Why Is Rome Considered A Pagan State?

Throughout history, Rome was primarily considered a pagan state. As Christianity, which is a monotheistic religion began to emerge, Christians faced many challenges. All though these challenges may have brought them down for a bit, Christianity rose above and grew stronger. By the command of Constantine, Christianity was the religion that was especially allowed (Messner 2-2-2018). Although the church felt comfortable in their position in the state, experienced heresies taught by leaders and dealt with the debate dealing with art, the church was able to find ways to overcome these challenges. The growth of the church began around 313 when Constantine granted toleration to Christianity (Humanities, 157). The development of the church was booming
This challenge was overcome by the need for a creedal statement (Humanities, 158). During this time, Alexander was the bishop. When he had heard about Arius’ statement, he was not happy with what he was hearing because he believed that it was very demeaning. Alexander required Arius to stop his teaching, but Arius refused (Simpson 2-9-2018). In May 325 the Council of Nicea was held. This was the first worldwide council of the church (Simpson 2-8-2018). Through this council, bishops and church leaders were able to come together and vote in a civil manner on a creed. This creed stated “there was when he [Christ] was not” (Humanities,158). Although this would not be the last heresy that would need to be settled, the church found a subtle and calm way to come to a
Christians came up with a way to portray him, without really portraying him. A specific example was a fresco created to be put in the catacomb. The painting was titled Chris as the Good Shepherd (Messner 2-14-2018.) The fresco pictured a man who was obviously supposed to portray Jesus. However, the way the church overcame this struggle was by using a characteristic of Jesus stated in the bible and making it a visual. They did not just straight up come out say it was Jesus, but by looking at the image and being familiar with the bible, others could come to the desired conclusion. So their challenge was finding a way to not go against God’s command, and their way to overcome it was to still show worship without