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How Did The Religious Shift In The Roman Empire

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Religious Shift

The religious shift in the later centuries of the Roman Empire significantly contributed to its decline due to the differences in beliefs. Based on detailed research, it can be strongly argued that Rome fell in the 5th century CE due to the emergence of Christianity, and consequential shift from Paganism to Christianity, resulting in the fall of traditional, religious-based Roman policies, which were the foundation of the Roman Empire. The emperor of Rome in 3rd century, Constantine, had specific motives, goals and justifications for decreeing Christianity as the main religion, which initially impacted the governance of Rome. With the presence of Christianity, there were also social and political changes that impacted the governance of the empire, and the stability of Rome. …show more content…

The atmosphere and attitude of the Roman Empire was religiously hostile, for example, many Jews witnessed hostility between religions during the rule of Rome, as highlighted by historian Edwin Gibbon (1776), where he states, “From the reign of Nero to that of Antonius Pius, the Jews discovered a fierce impatience of the dominion of Rome, which repeatedly broke out in the most furious massacres and insurrections”. Emperor Nero’s actions contributed to the notion that Rome was a destructive and adverse people, as referred to by Roman senator and historian Tacitus (1st century CE)

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This changed when Constantine, a Roman emperor, became a Christian, which lead to the large majority of

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As centuries went on, more Roman emperors began to accept Christianity. Constantine, who incorporated into it several Greek philosophies, finally legalized it in 313 C.E. Christianity also connected the Romans and “barbarians”, leading it to become a highly positive change in the Roman

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Thesis: The spread of Christianity in Rome during the first few centuries AD had a profound impact on the Roman Empire's social, political and religious landscape, as it provided a new sense of community and belonging, introduced a new moral code, and ultimately led to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. In recent years, there has been much debate among historians and scholars about the impact of the spread of Christianity in Rome during the first few centuries AD. Some argue that this event had a profound impact on the Roman Empire's social, political, and religious landscape, while others argue that its impact was relatively small.

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In many societies, ancient and modern, religion has performed a major role in their development, and the Roman Empire was no different. Religion has also became altered over a period of time. From the beginning, Roman religion was polytheistic. However, later on all of their gods would be washed away, and replaced by Christianity. In 313 AD, the Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal and for the first time, meaning people were allowed to openly worship.

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Alana Ballentine-Petty 10/9/15 6c History Brokaw How Christianity helped lead to the fall of Rome The problems all started when Constantine the great made Christianity the official religion of Rome. This paper is not just a regular old boring history essay. No not at all, this paper tells a story. A story of how an ancient civilization was destroyed and how the religion of Christianity helped.

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In City of God, St. Augustine discusses how it was not the Romans’ conversion to Christianity that caused the fall of Rome. While the pagans blamed the fall of Rome on the acceptance of Christianity and the rejection of Roman pagan gods, St. Augustine refutes this claim by explaining how the Roman gods failed to protect their worshippers and how the Christian God did not. The first pagan argument was that their gods abandoned them in retaliation for many Romans converting to Christianity. The pagans argued that their gods had protected them for hundreds of years, because Rome still prevailed against great military foes, such as Hannibal’s army. When Christianity rose to acceptance and offerings to the old gods declined, Rome was soon sacked

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A couple of factors that were to blame were: religion, political corruption, economic decline, and threats of invasion. What really began the crumble was in the hands of a man named Constantine. In 313 C.E., Constantine, who was the emperor at the time, made Christianity an official state religion of the empire. For the first time, Romans considered their emperor a god

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The views on Christianity throughout Rome changed immensely from the early years of the empire through the fourth century. For a while, Christians were looked at as a threat to many because of their belief in monotheism. Nero and his followers persecuted and punished the lower class and women who followed Christianity as well as use them as political scapegoats. As time went on, the tolerance for Christianity in Rome grew and Christianity gained acceptance. By the fourth century, Christianity was the official religion in Rome.

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This was due mostly to the Pagans and the Christians. Paganism was the official religion of Rome at that time, so when Christianity came to be, tension erupted between them. It is believed that the Pagans thought that the Christians would try to drive out the Gods, causing wars to break out between them, lasting many years and depleting most of the money of the Roman Government. Eventually, the Pagans came to the realization that the Christians were not trying to drive out their Gods.

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Gibbon also believed that Christianity 's pacifism interfered with the traditional Roman naval spirit. He stated that Christianity destroyed the unity of the Empire believing that the religion only divided the Christians whose continuous battle was over each other’s differences on the doctrine that led to many killings of people. Christianity also replaced Roman’s polytheistic religion and changed their focus away from the honor of the state and into one main deity. Even though the spread of Christianity may have played a small role in Roman’s fall, a lot of historians believe that its influence lost significance as opposed to the military, economic and leadership

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