Article Title - The Persecution of the Early Church - The Occasion of the Domitianic Persecution
Paragraph Summary – Domitian was a very arrogant-self asserted ruler, no one seemed to like him and he seemed to always be second best to his brother Titus. In order for him to meet the opponents of himself, he insisted upon his hereditary right to the throne, he used the imperial cult to prove he was the rightful err to the throne. A king was always greeted as a god, a son of a god or a favorite of the gods. The object of the cult, that Domitian started, was himself. He was prevented from being worshiped by Rome as a god by the weight of precedent. In ancient times, monarchs were treated as divine beings. His egotism at times bordered on insanity. His acts against the Christians were simply because they refused to conform to the established expression of loyalty, which was basically to bow down and worship him/the refusal to participate in the observance of the Imperial Cult. He accused them of being atheists, child-murderers, and he claimed they were addicted to malevolent magic.
Bibliographic Information – By Donald McFayden, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska
Article Title - How did the Pax Romana help the spread of the Gospel? Christian Society in the Roman Empire
Paragraph Summary – Christianity was spread through the well-policed trade routes during this time. Even Paul used the commercial routes by land and sea to spread the gospel, as well as did language. Joining together, Constantine & Licinius, they granted full freedom of worship for the Christian Church. St. Augustine was the real champion of militarism, he was a State Official. Until him Christians didn’t penetrate any high class/upper class organizations other than their own.
Bibliographic Information – A.J. Rayner Greece & Rome, Vol. 11/Cristian Society in the Roman Empire/Cambridge University Press
Article Title - Heresies of the early church and the councils that dealt with the specific matter the Arian Conflict. The “Arian’ Controversy
Paragraph Summary – This believe preached that the Son of God was a creature, and was created out of nothing, this believe started with Arius. The bishop, Alexander of Alexandria condemned this teaching, so Arius withdrew to Asia Minor, where he won many converts to this heresy. In 325 the Council of Nicaea rejected Arianism and proclaimed the orthodox doctrine in its creed. Major of the eastern bishops continued to adhere to the Arian heresy, Constantius conspired with other bishops to force the Arian heresy throughout the whole church. The Council of Constantinople in 381 ended Arianism.
Bibliographic Information – Lienhard, Joseph T., “The Arian Controversy”/Marquette University
For the First Research Exercise you will need to find scholarly articles for the three subjects in Module 1. For each subject, find an article that interests you and write a one-paragraph-long description of that article. The format will look like this: