The Beginnings of Christianity Essay examples

Christianity is a widespread and powerful religion because of its beginning in the Roman Empire. Factors contributing to this included spreading ideas without difficulty throughout the entire empire, the appeal of Christianity to the people, and the rule of Emperor Constantine.

The ministry of Jesus brought about a new religion: Christianity. Jesus’ teachings were apocalyptic in that he preached the nearness of the Kingdom of God. He also taught, “To love your neighbor as yourself” Mark 12:31[NIV]. “Since Jesus was a Jew and preached to Jews, Christianity was closely linked to Judaism.” “Early Christian missionaries, being Jews, interacted at first with the Jewish communities in the empire’s cities.” “This was only natural and gave them common ground with other groups in the provinces in which Jews were a minority.” “Among the Jews, however, resistance to Jesus being the Messiah was often encountered, and early on, the Christians or the church gained converts from non-Jews.” “Christianity in its early stages used the Jewish synagogues, allowing it access

‘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.

Because Christianity could not be completely purged by the Empire, it created an opportunity for Christians to display how strongly they were devoted to the religion. The way in which they responded made all the difference. Under pressure, they would not submit, and this was proof of the force and influence of Christianity.

Across the world there are a surplus of beliefs and systems regarding Gods and religions. There are hundreds and thousands of theologians that claim they have the “truth” about the world and human creation. Although some of these claims may have truth wrapped in them, often times they are covered with fabrication, simply desiring to please the listener and offer the most beneficial reasoning for accepting it. I understand why someone with no religious upbringing or background would not quite know where to start when taking a look at Christianity; however, I’m here to help you understand the amazing aspects of Christianity. These aspects have caused over two billion people around the world to dedicate their lives and ways to follow the center of the religion- God.

Why did Christianity take hold in the ancient world? Around the time of CE, a lot of people were against being christian, until people spread the word and other people realized how devoted they were. So, why did Christianity take hold in the ancient world?

Wilson, P. (2016). Heart of Europe: a history of the Holy Roman Empire. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Religions take a hold on societies in different ways. Christianity started as a revitalization movement against the Roman hierarchy, and was comprised of mostly woman and the poor. The Roman Empire took up most of the Mediterranean and North Africa. With the death of Jesus, around 33 CE, came a new, unique, religion that was a spin off of Judaism but they believed that Jesus was the foretold Messiah. Although they were persecuted, Christianity took hold in the ancient world because it offered salvation, was fair to all, and preached love and peace.

-The promise of salvation attracted many, and it highly advanced the Christian church and then Christianity slowly became the official religion. At first, persecution was done to non-believers, but as time went on it became the

The earliest recorded text teaching Christianity has its roots buried deep within Judaism. The birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as the Messiah, created a new ideology of worship. The Messiah is the savior for all people and of all sins. Paul carried the message of the Messiah to the Gentiles. His missionary journeys and establishment of churches enabled the spreading of the message throughout the Roman Empire. Christianity grew in acceptance; those that believed in the Messiah separated and began to worship on their own. This marked the beginning of the split of Judaism and Christianity.

The Christian religions rise to supremacy in the middle ages was the result of several factors. Christians had long been persecuted by the Roman Empire because the Romans felt that Christianity challenged and offended the Greco-Roman Gods and the Christians were prone to revolt against Roman rule. Christianity survived because it had many teachings that appealed to the downtrodden in Roman society, these teachings being that even though they were suffering they would gain equality and possibly superiority in the next life, Christianity gave them hope.

As Christianity was spread throughout Rome, people began to question the teachings of Jesus. Out of fear, officials arrested and killed a multitude of Christians as a result. The everyday plebeian became impressed with these people dying for a belief. Although persecutions became more common, the number of Christians stayed the same and maybe even grew because of the influx of polytheistic Romans converting to the monotheistic religion of Christianity. People were converting quicker than they were being killed off because of the likeable teachings of love, the bravery of these people dying because of what they believed in, and their appealing message to those not in the affluent classes.

With its insistence on exclusive monotheistic worship of the Christian God it won where paganism could only fail, in demanding solitary allegiance to its movement (pp. 201-204). In demanding such commitment, those won to Christianity were far more allied to its goals and purposes than adherents to pagan movements that were non-exclusive. Further, the possibility of publicly suffering for their faith offered Christians the hope of enormous communal esteem. For those already firmly committed, the benefits of esteem and other-worldly reward far out-weighed whatever cost in suffering martyrdom might bring. Paganism had nothing analogous to win such enthusiastic commitment. Whereas, Christianity promised life after death in heaven while in the Roman religion, only gods went to heaven; emperors were considered gods, everyone else went to the underworld.

Christianity was unlike other religions of the time in that it was a monotheistic worship though transcendentalism. The religions of Northern and Central Europe focused on gods in nature that explained the world around them. Christianity does not allow an explanation of this life, only that of existence in itself and the afterlife. The religions of these people at the time was also not as much a worship and commitment as that of the Christian religion. It is actually a great surprise to anyone that studies these religions as to how it could be that a religion that focused on piety, abstinence outside of marriage, and loving one’s enemy would be more fruitful a religion than the religions of Europe at that time that promoted feasts and festivals with excessive food, drink, and even orgies. The most compelling answer is that

Martyrs tells us that the earliest persecution came under the rule of Nero in the year 67