The Rise of Christianity
1. Read and translate the text. 2. Retell the text.
Christianity emerged, spread, survived, and ultimately conquered the Roman Empire despite its origin among poor people from an unimportant and remote province of the empire. Christianity faced the hostility of the established religious An attempt to understand this amazing outcome must begin with the story of Jesus of Nazareth. The most important evidence about his life is in the Gospel accounts, all of them written well after his death. The authors believed Jesus was the son of the God and that he had come into the world to redeem humanity and to bring immortality to those who believed in him and followed his way. Jesus won a considerable following, especially among the poor. A misunderstanding caused by his criticism of the religious practices, made it easy to convince the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, that Jesus and his followers might be dangerous revolutionaries. He was put to death in Jerusalem by the cruel and degrading device of crucifixion, probably in 30 AD. His followers believed he was resurrected on the third day after his death, and that belief became a critical element in the religion they propagated throughout the Roman Empire and beyond.
CULTURAL LINKS: · Bible · Dan Brown, The da Vinci Code. · Ben-Hur, directed by William Wyler, Warner Brothers Co., 1959. · Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jesus Christ Super Star. · М. Булгаков, Мастер и Маргарита.
DAN BROWN “THE DA VINCI CODE” “… ‘I thought Constantine was a Christian, ’ Sophie said. ‘Hardly, ’ Teabing scoffed. ‘He was a lifelong pagan who was baptized on his deathbed, too weak to protest. In Constantine’s day, Rome’s official religion was sun worship – the cult of Sol Invictus, or the Invincible Sun – and Constantine was its head priest. Unfortunately for him, a growing religious turmoil was gripping Rome. Three centuries after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Christ’s followers had multiplied exponentially. Christians and pagans began warring, and the conflict grew to such proportions that it threatened to rend Rome in two. Constantine decided something had to be done. In 325 AD, he decided to unify Rome under a single religion. Christianity.’ Sophie was surprised. ‘Why would a pagan emperor choose Christianity as the official religion? ’ Teabing chuckled. ‘Constantine was a very good businessman. He could see that Christianity was on the rise, and he simply backed the winning horse. Historians still marvel at the brilliance with which Constantine converted the sun-worshipping pagans to Christianity. By fusing pagan symbols, dates and rituals into the growing Christian tradition, he created a kind of hybrid religion that was acceptable to both parties.’
Teabing groaned. ‘Don’t get a symbologist started on Christian icons. Nothing in Christianity is original. The pre-Christian God Mithras – called the Sun of God and the Light of the World – was born on December 25, died, was buried in a rock tomb, and then resurrected in three days. By the way, December 25 is also the birthday of Osiris, Adonis and Dionysus. The new born Krishna was presented with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Even Christianity’s weekly holy day was stolen from the pagans.’ ‘What do you mean? ’ ‘Originally, ’ Langdon said, ‘Christianity honoured the Jewish Sabbath of Saturday, but Constantine shifted it to coincide with the pagan’s veneration day of the sun.’ He paused, grinning. ‘To this day, most churchgoers attend services on Sunday morning with no idea that they are there on account of the pagan sun god’s weekly tribute – Sunday. (…) ‘many aspects of Christianity were debated and voted upon – the date of Easter, the role of the bishops, the administration of sacraments, and, of course, the divinity of Jesus.’ ‘I don’t follow. His divinity? ’ ‘My dear, ’ Teabing declared, ‘until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet… a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal.’ ‘Nonetheless, establishing Christ’s divinity was critical to the further unification of the Roman empire and to the new Vatican power base. By officially endorsing Jesus as the Son of God, Constantine turned Jesus into a deity who existed beyond the scope of the human world, an entity whose power was unchallengeable. This not only precluded further pagan challenges to Christianity, but now the followers of Christ were able to redeem themselves only via the established sacred channel – the Roman Catholic Church.’ Because Constantine upgraded Jesus’ status’ almost four centuries after Jesus’ death, thousands of documents already existed chronicling His life as a mortal man. To rewrite the history books, Constantine knew he would need a bold stroke. From this sprang the most profound moment in Christian history.’ Teabing paused, eyeing Sophie. ‘Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that made Him godlike. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned.’ ‘An interesting note, ’ Langdon added. ‘Anyone who chose the forbidden gospels over Constantine’s version was deemed a heretic. The word heretic derives from that moment in history. The Latin word haereticus means “choice”. Those who “Chose” the original history of Christ were the world’s first heretics. ’”
Answer the questions:
1. Why did Constantine proclaim Christianity a state religion? 2. How will you explain: ‘… he simply backed the winning horse.’? 3. What reminds us about other religions in Christianity? 4. Why do churchgoers attend services on Sunday? 5. What caused debates about Jesus Christ? 6. What was the role of Constantine in creating the Bible? 7. What is the meaning of the word ‘heretic’?
* Compare Text 5 and Text 1 on the theme “The Role of Constantine in spreading Christianity.” * Compare Text 5 and Text 4 on the theme “The success of Christianity.”
· Do you know what the Last Supper means? · What do bread and wine symbolize? Andrew Lloyd Webber “Jesus Christ – Super Star”
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institutions of its native Judea. It also had to compete against the official cults of Rome and the highly sophisticated philosophies of the educated classes and against such other “mystery” religions as the cults of Mithra, Isis, and Osiris. The Christians also faced the opposition of the imperial government and formal persecution. Yet Christianity achieved toleration and finally exclusive command as the official religion of the empire.
TEXT 5
‘Transmogrification, ’ Langdon said. ‘The vestiges of pagan religion in Christian symbology are undeniable. Egyptian sun disks became the halos of Catholic saints. Pictograms of Isis nursing her miraculously conceived son Horus became the blueprint for our modern images of the Virgin Mary nursing Baby Jesus. And virtually all the elements of the Catholic ritual – the mitre, the altar, the doxology and communion, the act of “God-eating” – were taken directly from earlier pagan mystery religions.’
TEXT 6
