Birth of Christianity Institution of Learning Course

Birth of Christianity

Institution of Learning

Course Code / Title

The inception of Christianity and its dominance in the west resulted from various actors within the Roman Empire that helped attain its imperial position. The Constantinian Dynasty for instance is one prime moment that Christianity was born and nurtured within the Roman Empire. When Constantine became the Emperor in 4th century he worked tirelessly to ensure that Christianity becomes a dominant religion. For instance, it is said that Christ appeared to Constantine and commanded him to place Christian signs on all weapons of his army (McKay et al., 2011). Accordingly, when his army used these weapons, he managed to defeat his enemies; he believed that he was armed with holy power. He eventually became the sole western Emperor.

Constantine was baptized and wholly supported Christianity with zeal. Furthermore he decreed that victories in the subsequent wars were owed to the god of Christianity thereby assumed a grand policy to support and advance its cause (McKay et al., 2011). The emperor's devotion to the church helped a great deal. In the same line of argument, during Constantine's reign Christian Bishops, priests and other Christian leaders functioned in an official capacity. Church buildings were built throughout the Roman Empire. Constantine died in 337 AD; nevertheless his sons advanced his Christianity policies that eventually allowed Christianity to become deeply ingrained in the society. Paganism was virtually abolished.

Consequently, the reign of Theodosius an ardent Christian together with Gratian; his western counterpart, declared Christianity to be an official religion of the Roman Empire in 380 AD. Additionally, Theodosius changed from being the head priest; a position that was then bestowed on the Catholic Pope in Rome. The Emperor ordered massacre of 390 AD resulted into the death of 7,000 people in Thessalonica after which he took 8 months of penance (McKay et al., 2011). The church and Christianity religion by start of the 5th century had grown into an equal capacity with the Roman Emperor.

The fact that Christianity had a strong backing by the Roman Emperor and the entire west it emerged as a leading religion particularly in the Roman age (McKay et al., 2011). Christian ideologies together with the teachings of Christ that comprised of equality in the afterlife offered hope. Christianity had vast similarities with other cults and with regard to this it gained massive acceptance and spread rapidly beyond roman borders. Accordingly, the early Christians who faced prosecution depending on era and the emperor were force to intermingle with pagans; they took this as an underground opportunity to spread Christianity. Similarly, the church also manipulated the traditions and pagan empire thus making Christian faith more adaptable. Considerably, some church leaders were motivated like power hungry politicians and used force to advance Christianity (McKay et al., 2011). Following unending efforts by the church, Christianity spread vastly and took hold of a massive part of the population. With regard to this, Pagans with dissimilar ideologies and traditions were unable to put up with the huge Christianity wave and hence they were forced by circumstances to Christianize. It is stated that by the fall of the Western Empire in the mid 5th century the church was the official religion of Rome with supreme powers to oversee matters of morality, and human behavior.

Christianity is one of today's wide spread religions; the success is based on the following factors. First, the appeal to masses; in this regard Christianity and its laws were fair as compared to those of polytheistic religions of Rome. The strict kosher dietary laws and circumcision practices were not a requirement in Christianity and hence making the latter appealing to many people (Garfield, 2001).