Early Christian Church Culture

As the Early Christian Church began to grow and spread, it had to appeal and relate to the culture of the world it was growing into. Early church leaders such as Paul taught Christianity in a ways that related to their growing audience. The Early Church also developed similarities with the Greek and Roman cultures that was trying to relate to, although it still maintained a distinct culture of its own. Overall, the Church’s willingness to adapt to their audience and ability to maintain its distinctive ideals lead to its growth and development into a major world religion and superpower. The early Christian church related to its broader culture through a man named Paul. Paul and several other early Christians would travel throughout the Mediterranean …show more content…
The diversity of Hellenistic Greek culture influenced many early church leader’s, such as Paul, to preach the good news of Jesus to anyone who who was willing to listen. Another similarity between the early church and Hellenistic Greek culture grew out of the misconception that Christianity was simply another eastern mystery religion that grew up during the time of the Hellenistic kingdoms. This idea was actually quite reasonable, as Christianity shared some characteristics with the eastern mystery religions. Like many of the eastern religions, Christianity offered the possibility immortality through the death of a god, and it offered a relatable human figure (Jesus), just like Mithraism did. The early church also fostered writers and thinkers, just as the ancient greeks did. These scholars attempted to apply the teachings of greek philosophers to the teachings of the church. The early church also was similar to Roman society in the concept of their structured hierarchy. As the church grew, it needed officials to control church communities. This lead to the development of bishops as leaders of Christian