The document provides an overview of the origins and spread of Christianity. It discusses the religious traditions that influenced early Christianity, including Greco-Roman polytheism, the mystery cults, and Judaism. It then describes the life and teachings of Jesus based on the Gospels. It discusses how Christianity grew from a small Jewish sect into a major world religion, in large part due to the missionary efforts of Paul. It also describes some of the key figures and doctrines that helped establish Christianity, such as the Nicene Creed formulated at the Council of Nicaea.

1. CHRISTIANITY
The soil in which Christianity came to flower was an amalgam
of many local traditions. The Greco-Roman world was
polytheistic, dominated by strongly secular values. Throughout
the East Roman Empire, more mystical forms of worship—the
mystery cults—honored a variety of gods and goddesses
associated with fertility and regeneration. Finally, in the
birthplace of Jesus himself, the Hebrews practiced an exclusive
form of ethical monotheism. The faith that would come to be
called Christianity had roots in these three major traditions:
Greco-Roman, Near Eastern, and Jewish.
The Greco-Roman Background
Roman religion, like Roman culture itself, was a blend of native
and borrowed traditions. Ancient pagan religious rituals marked
seasonal change and celebrated seedtime and harvest. Augury,
the interpretation of omens (a practice borrowed from the
Etruscans), was important to Roman religious life as a means of
predicting future events. As with the Greeks, Rome’s favorite
deities were looked upon as protectors of the household, the
marketplace, and the state. The Romans welcomed the gods of
non-Roman peoples and honored them along with the greater
and lesser Roman gods. This tolerance contributed to the lack of
religious uniformity in the Empire, as well as to wide
speculation concerning the possibility of life after death. Roman
poets pictured a shadowy underworld in which the souls of the
dead survived (similar to the Greek Hades and the Hebrew
Sheol), but Roman religion promised neither retribution in the
afterlife nor the reward of eternal life.
Mystery Cults
Throughout much of the Near East, agricultural societies
celebrated seasonal change by way of symbolic performances of

2. the birth, death, and rebirth of the gods. The cults of Isis in
Egypt, Cybele in Phrygia, Dionysus in Greece, and Mithra in
Persia are known collectively as “mystery cults,” because their
initiation rituals were secret (mysterios). These cults embraced
symbolic acts of spiritual death and rebirth, such as ritual
baptism and a communal meal at which the flesh and blood of
the god was consumed. Mithraism, the most widespread of the
mystery cults, looked back to ancient Persia’s Zoroastrian belief
in the rival forces of Light and Dark (Good and Evil) (see page
15). Devotees of Mithra, the god of light, anticipated spiritual
deliverance and everlasting life. Mithraism required strict
initiation rites, periods of fasting, ritual baptism, and a
communal meal of bread and wine. Mithra’s followers
celebrated his birth on December 25th, that is, at the winter
solstice that marked the sun’s annual “rebirth.” The cult of
Mithraism excluded women but was enormously popular among
Roman soldiers, who identified with Mithra’s heroic prowess
and self-discipline.
Judea Before Jesus
The young Jewish preacher and healer known as Joshua (Greek,
Jesus ) was born in the city of Bethlehem during the reign of the
Roman emperor Augustus. The territory in which he lived had
become the Roman province of Judea in 63 B.C.E., when
Pompey had captured Jerusalem. These were troubled times for
the Jewish population—the Romans required imperial taxes and
loyalty to the emperor, while monotheistic Judaism forbade the
worship of Rome’s ruler and its gods. The spiritual values of a
deeply religious community were now threatened by the militant
forces of the most powerful secular empire in history. It is no
wonder that the Roman presence in Judea stirred mutual
animosity and discord, conditions that would culminate in the
Roman destruction of Jerusalem and its Second Temple in 70
C.E
There was discord as well within the Jewish community, as
rabbis debated the meaning of certain parts of Scripture. Many

3. awaited the arrival of a Messiah (Greek, Christos), the deliverer
anticipated by the Hebrew prophets. The Sadducees, a group of
Jews who followed a strict and literal interpretation of the
Torah, envisioned the Messiah as a temporal leader who would
rescue the Jews from political bondage to Rome. Others, whose
beliefs reflected the religious traditions of the mystery cults of
ancient Egypt and Persia, looked forward to deliverance in the
form of liberation of the immortal soul from the earthly body.
The Pharisees, a scribal class of rabbis, anticipated the advent
of a spiritual redeemer who would usher the righteous to eternal
salvation and the wicked to damnation. The Essenes, a minor
religious all-male sect living in small monastic communities
near the Dead Sea, renounced worldly possessions and practiced
a life of strict self-denial. These ascetics may have been
responsible for the preservation of 942 texts, including some of
the oldest parts of the Hebrew Bible—the Dead Sea Scrolls (so
named for having been found in the caves of Qumran near the
Dead Sea), fragments of which forecast an apocalyptic age
marked by the coming of a Teacher of Truth. In Judea, then, the
climate of religious expectation was altogether receptive to the
appearance of a charismatic leader.
The Coming of Jesus
The historical Jesus is an elusive figure. His name is not
mentioned in the non-Christian literature until almost the end of
the first century C.E.. The Christian writings that describe his
life and teaching, known as the Gospels (literally “Good
News”), date from at least forty years after his death. And since
the Gospel authors or evangelists—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John—gave most of their attention to the last months of Jesus’
life, these books are not biographies in the full sense of the
word. Nevertheless, the Gospels recount the revelations of God
to Jesus, the first of which occurs after Jesus is baptized by
John at the River Jordan in Galilee: “And when Jesus was
baptized, he went up immediately from the water,” writes
Matthew, “and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the

4. Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and
lo, a voice from heaven saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with
whom I am well pleased’ ” (Matthew 3:16–17)
Written in Greek and Aramaic, the Gospels describe the life of
an inspired teacher and healer—a charismatic reformer of
Judaism, who proclaimed his mission to “complete” Hebrew law
and the lessons of the prophets. While the message of Jesus
embraced the ethical demands of traditional Judaism, it gave
new emphasis to the virtues of pacifism and antimaterialism. It
warned of the perils of wealth and the temptations of the secular
world. In simple and direct language, embellished with parables
(stories that illustrated a moral), Jesus urged the renunciation of
material goods (“do not lay up for yourselves treasures on
earth”), not simply as a measure of freedom from temporal
enslavement, but as preparation for eternal life and ultimate
reward in “the kingdom of heaven.” Criticizing the Judaism of
his day, with its emphasis on strict observance of ritual, Jesus
stressed the fundamentals of faith and compassion that lay at
the heart of the Hebrew covenant: love of God and love of one’s
neighbor (Matthew 22:34–40). The God of this new revelation
was stern but merciful, loving, and forgiving. In the landmark
Sermon on the Mount, as recorded by Matthew, Jesus sets forth
the injunctions of an uncompromising ethic: Love your neighbor
as yourself, accept persecution with humility, pass no judgment
on others, and treat others as you would have them treat you.
This ideal, unconditional love is linked to an equally lofty
directive: “You must . . . be perfect, just as your heavenly
Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
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Word of the Jewish preacher from Nazareth, his family home,
and stories of his miraculous acts of healing spread like wildfire
throughout Judea. While the Roman authorities viewed his
presence in Jerusalem as subversive, the Pharisees and the
Sadducees accused Jesus of violating Jewish law. Many Jews

5. also questioned his legitimacy as the biblical Messiah. Finally,
the Romans condemned him as a threat to imperial stability. By
the authority of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, Jesus was
put to death by crucifixion, the humiliating and horrific public
punishment dispensed to thieves and traitors to Rome. All four
of the gospels report that Jesus rose from the dead on the third
day after his death, and that he appeared to his disciples before
ascending into heaven. This event, the resurrection of Jesus,
became fundamental to the Christian faith. In the earliest
representations of Jesus, however, it is not his death on the
Cross, nor the reports of his miraculous resurrection, but his
role as redeemer and protector—hence as Good Shepherd—that
is immortalized (see Figure 4.6).
Paul: Co-Founder of Christianity
The immediate followers of Jesus, a group of disciples or
apostles, claimed not only that Jesus rose bodily from the dead,
but also that this resurrection anticipated a Second Coming in
which all who followed the Messiah would be delivered to the
Kingdom of Heaven. Despite the missionary activities of the
apostles, only a small part of the Judean population—scholars
estimate between 10 and 15 percent—became “Christians,” that
is, followers of Jesus, in the first hundred years after his death.
However, through the efforts of the best known of the apostles,
Paul (d. 65 C.E..), the view of Jesus as a reformer of Judaism
gave way to an image of him as Redeemer and Son of God, and
the fledgling sect of Christians was transformed into a new and
vibrant faith.
THE SPREAD OF CHRISTIANITY
The last great Roman emperors, Diocletian (245–316 C.E.) and
Constantine (ca. 274–337 C.E.), made valiant efforts to
restructure the Empire and reverse military and economic
decline. Resolved to govern Rome’s sprawling territories more
efficiently, Diocletian divided the Empire into western and
eastern halves and appointed a co-emperor to share the burden

6. of administration and defense. After Diocletian retired,
Constantine levied new taxes and made unsuccessful efforts to
revive a money economy. However, in 330 C.E., having failed
to breathe new life into the waning Empire, he moved the seat
of power from the beleaguered city of Rome to the eastern
capital of the Empire, Byzantium, which he renamed
Constantinople (modern Istanbul). This city Constantine
envisioned as “the new Rome.”
A variety of historical factors contributed to the slow but
growing receptivity to Christianity within the Roman Empire.
The decline of the Roman Republic had left in its wake large
gaps between the rich and the poor. Augustus’ efforts to restore
the old Roman values of duty and civic pride had failed to
offset increasing impersonalism and bureaucratic corruption.
Furthermore, as early as the second century B.C.E., Germanic
tribes had been migrating into the West and assaulting Rome’s
borders. Repeatedly, these nomadic people put Rome on the
defensive and added to the prevailing sense of insecurity. Amid
widespread oppression and grinding poverty, Christianity
promised redemption from sins, personal immortality, and a life
to come from which material adversity was absent. The message
of Jesus was easy to understand and free of cumbersome
regulations (characteristic of Judaism) and costly rituals
(characteristic of the mystery cults), and, in contrast to
Mithraism, it was accessible to all—male and female, rich and
poor, free and enslaved. The unique feature of the new faith,
however, was its historical credibility, that is, the fact that
Jesus—unlike the elusive gods of the mystery cults or the
remote Hebrew god—had actually lived among men and women
and had practiced the morality he preached. The spread of
Christianity was helped by the evangelical fervor of the
apostles, the common language of Greek in the eastern part of
the Empire, and the fact that the Pax Romana facilitated safe
travel by land and sea.

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At the outset, however, the new religion failed to win official
approval. While both Roman religion and the mystery cults were
receptive to many gods, Christianity—like Judaism—professed
monotheism. Christians not only refused to worship the emperor
as divine but also denied the existence of the Roman gods. Even
more threatening to the state was the Christian refusal to serve
in the Roman army. While the Romans dealt with the Jews by
destroying Jerusalem, how might they annihilate a people whose
kingdom was in heaven? During the first century, Christian
converts were simply expelled from the city of Rome, but
during the late third century—a time of famine, plague, and
war—Christians who refused to make sacrifices to the Roman
gods of state suffered horrific forms of persecution: They were
tortured, burned, beheaded, or thrown to wild beasts in the
public amphitheaters. Christian martyrs astonished Roman
audiences by going to their deaths joyously proclaiming their
anticipation of a better life in the hereafter.
Not until 313 C.E., when the emperor Constantine issued the
Edict of Milan, did the public persecution of Christians come to
an end. The Edict, which proclaimed religious toleration in the
West, not only liberated Christians from physical and political
oppression, but also encouraged the development of Christianity
as a legitimate faith. Christian leaders were free to establish a
uniform doctrine of belief, an administrative hierarchy,
guidelines for worship, and a symbolic vocabulary of religious
expression. By the end of the fourth century C.E., the minor
religious sect called Christianity had become the official
religion of the Roman Empire.
The Christian Identity
In the first centuries after the death of Jesus, there was
considerable diversity of belief and practice among those who
called themselves Christians. But after the legalization of the

8. faith in 313 C.E., the followers of Jesus moved toward resolving
the issues of leadership, doctrine, and liturgy. In an effort to
resolve disagreements on such issues, Constantine invited
bishops throughout the empire to attend an ecumenical
(worldwide) council, which met at Nicaea, near Constantinople,
in 325 C.E. At the Council of Nicaea, a consensus of opinion
among church members laid the basis for Christian doctrine in
the landmark Nicene Creed—a statement of Christian belief in
such miraculous phenomena as virgin birth, the resurrection of
the dead, and a mystical Trinity (the union of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost in a single divine Godhead)
The Latin Church Fathers
In the formation of Christian dogma (prescribed body of
doctrines) and liturgy in the West, the most important figures
were four Latin scholars who lived between the fourth and sixth
centuries C.E.: Jerome, Ambrose, Gregory, and Augustine. Saint
Jerome (ca. 347–420 C.E.), a Christian educated in Rome,
translated into Latin both the Hebrew Bible and the Greek books
of the New Testament. This mammoth task resulted in the
Vulgate, the Latin edition of Scripture that became the official
Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. Although Jerome
considered pagan culture a distraction from the spiritual life, he
admired the writers of Classical antiquity and did not hesitate to
plunder the spoils of Classicism to build the edifice of a new
faith.
Like Jerome, Ambrose (339–397 C.E.) fused Hebrew, Greek,
and Southwest Asian traditions in formulating Christian
doctrine and liturgy. A Roman aristocrat who became bishop of
Milan, Ambrose wrote some of the earliest Christian hymns for
congregational use.
The contribution of the Roman aristocrat Gregory the Great (ca.
540–604 C.E.) was vital to the development of early Church
government. Elected as pope in 590 C.E., Gregory established

9. the administrative machinery by which all subsequent popes
would govern the Church of Rome. A born organizer, Gregory
sent missionaries to convert England to Christianity, and he
extended the temporal authority of the Roman Church
throughout Western Europe. Despite a lack of historical
evidence, Gregory’s name is associated with the codification of
the body of chants that became the liturgical music of the early
Church (see Figure 4.1).
The most profound and influential of all the Latin church
fathers was Augustine of Hippo (354–430 C.E.). A native of
Roman Africa, Augustine converted to Christianity at the age of
thirty-three. Intellectually, he came under the spell of both Paul
and Plotinus, a third-century C.E. Egyptian-born Neoplatonist.
His treatises on the nature of the soul, free will, and the
meaning of evil made him the greatest philosopher of Christian
antiquity. Before his conversion to Christianity, Augustine had
enjoyed a sensual and turbulent youth, marked by womanizing,
gambling, and fathering an illegitimate child. Augustine’s
lifelong conflict between his love of worldly pleasures,
dominated by what he called his “lower self,” and his love of
God, exercised by the “higher part of our nature,” is the focus
of his fascinating and self-scrutinizing autobiography, known as
the Confessions (ca. 400 C.E.) In the Confessions, Augustine
makes a fundamental distinction between physical and spiritual
modes of personal experience. His perception of the human
being as the site of warring elements—the “unclean body” and
the “purified soul”—drew heavily on the Neoplatonist duality of
Matter and Spirit and on the Pauline promise that the sin of
Adam might be cleansed by the sacrifice of Jesus. Augustine’s
dualistic model—matter and spirit, body and soul, earth and
heaven, Satan and God, state and Church—governed Western
thought for centuries. The conception of the visible world
(matter) as an imperfect reflection of the divine order (spirit)
determined the allegorical character of Christian culture.
According to this model, matter was the matrix in which God’s

10. message was hidden. In Scripture, and in every natural and
created thing, God’s invisible order might be discovered. For
Augustine, the Hebrew Bible was a symbolic guide to Christian
belief, and history itself was a cloaked message of divine
revelation.