How Did The Byzantine Impact On Christianity

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Throughout this week we discussed a wide range of different regions that were impacted by Christianity along with the Empires and countries that rose and fell from the religion. This is all remarkably interesting to me as I did not expect the impacts of Christianity to be as large as they did to even

Empires. Take for example, the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was one of the world's most dominant superpowers at the time. This lasted all the way until the initial rising of Christianity. As

Christianity began to spread the empire slowly crippled due to the controversy of religion within and the physical battles being fought around. The specific piece of this week's module that I would like to focus on is the Byzantine empire

These people made many changes from the initial Roman empire. Most famously, the fact that it was built upon the Christian Religion, the thing that caused the crippling of the Romans. This empire also incorporated many pieces of Greek culture, including the language. The people within the

Empire had many different religions and ethnic backgrounds. The article “Byzantine Culture and Society” by Khan Academy states, “As it incorporated Greek and Christian culture, it transformed into a unique

Byzantine culture. Additionally, the Byzantine Empire was influenced by Latin, Coptic, Armenian, and

Persian cultures. Later on, it was influenced by Islamic cultures as well,” (Khan Academy). The culture outside the Byzantine was unique and influential. This was not the only piece of the Empire that was unique. The market and economic side were unique too. The article later goes on to state, “Taxes for foreign traders were the same as for residents, which was pretty unique at that time. Byzantine merchants actively traded with regions in the Mediterranean as well as in the east and west, including areas around the Black Sea, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean,” (Khan

This form of Christianity is not commonly seen today but was very influential to the time. The Church was used as a part of the state and represented in many ways. The region, as stated before, was strongly connected to the government. The article continues to explain

“Patriarchs, bishops and priests were instructed to deliver sermons which supported imperial policy and encouraged obedience to the government,” (History Doctor). It is interesting to see such a strong connection to the government, which is not common in today's world.

After viewing how the culture and religion worked in the Empire, it is clear it held heavy influences on what was discussed in the module. It defines the separation between the Romans and the Byzantines, a crucial part of this week's module.

Works Cited: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/medieval-times/byzantine- empire/a/byzantine-culture-and-

society#:~:text=As%20it%20incorporated%20Greek%20and,was%20an%20extremely%20diverse%20city