Spread Of Christianity Research Paper

Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire. In the coming of Christ, a religion settled on the certainty of Messiah in Judaism. Christianity began as a value in Judaism centered on the teachings of Jesus. Following the death of Jesus, Jesus disciples broadcasted it to the non-Jewish people in the Roman Empire. Mainly in the hands of Paul of Tarsus, Christianity turned out to be a widespread religion. Christianity was attractive to many because it gave the Roman world a cause. Christianity gave its devotees a sense of community, which was very welcome in the often highly mobile world of the Roman Empire. Having Christianity the main religion of Rome was not an easy job because the Roman Empire was extremely rooted in its

Paul traveled all over the Roman Empire and wrote letters of advice to many groups. These letters were copied and widely circulated, transforming Jesus’s ideas into more specific moral teachings. As a result of his efforts Paul became the most important figure in changing Christianity from a Jewish sect into a separate religion. The breadth of the Roman Empire was another factor behind the spread of Christianity. The Roman system of roads enabled early Christians easily to spread their faith throughout the known world, as Jesus had told his followers to do, making his teachings universal. The earliest Christian converts included people from all social classes. These people were reached by missionaries and others who spread the Christian message through family contacts, friendships, and business networks. Many women were active in spreading Christianity. The growing Christian communities differed about the extent in which women should participate in the workings of the religion; some favored giving women a larger role in church affairs, while others were more restrictive. Christianity offered the possibility of forgiveness, for believers accepted that human nature is weak and that even the best Christians could fall into sin. Pagans in the Roman Empire misunderstood Christian practices and beliefs. They thought the ritual of the Lord’s Supper, at which Christians said

Constantinople, the New Rome, was constructed on the site of Byzantium, an old Greek city on the Bosporus, a strait on the boundary between Europe and Asia. The Byzantine society was distributed into a hierarchy of social groups. Powerful connections established amongst the Byzantine emperors and the church. The Byzantine emperors was the key role in church affairs. The Byzantines repeatedly engaged in heated discussion on religious matters and such arguments often became political issues and led to fights and riots. One such major controversy developed in the A.D. 700's over the use of "icons" in the Greek Orthodix Church. This not only became a religious issue but a poitical one as well. The emperor Leo III's decision to remove all religious icons from the churches of the Byzantine Empire was resisted by Church leaders and the general public, These people were supported by the Church of Rome which was just as an important center of Christainity. The Roman pope's involvement in the controversy strained the relations between the Eastern and Western Churches. Feeling his authority being challenged, the emperor Leo III asserted his power and suppressed demonstrations in favor of icons. The Western and Eastern Churches had disagreed on a number of religious and political issues. As the centuries passed, the disagreements intensified. Some of the disagreements between the Western and Eastern Churches, were following: the