What factors and beliefs of the Roman Empire caused Christianity to spread?

Answer 1

Christianity spread in the Roman Empire because of how much they were persecuted. This may sound weird, but it meant that there were only real Christians, no one who wasnt one claimed to be one. This kept Christianity nice and healthy, unlike another time when you were forced by the Church to be Christian, and this was when Christianity went off tracks for awhile.

Also, people were amazed that Christians would give up their lives so horribly for their God and so the Romans started to think that if they would give up their lives for this 'god' then there must be something real in this faith.

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Answer 2

AnswerSince the time of the early Greek philosophers, the educated elite of the Roman Empire had become, at the very least, agnostic about the existence of the ancient gods. Although they continued to perform their duties during religious festivals, Edward Gibbon says that the common people could hardly have failed to notice the lack of enthusiasm among those they respected.

The Roman Empire was ripe for new ideas in religion. So-called God-fearers embraced Judaism, just in case another of the gods would punish them for failing to worship him. New religions sprang up everywhere, particularly in the eastern empire. Mithraism and the mystery religions were followed in short order by Christianity.

The political unity that Rome brought to the Mediterranean region and much of Europe made travel easy and relatively safe for the first time in history. This allowed missionaries to spread throughout the empire, with their Christian message.

Answer 3

1. Romans built roads every where in the Roman Empire which allowed for Christianity to spread.

2. Greek society was focused on spreading new ideas.

People can add more to this, but overall the timing of Jesus' coming, and the presence of the Roman world as well as the Greek world, shows God's amazing power.

Answer 4

The Christians developed a clergy, which besides officiating ceremonies, undertook to convert pagans. There was a missionary zeal. The pagan gods were indifferent to the human plight and pagan regions were about honoring them by offering them sacrifices to appease them (natural disasters were through to be caused by the wrath of the gods who had not been honoured. Jesus, instead, was compassionate and offered the promise of salvation. The egalitarian ideals of the Christians were appealing, particularly to women.

Before the only true large scale persecution of the Christians there were only a small scale few and sort-lived persecutions. The Romans mostly kept their policy of religious tolerance . after this the emperor Constantine polices favoured the Christians. After him all but one of the emperors were Christians. Thus Christianity received imperial endorsements. These emperors introduced anti-pagan legislation which made it more difficult to practice pagan religions. The emperors Gratian and Theodosius issued an edict which made mainstream Christianity the sole legitimate religion of the empire and banned dissident Christian doctrines. It did not ban paganism; however, Theodosius introduced further laws which made pagan practices effectively illegal. He lso promoted or condoned the destruction of pagan temples and shrines. There was also a persecution of pagans. the measures of these Christian emperors played an important part in Christianity becoming the dominant religion in the empire.

Answer 5

Until the fourth-century reign of Emperor Constantine, Christianity was still very much a minority religion, although growing strongly. Three factors then led to Christianity overtaking paganism and becoming the universal religion of empire:

1. Constantine gave Christianity state patronage, encouraged loyal subjects to become Christians and began the long persecution of the pagan temples.
2. In 380 CE, Emperor Theodosius declared Christianity to be the state religion, and ten years later prohibited the public worship of the old gods. Christian mobs, often led by their bishops began to loot and destroy the temples.
3. In 529, Emperor Justinian issued an edict demanding that all who were not yet baptised receive instruction in the "true faith of Christians"Â to become eligible for baptism. Failure to comply could result in confiscation of property or the loss of the right to an inheritance. Pagan worship was punishable by death.
   

Answer 6

The spread of Christianity was made a lot easier by Paul who traveled across the Roman Empire preaching in some of the empire’s most important cities. Other followers of Jesus helped in spreading the gospel.

Answer 7

People's inspiration from the courage of those who were persecuted for the Christian faith.

Answer 8

Trade, Travel, and Transportation!