Why did Christianity spread so successfully while the Roman Empire declined?

Answer 1

In the year 313 A.D. the Roman Emperor Constantine adopted Christianity as the main religion of the Roman Empire. Because Christianity is largely based off of Mithraism , which was the religion of many of the Roman citizens, Christianity was fairly easily adopted.

Eventually, due to the split of the Roman empire to east and west. The west Roman Empire became the oppressive Catholic church, and the west Roman Empire became the almost equally oppressive Orthodox church, which controlled Europe for the next 500 years.

Answer 2

There were many reasons that early Christianity succeeded, and to begin to understand the matter, it is necessary to look at the development of Christianity region by region, and city by city.

At least we know that the message brought by the early missionaries of the Church, the Apostles and others, appears to have "stuck a chord," which is to say that it was in harmony with what some people were seeking.

At that time, people were finding the traditional religion no longer satisfying. A minority were turning to Judaism, or at least were attending the synagogue, in what the Acts calls "god fearers," and which is testified elsewhere in non-Jews being somehow associated with the synagogue or Judaism. This can be seen from an inscription discovered at Aphrodisias, in the comments of Roman authors on non-Jews following Jewish customs, and in the appearance of a cult of the "Highest God."

Greek philosophy, although formally recognizing the traditional cults, was effectively working to undermine them, since it was leading in the direction of arguing that there was only one god over all things. Christianity neatly fitted into that environment.

However, Christianity progressed at different speeds in different places, and suffered a number of setbacks along the way. One small example of this can be seen in a couple of letters sent by Pliny the Younger to Emperor Trajan. He was sent by Trajan with imperial authority to the province of Bithynia and Pontus at the beginning of the second century AD. His letters show that Christianity had already penetrated the country areas of this region, with the traditional cults being effectively abandoned there. Pliny claimed that he had been able to suppress the Christian religion in the province, although it is clear that it was still persistent, despite his efforts.

Despite its success, until the third century AD, Christianity was very much a minority movement, with most people thinking Christian teachings had little to offer them. Nevertheless, Christianity continued to grow, and necessarily provoked a response from its opponents, as they became concerned about this development. Amongst these was Lucian of Samosata, the second century skeptic and satirist. He was somewhat ambivalent about Christians. He thought them gullible and easily taken in by those who pretended to be believers; nevertheless, he observed that they cared for one another, and were at least not easily taken in by Alexander of Abonoteichus, who invented a new cult, which both he and they rejected.

The third century saw Christianity taking the high ground in the Greek intellectual world. The Christian philosopher Origen was a major contributor to this transformation.

At the same time, it appears that the churches in the major cities and provincial capitals began to be led by people who had considerable status in the community. In a world where status and patronage played such an important part, this must have contributed somewhat to the increasing popularity of Christianity.

As a result of all these factors, by the end of the third century, in Anatolia (modern Turkey) in particular, Christianity was becoming much more than a small minority movement. It was probably already quite strong in the original homelands of what was now called Palestine, and in Syria, as evidenced by the presence of bishops from nearly every city of that part of the world at the Council of Nicaea, held early in the fourth century.

In Egypt, the church seems to grow quite quickly at the end of the third century AD amongst the native Egyptians (the Copts). The piety and extreme devotion of those who left their communities and lived alone in cells in the desert seems to have met a response amongst the ordinary people. Egypt, at the time, was a very hard place for the ordinary peasant.

Answer 3

because during Christianity their was a time of peace in rome that is why it succeded my advance placement teacher taught us this

Answer 4

The rapid spread of Christianity coincided with the decline of the Roman Empire, and some historians believe that Christianity contributed to that decline.

Answer 5

It was Emperor Constantine who decreed that Christianity should be the official religion of the Roman Empire.