The, The Roman Empire, And Councils Of The Early Church

Religion is an important feature in most cultures throughout time. Different religions have been more prominent than others, one of the most popular being Christianity. Christianity developed during the time of the Roman Empire. It began as a minority religion and grew into something much more than that. Christianity’s importance to the empire increased over time. At first, Christian values seemed different than those of pagan Roman civilization and Romans were not sure how to react to this growing minority religion. The difference between the two religions became clearer as Christianity became more prominent.

The Roman Empire had a significant impact upon Christianity for a number of reasons. Firstly, Christianity originated in the Roman Empire. The vast majority of early Christians lived in the Roman Empire. As the religion was made up of Roman citizens and was mainly contained within Rome, it was unavoidable that Christianity be affected by events in the Roman Empire.

In the year 476 A.D, the Christian era of the Western Roman empire came to a close. What followed would be a series of Germanic Kingdoms such as the Visigoths, Angles, and Saxons. These kingdoms, like most budding nations, founded their own unique political systems, laying the groundwork for future European nations. Although these kingdoms were deemed “independent”, they still found themselves under the jurisdiction of the Church. This subjected them to the political model of the Church, and by extension Rome.

, that lead to the Nicaea Council was the Arian Crisis. It challenged the divinity of God the father and God the son, which were the very foundations of the Christian Church. The essence of the debate, was theological rather than christological and lied mainly with the wording of the creed; ‘ We believe in God the father, Almighty and Jesus christ his begotten son’ Theologians such as Arius from Alexandria , took on the adoptionist approach, that Jesus couldn't be divine as he suffered and changed. The son was therefore subsequently inferior to the Father. He goes further to suggest that it both the father and the son are eternal beings in their own right; then arguably there are two Gods- this goes against the original monotheism of the church and argued that this was inaccurate, as the church was meant to be monotheism. The creed was open to interpretation and the church was unable to explain the trinity. Arius raised the Question about the Son's relationship to the father to a metaphysical and ontological, in defining the divinity of the logus. Arius produces two presuppositions; ‘God for Arius was above all One, a 'Monad'

The Roman Empire was extremely instrumental in the growth and spread of Christianity. It was already about 400 years old at the birth of Jesus Christ, the founder of the Christian faith, and directly influenced his life. The Roman Empire saw the growing Christian cult as threat, and ordered the crucifixion of Jesus. The followers of Christ were persecuted for centuries after his death until the Emperor Constantine took an interest in Christianity, which was spreading rapidly throughout the empire. Emperor Constantine encouraged the organization of Christian ideals and promoted the religion due to its ability to unify people of different cultures, which Roman polytheism failed to do. Constantine and the emperors that followed endorsed Christianity, and Roman culture permeated the Christian faith: Early Christianity adopted the church rituals, language, architecture, moral principles, and many, many other cultural products from the Roman Empire. The birth of Christianity occurred as the Roman Empire began to split, but nearly every aspect of Roman culture survived in Christianity. This is evident in the architecture of Christian buildings, the elaborate rituals and practices found in many Christian sects, the date and often the very reason for many Christian holidays, the Latin language which was used for

The Roman Empire is one of the most well-known countries in recorded history. And this is primarily because it continues to awe people via it 's architecture, military, art, philosophy, and technology. But one of the greatest footprints Ancient Rome has left for us to study and admire is its culture. As in any society, culture in the Roman Empire was of great importance. The Romans had many beliefs, behaviors, and customs, but one of the things that stood out the most in their culture was their religion. Roman religion is no longer in practice (Scheid and Lloyd 1). However, the enthusiasm that it 's followers had still exists today. Ever since the time that Roman religion was just the religion of one city in the Mediterranean region (Rüpke 3), people have always been marveled by the interesting and spectacular uniqueness of Rome’s religion that has survived throughout the decades of human curiosity.

Because Nicaea was the first ecumenical council, it “marked a crucial development in doctrinal history.” The theological war was not over after the council of Nicaea and continued on after Constantine’s death in 337. During this time between councils the term homoousios was expounded upon. Now, there were Homoousians, which believed “the Son is of the same substance with the Father;” homoiousians, which believed “the Son is of similar substance to the Father;” homoeans, which believed “the Son is like the Father;” and finally there were anomoeans, which believed “the Son is unlike the Father.” During this time, Athanasius’ followers rose to prominence, which was not surprising, for they called themselves “Nicenes” and they seemed to have a

Arguably the most crucial civilization in history is Rome. Rome was very advanced for it’s time and a very well functioning, thriving empire. Rome had a military full of strong, capable soldiers, and a well governed group of citizens. So how could so something so mighty and powerful eventually fall? I believe that Christianity was more of a result than the complete cause of the downfall of The Roman Empire

Christianity rose during the first century after Christ 's death in Jerusalem and its rise came from the help of the apostles. Jesus Christ is the son of God and was declared to be the mighty God and the everlasting Father long before he was conceived in Mary 's womb, being that his arrival was premeditated by God because his mother Mary was barren. Jesus grew up trying to share his message, that there was one god, that was his direct father, in heaven who could do whatever you asked if you prayed to him , praised him, and obeyed him. Jesus was said to be incredibly kind and all together have incredible integrity; However he was persecuted heavily for this reason. Eventually people started to hate him so much that they sentenced him to death by crucifixion. After being crucified, he rose from the dead twenty seven hours later, and showed the people of Jerusalem that he was telling the truth about his message and relieved all of their sins. After his death, the religion of Christianity was created, which entailed that a person believed in one god and believed in Jesus Christ. During the first few centuries, apostles, such as Paul, introduced Christianity to Rome and showed developing Christians the way to divine acceptance from one god. However, as Christianity advanced, it faced a lot of difficulties, and even worse, persecution. During the first and second centuries, Roman’s persecutions were isolated,

Many often depict medieval Europe as times of kings, knights, and epic battles that end in great bloodshed and loss. While these things are true, the medieval Europe was much more than that. It was a time of controversy, strong and terrible leaders in politics as well as the church, and many changes in population and how the Europeans structured their societies. Writers and historians throughout this time period produced many works that told of the events in medieval Europe. A few overarching themes successfully describe the events of this time period by using the works of Thomas Aquinas, Thomas More, and multiple other writers. Three main categories describe Medieval European society—city, empire, and church.

The Second Vatican Council (Vatican II), in an effort to reacquaint the faithful to their three-fold dignity of priest, prophet and king received during their baptism, reaffirmed in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, also known as the ad intra (“Church within”) conciliar document Lumen Gentium, that, “…all the faithful, that is, who by Baptism are incorporated into Christ…have been made sharers in their own way in the priestly, prophetic, and kingly office of Christ and play their part in carrying out the mission of the whole Christian people in the church and in the world” (48). Since the laity, religious, and clergy now had a shared responsibility as the People of God in bringing about the Kingdom of God, no longer would they be as

Pagan culture and religious practice remained important through the fourth century AD, but in AD 392 the emperor Theodosius I forbade pagan worship, and Christianity effectively became the official religion of the Roman state.

To begin with, the Roman Catholic Church was the single church in the middle ages. By itself, it was felt to have firm control on religious learning and on the relationship in the middle of people and God. Basically, the Church could control who went to Heaven and Hell. This gave it vast control over individuals' lives. The Church did much to decide how individuals would live, since it authorized what was lawful and unlawful.

The early church was hated by the society and government of the Roman Empire for various reasons, such as the refusal of Christians to sacrifice to the gods. The Empire went through many phases of demanding that the Christians sacrifice which meant denying their faith or be killed. The earliest attacks claimed the lives of many of the apostles.This text is the story, from around 160 AD, of the martyrdom of Polycarp, the Bishop of the church in Smyrna, a city in Asia Minor (modern Izmir in Turkey) devoted to Roman worship. The account is in the form of a letter from eye-witnesses to other churches in the area. It is the earliest chronicle of a martyrdom outside the New Testament.Polycarp was an old man, at least 86, and probably the last surviving person to have known an apostle, having been a disciple of St. John. This was one reason he was greatly revered as a teacher and church leader. One interesting feature of the letter is that the writer is very conscious of how Polycarp’s death followed the pattern of Christ’s. As you read it, look for parallels between this story and the Easter story in the gospels. We are writing to you, brothers, with an account of the martyrs, especially the blessed Polycarp, whose death brought to the persecution to a close. Almost all the events that led up to it reveal it to be another martyrdom in the divine pattern that we see in the Gospel. For he waited for his betrayal, just like the Lord did, so that we might follow him, in looking out

As the early church expanded some teaching weren’t clear that they were the word of God. One of the teaching is apostolic succession. Hierarchy is a system or organization in which people or groups are ranked one above the other according to status or authority. Through hierarchy many beliefs were passed down the ministry by popes and bishops. Many of these belief include the canon, eucatist,hierarchies and etc. In order to find out what the was really said back then we must go back to the early church fathers and read their manuscripts.  In Matthew 16:19 Jesus says “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  With this Jesus passes on his teaching