Why was Christianity unpopular with the
Romans? Briefer While
Roman Laws tolerated nearly all religions, Christianity was the exception
because they were not an old religion and thus not licensed atheism like the
Jews with their ancient religion going back to Moses, but Christians lack this
history and were thus unlicensed atheism that had to be rooted out. The pagan
Celsus criticized the Christians that they were simple people who could not
discuss with intellectuals. He said they were uneducated, simple, and arrogant
to go against the long traditions of the fathers in each country. He said they
did not respect the protective and benefits that the state provided them.
Therefore, he considered them atheists. Felix about 80 years later than Celsus
said that the Christians of his day do not use good body-lotion, they do not
attend contests, they do not go to eat at banquets, they do not pay respect to
the gods of the culture. The authors Balagangadhara and Claerhout found that authors
are saying that Christians through these centuries “Anticipating the end of the
world any moment and projecting the second coming of Christ onto the immediate
future, the zeal of the Christians tended to ignore the cultural matrix they
were functioning in. But, when it became clear that the world would not end so
soon, their problem became obvious: they were a people without tradition.” The
Romans had toleration for all religious traditions but not toleration for what
they consider non-traditional religions just invented. ---Scholars
say that Roman Criminal law a.
did not allow for testing the reality of the offence Christians were said of
doing; b.
there was a lack of competence of religious tribunals; c.
Tiberius said” “the gods avenge their own wrongs”; d.no
trials in cases of suppression of religion Source: (Guterman,
―Religious Toleration and Persecution in Ancient Rome, page 47). ---In
177 CE Athenagoras the Athenian was asked to enter a plea on behalf of
Christians. It is a document addressed to the Emperor. ---In
your empire...different nations have different customs and laws; ---and
no one is hindered by law or fear of punishment from following his ancestral
usages, however ridiculous they may be... ---In
short, among every nation and people, men offer whatever sacrifices and
celebrate whatever
mysteries they please... ---And
to all of these both you and the laws give permission so to act, deeming, on
the one hand, that to believe in no god at all is impious and wicked, and on
the other, that it is necessary for each man to worship the gods he prefers
.... Thus Athenagoras stressed the Tolerance Principle of the Romans for many
religions. Source: Athenagoras
the Athenian, Presbeia, . Cited from: Athenagoras. A Plea for the Christians, In Fathers of the
Second Century, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, vol. 2 of The
Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers down to A.D.
325. American Reprint of the Edinburgh Edition (Grand Rapids (Michigan): Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, reprinted in 1989), 129. See main source below. ---
Porphyry, the pagan philosopher in the time Jerome blamed Christians. ---
For having “the greatest impiety in taking no account of powers so manifest and
so beneficent, ----but
directly breaking the laws, which require everyone to reverence ancestral
customs, ---and
not disturb what should be inviolable, but to walk orderly in following the
religion of his forefathers ---and
not to be meddlesome through love of innovation. ---Because
Christians was said to have no ancient tradition, but innovation, therefore
they were wrong but all other religions had a long history so they were right. Source: See:
R.M. Grant, ―Porphyry among the Early Christians, in Romanitas et
Christianitas, ed. W. den Boer, P. G. van der Nat, C. M. J. Sicking, and J. C.
M. van Winden (Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Company, 1973), 181-187;
Stephen Benko, ―Pagan Criticism of Christianity During the First Two Centuries
A. D., in Aufstieg und Niedergang der Römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur
Roms im Spiegel der Neuren Forschung, 23.2, ed. Hildegard Temporini and
Wolfgang Haase (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1980), 1055-1118; Stephen Benko,
Pagan Rome and the Early Christians (London: E. T. Batsford Ltd, 1985); A.
Meredith, ―Porphyry and Julian Against the Christians, in Aufstieg und
Niedergang der Römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der Neuren
Forschung, 23.2, ed. Hildegard Temporini and Wolfgang Haase (Berlin: Walter de
Gruyter, 1980), 1119-1149. R. Joseph Hoffmann, Porphyry's Against the
Christians: The Literary Remains (New York: Prometheus Books,1994), 44 ---Benko
(1980, 1064) concluded that no one was permitted to reject the gods of cultures
in their countries and Jews and Christians did. But the difference between them
is that Christians were unlicensed atheists whereas the Jews were licensed
atheists because their religion was old. ---The
Romans hated the Christians “for they were anticipating the end of the world
any moment and projecting the second coming of Christ onto the immediate
future, (thus) the zeal of the Christians tended to ignore the cultural matrix
they were functioning in.” (S.
N. Balagangadhara and S. Claerhout, 2024 pages 31 and 32, see source below). ---Their
biggest problem was that they were a religion without an old tradition. ---
Eusebius summarizes the charges of the Romans against Christianity thus: ―”(H)ow
can men fail to be in every way impious and atheistical, ---who
have apostatized from those ancestral gods by whom every nation and every state
is sustained? ---Or
what good can they reasonably hope for, who have set themselves at enmity and
at war against their preservers, and have thrust away their benefactors? ---For
what else are they doing than fighting against the gods? ---And
what forgiveness shall they be thought to deserve, ---who
have turned away from those who from the earliest time, among all Greeks and
Barbarians, both in cities and in the country, are recognized as gods with all
kinds of sacrifices, and initiations, and mysteries by all alike, kings
law-givers and philosophers, ---and
have chosen all that is impious and atheistical among the doctrines of men?... ---(They
have not adhered) to the God who is honoured among the Jews according to their
customary rites, but (have) cut out for themselves a new kind of track... ---that
keeps neither the ways of the Greeks nor those of the Jews.” ---After
the Diocletian persecutions Galerius stopped it as follows: ---
Galerius published an edict to finally stop the persecutions, clearly
explaining why the Christians
were disliked that much – not because they did not worship the gods of Rome,
but because
they did not have a tradition: ―”It
has been our aim in an especial manner, that the Christians also, who had
abandoned the religion
of their forefathers, should return to right opinions. ---For
such willfulness and folly had, we know not how, taken possession of them, ---that
instead of observing those ancient institutions, which possibly their own
forefathers had established, ---they,
through caprice, made laws to themselves, ---and
drew together into different societies many men of widely different
persuasions. ---After
the publication of our edict, ordaining the Christians to betake themselves to
the observance of the ancient institutions, ---many
of them were subdued through the fear of danger, ---and
moreover many of them were exposed to jeopardy; ---nevertheless,
because great numbers still persist in their opinions, ---and
because we have perceived that at present they neither pay reverence and due
adoration to the gods, ---nor
yet worship their own God, ---therefore
we, from our wonted clemency in bestowing pardon on all, ---have
judged it fit to extend our indulgence to those men, ---and
to permit them again to be Christians, ---and
to establish the places of their religious assemblies; ---yet
so as that they offend not against good order.” Sources: Galerius
cited in Lactantius, ―De Mortibus Persecutorum, 34; Cited from Lactantius. ―Of
the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died – Addressed to Donatus, in Fathers of
the Third and the Fourth Centuries, ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson,
vol. 7 of The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of the Fathers
down to A.D. 325. American Reprint of the Edinburgh Edition (Michigan: WM. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, reprinted in 1989), 315. See main source below. ---Celsus
the Pagan Philosopher gave his arguments against Christians and against Christ
and Resurrection as follows: ---Celsus
wonders why the supreme being‘ beautiful, good and blessed, would ascend among
men and hence, undergo a change from good to evil, from virtue to vice, and
from happiness to misery. ---Only
mortals could wish to make such changes; the supreme being‘ would never admit
of it, certainly not for the worse. ---
He asks why He who sent his son to mankind with the instruction to worship Him
alone also allowed His son to be treated cruelly. ---What
kind of a father would ever be that inhuman?” ---Celsus
ridicules the Christian hopes for their resurrection. ---Celsus
rooted the Christian God in human anthropology. ---The
Christian hope for resurrection is just derived from human biology and natural
processes. ―Celsus
denied the Hell. ---“It
is folly on their part to suppose that when God, as if He were a cook,
introduces the fire (which is to consume the world), all the rest of the human
race will be burnt up, while they alone will remain, not only such of them as
are then alive, but also those who are long since dead, which latter will arise
from the earth clothed with the self-same flesh (as during life); ---for
such a hope is simply one which might be cherished by worms. ---For
what sort of human soul is that which would still long for a body that had been
subject to corruption?” Source:
Origen, ―Contra Celsum, V, xxv; our italics. Cited from Origen. ―Origen against
Celsus, in The Fathers of the Third Century, ed. Alexander Roberts and James
Donaldson, vol. 4 of The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of
the Fathers down to A.D. 325. American Reprint of the Edinburgh Edition (Grand
Rapids (Michigan): WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, reprinted in 1989), 553-
554; also Roberts and Donaldson pages 502; 654; 636; 549. ---In
the third century Felix ridiculed the Christians in the following way: ---
Minucius Felix ridicules the Christian as follows: ―”You
do not visit exhibitions; ---you
have no concern in public displays; ---you
reject the public banquets, ---and
abhor the sacred contests; ---the
meats previously tasted by, ---and
the drinks made a libation of upon, the altars. ---Thus
you stand in dread of the gods whom you deny. ---You
do not wreath your heads with flowers; ---you
do not grace your bodies with odours; ---you
reserve unguents for funeral rites; ---you
even refuse garlands to your sepulchres—pallid, trembling beings,
worthy of the pity even of our gods! ---Thus,
wretched as you are, you neither rise again, nor do you live in the meanwhile. ---Therefore
(…) cease from prying into the regions of the sky, and the destinies and
secrets of the world: it is sufficient to look before your feet, especially for
untaught, uncultivated, boorish, rustic people: they who have no capacity for
understanding civil matters, are much more denied the ability to discuss
divine.” Source:
Minucius Felix, ―The Octavius, VI; our italics. Cited from: Minucius Felix.
―The Octavius, in Fathers of the Third Century, ed. Alexander Roberts and James
Donaldson, vol. 4 of The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Writings of
the Fathers down to A.D. 325. American Reprint of the Edinburgh Edition (Grand
Rapids (Michigan): Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, reprinted in 1989), 176. ---Celsus
had more to blame the Christians for in the fourth century. ---
Celsus draws a parallel between the people invited to join and participate in
the pagan cults and the Christian invitations thus. ---“The
striking difference lies in the fact that the Christians invite sinners and
thieves: ―…let us hear what kind of persons these Christians invite. ---Every
one, they say, who is a sinner, who is devoid of understanding, who is a child,
and, to speak generally, whoever is unfortunate, him will the kingdom of God
receive. ---Do
you not call him a sinner, then, who is unjust, and a thief, and a
housebreaker, and a poisoner, and a committer of sacrilege, and a robber of the
dead? ---What
others would a man invite if he were issuing a proclamation for an assembly of
robbers?” ---Celsus
argued against their rule that it is easier for a camel to go through a narrow
space that for a rich man to go to heaven. ---He
said, that if rich people cannot go to heaven, what is the purpose of them to
stay away from entertaining and enjoying their lives. ---If
poor people are automatically saved, why not run out and enjoy yourself fully
because your salvation is secure. ---In
The Epistle to Diognetus, who replied
to questions asked by a pagan about Christians, he said: ---“For
the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor
language, nor the
customs which they observe. ---For
they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech,
nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. ---The
course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or
deliberation of inquisitive men; ---nor
do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human
doctrines… ---For,
as I said, this was no mere earthly invention which was delivered to them, nor
is it a mere human system of opinion, which they judge it right to preserve so
carefully, ---nor
has a dispensation of mere human mysteries been committed to them, ---but
truly God himself, who is almighty, the Creator of all things, and invisible,
has sent from heaven, and paced among men, [Him who is] the truth, and the holy
and incomprehensible Word, and has firmly established Him in their hearts.” ---Celsus
blamed Christians that they were not intellectuals. They were too simple in
thinking. ---Celsus
said that Christians avoided all debates and discussions with intellectuals: ---“We
see that those who display their trickery in the market-places ---and
go about begging would never enter a gathering of intelligent men, ---nor
would they dare to reveal their noble beliefs in their presence; ---but
whenever they see adolescent boys and a crowd of slaves and a company of fools
they push themselves in and show off”. ---The
authors Balagangadhara and Claerhout make the comment: “Anticipating the end of
the world any moment and projecting the second coming of Christ onto the
immediate future, the zeal of the Christians tended to ignore the cultural
matrix they were functioning in.” ---“But,
when it became clear that the world would not end so soon, their problem
became obvious: they were a people without tradition.” Main Source: S. N.
Balagangadhara and S. Claerhout, “Ancient Roman Culture and Early Christianity:
A Pagan Perspective from India”. Ghent University Research Centre Vergelijkende
Cultuurwetenschap. Belgium.
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