1. From Roman Empire to Christian Europe
What is Jesus' significance?

2. Jesus’ legacy
Jesus –Hebrew prophet, but also the bearer of a message that was to transform the world
His life ended in crucifixion –this event is a point of intersection of the three main developments of the ancient world –Hebrew, Greek, and Latin:
Hebrew prophet
Executed by a Roman governor
His teachings were written down in Greek:
These documents became the sacred texts of a church that was associated with the Roman empire
The church outlasted the destruction of the empire

3. Why was Jesus’ teaching revolutionary?

4. Jesus’ teaching
Revolutionary in terms of Greek, Roman, and Hebrew tradition
Hebrew idea of God, who was omnipotent, just, was broadened to include mercy that tempered the justice
Greek, Roman religion: outward- ritual acts
Christianity: inward, spiritual
All human beings are equal in the eyes of the creator – this idea ran counter to the institution of slavery

5. Jesus, Hebrew Prophet, The Anointed, The Messiah

6. 6th c. Representation of Jesus

7. Rubens, Jesus

8. Rubens, The Descent from the Cross

9. How did Jesus become the expression of divine mercy?

10. Jesus was rejected by his contemporaries
His resurrection provided his followers with a symbol of a new dispensations:
The son of God in human form suffering to atone for the sins of humanity
Paul, apostle to the Gentiles, changed Christianity from a Jewish sect to a worldwide movement all over Asia minor, Greece, and Rome
Frailty and corruption of this life and the certainty of resurrection

11. El Greco, Apostle Paul of the Gentiles

12. How did the Roman empire collapse?

13. Rome’s decline
A.D. one short-lived emperor after another was killed by his own troops
The Goths to the north and the Persians to the east invaded the eastern provinces
Economic resources of the empire were drained to pay and equip the armies
Debasement of the gold and silver currency

14. How did Christianity survive?

15. The growth of Christianity
Through all the years of turmoil the Christian church, persecuted by imperial authorities (Nero, Marcus Aurelius, Diocletian) – was growing in numbers and influence
305 A.D. Constantine declared himself Christian and enlisted the support of the Church in his reorganization of the empire

16. Constantine

17. How did the empire become two separate states?

18. Rome’s split
Rome could no longer serve as the strategic center of the empire
The western and eastern halves of the empire needed separate administrative and military organization
The two halves of the empire were distinct cultural and linguistic entities :Latin and Greek
Constantine established a new capital for his reign on the site of the Greek city Byzantium and renamed it Constantinople
391 –Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire

19. Byzantium

20. How did the church separate?

21. The church
In the east the capital founded by Constantine maintained a Greek-speaking Christian empire for many centuries until, after a long battle against the advance of Islam, the city fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453
In the west, in 410 Rome fell to the Visigoths
Many of the western provinces had been overrun by new people moving south
But the Church survived, to convert the conquerors to the Christian religion
The church established the cultural and religious foundations of the European Middle Ages

22. Rubens, St Augustine

23. Rubens, St. Augustine