The Rise of Christianity

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The Rise of Christianity
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• Objectives
• Know the basic path of Jesuss life.
• Also, for what reasons he was executed.
• Know the importance of Paul to the spread of
  Christianity (and what he did that was so
  important to the spread).
• Know what factors helped the faith spread (both
  logistical, like the Pax Romana, and why the
  faith was appealing to people).
• Know why Christians were persecuted for their
  faith.
• Know the importance of Constantine to the rise of
  Christianity and the effects of what he did.
• Also, what led him to legalize it.
• What were the downsides of Constantine?

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• By 63 BC, Rome rules Palestine.
• By around BC 6 AD 6, Caesar Augustus is emperor
  and this is the world into Jesus is born.

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• Regardless of ones belief in Jesuss divinity,
  its hard to deny that he was probably the most
  influential person to have lived.
• He lived just 33 years and his main ministry
  lasted only 3 years. Yet he had a mind boggling
  effect on world history.

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• For somebody so important, we dont have any
  contemporary accounts of his appearance.
• He certainly wasnt the Caucasian-looking fellow
  that gets portrayed a lot in Western culture.

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• Being a Semitic man from the 1st century, he
  likely had a tawny skin tone, dark hair and eyes.
  These are facial reconstructions from a skull
  from that time period.

• Bear in mind that this is just a random skull the
  face is based on. You cant say this is Jesus
  any more than if you took George Bushs skull and
  came up with my face.

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• This is based on the image from the Shroud of
  Turin

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• Interestingly, just as the West portrays Jesus as
  white, other cultures portray him in their own
  ethnicity Arab, African, etc.

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• Anyway Jesus was born in Bethlehem anywhere from
  6 BC to AD 6. Theres disagreement about when it
  was based on astronomical events, King Herods
  death, and other factors.
• The AD 1 year mark is based on a system devised
  by a 6th century monk named Dionysius Exiguus.
  He miscalculated.
• Raised in Nazareth, he didnt begin his public
  preaching until he was 30. Then he shook the
  world.
• Preached a message of forgiveness (divine and
  interpersonal), a personal relationship with God,
  and love.
• Became rather popular with the hoi polloi and was
  hailed as the Messiah Israels savior.

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• Neither the Romans nor the Jewish authorities
  were too comfortable with Jesuss popularity.
• The Romans didnt like the idea of somebody
  gaining power and prestige. They were a
  potential threat.

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• It didnt help that people were thinking of him
  as the messiah.
• The Christian conception of that term is
  different from the Jewish conception at the time.
  For 1st century Judaism, the messiah would be a
  political and military leader a new king that
  would reunite Israel and defeat its enemies
  (specifically the Romans). Naturally, the Romans
  didnt like such talk.

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• The Jewish leaders, the Pharisees and the
  Sadducees, saw him as a threat because he was
  continually preaching against them.
• Thus, both major powers wanted him out of the
  picture.

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• Accordingly, Jesus is crucified due to trumped up
  charges.
• Crucifixion was actually a uniquely painful way
  to die.

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• Different theories as the actual cause of death
  asphyxiation from being stretched out, embolisms
  from blood clots, dehydration, and others.
• It was definitely painful, however. Hence
  excruciating.

• And Crucio!

• The cruciatus curse.

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After his death, his apostles carry on his
mission. Primary spreader of the faith was Saul
of Tarsus, aka the Apostle Paul.
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• Was originally a persecutor of Christians, but
  then became its main supporter after a conversion
  experience.

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Paul visited a number of locations, starting
churches in different cities.
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• He would also write letters to many of these
  churches supporting them and giving advice.
• Many of these letters are now books of the New
  Testament. They have the names of the cities or
  people to which/whom they were address, e.g.
  Galatians was to the church in Galatia, Ephesians
  was to the church in Ephesus, 1 and 2 Timothy are
  to a disciple named Timothy, etc.

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• Paul even visits the acropolis in Athens and
  argues with some Stoic and Epicurean philosophers.

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• Hes eventually executed in Rome, beheaded around
  64-67 by the Emperor Nero.

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• Persecution
• Christianity slowly started spreading around the
  empire.
• Aided by the Pax Romana and the fact that Romans
  tended to be tolerant and accepting of other
  religions.
• They wanted to make sure they werent missing any
  gods after all.

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• The Roman tolerance, though, was that you could
  worship your own gods, but you had to recognize
  Roman ones too, including worshiping Caesar.
• This wasnt too big a deal for most polytheistic
  religions. For the monotheistic Christians, it
  was a non-starter.

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• So the problem wasnt that Christians had their
  own god, its that they didnt recognize or
  worship the Roman gods.
• This was viewed as undermining Roman authority.
  It was also seen as dangerous that people werent
  worshipping the Roman gods because then the gods
  could turn their backs on Rome.
• As Roman society started frowning on Christians,
  the Christians started meeting in secret in
  catacombs, sewers, caves, etc.
• This only increased the misconceptions of
  Christians rumors swirled that they engaged in
  depraved acts sexual depravity, child sacrifice,
  even cannibalism due to misunderstanding
  communion.

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• So the Romans were naturally suspicious of these
  strange folks.
• The first big persecution comes after the great
  fire in Rome in AD 64.
• Emperor Nero blames it on the Christians (they
  were good scapegoats).
• Nero proceeds to round up and execute some
  Christians.
• The succeeding emperors such as Vespasian and
  Trajan dont worry themselves too much about the
  Christians, though the Romans still didnt like
  them.

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• As the Roman Empire starts its decline,
  persecution steps up as Romans blame the
  Christians for their woes.
• Some were crucified, others burned alive, still
  more killed in the arena.
• Christians disapproved of the arena and
  gladiatorial sport in general it was too easy to
  get hooked on the bloodsport.

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• When put in the arena, a popular method was for
  them to be killed by wild animals.
• A problem the Romans faced is that the Christians
  welcomed death and the chance to be martyred.
  They took joy in death which the Romans found
  unfathomably bizarre.
• They would even taunt the crowd to kill them.

St. Ignatius
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• Case of Saints Perpetua and Felicity

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• Some Christians went to extreme lengths to avoid
  persecution, such as at Cappadocia.
• This was a labyrinth of caves Christians carved
  into a mountain and down into the ground.
• It was 18 stories deep and had miles of tunnels.
• The complex housed around 20,000 people who
  rarely left the underground system.
• Was complete with living quarters, grape juicing
  rooms, churches, ventilation shafts, and wells.
• Was complete with secret doorways that closed
  tight from the inside.

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• Despite the Roman attempts to use brute force to
  stamp out the Christians, the religion continued
  to spread.

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• Spread due to 5 main factors as put in the book
• Embraced all people men, women, slaves, poor,
  nobles.
• Gave hope to the powerless
• Appealed to those who were repelled by Roman
  extravagance.
• Offered personal relationship with a loving God.
• Promised eternal life after death.

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• As the faith spreads, it takes on an
  organizational hierarchy.
• There are local priests and then regional
  bishops.
• Eventually, the bishop of Rome becomes the pope.

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• Official Religion
• In 313, Emperor Constantine (the same guy who
  moved the capital to Byzantium/Constantinople)
  ended all persecution and legalized Christianity
  in the Edict of Milan.
• His mother was actually a Christian and he
  credited God with helping win a major battle.

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• The Labarum chi rho

• Used the first two letters of xristos. Christos.
• Accompanied by the words, ?? t??t? ???a. With
  this, you win. Or In this sign, conquer.

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Constantine
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• Also replaced crucifixion with hanging.
• Kept some aspects of paganism and doesnt
  actually officially convert until shortly before
  his death.
• Speculation that the only reason he converted to
  Christianity is because it was the only religion
  that would offer him forgiveness for his grievous
  sins (although late life baptism wasnt
  uncommon).
• Sins such as having his eldest son tried and
  executed because of rumors he was having an
  affair with his second wife Fausta.
• Then he had Fausta executed because she was the
  apparent source of the rumors.
• Marks a pivotal joining of church and state,
  although it doesnt become the state religion
  until 390 under Emperor Theodosius.

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• To his great discredit, Constantine also starts
  persecuting the Jews.
• Put restrictions on them, makes it illegal to
  convert to Judaism. Unfortunate considering the
  recent treatment of Christians.
• It was, in the first place, declared improper to
  follow the custom of the Jews in the celebration
  of this holy festival, because, their hands
  having been stained with crime, the minds of
  these wretched men are necessarily blinded. ...
  Let us, then, have nothing in common with the
  Jews, who are our adversaries. ... avoiding all
  contact with that evil way. ... who, after having
  compassed the death of the Lord, being out of
  their minds, are guided not by sound reason, but
  by an unrestrained passion, wherever their innate
  madness carries them. ... a people so utterly
  depraved. ... Therefore, this irregularity must
  be corrected, in order that we may no more have
  any thing in common with those parricides and the
  murderers of our Lord. ... no single point in
  common with the perjury of the Jews.
• Starts a tragic trend in Western culture towards
  Jews.

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• Constantine also called the Council of Nicaea
• Sought to settle some religious disputes and
  provide some standard Christian doctrines.
• There were all sorts at the time.
• Upside is that Christianity starts getting some
  standardization.
• Downside is that pagans and heretical Christians
  start being persecuted.
• Persecution of the Jews, pagans, and heretical
  sects was much greater than anything the Romans
  forced on the early Christians.

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