When did the Christian mission...

[Ricky Spanish]

... supersede the pagan/polytheistic religions?

How and when did Christianity fill the void left by the demise of the Greek and Roman pagan religions?

Or was there ever a void for Christianity to fill?

I have heard that some believe that Christianity came along at just the right time when the “pagan/polytheistic" religions of the Roman world were on the wane when people had become 'sophisticated' enough to realise that the ancient Greek and Roman mythologies were simply nowt but stories.

It has been claimed that Christianity succeeded principally because of its inherent superiority to the other religions of the empire because monotheism is clearly a more philosophically defensible position than polytheism and its multitude of gods.   

But was this position a gradual creep, or fully fledge from its concept?

[Bubbles]

... supersede the pagan/polytheistic religions?

How and when did Christianity fill the void left by the demise of the Greek and Roman pagan religions?

Or was there ever a void for Christianity to fill?

I have heard that some believe that Christianity came along at just the right time when the “pagan/polytheistic" religions of the Roman world were on the wane when people had become 'sophisticated' enough to realise that the ancient Greek and Roman mythologies were simply nowt but stories.

It has been claimed that Christianity succeeded principally because of its inherent superiority to the other religions of the empire because monotheism is clearly a more philosophically defensible position than polytheism and its multitude of gods.   

But was this position a gradual creep, or fully fledge from its concept?

Some of it was spread by force.

Not because it was superior.

Christianity is just another " story"

IMO

[Ricky Spanish]

Hmm..  but where did Christianity originate from?

Was it fully fledged before it became the state religion of the Roman Empire?

Was it honed over the centuries to fit Hellenistic musings and adopted by Latin expectations in order to keep the populace subservient?

Or was it organic from its conception?

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Hmm..  but where did Christianity originate from?

Was it fully fledged before it became the state religion of the Roman Empire?

Was it honed over the centuries to fit Hellenistic musings and adopted by Latin expectations in order to keep the populace subservient?

Or was it organic from its conception?

Christianity answers two questions do I need a redeemer and can I redeem myself?

Anyone who doesn't ask those questions at some stage isn't fully functional in my opinion.

And that's why it isn't just another story but one of the great world views.

[Shaker]

Christianity answers two questions do I need a redeemer and can I redeem myself?

Only one question, actually, because if the answer to the first question is "no" then the second is redundant.

[Rhiannon]

One of the greatest things about losing my faith was realising that the only person who can save me is me. I screw up, I pay.

It's taking personal responsibility rather than clinging onto the notion of a cosmic get-out-of-jail-free card.

[Rhiannon]

Only one question, actually, because if the answer to the first question is "no" then the second is redundant.

Actually the first question should be do I need redemption. Otherwise the second doesn't make sense.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Farmer,

I always enjoy your posts, you are a nutter but my kind of nutter, a void for Christianity to fill, well yes, history, the whole of history tells us we have always had the poor, Christianity sings out to the poor, it gives them a hope but the early Christians gave more than hope, they gave real stuff, like food and companionship.

But thank you, once again an atheist reminds me of what being a True Christian means, helping the less fortunate, helping your Brother and Sister, Farmer that is a Amen.

Gonnagle.

[Ricky Spanish]

Less of the nuts free wee man.

A wee free question ya nutter:

How far west had Christianity advanced before Constantine adopted it?

Was it just an Eastern inconvenience that he had to adopt because of the African influence?

[Owlswing]

Christianity answers two questions do I need a redeemer and can I redeem myself?

Anyone who doesn't ask those questions at some stage isn't fully functional in my opinion.

And that's why it isn't just another story but one of the great world views.

Fortunately your opinion has no more value than anyoneelses.

Christianinty was spread in exactly the same way as Islam is now spreading; by bullying and violence, especially after the conversion of Constantine.

[Leonard James]

Fortunately your opinion has no more value than anyoneelses.

Christianinty was spread in exactly the same way as Islam is now spreading; by bullying and violence, especially after the conversion of Constantine.

It is sad that religion has led humanity down a blind alley ... wasting time and effort which could have been spent on scientific investigation.

[Gonnagle]

Dear Farmer,

Was it just an Eastern inconvenience that he had to adopt because of the African influence?

I follow yours posts and I notice you are like a lawyer, you hardly ever ask a question that you don't know the answer to already, so tell me about this African influence, I can't remember reading about a African influence in Bamber Gasmeters wonderful book The Christians, jog my memory, enlighten me.

Dear Owlswing,

Christianity was spread in exactly the same way as Islam is now spreading; by bullying and violence, especially after the conversion of Constantine.

Not under Constantine's rule, if I remember correctly Christianity was a option under his rule, one reason why it became popular with the Roman soldiers was that they were guaranteed a day off each week if they attended Church, it was only after Constantine's death, and If I remember correctly his conversion was a death bed conversion, Christianity was then enforced by the next Emperor.

Dear Leonard,

It is sad that religion has led humanity down a blind alley ... wasting time and effort which could have been spent on scientific investigation.

Do you really think so, would I now be the proud owner of hover boots if those pesky Christians had not stuck their oar in.

Gonnagle.

[Owlswing]

It is sad that religion has led humanity down a blind alley ... wasting time and effort which could have been spent on scientific investigation.

It is sad that science has led humanity to nuclear weapons, they were invented and used long before there were any nuclear power stations, and to various mutations and assorted nastinesses that science "had no way of knowing would be the results of scientific investigation".

Sometimes humanity needs a mixture of science and religion - the difficulty is deciding where the balance point is.

[Owlswing]

Dear Owlswing,

Not under Constantine's rule, if I remember correctly Christianity was a option under his rule, one reason why it became popular with the Roman soldiers was that they were guaranteed a day off each week if they attended Church, it was only after Constantine's death, and If I remember correctly his conversion was a death bed conversion, Christianity was then enforced by the next Emperor.

Gonnagle.

If this is not

after the conversion of Constantine.

when was it?

[Stranger]

It is sad that science has led humanity to nuclear weapons, they were invented and used long before there were any nuclear power stations, and to various mutations and assorted nastinesses that science "had no way of knowing would be the results of scientific investigation".

Sometimes humanity needs a mixture of science and religion - the difficulty is deciding where the balance point is.

Science is a way of understanding the universe we find ourselves in and religion is storytelling. In what way do you create a balance between understanding and fiction?

I don't see how citing examples of people using science to do bad stuff has any relevance to a balance with religion. It's not like religion consistently encourages good behaviour, is it?

[Gonnagle]

Dear Owlswing,

Not arguing, just trying to show that very early Christianity was not all bullying and violence.

Gonnagle.

[Hope]

... supersede the pagan/polytheistic religions?

What do you mean by the thread title and its extension at the front of your OP, Thrud?

I could understand if you had asked 'When did Christianity supersede ..', but I'm not sure that the Christian mission has ever superceded anything outside of Christianity.

[Owlswing]

Science is a way of understanding the universe we find ourselves in and religion is storytelling. In what way do you create a balance between understanding and fiction?

I don't see how citing examples of people using science to do bad stuff has any relevance to a balance with religion. It's not like religion consistently encourages good behaviour, is it?

You tell me something in the mis-begotten world that is consistent - apart, of course, from the inherent duplicity of politicians.

Balance - praying that some bloody scientist doesn't find a way of "understanding the universe" by which, all un-knowing, he destroys the Earth and humanity with it!

Science has not "consistently encourage(d) good behaviour, there have been scientists who have been anything but good for humanity - look at what crawled out of the woodwork due to the free hand given them by Nazi Germany. Others like them surely still exist but underground.

[Owlswing]

What do you mean by the thread title and its extension at the front of your OP, Thrud?

I could understand if you had asked 'When did Christianity supersede ..', but I'm not sure that the Christian mission has ever superceded anything outside of Christianity.

Part of the Christian mission was and is the total destruction of all other religions - Thou shalt have no other God but me!

[Hope]

Hmm..  but where did Christianity originate from?

Was it fully fledged before it became the state religion of the Roman Empire?

Was it honed over the centuries to fit Hellenistic musings and adopted by Latin expectations in order to keep the populace subservient?

Or was it organic from its conception?

Thrud, Christianity grew out of Judaism, and for the first couple of centuries was a movement of (not for) the poor and disenfranchised - in other words, it was a movement that moved up the social chain, not down it.  During this time its followers were vilified and persecuted across the Roman Empire.  Slowly, it began to spread into the mlitary, where it displaced Mithraism.  It was, in part, 'adopted' by Constantine in order to stop any potential rebellion within the army.  In fact, all he really did was to play an influential role in the proclamation of the Edict of Milan in 313, which decreed tolerance for Christianity in the empire, and to call the Council of Nicea in 325.  When he died 2 years later, The Roman Empire was no more 'Christian' than it had been when he took power in 306AD. 

It didn't really 'take off' as a state religion until his sons began to push it more over the 40+ years following their father's death.   From all I've read, the Empire didn't really embrace it as a state religion until nearer the late 400s.

[Hope]

Only one question, actually, because if the answer to the first question is "no" then the second is redundant.

Or vice versa, Shaker   

[Hope]

One of the greatest things about losing my faith was realising that the only person who can save me is me. I screw up, I pay.

It's taking personal responsibility rather than clinging onto the notion of a cosmic get-out-of-jail-free card.

Well, since the latter isn't even considered within Jesus' teaching, you don't actually seem to have come to any other conclusion that most Christians, Rhi.

[Shaker]

Or vice versa, Shaker   

No. Try again.

[Hope]

Fortunately your opinion has no more value than anyoneelses.

Christianinty was spread in exactly the same way as Islam is now spreading; by bullying and violence, especially after the conversion of Constantine.

The only difference, as far as I am aware, is that Islam was spread by some degree of violence from day 1, Christianity wasn't spread by violence for about its first 500 years.  No-one can disagree with the suggestion that once it became the state religion of what was - at the time - the world's superpower, the methods of extension changed from peaceable to less peaceable.

[Hope]

Was it just an Eastern inconvenience that he had to adopt because of the African influence?

What influence was that, Thrud?  Its worth remembering that Christianity spread East, at the same the as it spread West, and it was established in Rome by the middle of the first century.  As far as I'm aware, it had reached Britain by the end of the 1st Century - so some 200 years before Constantine appeared.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/history/uk_1.shtml