From Roman Empire to Christian Europe

What is Jesus' significance?

Jesus’ legacy

• Jesus –Hebrew prophet, but also the bearer of a message that was to transform the world

• His life ended in crucifixion –this event is a point of intersection of the three main developments of the ancient world –Hebrew, Greek, and Latin:

• Hebrew prophet• Executed by a Roman governor• His teachings were written down in Greek:• These documents became the sacred texts of a church

that was associated with the Roman empire• The church outlasted the destruction of the empire

• Why was Jesus’ teaching revolutionary?

Jesus’ teaching

• Revolutionary in terms of Greek, Roman, and Hebrew tradition

• Hebrew idea of God, who was omnipotent, just, was broadened to include mercy that tempered the justice

• Greek, Roman religion: outward- ritual acts• Christianity: inward, spiritual• All human beings are equal in the eyes of the

creator – this idea ran counter to the institution of slavery

Jesus, Hebrew Prophet,The Anointed, The Messiah

6th c. Representation of Jesus

Rubens, Jesus

Rubens, The Descent from the Cross

•How did Jesus become the expression of divine mercy?

• Jesus was rejected by his contemporaries• His resurrection provided his followers with a

symbol of a new dispensations:• The son of God in human form suffering to

atone for the sins of humanity• Paul, apostle to the Gentiles, changed

Christianity from a Jewish sect to a worldwide movement all over Asia minor, Greece, and Rome

• Frailty and corruption of this life and the certainty of resurrection

El Greco, Apostle Paul of the Gentiles

•How did the Roman empire collapse?

Rome’s decline

• 218-268 A.D. one short-lived emperor after another was killed by his own troops

• The Goths to the north and the Persians to the east invaded the eastern provinces

• Economic resources of the empire were drained to pay and equip the armies

• Debasement of the gold and silver currency

•How did Christianity survive?

The growth of Christianity

• Through all the years of turmoil the Christian church, persecuted by imperial authorities (Nero, Marcus Aurelius, Diocletian) – was growing in numbers and influence

• 305 A.D. Constantine declared himself Christian and enlisted the support of the Church in his reorganization of the empire

Constantine

•How did the empire become two separate states?

Rome’s split

• Rome could no longer serve as the strategic center of the empire

• The western and eastern halves of the empire needed separate administrative and military organization

• The two halves of the empire were distinct cultural and linguistic entities :Latin and Greek

• Constantine established a new capital for his reign on the site of the Greek city Byzantium and renamed it Constantinople

• 391 –Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire

Byzantium

•How did the church separate?

The church

• In the east the capital founded by Constantine maintained a Greek-speaking Christian empire for many centuries until, after a long battle against the advance of Islam, the city fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453

• In the west, in 410 Rome fell to the Visigoths• Many of the western provinces had been overrun by new

people moving south• But the Church survived, to convert the conquerors to the

Christian religion• The church established the cultural and religious

foundations of the European Middle Ages

Rubens, St Augustine

Rubens, St. Augustine