Why did Rome adopt Christianity as the state religion when just a century prior they were discriminating against Christians?
>>409305
>Why does Germany have jewish politicans when just a few centuries prior they were discriminating against jews?
>Why does America have a black President
>Why did the western world allow gay marriage
Because the Emperor decided that it was spreading real fast so he'd get less revolts I guess.
>>409305
>Why did Europe adopt Islam as the state religion when just a century prior they were discriminating against Muslims?
>>409314
Those are just examples of modern social progress, it doesn't explain why the whole state religion of Rome changed from Polytheism to Christianity so fast
>>409314
Because decadence and degeneracy
>>409305
Because christianity was impossible to kill off. It just kept growing, no matter how many christians the romans fed to the lions more kept popping up and it wasn't only peasants, powerful men were drawn to this new vibrant faith. Then Constantine allegedly saw a cross in the sky just before the battle that won him the emperorship. He interpreted it as a sign from God, and the Chi-ro was born.
"Just a century" is a fucking long time, actually. It was a graduate process, first it was made legal in 314, then Constantine started to patronize it in 320s, then his son became first openly Christian emperor in 330s, thus causing ruling classes to adopt it to gain flavors, then urban population followed. By 381, when it was adopted as the state religion, most of the-people-who-mattered were Christians, so it was a logical step. It went from ~5% of population in 300 to ~50% by 400.
>>409318
>I learned my history from Total War
>>409327
>Projecting
You really think oppressing a religion that was spreading so damn fast would not cause revolts at one point where there would've been an insane amount of them? Also, what >>409323 said.
>>409330
>You really think oppressing a religion that was spreading so damn fast would not cause revolts at one point where there would've been an insane amount of them?
Yet there were no Christian revolts, even during Julian The Apostate reign. Christians started to revolt much later, in 5-6th centuries when they revolted against Christian empire because of doctrinal disagreements. If anything it was a risky move by Constantine to support some minor sect at the time.
>a religion that was spreading so damn fast
Yeah, not so fast, they grew only up to 5% in the first 300 years. Without Constantine Christianity in the (Western) Empire would die out like Manicheans did.
>>409349
Interesting, seems I know less of christianity's spreading in Rome than I thought, might you suggest where I could read up on this more?
>>409355
Very well incited argument, so well made that I can't even refute it!
>>409354
Picrel, also Coming Out Christian in the Roman World.
>>409355
How is it even fedora tipping?
>>409320
It didn't
it was a slow rot-like growth through the slaves (by now you could say most of the population of Rome itself was of slaves) who influenced their masters wives who influenced their husbands who also sent out a ripple affect with their auctoritas as pater familias if they had any
also the army
also the fact that Monotheism is much more simplistic than the huge polytheist pantheon of gods Rome had collected over her long years of conquest, so the common people were more inclined to believe it
and also the fact that it was better organized and more open - Roman Paganism was dominated by the Paters who inherited their titles and only saw religion as a way of advancing their public careers
>>409373
> also the fact that Monotheism is much more simplistic than the huge polytheist pantheon of gods Rome had collected over her long years of conquest, so the common people were more inclined to believe it
It's interesting you said that, because soon after adopting monotheism common people turned it into polytheism with huge pantheon of saints, miraculous icons and veneration of corpses.
>>409397
true
doubt your average commoner could enumerate all of the saints though, but at least they had the option of not actually having to do so
with polytheism nearly every menial task would've required a quick libation to its respective deity
>>409373
>>409305
Christianity offered the idea of salvation and the recovery of morals and righteousness to people who were scared of the way things were going, by violence, deviancy and corruption striking their society and tearing it apart. Old gods did not give Romans hope anymore.
Besides this, Roman religion was always more spiritual than the Greek interpretation. Their gods were values and concepts, not beings.
>>409305
Emperor Diocletian also a worshipper of Mithra, the Sun God, burned much of the Christian scriptures in 307 A.D.
This enabled Emperor Constantine to merge the cult of Mithra with that of Christianity.He declared himself a Christian but at the same time maintained his ties to the Mithra cult. He retained the title "Pontifus Maximus" the high priest.
>>409397
>le anticatholic canard
Yet it was understood even then than saints and icons were venerated because God manifested thru them.
Protestantcvcks are so idiotic
>>409584
The point was to call saints and icons false idols but to point out the contradiction that Monotheism was more simplistic than polytheism by virtue of eliminating the pantheon.
Which isny true. The pantheon was merely replaced.
>>409584
It wasn't "understood" before anti-iconoclasm councils in 8th century said so to rationalize popular superstitions because they became too widespread to change. You can't help but find it very similar to paganism in contrast with early Christianity and Judaism.
