How did Christianity help democracy?

Answer 1

It is hard to find any evidence that Christianity played any positive role in the spread of democracy.

The Christian Roman Emperors, beginning with Constantine, were even more anti-democratic than their pagan predecessors. Before the reign of Constantine, there were some tentative reforms that could possibly have opened the way towards some form of democratic institution, but Constantine absorbed all power to himself, even introducing the process that would lead to medieval vassalage - the antithesis of democracy. Of course, it may be true that Constantine would have taken these action whether or not he became a Christian. Once Christianity was in the ascendancy in the fourth century, the emperors, assisted by the Church, began the long persecution of the pagans.

South African whites saw Judeo-Christian traditions as justifying their disenfranchisement of South African blacks, and American slave owners used The Bible to justify the continuation of slavery in the United States.

Whether or not Hitler was a true, practising Christian, he used religion to justify many of his actions. Even today, some Christian religious leaders see Judeo-Christian traditions as justifying the right of the Church to assert its domination over the state, to the detriment of real democracy. A true, vibrant democracy requires the separation of Church and State, with respect by each for the traditions and roles of the other.