How Has Christianity Impacted Civilization

Christianity has shaped different civilizations in many ways throughout history. Whether it is a unifying or diversiting matter, it definitely has impacted civilization. Alexamenos Graffito, Defense of Christianity, St. Augustine and Pope Gelasius are all documents that more so show the division that Christianity had made. Christianity has changed society in political, religious and even in moral ways.
At times through history people have had to make a choice between power and religion. This is shown in Pope Gelasius. The pope of Rome at the time had written this letter to Emperor Anastasius. He was trying to explain that things were only the way they were because of god. Gelasius was trying to establish a clear boundaries between church and state. Gelasius had said that the world was actually ran by the priest and that the church was the most important thing. Gelasius says “Of these the responsibility of the priest is more weighty in so far as they will answer for the kings of men themselves at the divine judgment”. Here is where he was trying to explain that even though the king is king, he will answer to god in the end just as they were an ordinary man. The pope continues on saying that the emperor is only an emperor because of god and closes his letter saying, “The things which …show more content…
there had been a drawing that was carved into the wall of a police barrack. This drawing was a form of graffiti, that was a very popular sight in Roman cities. The picture appears to be a man with his hand raised to a male figure on a cross with a donkey head. The man in the picture was more than likely meant to be Alexamenos, since the caption in the picture reads “Alexamenos worships [his] god”. The one arm raised was a common thing within Roman mystery cults. Since the supposed Jesus on the cross has a donkey head, one may assume that whoever drew this was making fun of Alexamenos. The mocking of the religion is another example of how Christianity divided