by Dave Franklin

Created on: January 20, 2007   Last Updated: May 08, 2007

Although the teachings at the heart of Christianity owe their birth geographically to the Middle East, specifically Jerusalem and the surrounding environs, as an organisation it really has Rome to thank for its initial development. Peter, often regarded as the natural successor to Jesus established the Roman connection but it is Paul we have to thank for the spread of what today is regarded as the Christian faith. Modern Christianity is often termed "Pauline" Christianity as a way of indicating that the message is that of St Paul rather than directly of Jesus himself. In fact scholars have made much of the differences of the original message of the Jerusalem church that headed by Jesus and James and the evolution of ideas that came about through Paul's teaching. It has to be borne in mind that Paul was a Roman citizen and probably never met Jesus personally and his brand of enlightened Christianity found a favour in the Roman Empire that the more radical teachings of Jesus would have.

So Paul's rebranded Christianity grew steadily through out the Empire but it was to have its base in Rome. Initially it was a very secretive organisation, for good reason. Roams were obliged to acknowledge that their emperor was in fact a living god. It was bad enough that the pagan ideas of the empire promoted a pantheon of hundreds of gods but to suggest a mere mortal was a god was too much. If they were seen to actively oppose this idea it would have been the end of their movement so the best way to deal with the problem was to worship in secret, private rooms and followers' houses were used instead of public gatherings. The idea of Christians being thrown to the lions is something that has been taken to an extreme, there are a few recorded incidents of Christians being put into the arena, but the idea of wholesale religious persecution is a false one. Roman religious policy was generally very accommodating as long as people were seen to be following the laws in public. The odd sacrifice would do just to cover look the part in public, what people got up to behind closed doors was their own business.

In the third century a number of factors came into play that paved the way for the eventual dominance of Christianity. In 274 the emperor Aurelian believed that the sun god had brought him victory in his campaigns in Syria. He set up a state cult to Sol Invictus, the unconquered sun: and announced that the birthday of the sun, a day of special festivity, was December 25th. Christianity

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>