By Bart D. Ehrman, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
The triumph of Christianity over all the other religions of the Roman world may seem like a rather unimportant event from where we stand today, something that happened in a remote time and place. But, in fact, it’s almost certainly the most important historical and cultural revolution in the history of Western civilization; arguably, the most transformative event of human history.
Christianization of the West
There are certain brute facts of history that have to be explained in any account of the Christianization of the West. Christianity started out as a tiny group of the followers of the Jewish teacher, Jesus of Nazareth. These followers came to believe Jesus had been raised from the dead and made a divine being.
According to the New Testament, this initial group comprised 11 men, and a handful of women who had accompanied Jesus to Jerusalem from his home territory of Galilee in the northern part of Israel, to celebrate the annual Passover feast in Jerusalem, with other Jews from around the world.
While there in Jerusalem, Jesus offended the ruling authorities, and was brought up on charges of political sedition. Tried by the Roman governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate, for claiming to be the king of the Jews; that is, for claiming that he, rather than the Roman authorities, was soon to rule the nation of Israel.
Jesus then was crucified on criminal charges. Sometime later, his small group of followers came to believe he had been raised from the dead, and they started to worship him.
Conversion to Christianity
The New Testament portrays this small group of 20 people or so as lower class, illiterate, Aramaic-speaking Jews from a rural, obscure part of the empire. They began convincing others that Christ had been raised, and that his God was the only God to be followed.
Within three centuries, they had converted several million people. By the end of the 4th century, half the Roman Empire was Christian; that is, some 30 million people. Moreover, Christianity was made the official religion of Rome.
This article comes directly from content in the video series The Triumph of Christianity. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
Christianity, the Dominant Force
If Christianity had not taken over the Roman world, none of the historical movements that have shaped our world would have happened. What we know of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Reformation would all have been unthinkable.
In one way or another, Christianity was the dominant force in all of them, and all of them shaped who we are today. Arguably, without Christianity we would not have had the Enlightenment, and all the developments that emerged from it.
We would have had something of course, maybe we would have had something even better, or something sooner. Maybe modern science and technology would have arisen a millennium earlier, or possibly, we would not have had them at all. Either way, the history of the West would have been incalculably different.
Cultural Effects of Christianity
The religious implications were huge, but it was far more than that. Think of the massive cultural effects of Christianity’s triumph, the entire history of Western art, literature, music, and philosophy, completely transformed.
Virtually none of the cultural icons we adore and cherish from the 6th to the 19th century are thinkable apart from Christian influence; the Venerable Bede, Dante, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Milton, Descartes, Bach, Mozart, Shakespeare, or Dickens. Even those cultural figures who are not particularly religious, or even anti-religious, can scarcely be understood apart from their Christian context.
There would have been other great figures of culture, of course, other great artists, musicians, and authors, but there’s no telling who they would have been, and what they would have been like.
Personal Challenge of Religious Transformation
When Christianity began to take over the Roman world, the upheavals on the individual personal level must have been seismic, just as today. It clearly must have been a personal challenge of religious transformation felt deeply by all. It must also have been incredibly disruptive and emotionally distressing for people to give up the pagan belief system and to shift away from a religious view they had grown up with, which were, till then, taken for granted as a solid foundation for life.
Hence, it is important to also remember this movement, not only in broad historical and cultural terms, but also as one fought by people on an individual level.
Common Questions about a Historical Perspective on the Christianization of the West
According to the New Testament, a group comprising 11 men and a handful of women had accompanied Jesus to Jerusalem from his home territory of Galilee in the northern part of Israel, to celebrate the annual Passover feast in Jerusalem, with other Jews from around the world.
By the end of the 4th century, half the Roman Empire, some 30 million people, was Christian and Christianity was made the official religion of Rome.
If Christianity had not taken over the Roman world, none of the historical movements that have shaped our world would have happened. What we know of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Reformation would all have been unthinkable.
