Romans View On Religion

Roman religion is not as easy to identify or describe as one might immediately suppose. Much of the difficulty in defining the religion of the Roman Republic is due to its flexibility and variability, as well as the lack of any clear division between religion, politics, and civil society during this period. It can often be difficult to tell, for example, where Roman religion ends and political ideology begins. Despite these difficulties, it is possible to make certain generalized statements. Religion in the Roman republic was extremely integrated into everyday life, it is variable and individualized, and it played a key role in upholding Roman civil and military power structures. It is also important to remember that Roman religion is not static and underwent a constant process of change over several centuries, often due to political and social concerns.

Christianity was frowned upon by the Romans. The Roman Emperor wanted the people to worship him and the Roman Gods. Christians were blamed for many of the misfortunes that happened in Rome. Due to the belief that Christians were to blame they were ostracized, tortured and even killed.

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.

‘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 first emperor, Augustus, to emperor Constantine, Christianity was illegal. During that time Romans practiced the Pagan religion which meant the persecution of Christians was legal. The emperor after Constantine, Theodosius, was the one who eventually legalized Christianity. This change caused much controversy and decline throughout the empire. The introduction of Christianity especially had a major influence of the decline of Rome.

There are many differences between Christianity and Roman religion. There are also similarities between the two of how they both worshipped in a place even if the place was different. Big difference is that they believed in gods and also they had different ways of religious. Roman did not like people turning away from Roman religion, and that caused harsh punishment to Christian to occur. Christianity became popular in Rome is after “the Jesus movement” occurred in Judea. Another key point that needs to be discussed is what the Roman did to deal with the people who turned away from Roman religion to Christianity.

Religion in Rome grew from them needing an agricultural society, and as Rome grew, the people began to believe in the religions that fit their spiritual needs. Their religion “evolved to serve the political needs of the state” as well (Rome). The state understood how important religion was to their people, so they used that to their advantage. On some occasions, the emperor went as far as making his subjects believe he was a god so that they would worship him. Doing this would make it so the subjects would indefinitely obey him because at that time no one would dare disobey a god. Although the emperor went to such lengths at times, “the State did not meddle in the private religious lives of its citizens” (Scheid). They did not take away the people’s privileges of worshipping the gods. Instead of taking away those privileges, the state would use their religion to gain respect from the citizens. The state made it “the law that all people in the Roman world must worship Roman gods” (Roman Religion). It was against the law to be a part of any other religion, mainly Christianity. If anyone was found worshipping other gods, they would be arrested, treated like criminals, and possibly even killed. This law was changed in 313 C.E. and the people were finally allowed to be in the Christian religion. Citizens of Rome were pleased that they could freely worship without fearing for their lives, which goes to show the effect religion had on

Introduction Over 2,000 years ago came the dawn of an empire that would last for more than half a millennium and effect many other nations to come. Regardless of being polytheistic or monotheistic, religion in the Roman Empire had a major influence on why it lasted so long and why it was very large and vast. Religion heavily impacted the people and the rulers. To grasp how religion affected the empire it is important to know which religions and what they practice.

Paul’s letter to the Roman’s was an occasional epistle as opposed to a systematic theology. However, Paul did present the Gospel in a systematic way. He was writing to an unknown audience of Christian’s, so he made sure to explain himself thoroughly in all areas, more so than if he was writing to those who knew him or had heard him speak before. He wanted to give the Roman’s a good foundation to work from. In doing so he has given Christian’s of today a good foundation for their biblical worldview. While one certainly cannot extract their entire worldview from the book of Roman’s, it is certainly a good basis. Paul covers several areas that are important to one’s worldview in this letter. They will be discussed in this essay. They are creation, sin, salvation, eschatology, ethics and theology. Each topic will be given a closer look as we proceed.

While Christianity began to spread across Rome and its surrounding, so did the spread of language especially Greek and Latin. Then unexpectedly Christianity became the official religion of the entire Roman Empire. As the reading mentions the rise of Christianity replaced the previous religion which was polytheism. The reading also mentions that Romas did not have an imposed religion on the entire empire, and were usually willing to accept new gods. I think this is one of the main reasons why Christianity was able to spread so quickly throughout the Roman Empire. People were free to choose and believe whatever they wanted. Other than Christianity the religion that was also important was Judaism in which the reading mentions that it displayed a tendency towards syncretism. But Christianity not only spread through Rome it also expanded to the Latin speaking West as well as to Ethiopia and Mesopotamia and then eventually become one of the most practiced religions even to this

The Romans had a religion that they believed in but was not something concrete and was not of having a central idea. The religion was based on a mix of certain traditions and beliefs. Religion was not never really a big factor in their Empire. The Romans were stubborn with religion and this could be the reason they had an attitude towards these aspects of life. According to St. Augustine’s book Confession, he states that there were a lot of fake gods and there were two major religions in the Roman Empire. The very first religion was Paganism and that’s what his father was known to believe. Then the second main religion was Christianity which his mother believed in. The emperor of Rome at this time, Constantine himself was not a Christian when he conquered Rome, but rather he had a religious conversion when he won the fight with contending tetrarchs at the Milvian bridge in 306 AD, with help of image of the Cross. The

The relationship between Christians and the Roman Empire is complicated to say the least. Before the summation of the primary sources begin there must be a little background information provided. Rome was in power over a big portion of the Mediterranean region. A good portion of Christians lived under Rome’s rule. Rome was a very tolerant state when it came to religious flexibility. As long as you recognized the Roman God’s then they were tolerant with any other practices you decided to have. The Christians would not recognize the Roman God’s and that caused great friction. There are many primary sources historians have found on the relationship between the Christians and the Romans. The majority of the sources being used in this summation are from the Documents of the Christian Church the fourth edition. Also three primary sources from the times of Constantine, the emperor of Rome in the fourth century. The Romans start as thinking of the Christians as criminals, to being tolerant with them, to eventually they embrace the Christian faith.

Attitudes toward Roman State Religion and Christianity within the Roman Empire up to 392 AD

In ancient Roman society, the prevalence and dominance of religion was common and widespread. From the 27 BC, the beginning of the political reign of Augustus Caesar, the messages from religion developed into the social codes of behaviour for Roman citizens and furthermore, allowed for Rome to reach the pinnacle of greatness it did. Under Augustus’ leadership, ancient civilizations was offered a man who is the prime example of what is meant to be a proper Roman. A man who acknowledges and submits to his Fate. A man who held religious piety to a high priority as a form of respect to the Gods, to such an extent that he reaffirmed the traditions of the old Roman religion until it reached mainstream acceptance by the Roman public. Furthermore, Roman Religious Beliefs can be understood through the identification of key values and ideas that would contribute to Roman society by developing standards and codes of behaviour that would reinforce the actions needed of an exemplary Roman citizen. Though at this time, Rome did not have what constitute a “religion” by our modern standards, it was the common held beliefs by the people and the state that acted as a religion to moderate and control the behaviour of Roman citizens.

– “The years as they come bring many agreeable things with them; as they go, they take many away” – Horace (65BC – 8BC)