Western Tradition Summary

The Western Tradition video on the rise of the Church begins with Christ and his disciples preaching to the Jews. This preaching contained the beliefs that a day of judgment would come when good would be rewarded and evil punished, instead of the Hebrew tradition of the coming of a Messiah creating the Kingdom of God on earth. One of the disciples, Paul, was initially a devout Jew, who punished Christians as heretical. This changed when Paul had a dream that showed him Jesus was the Son of God. This dream caused Paul to become somewhat of the manager and public relations director for Christianity, allowing the growth of the faith. UCLA Professor Eugen Weber in the video noted that the Roman Empire was responsible in some respect for the spread of Christianity due to the fact that Christianity’s messengers used Roman roads, Roman peace, and Roman links in the Mediterranean. In addition, the Greeks can be thanked since their language and written word were common throughout the Mediterranean. The Christian Church of Rome and St. Paul wrote in Greek. The Hebrew scripture, the Septuagint, were translated from Hebrew to Greek and used as part of Christianity. Weber states that these crucial factors in the unification of the Mediterranean world after the fall of Rome and common speech were extremely important in the …show more content…
There was a Jewish rebellion against Rome, which caused resentment against the Jews and incited further development of Christianity. Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. One school of thought asserted that Christians should only be concerned about the church instead of earthly possessions or the government. Many gave away their property and fasted, becoming detached as the Roman Empire fell apart. Weber states that this viewpoint may have been somewhat of a retreat from reality as the world was too difficult to understand at the