In the Age of Empires video game series by Microsoft, there is a unit called a priest. This unit can convert enemy units to your side. In the war between religions, this video game detail describes the very important goal of every preacher and disciple of a religion, to convert the unbelievers to your faith. The trials and tribulations of the Christianity is one of the greatest stories ever written. It started out as a sect of Judaism and was persecuted by the Roman state. Its adherents were determined followers of Christ, seeking many opportunities to use the real power of conversion to bring others to their side. For three centuries, Christians operated in the shadows and then when political power came within their reach, the tables had turned on the old Greco-Roman religion.
In the sixth century, the story of Christianity is one of triumph over the old pagan gods. What was once a religion that was persecuted and spent more time in the shadows, was now loudly proclaiming its superiority to the old faith. Emperors and bishops were issuing proclamations that banned pagan practices and elevated the Christian faith to the top of the spiritual world of late antiquity. The ancient Greek Pantheon, which had served as the glue for communities for many generations was now on the decline. Zeus was not around anymore to strike down those who would defy him. The faith in the one true god displaced the faith in many gods. However, this story was not preordained, in spite of what Christian authors would like to tell us. These are the ways that the Greek world became Christian and abandoned belief in the gods of Olympus.
1. High Level Patronage
According to Roderick Beaton’s excellent book, The Greeks: A Global History, Constantine and his successors were not interested in repeating the persecutions of the past. There would be no new round of martyrs for the old faith. Instead, emperors would make cash donations, give generous tax breaks and state funding would be used for the construction of churches. Through such means, the Roman Empire would be nudged towards Christianity, rather than being pushed violently towards it. This was a smart policy, as it showed that the policy from Constantine the Great and his sons was going to be accommodating to the pagan population of the empire, which was still the majority when Constantine began pushing these policies of high-level patronage. An example of high-level patronage was the construction of churches. One particular example was the Church of Holy Apostles in Constantinople. The construction of this church began in 330AD during the reign of Constantine and was finished under the reign of his son, Constantius II. In a later age, under Justinian, the church was rebuilt along with the construction of the Hagia Sophia. The Hagia Sophia would survive the generations, becoming the center of the Eastern Orthodox Christian religion. Pushing Christianity in the past had been largely something underground and furtive. Christians formed their own communities throughout the empire, staying out of sight of imperial authorities. Now, they had a gradual push from the top-down. Eventually, the policies of the Valentinian dynasty and future emperors afterwards would put a stamp of Imperial approval on the Christian faith.
2. Grassroots Conversion
New types of Christians began spreading the faith in the time that the persecutions ended, and the religion was legalized across the empire. These individuals came from all walks of life, including men and women as well. The bottoms-up approach had served the faith well in the years before legalization. However, there was now an outpouring of Christians who served as vanguards for the new faith. These Christians were sometimes what one calls ascetics, forsaking the pleasures of the material world for the spiritual one. According to Roderick Beaton, these individuals were deliberately tormenting their bodies so as to prefect the soul within and prepare for a better life after passing from the world. These ascetics saw themselves engaged in a cosmic struggle. They were following the example of Jesus who wandered into the desert and was tempted by Satan. Jesus managed to resist the temptation and these ascetics were attempting to do the same thing. Despite the fact that they turned their back on society, they were treated with reverence and respect afforded to them as spiritual leaders of their age. This is an example of the grassroots appeal of Christianity; it was more than just a religion for the wealthy, it was a religion for everyone.
Others with similar aims created communities that self-segregated men and women. These were called monasteries. By the fifth century, there were as many as fifteen thousand monks and five hundred nuns living in Egypt. These communities are testament to the attractive nature of Christianity in the Roman state.
3. Julian’s failed attempt to revive paganism
As stated earlier, Christianity’s rise was not preordained. The religion began in the shadows of Roman paganism, hiding from the authorities and creating an elusive presence that was strengthened by esoteric practices. Throughout the fourth century, there would also be attempts to revive the traditional religion of the Greco-Roman world. The best example of this is Julian’s reign from 361 to 363. According to Beaton, Julian was more religious in a way in comparison to the ancient Greeks that he held in high regard. He had been baptized and raised a Christian but turned against the religion as he spent time researching and learning about ancient Greek philosophers.
While Julian may have been acculturated in the ways of Greek philosophy and thinking, he was more interested in what it meant in terms of a higher power and its relationship with mortals. He was interested in seeing the old stories of the Greco-Roman world reinterpreted anew. This meant that the religion of the Greco-Roman world needed to be more like Christianity in order to not be overtaken by this upstart religion that began in a region known as Galilee. However, his attempts to revive traditional Greco-Roman religion would have only really appealed to the upper classes. These were the individuals who had the time and money to be educated both in philosophy and their own religion. When Julian passed away in 363 while on campaign against the Sassasnid Empire, these ideals mainly ended with him. However, Greco-Roman traditional polytheism would continue to flourish even as its influence began to decline throughout the Roman Empire.
4. The Appeal of Christianity to the lower classes
One of the reasons that Christianity was able to gain the foothold that it did is because of the ability of the religion to appeal to the lower classes. One of those key elements of the religion was Christian charity, which had no equivalent in the Greco-Roman Traditional polytheistic religion. In addition, many of these bishops, who were newly empowered, started focusing their attention on patronage of much infrastructure that revolved around Christian charity. Such buildings were a sign that the religion cared about the people in way that the traditional religion did not. As a result, you can see why Julian’s attempts to revive traditional paganism would fail. He was essentially preaching to the choir of his own class and failed to understand the appeal of Christianity to Roman people.
5. Christian Mobs
Throughout the fourth and fifth centuries, Christians sometimes turned into the oppressors that they had so valiantly had been resisting in their earlier days. One of the obvious actions of the newly empowered Christians was to go after the sacred sites of the traditional polytheism. Many of these sites were razed to the ground or reconsecrated as Christian sites. A famous example of this is the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, that was turned into a church. The once proud temple to the goddess of the city, Athena, was now a temple to Jesus Christ. Many Greek statues were damaged or destroyed. Others had the Christian symbol carved onto them.
6. Religious policy after Constantine the Great
One of the most important shifts after the Constantinian dynasty is the move towards making Christianity the state church of the Roman Empire. The imposition of such policy cannot be overstated. Christianity was no longer sharing the spiritual world with the traditional polytheism; it was now demanding that the Christians be the leading powers in the Roman Empire. In the year 380, Theodosius I signed a decree making Christianity the official religion. This edict of Thessalonica was the beginning of the official persecution of the Pagans. In 391, the same emperor forbade pagan worship and closed the pagan temples. This sort of policy is a marked change from the toleration of Constantine and his sons. The empire was clearly now in the hands of Christians. They went from rebels to being part of the establishment that controlled the Roman state.
The Christian god by the time of the Middle Ages, had vanquished the beliefs of the old gods. In Europe, Christianity became the glue by which society operated. All nations, while they may warred with each other, were united under the belief in the Holy Trinity and the authority of the church in their lives. This religious union would be known as Christendom. In it, states would be united under one faith and one deity. This was a stark contrast to the Roman Empire, which had been a state that was known for the multitude of beliefs and religions.
What the conversion of the Greeks to Christianity shows is that no matter how entrenched cultural values may seem, there is always opportunity for there to be change. The religions of the Ancient Greeks and Romans and other ancient peoples across the empire were the glue that held their communities together. However, Christianity proved itself to be a stronger religion and eventually, through a multitude of factors, was able to prevail over the old religions.
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