| The endurance test: what made the Christian god outlast the rest? |
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| Thursday, 26 June 2008 01:39 |
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Nicole Reardon Unpack the issues...
Apollo, Poseidon, Zeus, Mercury, Aphrodite, Jupiter, Hera…names of Greek and Roman Gods whose cults were flourishing at a time when followers of Jesus were being widely persecuted. Yet 2000 years later, the names of these divinities have been forgotten or are associated with little more than myths, while Christianity is flourishing with followers worldwide. With the ancient world rife with religions and cults competing for followers, how did the Christian god manage to outlast the rest? In the book of Matthew, it says Jesus told his disciples to, “Go out and make disciples of all nations.” This is exactly what they did — with a little help from the ancient Romans. While they were out conquering other nations, the Romans also built roads, traded in slaves and discovered different faiths, allowing for foreign religions to quickly spread throughout the empire. Christianity had arrived in Rome by the late 40s AD. This was followed soon after with the arrival of the Apostle Paul in Rome at the beginning of Nero’s reign. Unlike many of the Roman and foreign gods, Christian ideology offered the concept of equality in the afterlife and people quickly drifted towards faiths that offered new hope as the stability of the late Empire began to unravel under the control of the Emperor Nero. The concept of there being one single god wasn’t anything new to the Romans. However, Christianity did instigate a change in philosophy: that God had more power than the Emperor and Rome itself. The fact that God was regarded as more powerful than the Emperor was more than a minor issue. Many Christians were persecuted for refusing to take part in the state worship of the Roman Gods and Emperor. This included being exiled, goaled or put to death by crucifixion or fire. Yet Christianity persevered, building in numbers and power, with the Emperor Constantine finally legalising Christianity throughout the Roman Empire in 313 AD. The concept of Christianity had by this stage been spread throughout the world, mainly by pilgrims who felt it was their role to spread the word of God. However, it was the issuing of the Edict of Milan by Constantine in 313 AD which established it as a world religion. Yet its political acceptance doesn’t explain why the Christian god was universally recognised. Even though one of the images of God presented in the Bible is of an all-powerful being with the ability to wipe out whole armies, this can’t be seen as the reason for Christianity’s success. The dramatic failure of the Holy crusades — directed at Muslim states in the Middle East, which lasted from 1096 to 1270 AD —is just one example of how Christianity has been rejected when it has been violently forced upon people. Instead, the religion spread as people recognised familiar parallels between the Christian god and local deities. For instance, there are similarities between Jesus and the Egyptian God Horus, who was born of the virgin Goddess Isis. There are also many resemblances between Mithras, the Persian god of the sun, and Christ. Interestingly, the only celebration or ceremony the Bible records Jesus as commanding his followers to observe is the sharing of bread and wine in the Passover meal. Nonetheless, today many Christian holy celebrations are observed. This is because, in an attempt to convert followers of pagan gods and to promote Christian ethics, Christians adopted many of the pagan festivals and changed them to promote their own religious concepts. It worked. These days, Christmas is associated with the birth of Jesus Christ as opposed to the ancient Babylonian festival known as the Feast of Isis, the god of nature, which was held on December 25. Raucous partying, eating and drinking and gift-giving were traditions of this pagan feast, very similar to the way the Christian celebration is celebrated today. Easter is also regarded as religiously significant as the time when Christ was crucified and resurrected. It is no longer associated with the pagan goddess of the dawn and of spring, Eostre. So what does make the Christian god so great? What made this deity outlast so many other ancient gods? Looking back, we are presented with the formation of a powerful religious movement shaped by empirical conquests, political motives and cultic adaptations. Yet the religious followings of all divinities have been subject to these things. Many gods have now been forgotten, but the Christian god is still thriving. Unpack the issues...
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Apollo, Poseidon, Zeus, Mercury, Aphrodite, Jupiter, Hera…names of Greek and Roman Gods whose cults were flourishing at a time when followers of Jesus were being widely persecuted. 2000 years later, their names have almost been forgotten while Christianity is flourishing...
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