Across the Roman Empire

Today's class was a very good discussion of the Church's spread over the Roman Empire.  It seems that the main influence came from St. Paul during this time.  St. Paul, for those who may not know, spread the Gospel to the Gentiles and the pagans.  At this time in history (from the death of Christ to roughly the end of the second century, there was not a clearly defined "Catholic Church".  There were Christians spread throughout the Roman Empire, and they were divided into two main groups--Jewish Christians (or Messianic Jews) and the Gentiles who became Christians.  At the council of 49 AD in Jerusalem, it was decided that it was ok for Gentiles to become Christians, thus beginning the slow disappearance of the Jewish Christian sects.

We can also look to the civilized atmosphere of this time to see why Christianity became such a prominent influence.  Roman and Hellenistic culture was very advanced, thus creating interests in philosophy & religion.  Just as we do today, people then were "looking for something" to complete their lives.  The so-called mystical religions of the pagans did not satisfy many people, so they looked to the salvation of Christianity for their fulfillment.   In the end, the people then had to realize that, although it had been thought that Christ was coming back to claim the Church soon, they needed to live their lives as if Christ was coming back at any time.  They had to realize that no one knew when Christ was coming back, and this is just how we need to live our lives today.

Some questions that we posed at the end of class dealt with some very interesting subject matters....

Are we all still looking for something?  Are some casualties of modern society?

What do you think?  

I hope that my insight into our discussion was helpful.  Until next week...keep praying and keep studying!!