Christianity in the Pax Romana

Christianity - roots
    - Jesus
    - comes from the Gospels
    - "Gospel" means "good news"

    - Jesus was a Jewish itinerant preacher
    - set himself apart from other "Messiahs"
    - Jesus taught God's personal relationship to each human being

    - Jesus believe there will be "Messiah"
    - Jesus was a threat to Roman rule

Start spreading the news
    - Paul of Tarsus was a Jew who became a follower of Jesus
    - Well-travelled, helped found Churches in many places

    - Jews & Christian monotheistic
                                   refuse to worship Roman gods
Problem
    - when things began to go wrong for the Roman Empire, Jews and Christians persecuted by Roman authorities

The appeal of Christianity
  - Because
    - Embrace all people
        - Men AND Women
        - enslaved people
        - the poor
    - gave hope to powerless

Conversion of Constantine (AD 312)
    - Roman emperor has a vision
    - sees an image in the sky of a cross and the words

Edict of Milan in AD 313
    - Christianity becomes a religion which is recognized/approved
    - By 380, becomes empire's official religion

Decline of the Roman Empire
  - Christianity strengthen, Rome weakened
    - Military: too weak to defend huge area
    - Economy: takes too high; widening gap between rich & poor
    - Social: disloyalty, population decrease
    - Political: division  of the empire

the Last Roman emperor was in 476
    - 14-year-old boy named Romulus Augustulus