Christianity in Ancient Rome

Christianity in Ancient Rome
By: Sam Xu

What do the Christians believe?

People who believed and were followers of Jesus gave him the title of “Christ” which means Messiah or “the anointed one”. Most Christian traditions teaches that the one God is expressed as three “persons” which include the father, the son, and the holy spirit. This sets of beliefs are called The Holy Trinity. Most Christians celebrate their faith together by connected worship and especially at community services. This is when Jesus shared bread and wine with his followers on the night before his execution which was often called “the last supper”. On the last supper Jesus said the bread was his body and the wine was his blood. All Christians states the central of the life and teachings of Jesus.

A painting of the last supper by leonardo da vinci

How do Christians practice their beliefs?

Christians mostly practice their beliefs by going to churches and worshipping their various traditions. Christian worship in some traditions are visually rich, celebration, full of symbol and ritual, while in other traditions are easier to understand. prayer or silence would be emphasised. Some of their main religious festivals are The Holy Week and Good Friday. The Holy week begins at the week before Easter. This festival is actually on the last day of Lent, the preparation of Easter. During Holy Week Christians attend special services which help them to reflect on the events leading up to the death and revival of Jesus. During the week they experience a mix of different emotions from deep sadness to great joy and happiness.

Christians celebrating in the holy week, which is on last week of lent.

One of the reasons for the spreading was because of the works of Jesus’s followers such as Paul. He was many of the Christians who set of on long journeys to spread their belief of Christianity to other parts of Rome. According to Paul’s letters in the New Testament, he wrote that he faced many difficulties while trying to complete his goal. He tells that he had been shipwrecked three times, crowds often threw rocks at him or beat him. Roman authorities saw him as a troublemaker as he was encouraging Romans to join Christianity. Soon Paul was arrested for two years and eventually executed. Another reason why Christianity spread was because of the Emperor Constantine. He was the main reason of why Christianity spread because he promoted this belief as the official religion of Rome. He also helped build and rebuild Christian churches that was damaged before.

How did christianity spread in the Roman Empire?

A map of the spread of christianity. According to the map in 325 ACE christianity was in different parts of the Roman and by 600 ACE christianity and spread all over the Empire.

Why would an Emperor use this belief to help them govern? How did christianity change the Roman Empire?

An emperor would use Christianity to help them govern because the belief always makes people who believe in Christianity be more honest, kind, and treat everyone equally. Normally, countries or empires need laws to keep the crimes and problems away. If an Empire uses Christianity as the official religion then many people wouldn’t break the rules but become kindhearted people. This would help the Empire/country a lot because the Governor wouldn’t have to worry about this problem and focus on much more difficult ones. This religion changed the Roman Empire significantly because of several reasons. One could be that since Christianity became the official belief of the Empire people who do not believe in christianity would be persecuted. For example, people who believes in paganism would be forced to believe in christianity.

One example for a leader that uses christianity can be the Roman emperor Constantine. He allowed christians to practice their beliefs and even helped them build new churches and repair the ones that were damaged before. In 313 BCE, Christianity became the official religion of Rome.