Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Jesus of Nazareth (ca. 6 B.C. - 30 A.D.)
-preacher and miracle worker
-within Jewish tradition
-"King of the Jews"
-Crucified
-Resurrection
-Messiah or Christ
Peter and Paul
-Founders of the church
Peter -leader of a new sect in Judaism
-came to call themselves "Christians"
-baptism and ritual meal
Paul of Tarsus
-Roman citizen
-Christianity intended for the whole world
-missionary journeys; conversions and founding of churches
Reaction in the Roman world:
Roman government was tolerant of many religions.
-Appeal of Christianity:
--comforting afterlife; belief in God above all other gods; forgiveness
--first converts poor and oppressed; then all classes of society
-Negative reaction:
--aggressive, subversive cult which would not sacrifice to the Emperor.
Roman paganism
-polytheistic; very traditional
-connected to politics
-public: doing the right rituals at the right time.
-saw Christians as stupid, dangerous and unpatriotic
-major problems in the Empire as a whole also turned people against Christians
-Persecutions of Christians especially strong 249-313 A.D.
--Great Persecution (303-313 A.D.), begun under the Emperor Diocletian.
Empire was divided in half for administrative reasons
-An augustus and a caesar ruled in each half: the Tetrarchy (4 Men).
