christianity
background info
- religion always had large role in roman society
- however, polytheistic system was very impersonal
jesus of nazareth
- veiwed as messiah or savior by christians
- born in town of bethlahem in judea
- baptized by john the baptist
- he took up carpentry
- at age of 30, started public ministry
- next 3 years he preached, taught, did good works, and reportedly performed miracles
- very little records of the time about jesus
- main source of info are the gosples
- gosples were written by his apostles
death
- jesus was growing in popularity and this concerned roman and jewish leaders
- governer of rome named pontius pilate accused jesus of defying authority of rome
- he was then crucified
spreading christianity
- followers of jesus continued to spread his ideas
- despite large ammounts of political and religious opposition, new religion of christianity spread rapidly
paul
- man who influenced spreading christianity
- once a jew, opposed jesus
- converted to christianity
- he was able to do many of his speeches and travel throughout roman empire because it was during pax romana
beliefs
- christian
- belief that jesus is messiah
- acceptance of jews and gentiles
- jews
- belief that jews are chosen people
- adherence to jewish law
- both
- believe in one god
- belief in the ten commandments
pope at top, speaks to bishops
bishops under pope, speak to preists
preists under bishop and pope, speak to people
people under all
persicution of christians
- main reason was they refused to worship roman gods
- as pax romana faded, persicution increased
- thousands were crucified, burned, or killed by wild animals in circus arenas
- other christians and even some non christians regarded persecuted christians as martyrs
- martyr- people willing to sacrafice their lives for the sake of a belief or cause.
popularity
- became world religion for multiple reasons
- embraced all people
- gave hope to the powerless
- appealed to those who were repelled by the extravagances of imperial rome
- offered personal relationship with a loving god
- promised eternal life after death
constantine accepting christianity
- constantine was fighting over leadership of rome
- he then prayed to the christian god
- saw a cross symbol in the sky
- orderd artisans to paint christian symbol on sheilds
- was succesful in battle so he began to accept christianity
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