Modern Christianity versus Pre-Christian Greeks and Romans

  Modern Christianity versus Pre-Christian Greeks and Romans  Student
Instructor
Course
Date
Perpetua and Felicitas
Perpetua
The Roman Empire usually persecuted the early Christians because they were seen as a threat to the ruling class. The Romans saw their assertion that another King should be worshiped to call for a revolution to the Roman Empire's rule. Additionally, Christians were not respectful of the ancestral pagan worship, which influenced how they related to their families, each other, and the Roman authorities (Heffernan 5). The martyrs such as Perpetua had a very close relationship among themselves. The people who renounced their pagan beliefs and decided to follow the teaching of Christ were persecuted by the authorities. The Christians needed to have a close relationship to make sure they stayed firm in their religion. However, the relationship of Perpetua and other martyrs was not close when it came to their families.
A majority of the people in the Roman Empire were not pro Christianity, and having family members who were Christians was seen as a way of embarrassing the family. It was hard for Christians, therefore, to have a close relationship with their family members. The relationship between Perpetua and other martyrs with the authorities was frosty. The Roman authorities did not like the teachings of the Christians because they believed it was undermining the King (Heffernan 7). Therefore, the soldiers were used to harras and, at times, kill the people who converted to Christianity. Christians in
Roman society, before religion was legalized, had a hard time living a peaceful life. A person had to either hid their belief or risk being killed by the Roman authorities. However, the spread of Christianity among the people changed the way Christians were treated as the authority stopped seeing Christians as a threat.
Augustine:
Augustine believed that Christianity would work best as a religion for the Romans compared to paganism. Augustine has given why Christianity will work better for the Romans than paganism because there is life after death. People who die will either go to heaven or hell, depending on their actions on earth. Therefore, Augustin believed that if people in Rome were Christians, their actions would change because they would know a supernatural being watched over them. Additionally, Augustine believed that the laws that have been se...