Christianity Origin: Exploring the History and Origins of the Faith

To understand the origins of where christianity come from you must first understand the world it developed in. As most people know Christianity originated from within the jewish people, while they were under the control of the Romans. Jesus was born to a jewish family some time around 4 CE and died in about 30 CE. At the time of his death he was crucified by the Roman empire in an attempt to avoid a massive influx of jewish people which could have lead to violence or bloodshed.

Initially the Christians were met with anger from the roman people, "The refusal of Christians to worship or offer sacrifice to the state cult on behalf of the emperor was a problem. Some romans viewed them as a secret antisocial group. Also, many were pacifists who refused to serve in the army, denied legitimacy of other sects, and refused to associate with non Christians" (Mohammed, P. 236). This led to a lot of persecution against the Christians from both the Roman and the Jewish people. However all of this changed starting in 311 CE, "Finally in 311 Emperor Galerius issued an edict of toleration making christianity legal in the Eastern Roman Empire. He realized persecution had failed to eliminate faith and was counterproductive.

In 313 Emperor Constantine granted Christians freedom of worship throughout east and west Empire by issuing the Edict of Milan" (Mohammed, P.236). At this point Christianity was finally a well established religion in part after Emperor Constantine began endorsing the religion after having a vision of the christian cross in the sky before a military battle. However Christianity gained its real power due to Emperor Theodosius. "Emperor Theodosius I (r. 379-395 CE) made Christianity the official religion of the empire; in his zeal, he also persecuted pagans and attempted to force people to convert" (Mohammed, P. 237-237).

Order custom essay Christianity Origin: Exploring the History and Origins of the Faith with free plagiarism report

450+ experts on 30 subjects Starting from 3 hours delivery

Get Essay Help

In less than a century Christianity went from being a group of people who were considered dangerous to the roman empire to being the sole religion endorsed by the Roman empire. Despite its early hatred towards the religion Christianity could have never become as large as it is today without the help of the roman empire.

Response 1:

I wrote about option A however I found your insights into the Religion of Islam as well as the similarities between it and the other two abrahamic religions were very interesting. I thought it was a good point to compare the five Pillars of islam to the decalogue in that they share quite a few similarities to not only them but the rules to these other religions as a whole.

One thing I would be interested to know though is since Islam has many other rules in addition to the five pillars, are the beliefs in the ten commandments found elsewhere within the rules of islam or do they actually share more differences. These religions do share many similarities and nobody can deny that but it would be interesting to truly dig through them and pull out what is contrasting to see the differences in what they believed was important at the creation of these three systems of belief.

Response 2:

I also wrote about option A, however I found some things you mentioned very interesting and insightful. I thought your comment into how the Christians viewed no other gods as legitimate and thus viewed the romans as non religious was very interesting. Having this knowledge made the persecution of the Christian people seem much more understandable under the eyes of the Roman empire.

While not justified you begin to understand the Roman Empire's actions when you realize they had practiced their religion for hundreds of years then suddenly this new group springs up claiming to know the one true religion and that everyone else is wrong. Now days when somebody thinks of Rome the first thing many people will think of is the vatican city and the pope. Clearly these are the most iconic features of the christian religion and its interesting to think they were the original persecutors of this religion.

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Run a free check or have your essay done for you

Check my essay Hire Writer