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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A very interesting read & detailed explanation:
ZEALOT: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
By Reza Aslan
Early communalism in some (not all, but some) Christian communities was unconditionally altruistic, giving needed material goods to others without. Although communalism itself is rare today except in specific Christian denominations such as the Hutterites, unconditional religious altruism continues today in most Christian denominations. Furthermore, as a religion, Christianity has always systematically encouraged the formation of social networks that are family-like but outside the family, in the form of a defined congregation of believers.
This all is *very* pragmatically-useful in a time without a substantial social safety net.
There were other religions in the Middle Roman Period that had a congregational model, but they did not lean in as hard to the unconditional altruism component. Of the many nonreligious or panreligious fraternal, service, and civic clubs today that are organized similarly — Lions and Rotarians; Freemasons and Oddfellows — the longest-lasting and most successful are always those which create strong social support networks for members.
So then for Christianity, Christianity also had the added advantage of preaching equality between slaves and the upper class. Recall that the shortest book of the Bible, Philemon, is the text of a letter that Paul purportedly gave to Onesimus, a former slave who had run away from his master, Philemon. In the letter, Paul tells Philemon that he should receive Onesimus as a free man and as a brother, and that if Onesimus owes Philemon anything, Paul will pay it the next time he drops by. If you are a slave in 1st-century Rome, this kind of message is *fundamentally* ideologically attractive.
This is how Christianity expanded from just some people who told stories about a Judaean preacher, into a major religious minority encompassing 10% of Roman citizens by 300 AD. The details of belief were mostly irrelevant to the spread; [it was the social structure that was attractive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historiography_of_the_Christianization_of_the_Roman_Empire#Possible_reasons_for_a_grassroots_spread).
Preaching equality between classes is great and all, but it poses a problem for the upper class. If 10% of people have decided that slaves are equal to their masters, and, oh, also, our preacher said you are ethically obligated to share everything you have with others and you are a fundamentally flawed person if you do not, this belief starts to create the conditions for revolution.
If you are a Roman noble at the beginning of the 4th century, you could argue publicly that you are actually better than slaves, but that sounds arrogant, and you might make the slaves mad. Alternatively, you could claim to agree with equality between people.
(Of course, once you do, then this doesn’t *automatically require* anything to change, right? You are, after all, equal to the poor, even though you are rich. Right?)
Any hesitancy you might have in adopting the position of ethical equality between people, is gone once the ruler of the Empire has also adopted a religion saying so. Human equality is a position with inherent moral force, but once it receives official favor from the ultimate authority in society, it becomes *respectable*.
And that is how the Roman Empire ended up Christian.
Well, you have to hand it to the early Christian marketing team – those folks knew a thing or two about branding and market dominance strategies. Sure, the Roman authorities executed their CEO and founder in a brutal public display. But rather than let that be a setback, the remaining leadership pivoted to an aggressive grassroots marketing blitz that was years ahead of its time.
They took the tragic crucifixion story and spun it into a compelling martyr narrative that tugged at the heartstrings. Rich symbols like the cross, crown of thorns, and rising from the grave created a coherent brand identity. The “turn the other cheek” and “love thy neighbor” slogans oozed the kind of inspirational authenticity that modern companies dream of.
But the real stroke of genius was adopting the Roman Emperor Constantine as their premier influencer influencer in the 4th century. Getting the literal leader of Rome to co-sign your newfangled religion? Genius! From there, it was easy to convert the crumbling empire into a captive customer base.
Once Christianity became the official Roman brand, they employed classic corporate strong-arming tactics to snuff out the competition from those pesky pagan rivals. A few excommunications and empire-wide rebrands later, and the Christian brand had achieved total market saturation!
So while the J.C. himself may have gotten a raw deal from Roman leadership, you can’t argue with the results of his marketing team’s “disruptive” brand proliferation strategy. Papal supremacy, divine and authoritative…. it was an IPO to make any modern unicorn jealous!
This question seems extremely unresearched. Like, I understand if you come here asking for an explanation on a subject you tried to understand, but it’s complex or it is difficult to find information, so you’d like a simpler explanation. However, this just seems like a passing thought without any effort.
A simple Google search would have answered 90% of your question – Constantine claims he saw a cross in the sky before a battle that he won, so he switched to Christianity, thus the empire switched to Christianity. It’s more nuanced than that. But it doesn’t seem like you even looked into it before asking. At least put some effort in before asking others.
Rome didn’t just become Christian, Christianity became Roman.
Christianity was spreading quickly but also splintering into different creeds and it was kinda localised. Emperor Constantine unified the different creeds into the Nicene creed by working together with important bishops and trying to address some of the differences and debates that existed at the time.
This intertwined the church with the empire since the bishops were given legitimacy, access and most importantly money and land, while the Empire was given oversight of the growing religion. This also meant that those opposing the Nicean creed would be undermined and often persecuted since they were heretics.
Edict of Milan made Christianity legal. Constantine eventually converted.
IIRC…His son would go on to support the various ecumenical councils and also effectively shattered the Jewish Sanhedrin.
When someone worships Zeus and then learns about Isis or Mithras it doesn’t mean they leave Zeus behind.
When someone learns about Jesus they leave Zeus behind. Overtime enough of this meant the followers of Jesus won out.
Roman’s had a lot of gods and a lot of holidays.
At the time of Christianity I read that some 10% of the empire had turned Jewish. Becoming Christian was soooo much easier. (something about the requirement to be circumcised to be Jewish)
Unlike the prevailing religions, these new Christians preached forgiveness and love more than vengeance and draconian punishment.
I mean they got rid of living sacrifice. A cow in those days probably cost as much as car today.
Lots of good answers here, but I think there’s a problem with the premise of your question. The Roman people and Jewish people did not kill Jesus. A select few did. Many, if not most, early Christians were Jews, as was Jesus. Most, if not all, early Christians were Roman. His death was more political than anything else.
Humans in position of power understand that controlling mass amounts of other humans require they have faith in a divine being, which sets up the course of their human existence and allows for humans in power to dictate what lower hierarchy humans should do. Religion has always been used to control people…..
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