Christianity in Rome: Stay Agreeable Sophia Colbert
I just want to take time to appreciate the irony of Emperor Trajan's response about the Christians. He says he doesn't want Christians to be persecuted on empty accusations as that would not be agreeable to his reign. Meanwhile, the other Christians are being torn limb from limb, beheaded, burned alive, and mauled to death, punishments reserved for the worst of the worst of criminals. At least we know Trajan isn't unreasonable. After all, he wouldn't dream of sentencing an innocent victim to death by torture. That guy, so agreeable.
Anyway, have you ever noticed the flexibility of Christianity in cultures? This is called universality. While Christianity is counter-cultural, it can be lived out anywhere. In the sermon on the mount, Christ calls for a change in character, not culture. The entire culture does not have to be rearranged, but a person's heart does. His new law is radical, but not isolating. That is, people don't have to quit their jobs or make their own form of civil government. Christians are called to respect civil authorities and to overdo the duty (going two miles instead of one). You can live anywhere you want (even Mars!) as long as you're living for Christ.
P.S. I commented on Moriah and Will's blogs.
Anyway, have you ever noticed the flexibility of Christianity in cultures? This is called universality. While Christianity is counter-cultural, it can be lived out anywhere. In the sermon on the mount, Christ calls for a change in character, not culture. The entire culture does not have to be rearranged, but a person's heart does. His new law is radical, but not isolating. That is, people don't have to quit their jobs or make their own form of civil government. Christians are called to respect civil authorities and to overdo the duty (going two miles instead of one). You can live anywhere you want (even Mars!) as long as you're living for Christ.
P.S. I commented on Moriah and Will's blogs.
Being Christian on Mars? I’ve always wanted to go to Malacandra!
ReplyDeleteIn regards to Trajan persecuting Christians by such violent means, we must remember the ultimate goal of his actions. Whether he strictly intends to do this or not, he is aware that he’s not just killing some humans—he’s waging war against God. If you kill the kids, you had better believe Dad is going to get involved. Are you attempting to fight the almighty Creator, the Being whose existence is seared into the deepest part of your conscience whether you want to admit it or not? You can’t pull any punches. It’s not enough to just end some lives. You have to cause real suffering if you want to even have a slim chance of breaking the church’s connection with God and driving Him off the planet. Of course that isn’t possible, but I think your blog establishes that this guy was hardly reasonable.
Isn`t it interesting to compare him to compare Trajan to Nero? Nero falsely accused the Christians and had them punished as a result to help his reign and Trajan didn`t want to punish people falsely accused of being Christians and punished because it would hurt his reign.
ReplyDeleteI think Trajan just wants to keep his reputation up. He is regarded as one of the five good emperors, after all. If word got out that he was doing these horrible things to innocent people, it would ruin him. At least if he makes sure these people actually are Christians, nobody can complain because Christianity is illegal.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Christianity being multi-cultural, that's the whole point. Instead of being one select nation (like Judaism), Christianity was intended to spread to all nations. Like you said, it's a change of heart not necessarily a change of culture. While Christianity is counter-cultural, it doesn't call for removal from culture. We are to be in the world, not of the world, wherever that world may be (yes, even Mars).