Examines Roman creations from J. Paul Getty Museum as examples of earth-and-human-centered belief which made conversion to Christianity extremely difficult.
Jesus Christ was born into a Roman world. As Luke tells us, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled (Luke 2:1). In the Romans’ view, they and their possessions were the entire world. The Romans had gone on endless military campaigns to subdue their enemies and exert their influence in every accessible corner of the Mediterranean and European worlds. Then, in a similar but more peaceful fashion, Christ’s followers went out to spread the word throughout the Roman Empire. It was not until they finally succeeded in acquiring the Roman Emperor Constantine as a convert to Christianity in A.D. 312 that the new religion triumphed and the history of the Western world was transformed. After that the empire that Constantine ruled as a declared Christian, from 312 to 337, was profoundly different from the classical urban…