Romans and Christianity

¶ … Persecution of the Early Church (pick a specific outbreak caused by a Roman emperor, the reasons for the outbreak, and the results). The article that was written by De Ste. Croix (1963) is talking about how Christians were persecuted after the Great Fire of Rome in July 64 AD. At the time, Nero believed that they were responsible for these events in order to challenge the Emperor Nero's leadership. He was paranoid and felt that Christians were a threat to his rule.

As he believed, that they intentionally started the fire to draw attention to his incompetence and encourage others to embrace their faith. This meant abandoning state sponsored religions and engaging in acts of disobedience. While at the same time, they wanted to challenge many of the large public works projects and the polices of the government. However, De Ste. Croix thinks that Nero did not use the fire as a way to enhance his power.

Instead, it was Nero's opinion that Christians were responsible, which led to their persecution and hundreds of deaths in the aftermath. The result is that Christians were seen as martyrs who were directly challenging Roman beliefs. This meant that their faith grew stronger because of the actions taken by Nero in the aftermath. De Ste. Croix is a theological and history professor at Oxford University. His insights helped to provide other theories as to why this occurred and its historical legacy.[footnoteRef:2] [2: GE De Ste.

Croix, "Why were the Early Christians Persecuted," Past and Present, 26, no.2, (November 1963): 6 -- 38. ] How did the Pax Romana help the spread of the Gospel? Pax Romana occurred from 27 BC to 180 AD. This is after the Emperor Augustus rose to power and eliminated any kind of rivalries throughout the Roman Empire. During this time, there were tremendous amounts of roads / public works projects built, trade and freedom of movement inside different regions of the empire. The article from Moltmann (1971), discusses how this was spread from one region to the next.

Christians were able to travel from one region to the next and discuss the gospels. This resulted in more people learning about God, the sacrifices of Christ and how they can live a better life by embracing these ideas. Pax Romana enabled these individuals to move from one region to the next and promote Christianity from the tremendous amounts of peace and prosperity during this time. Moltmann is a professor of Theology at the University of Tubingen (in Germany). He has written several books on the topic.

The most notable include: Theology of Hope (1967) and Religion, Revolution and the Future (1969).[footnoteRef:3] [3: Jurgen Moltmann, "Political Theology," Theology Today, 28, no. 1, (April 1971): 6-23. ] Heresies of the early church and the councils that dealt with the specific matter (pick a specific item such as the Arian Conflict, Monophysitism, Nestorianism, etc.). The article by Brakke (1994) is looking at the Arian Conflict. This is when there were clear differences of opinions between Eastern and Western theologists about where God came from and the role of Christ on Earth.

At the heart of these arguments, was the question posed by a Bishop name Arian. He believed that God and Christ came from nothing. It was based upon 35 documents he pieced together. This meant that God had divine.