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The Triumph of Christianity over Paganism, a painting by Gustave Doré (1899). Paganism is commonly used to refer to various religions that existed during Antiquity and the Middle Ages, such as the Greco-Roman religions of the Roman Empire, including the Roman imperial cult, the various mystery religions, religious philosophies such as Neoplatonism and Gnosticism, and more localized ethnic ...
Several Roman pagan sites in Britain may have been converted to Christian use in the 4th Century, such as the Temple of Claudius in Roman Colchester and two of the seven Romano-Celtic Temples in the town, all of which underwent restructuring in the 300s AD and around which have been found early Christian symbols such as the Chi Rho. [19] [20]
Ritual sacrifice was an integral part of ancient Greco-Roman religion [4] and was regarded as an indication of whether a person was pagan or Christian. [4] Paganism has broadly connoted the "religion of the peasantry". [1] [5] During and after the Middle Ages, the term paganism was applied to any non-Christian religion, and the term presumed a ...
Roman investigations into early Christianity found it an irreligious, novel, disobedient, even atheistic sub-sect of Judaism: it appeared to deny all forms of religion and was therefore superstitio. By the end of the Imperial era, Nicene Christianity was the one permitted Roman religio; all other cults were heretical or pagan superstitiones. [187]
According to Bagnall, the story of the rise of Christianity has traditionally been told in terms of contest and conflict ending Roman paganism in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. [ 184 ] [ 185 ] Recent scholarship has produced large amounts of data, with modern computer technology providing the ability to analyze it, leading to the ...
On February 27, 380, the Roman Empire officially adopted Trinitarian Nicene Christianity as its state religion. [8] Prior to this date, Constantius II (337-361) and Valens (364-378) had personally favored Arian or Semi-Arianism forms of Christianity, but Valens' successor Theodosius I supported the Trinitarian doctrine as expounded in the Nicene Creed.
Christianity then rapidly grew in the 4th century - Rodney Stark estimated that Christians accounted for 56.5% of the Roman population by 350. [27] According to Will Durant, the Christian Church prevailed over paganism because it offered a much more attractive doctrine and because the church leaders addressed human needs better than their ...
Christo-Paganism is a set of beliefs held by some neopagans that encompasses Christian teachings. Christo-Pagans may identify as witches, [1] [2] druids, [3] [4] or animists. [5] Most, but not all, worship the Christian God. [1] Some Christo-Pagans may consider the Virgin Mary to be a goddess, or a form of the Goddess.