The Extension of Christian Culture

Lecture 15

A

s we have seen, the effects of being established as the official
religion of the Roman Empire went far beyond safety, legitimacy,
or even privilege. The emperor and the state bureaucracy were
intimately involved with the internal affairs of the church. Christianity had
become a public political religion in precisely the fashion of the Greco-
Roman polytheism that preceded it. In this lecture, we will discuss the role
of conversion as an instrument of statecraft and the geographical extension
of Christianity. We will also see how the now-official religion extended itself
both spatially and temporally in order to meet its new cultural obligations.

Geographical Expansion
• Under imperial authority, missionary work took on a new character:
It became more intentional and more centrally organized.

•    During the era of persecution, converts to Christianity were made

primarily through networks of association and personal influence,

rather than through sudden mass conversions stimulated by

preaching or wonder-working. Evangelization was mostly carried

out on a small scale; growth in numbers was, in no small measure,

due to strong birth and survival rates among Christians.

•    After official establishment of the religion, missionaries were

often commissioned by imperial authority to work with both the

leadership and the populace of other nations and tribes. The king

of a client state would “convert” the people by himself converting

and then declaring Christianity to be the new official religion of

the realm.

•    Between the 3rd and 5th centuries, substantial territories and

populations become “Christian” through such processes.

o Christians appeared in Persia in the 3rd century and were

persecuted under the Sassanid Empire until the 450s.