Essay on Christianity: From Judaism to Official Religion of Roman Empire

Christianity started and was developed out of the Jewish tradition in Judea province in the first century, it spread across the Roman Empire to a point that it became the official religion for the Empire. The historical contexts by which Christianity was developed influenced its spread. It was first based on the teachings of Jesus as well as the missionary work and writings of Paul of Tarsus. At first, Christianity was unorganized small sect which promised of individual salvation in a life after death and this salvation was only possible by believing in Jesus as the only son of God of the Jews. These early Christians then started debating on whether they were to preach to the Jews only or could also preach to the non-jews converting them into Christians too, finally the religion gained many followers from all over the Roman world and the Jewish communities. This paper tries to explain some of the roles that, as well as other religions, played during and after the fall of the Roman Empire during the Western Civilization.

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It took time to change the Roman religious beliefs in order to fully Christianizing the whole Roman empire. The Western Roman Empire fell in 476 CE, a period when Christianity was spreading steadily across the globe. Research shows that Christianity was not fully-formed or did not appear suddenly but was formed out of the Jewish traditions and later on shaped by political and cultural structures of the Romans for several centuries. During the middle ages, the church replaced the Roman Empire by taking all its unifying force across Europe (Perry 2015). The cathedrals of this middle age still remain to be among the most ionic feats ever produced in the Western Civilization of architecture. The church was able to find many of the Universities in Europe at the time and many historians claim that cathedral schools, as well as universities, were a continuation of the monasteries' promotion of interest in learning. The religious unity in the west was brought to an end by the reformation while Catholic artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael as well as Michelangelo were produced during the renaissance masterpieces and they remain some of the most celebrated for producing great artworks since then.

After western Roman Empire fell in 476, Christianity which was mainly made up of the Catholic church was left being a powerful political and social institution which leads to its influence all over Europe despite persecutions as a result of conflicting with the pagan state religion. The church then started competing with the Christians from the Arian cultures over the conversion of the barbarian tribes into Christianity a competition that they wore hence becoming a form of Christianity that was dominant across Europe.

Communities such as Monastic became learning centers as well as centers for preserving classical culture. The fall of the Roman Empire leads to the weakening of the political and cultural boundaries giving Catholicism an opportunity to spread across Europe to Goths, Irish, Franks as well as English. Hence Christianity worked effortlessly to ensure that they recruited more and more followers each day by converting them into Christianity. They used the gospel to bring people together and to recruiting them to form a strong Christian community, it thought of uniting the people hence playing a stabilizing role during the time.

Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are the three major religions in the world that were all born in the Middle East and at some point, they are all inextricably related or linked to one another in that Christianity was formed from the Jewish tradition while Islam was formed from both Judaism and Christianity. The three religions interchanged cultures in Islamic Spain as well as other places over centuries. They were differentiated with their different way of doing things and having different cultures even despite having the same point of origin in Jewish culture. Christianity was able to convert most people from different cultures and was widely accepted and recognized as a great religion while the Jews were executed and were being fought out of the Roman Empire with most of them being killed while others were protected by the Christians with whom they lived within the communities.

Renaissance is a period between 1400 and 1600 in European history which bridged the middle ages and the modern history periods that occurred in Italy, its primary source. It was an intellectual as well as a cultural movement since it caused a lot of changes that lead to modern society. It was a period whereby people interpreted and expanded philosophies and classical texts with which they revitalized their cultures creating a new style of art, scientific inquiry as well as philosophy. Some of the major developments that occurred during this period include sculpture and painting technique, astronomy, the vernacular language in writing, humanist philosophy, world exploration as well as Shakespeare's works in the late Renaissance.

The plague that occurred during this period causes destruction and loss of lives of many people. It leads to the occurrence of violence whereby most Jews who lived in Germany and other parts in the world were massacred by the Christians as thousands of them were indiscriminately burned everywhere. Many people converted to Christianity due to the plague since they thought that God had sent the plague as a form of punishment, therefore, they converted even in their death beds so that they could at least find a place in heaven once they exited the world, others became Nuns, priests, and women while others became monks. The plague also turned the economy upside-down by disrupting trade and causing most manufacturers to hold their operations since most of the skilled merchants and artisans died during the plague.

The high middle ages were much different from the early middle ages mainly because this period saw many significant events such as the earlier crusades, the signing of the Magna Carta, Norman conquest in Sicily and Britain as well as the investiture controversy. By this period Christianity had spread across all parts of Europe and the Papacy had gained much political force. This age saw medievalism as its peak in terms of political and cultural structure.

Reference

Perry, M. (2015). Western civilization, a brief history. Cengage Learning. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=zaGaBAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR3&dq=renaissance+and+western+civilization&ots=yl9dx9AMBp&sig=XwFZ13eDXhCB1iorKiAi0YXfuoA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=renaissance%20and%20western%20civilization&f=false