Christianity and JEsus

Today in Western Civ we began talking about Jesus Jesus and more Jesus:

Christianity in the Pax Romana 
a new religion in the empire

Roots of Christianity

• Jesus and our knowledge about him comes from the gospels 
• gospel means "good news" 

Jesus 

• was a jewish itinerant preacher in Judea who set himself apart from other Messiahs 
• taught God's personal relationship to each human being 
• message of love 

More Roots 

• his followers believed he was the "Messiah" who had come to end the world and bring the truly faithful into the kingdom of God 
• Jesus was believed to be both man and the son of God, human and divine 
• he was deemed a threat to Roman rule and was crucified, although his followers believed he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven teachings were apostles 

Start Spreading the News 

• Paul of Tarsus was a Jew who became a follower of Jesus after a miraculous vision on the road to Damascus 
• Paul talked of "predestination" which meant that God chose who was to be saved and who was to be damned 
• Paul was well traveled and helped found churches in many places, and he kept in touch with the new Christians by letters (Corinth, Thessalonia, Rome, Ephesus, Phillipi, etc) 

"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth"

• BOTH JEWS AND CHRISTIANS WERE MONOTHEISTIC 
• THEY REFused to worship Roman gods (sorry I didn't realize caps was on oh) 
• early in the Pax Romana it was evil to travel around, you weren't in danger of getting robbed or beaten (Paul wasn't the only one) 
• poor Romans were a receptive audience

The "problem" With Monotheism 

• contradicted Roman Law, so both Jews and Christians were sometimes persecuted by Roman authorities 
• could be exiled, imprisoned, executed, crucified, burned, or killed by wild animals 
• this would happen as things began to go wrong for the Roman Empire and scapegoats were needed 
• scapegoat- Aaron confessed Israelites' sins over a goat then sent the goat to carry the sins away symbolically 

The Appeal of Christianity 

• Christianity grew because: 
• embraced all people 
• men
• women 
• slaves
• poor 
• gave home to the powerless 
• appealed to those who were disgusted by imperial Rome's decadence
• offered a personal relationship with God 
• promised eternal life after death