by any

What beliefs do you have? Are you Christian, Pagan, an atheist? This is important to know, which is what so many people before us thought. Nero, a Roman empire, and along with Rome, believed in many gods. They named their gods off of planets, and the calendar months are named after their gods. Their beliefs disagree with Christianity and the Church. Christians believe that there is one true God, and He sent His Son to die for people, who are sinners, and rose again. The Church is the body of believes. We can see may conflicts with the Church and other people’s religions, particularly Roman religion in this case. The conflicts of different beliefs just show how much the world is ready for a Church, which we can see is so many books. Throughout the book “Flames of Rome,” we see that Rome is ready for the Church. This can be

This essay investigates the role of religion and the importance of Roman society and politics. It will show the origin of Roman Religion, such as the pantheon, origin myths and the effect of foreign influence on Rome. This paper will also go into immense study of how religion affected Roman society through the likes of cult worship and domestic religion. It will also show the importance of politics on Roman religion, such as, the Imperial Cult, Vestal Virgins but more or less will also expose the persecution of Christians that were in opposition to Roman paganism.