Hello, r/religion hopefully this is the right subreddit for this question.
I am supposed to write about Jewish Christians (Jews who believed in Jesus as a messiah back in Ancient Rome.) Especially their appearance in the New Testament. I kinda know where to look, but I am supposed to point it "against" real historical events.
So here I am, asking (hopefully at the right place) if anyone here knows anything about this period of time and this specific group of people.
If you know a bit more where to look into new testament or even direct quotes, I would be even happier. So far I know I should look into GAL / Acts / Isaiah / Philippians.
In terms of social and cultural circumstances, when you look at many of the warriors who fought in the Crusades, a lot of them were Norman soldiers. The Normans were the descendants of the Vikings who already had a warrior culture of conquering when they worshiped Thor and Odin. When the Normans converted, they became Christian, but brought that warrior ethos of their ancestors with them. Hence William the Conqueror conquering England and the Normans conquering Sicily and parts of North Africa in the lead up to the Crusades.
When it comes to historical circumstances, what you notice in Christian history is the Church adapts it's view on warfare depending on the historical situation it is in. So in the 4th century you had the Constantinian Shift. Christianity went from being a marginalized sect to being the religion of the empire.And Empires by their nature conquer. During that Shift you also had the Barbarian invasions of the Huns, Vandals, etc. The Christians for the first time in their history found themselves in a position where they had to run a state, manage it's defenses from foreign invaders, and define when using force was wrong and when it was right. Hence the Just War tradition developing.
You have something similar develop in the Middle Ages. The Crusades started as a response to a request for help by the Byzantines after the Turks conquered most of the Islamic and Christian dynasties in the region from Persia, to Jerusalem all the way to the gates of Constantinople. It also took place in the back drop of 4 hundred years of Islamic dynasties being able to build successful empires in which they ended up conquering 2/3 of all Christian territory.
When you look at it from this perspective, it seems much more complicated than Christians just reading the Bible and saying "lets go kill". Christians were a pacifist sect for at least the first 300 years of their history.
Hi everyone! I have really been into reading about the history of Christianity and how it all came to be. Who made God? Was Jesus real? Who wrote the bible? Did Constantine make up or alter things? Etc etc. I have so many questions! I've been googling a ton but would love some of your insight too. Sources that have made you go "this definitely isn't true"
I have been searching spirituality for a while. Raised a catholic but never truly felt it. Been down a more earth based pagan spiritual system for many many years now. Recently as I'm getting older felt the urge to explore Christianity. You know.. The whole eternal life with people you love etc etc. This exploration has opened up a rabbit hole of why it simply makes very little sense or has any proof of being real.
I'm struggling feeling a bit empty, but love the knowledge. Ty for reading!
So I want to evaluate the claims of America being founded on judaeo Christian values, and whether it is the most successful country in the world.
Just received this text from him:
“Let me condense my point:
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America was founded on deep Christian values. I draw the point from how the country was founded and who founded it/why. I agree with you that it was religious freedom they sought. However I think the founders would disagree with how we as a whole view religion today.
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if the values we espouse can be copied by anyone else, then why has America become the world's greatest super power and in my view the greatest country in the world. If Islam has the same views as we do (on some points), then why are they struggling.
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So if the system has worked well and better than anything that came before, why does it need to change? To ignore religious influence in this country and attribute much of success is revisionist history”
I'm mostly interested in Christianity in this case. Many black Americans are Christian which still surprises me since I always assumed that it was a popular fact that Africans (not all but a lot) had the Bible forced upon them so I'm curious as to why many black people still believe in Christianity. I figured that maybe I'm way off base and there actually is a history of it.
Hey everyone. Just came across this cool article about the discovery of the oldest Christian church in Ethiopia recently having been discovered. it was found din Aksum, which was the former capital of the Kingdom of Aksum. Sounds like it's offered a glimmer of historical detail in an era otherwise fairly unknown about. What do you all think about this? Would love to hear your thoughts!
- DOI/PMID/ISBN: 9781139054850
- URL
I don’t want it to be written as a pro Christian or pro atheists book. I want it to be pro history with the truth, good and bad, about the rise of Christianity
For example, Christians today will spread (most famously) hatred of gays. But most will accept it in western countries but just condemn the act as sinful and God will punish them for their sins.
What are your thoughts and experiences coming from Islam?
I need to study the 'values' of western civilization for my master thesis.
My plan so far is to learn/understand the following:
- Antique Greeks
- Christianity
- Christian Europe into reformation/renessaince
- Birth of Democracy
etc.
I do not need to go too much into detail (for example studying bible verses) but what I would love would be a podcasts that touches on at least some of these milestones and provides me a good/clear overview about these milestones.
Questions I want answered:
- What was so great about the greeks?
- What made Christianity attractive such that eventually rome converted?
- How did rome change afterwards? What were the 'new' core values that came with the belief?
- what was the reformation? what sparked the renessaince?
- Why of all places did democracy occur in europe first? Why not near east, asia or japan?
So again...as you see I am looking for a nice introductory podcasts that gives me more of a good feel about these topics without getting too deep into them. I would much rather understand how one milestone leads to the next to understand the broad strokes of european history instead of studing these topics in depth in separate bubbles.
Thanks in advance (:
