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How Did The Romans Conversion To Christianity Caused The Fall Of Rome?

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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 …show more content…

The Romans got their gods from defeated civilizations such as Troy. Saint Augustine points out the obvious flaw in this plan by saying that these gods failed to save their earlier civilizations, so why would they save Rome? Saint Augustine also refutes the claim that abandoning the Roman gods caused Rome to fall by pointing out past failures, such as when Romans died in crushing battles, like Cannae and Trasimene. The old gods did not save these Romans. He also points out how Rome was weakened by their immorality that their pagan gods encouraged. Saint Augustine counters the arguments that the Roman’s new God did not hold up his end of their covenant with him, saying that God makes the rain fall everyone, so that the virtuous can practice patience, and the unvirtuous can still have time on this earth to improve so they don’t suffer eternal damnation. The Christian God also did not interfere because the barbarian invaders were also Christian and hopefully more virtuous so why would God interfere with free

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