Christianity and Classical Culture in Ancient Rome

The relationship between who is jesus and classical was in some respect similar and contradict which means that the essay will discuss the similarities and difference in context. The law of nature, respect of governance, statues and prediction of a saviour these factors shows that the relationship between Christianity and classical culture was similar which therefore can lead one to say that it was intertwined. However on the other hand contradictions also can be found between the classical culture and Christianity taking into consideration monotheism in Christianity contrary to polytheism in classical culture. Also the fact about how the world came to be that is creation of the world and also worship of emperors in classical culture which contradicts with Christianity. Therefore one need to note that the relationship was not an obvious guess but also help one to define Christianity today.

Culture also includes the systems of ideas that we build up: science, philosophy, economics, politics, theology, history, and the means of teaching them, education: schools, universities, seminaries. Indeed, it includes all our corporate bodies and draw a religious similarity between Christianity and classical culture as the religion of Christians teaches followers to respect their government which is the same in classical culture.

Therefore one can argue the relationship was similar and this can be evidenced to the emperors who viewed themselves as divine kings for instance Paul urges Christians to obey governments because God was the one who set up those governance. This is supported in classical culture when emperors forced people to worship them and claim divine rule over all people for instance Augustus. More so this was because religion plays a crucial role in binding the society together. Therefore one is able to argue that the relationship between Christianity and classical philosophy was intertwined to some extend because both cultures benefited or achieve the unity of the society in a greater way.

Furthermore the law of nature was similar in both Christianity and classical ideas because in ancient Greece and Rome there was respect for objective truth and for the power of human reason to discover truth. This was similar in Christianity because Christians also shows this aspect which include reason, truth and the fact that everything evolve from somewhere else. Therefore one can argue that the culture between the Christianity and classical ideas was similar because laws of nature applied in both cultures. Also these ideas help both culture to build up science, philosophy, economics, politics, history and meaningful to teach. More so the foretelling was similar in both cultures which show a clear relationship between Christianity and classical culture.

More so the relationship between Christianity and classical culture can be traced on the families which have connections with gods. The family connections between gods and humans can be expressed or imagined in terms of descent rulers of Israel and the fact that Julius Ceaser was of the line of Aenius. Therefore the same applied to Jesus Christ who was son of God who also was the founder of Christianity which gives the idea that only those who had gods bloodline were supposed to accomplish great things in life. The Christian doctrine of personal salvation seemed to them to be an evasion of public duty contrary to the old sense of noble self-sacrifice that had built the Republic and then the Empire but this was another contradiction. One can further argue that connections with gods played a crucial role in both societies. Therefore similarities can be drawn between classical ideas and Christianity and the relationship was so intertwined.

However the relationship between Christianity and classical religion contradict because classical culture practiced polytheism which believes in many gods which includes Zeus, Apollo, Juno and Mars. This shows that classical culture has many gods but that was not the case with Christianity which practice monotheism. Christians believe there was one God who was the sovereign of all things and worshiping of other gods beside the same was prohibited. Therefore one can clearly argues that the relationship between classical culture and Christianity was not similar to some extent because of the above fact. The terms of speech such as the continued use of the names of gods for days and week, were deemed unsuitable.

More so the status of women in Christianity was much more different from the classical culture in the sense that women in Christian were treated with a high esteem. This can be drawn from the position which Mary the mother of Jesus held in Christian world. The Christian subculture women enjoyed a far higher status than did women in the Greece Roman world at large according to Fox (1987). Therefore one can argue that the relationship was not similar but was contradicting with the classical culture. This resulted in Christians calling the Romans worship as pagan. The more we look at such art, the more we are impressed by the way in which the parts that we tend to keep in separation compartments by labeling them classical even pagan as distinct from Christian form a cohere whole they side each other.