¶ … 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…
