Knowing the biblical history associated with Jesus (I.e. Pontius Pilate crucifying him to appease the Jews), how did Roman Catholicism end up becoming the dominant religion in the Roman world? It seem like they’d want to distance themselves from that, sort of like how it would be kind of awkward for Jews to accept Jesus as the messiah, ya know?
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Politics. At first the Roman Empire persecuted Christians, originally because it was similar to Judaism which was giving them all sorts of problems, then later as it moved away from Judaism to it’s own thing, because if it’s secretive nature and exclusionary nature to any other religions.
Over time though Christianity became more and more popular. This led to further persecution as it was seen as a political threat to the empire, but when that didn’t do much to stop it’s popularity it was more of if you can’t beat them join them.
So the persecutions lessened and the popularity got enough that it got into the Emperor’s court. The notable Emperor for Christianity was Constantine I, who some think it was his mother who introduced him to Christianity. After a major battle was won where Constantine had his forces display a symbol of Christianity on their shields (I can’t remeber is it was the cross or the Greek letters of Chi and Rho), the Emperor ended any and all official persecution of Christianity. With it now being allowed to officially be practised in the open, and it’s sanction by the Emperor, the popularity of Christianity exploded. So much so that Constantine I was the fist emperor to convert to Christianity, however it was on his deathbed. Some scholars believe that Constantine’s embrace of Christianity was more political than one of actual faith, seeing the writing on the wall and not wanting to get onto the wrong side of the people.
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