Report on Religious Field Research Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Report on Religious Field Research - Term Paper congressman(Jungman, 2012) During the first 280 years in saviourian history, Christianity was ruled out in the Roman Empire and Christians were heavily persecuted. This arbitrary changed after the conversion of the Roman emperor Constantine. He allowed Christians to worship and made Christianity legal with the Milans Edicit in A.D 313. In A.D 325, Constantine summoned the council of Nicaea in an attempt popularize Christianity. Constantine postulated that Christianity would unite the Roman Empire which at that meter was fragmenting gradually. This generated positive results towards the development of Christianity at the time. (Jungman, 2012) However Constantine did not fully accept Christianity, instead he mixed some Roman pagan beliefs which are mum intact up to date. The impetuous behind Constantines action of blending Christianity and Roman heathenism was that Christian was a foreign religion and Romans could not oblige just le ft their religion and embrace a foreign one fully. Some of the Christianized beliefs include (i) Cult of Isis was a mother goddess from Egyptian religion. It was absorbed and fit with Christianity and it was replaced by the Virgin Mary. Many titles that were meant for Isis were attached to Mary, i.e., Queen of Heaven, Mother of God, theotokas (God bearer) among other adoration names. Mary was given compulsory positions as the roles far much ahead than the bible ascribes to her. This was done in order to attract the Isis worshippers to Christianity. Failure to do this, any efforts would lead to frustration. (George, 2009) (ii) Mithraism was a famed religion in the Roman Empire which was practiced in the 5th century A.D .It was popular among the Roman soldiers sand also the Roman Emperors. Mithraism lacked the official experimental condition in the Roman Empire, it was accepted as the de facto official religion not until the Roman Emperors replaced Mithraism with Christianity. The key aspects of Mithraism was sacrificial meal (theophagy, eating ones god), sacraments among other conspicuous features. Constantine and the successors put in it easy to substitute Mithraism with the Lords supper /Holy Communion which unfortunately prompted some early Christians to attach mysticism to the lords supper, rejecting the biblical idea of remembrance worship and meditation of Christs sacrificial death and the blood He shed. (Charles, 1982) (iii) Henoticism is a distinguishing feature of roman pagan religion. It involves believing in the existence of many gods but focuses in general on one particular god which is considered to be the most superior god. For instance, Jupiter was the supreme Roman god. The Roman sailors normally worshipped Neptune, which was the god of the oceans. Christianization of Roman paganism involved the replacing of Roman gods with saints just as the Roman chain of gods had a god of love, god of peace, god of war, god of strength among other gods which were claimed to exist(Charles, 1982.) The pontificate that exists in the hierarchy of Catholic Church is a continuation of what was created by the Roman Emperors,