Roman Empire Religion

In the second century, the Roman Empire was prospering with an empire stretching across 3.5 million square miles, with a population surpassing 50 million citizens. During this period the entire empire was being transformed by a number of chief features. At that time the emperor Caracalla had begun granting all occupants citizenship. By doing so he was increasing the empires source of income. Not only was the empires revenue increased and the residents given citizenship, but residents were given cultural freedom. Any Roman citizen who spoke a different language or practiced different religions were given the freedom to still practice their culture and faith while still residing under the Roman Empire. Another chief feature the empire had developed …show more content…
Not too many people were paying attention to Christianity. At this time the Christian community was poorly structured and men and women were sharing important roles. The Christian groups did not have a real place within the empire so they tended to meet in private locations to celebrate and worship. The Roman officials did not pay much if any attention to the Christian community, because they didn’t consider them a threat to the empire. During the second century the Christian communities were becoming more organized and they began to travel throughout the Roman Empire spreading their religion. Before the Roman world knew it the appeal of Christianity was spreading across the empire and more and more people were becoming Christians. As the Christianity faith spread across the empire the Roman State began to change their point of view towards the Christianity faith. They began to believe that Christianity and Christians were harmful to the roman states public morals and orders. The Romans religion and Christianity were very different when it came to what they believed in. The Romans celebrated and believed in numerous other gods while Christianity had only one God that they worshiped. The Romans religion practiced rituals in order to make their gods happy and stay on their good side. Within the Christianity faith all that was expected was for Christians to be baptized and to cleanse them of their sins and for them to confess their acceptance of God into their life. The Roman religion believed that if they were to have any misfortune or bad luck it was because they upset the gods. The Roman religion believed that they could not communicate with their gods and their gods were mythological figures. Within the Christianity faith Christians were able to talk to God through prayer and call on him whenever they needed help or guidance in life. The Christianity faith did not identify other gods