explain why christianity, one of many competing religions and philosophical systems, became the great majority religion in the roman empire a.d.30-a.d.392

The spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire

Christianity arose as a religion of underprivileged , but spread across the Roman Empire by the 5th A .D . It needs to be noted that due to the diversity of Roman population , a number of worships were popular in various regions of the empire . For instance , Mithraism was widespread in the Legions , which moved throughout the Roman empire and gradually promoted the concept of monotheism - Mthra 's story was to great extent similar to the biography of Jesus Christ . In addition , the cult of Dionysius

as a separate worship on the pagan Roman world established the idea of monotheism as an interesting philosophic and religious direction to follow . As Latorette (1975 ) writes , the Roman people had certainly been exposed to enough religious ideas bearing similarities to Christ to make the possibility of the Son of God and Savior of humanity a believable and relatively easy concept to adopt (Latorette , 1975 br

.142

While most contemporary (A .D . 30-A .D . 100 ) were designed for relatively affluent citizens , expected to make generous contributions into the development of temples (Gonzalez , 1985 , Christianity basically appealed to the poorest and most marginalized social groups , including slaves and unsuccessful artisans and peasants , so that the religion was well-positioned to reflect social grievances in an empire increasingly marked by inequality (Latorette , 1975 ,

.139 . Furthermore Christianity addressed spiritual needs of lower social circles due to the fact that Roman political and religious values didn 't seek to join peoples into a spiritual community , the citizens lacked unity and finally found it in this mysterious religion . In addition , the activation of Jewish population also played an important role : due to the fact that St .Paul was Jew , he managed to convert wealthier Jewish merchants to this religion - importantly , the status and reputation of this ethnic minority was much higher in the Roman Empire , comparing to artisans , retailers and peasantry . In fact , the earliest Jewish Christian community , leaded by Paul , appeared the first interpreters of this religion and , as they actually adjusted this form of worship into the Roman context and developed theology , or the logical explanation of Christian values principles

Another factor that contributed to the reinforcement of Christian communities was the emergence of the formalized religious government . As Gonzalez notes (Gonzalez , 1985 , by 300 A .D . bishops began to control and manage churches , primarily - in to refute and prevent heresy as a deviation from the basic Christian values - this is the main reason for comparatively low number of alterations and modification of the basic apostolic course . Nevertheless , all these influential forces were not enough to establish the political status of Christianity . At the level of `high politics ' and governance the religion was introduced due to the efforts of Constantine I , who experienced a dramatic event in 312 at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (ibid ,

.362 ) that finally convinced him in the credibility of the religion and in its possible use as a tool of influence on the West of the Roman Empire . As Gonzales holds , the religion resumed only in the 4th century , when several emperors sought to use religious conformity and new claims to divinity as a way of cementing loyalties to a declining state (Gonzales , 1985 br

.365 . That 's why Constantine I developed the Edict of Milan (an official legalization of Christianity ) immediately after the battle , in 313 A .D . After the adoption of the document , the power of the religion began to rise rapidly , first and foremost , because of the formalization of church and the observance of Constantine 's ideas by Theodosius , whose `De Fida Catolica (380 ) recognized Christianity as state religion moreover , the Theodosian decrees of 391 prohibit most pagan rituals and worships , so that the emperor expanded his control over the West of the Roman Empire and excluded any divergences from strict dogma (Gonzales 1985 Latorette , 1975

To sum up , several factors turned out determinative in terms of the popularization and introduction of Christianity : the novelty of the religion for lower social classes , the engagement of Jewish community into the progress of the religion , the establishment of formalized control over religion communities and , finally , the ambitions of Constantine I , seeking to protect the empire from disintegration

Reference list

Gonzales , J .L (1985 . The Story of Christianity , Vol .1 . San Francisco Harper

Latorette , K .S . 91975 . A History of Christianity , Volume 1 : beginnings to 1500 . San Francisco Harper

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