Rome's Contribution to Today's Society

Rome's Contribution to Today's Society

Wars of conquest, the birth of democracy and the foundation of modern civilization characterized the Roman era. However, the era's single most important contribution to modern society was Rome's adoption of Christianity. Christianity, having its foundational roots in Judaism, was born in the midst of the Roman era. It has shaped today's society on many different levels with varying degrees of legal, political and sociological implications.

Christianity was an outgrowth of Judaism, one of the three major monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) practiced during the Roman era. Monotheistic beliefs established its roots as early as 800 B.C. when the Judaic Israelites lived under Babylonian captivity after the end of the reign of King Solomon (Kagan, et. al., 1995, 28.). Eventually, this triumvirate of religions developed as separate and distinct faiths but shared the core belief that there was one God, who reigns supreme over all creation. Each faith held God on a higher status than man and woman and believed that God was an all-powerful being (Kagan, et. al., 1995, 29.). This belief in the higher status of a single God was the foundation of many modern denominations and religions that are monotheistic in nature. Christians were originally persecuted for their faith, which ran against the established polytheistic beliefs of many Greeks and Romans, who worshiped numerous deities such as Zeus, Apollo and Aphrodite. However, by 394 AD., Christianity emerged as the leading religion of Western Civilization when Emperor Theodosius I declared Christianity to be the official state religion of the Roman Empire. (Kagan, et. al., 1995, 206.) Its tenets and beliefs spread throughou...

... middle of paper ...

...d to many parts of the Pacific Islands to spread the Gospel, and today, Catholicism is a predominant religion in that area. Not only in the Philippines, but also in Taiwan and Korea, Christian fellowships are very common in most places, but rather small. Society has definitely had some degree of change because of Christianity, whether for the better or for the worse.

Christianity has had a tremendous effect on modern society. Without the influence of Christianity, our world would be very different than it is today. Without the Roman era, modern society would not be as it is. The influences of religious and non-religious scholars and philosophers have perceptively changed the world's impression of what religion really is, and what it has to do with everyday life. If not for the religious movements in history, one can only imagine what the planet would be like today.