THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIANITY Essay

THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIANITY - Essay Example According to Hauer and Young (1998), â€Å"On one point, devout Christians were obdurate in their resistance to Roman policy which encouraged the cult of the divine emperor. The cult of the emperor was more popular in the Roman provinces than in the Rome itself. It was also highly admired in the provinces than it was in the divine kingship of the eastern Mediterranean† (pp. 338). The Romans were initially threatened by Christianity because leaders who stood and believed in the status quo did not encourage any shift of power from one social group to another. In fact, a shift in power would amount to quite big problems. It all boiled down to money. Without enough people to make sacrifices at the temple cultus, people who worked in the temples and made money as moneychangers in the temples did not make money off to Christians, who refused to participate due to the new wave of thinking brought in by Christianity; Christians were viewed as overly exclusive and hence dangerous to the society in general and public order. Christians had no respect for other gods and they therefore refrained from public festivals that were meant to honor public deities. In fact, they never worshiped state gods and the imperial cult. They neither worshiped nor recognized the emperor as the leader of religion. This turned out to be unfortunate for the Romans, who wanted to stay powerful. Therefore, were treated with suspicion and regarded as stubborn and somewhat subversive to the State solidarity. Christianity and Graeco-Roman humanism share many common elements: For instance, they both focus upon fellowship and humane treatment of people and animals. However, Christianity is not as cultic as much as the Graeco-Roman humanistic religious perspective. Christianity is also much more religious in terms of being focused upon the deity of Jesus than the Graeco-Roman humanism was focused upon any particular deity, although several deities were