background: the roman world history of the church

Background: The Roman World

HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

Syllabus Instructional policy Texts, Bibles, and any other materials

Introductory Lesson (for first day of class)

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT

Read “The Roman World” through “Alexander’s Empire” (pp. 2–4)

Introductory Lesson (for first day of class)

ANTICIPATORY SET

Draw a venn diagram in your notebook with three overlapping circles with Hellenistic worldview in one of the circles and Christ and Church in the center where the three circles overlap. Do not label the other two circles at this time.

This lesson is about how Greek influence helped the Church grow.

Complete a Think/Pair/Share using the following question:

What do you know already about ancient Greece?

1. The Hellenistic Worldview (pp. 2–4)

BASIC QUESTIONS What were the major features of the Hellenistic

worldview with respect to Christianity? How did the Hellenistic worldview support the spread

of the Gospel? KEY IDEAS Hellenism gave the Church a rich language and a deep

philosophical heritage. This proved useful to express doctrines and explain the

Faith.


FOCUS QUESTIONS What is Hellenization? Hellenization is the process by which Greek ideas, culture,

philosophy, and religion are adopted by people of another culture.

What did Alexander the Great do to Hellenize the lands he

conquered? Alexander the Great wanted to build a unified empire, so he and his

officers married Persian wives, and he founded new cities populated with native Greeks in order to introduce Greek language, dress, and learning in the areas he had conquered.

What effect did Hellenism and Judaism have on each other? Though Jews and Persians considered Greek religion simplistic,

Greek thought gave them a new language and a rich philosophical tradition that furthered their development. The introduction of Aristotle inaugurated a tradition of Jewish commentaries on his texts.


GUIDED EXERCISE Read aloud from the Catechism of the Catholic Church,

no. 285 (p. 25), and then discuss the philosophical question of the origin of the universe.


GRAPHIC ORGANIZER Complete the following table about the languages of Christ’s

time.


FOCUS QUESTIONS How did the Greek language benefit the spread of Christianity? It provided a common language through which the teachings of Christ could

be spread throughout the known world. What did Greek language and philosophy provide the teachings of

Christ? The richness of the Greek language allowed people to explain the

intricacies of Christian beliefs. The philosophies of Plato and Aristotle provided invaluable ideas for the development of theology and Church teachings.

What role did Greek philosophers—especially Aristotle—play during

the Middle Ages? Aristotle was held in such high esteem by theologians such as St. Thomas

Aquinas that he was called “the Philosopher,” the greatest of all philosophers.


GUIDED EXERCISE

“There is something which moves without being moved.” He concluded this unmoved mover is God. “We say therefore that God is a living being, eternal, most good, so that life and duration continuous and eternal belong to God.” (Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book XII)“What can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.” (St. Paul, Romans 1:19–20)

Compare what Aristotle and St. Paul wrote about the ability of human reason to know God.


CLOSURE Complete a Think/Pair/Share using the following question:

How did the influence of Hellenism help make it an ideal time for Christ to be born and found the Church?


HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT Study Question 1 (p. 24) Workbook Questions 1–11 Read “The Romans” through “All Roads Lead to Rome” (pp. 5–11) Read “The Æneid” (p. 22)


ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT Write an answer to the question from the Closure on a separate sheet of paper for a quiz grade.


ANTICIPATORY SET Write “Roman Empire” in one of the two unoccupied circles in the venn diagram in your notebook. The basic objective of the next two lessons is to learn how the Roman Empire helped the Church grow.

2. The Romans (pp. 5–11)

BASIC QUESTION What major historical events were most important

within the Roman Empire? KEY IDEA The Roman Empire had a unifying system of laws and

organization and entered into the Pax Romana.


GUIDED EXERCISE Review the selection from Virgil’s Æneid on page 22,

and then discuss it.


GUIDED EXERCISE (1) Write in your notebook the names of four Roman

provinces that have corresponding modern names in English;

(2) Write the name of one province that does not have a corresponding modern name in English.


GRAPHIC ORGANIZER Work with a partner and a dictionary to complete the following

table.


GUIDED EXERCISE Study the map of the city of Rome (p. 26), and then

discuss the following questions:

If you were at the Forum of Augustus on business and wanted to visit the Temple of Venus to perform a sacrifice, which street would you likely take?

If you then wanted to see a gladiatorial show, what amphitheater would you likely attend?

If you needed to go the capitol from the gladiatorial show, what direction would you probably travel?


FOCUS QUESTIONS What is a triumvirate? From the Latin trius (“three”) and vir (“man”), a triumvirate is

an agreement between three men to share power, especially one of the triumvirates that ruled the Roman Empire.

How did Julius Caesar become dictator of the Roman

Empire, and what was his fate? A member of the First Triumvirate, Julius Caesar conquered

Gaul and invaded Italy. The Roman senate was forced to elect him dictator; soon after, a group of senate conspirators assassinated him.


FOCUS QUESTION Who was in the Second Triumvirate, and what

happened to each man? Marc Antony, a follower of Julius Caesar; the nineteen-year-

old Octavian, Julius’s stepson; and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate. These men eliminated their political opponents ruthlessly. After Lepidus retired, Marc Antony and Octavian vied for power. When Marc Antony and Cleopatra saw their defeat was certain, they committed suicide, leaving Octavian to be sole ruler of the Roman Empire.


GUIDED EXERCISE Brainstorm: (1) Why a nation would want to have a large number of

slaves; and (2) Some of the inherent problems with a large slave

population.

Then, read aloud Spartacus, Leader of a Slave Revolt, and discuss how his story ties into the brainstorming you just did.


FOCUS QUESTIONS How many Punic Wars were there? There were three Punic Wars. Against what city did Rome fight the Punic Wars? Rome fought against Carthage in North Africa. Which territories did the Punic Wars bring under

Roman control? They won for Rome Sicily, Spain, and North Africa.


GRAPHIC ORGANIZER Review the section “The Roman Empire: The Reign of

Augustus” (p. 10), and then work with a partner to complete the following table.


FOCUS QUESTIONS What was the Pax Romana? The Pax Romana (Roman Peace), was the 200-year period of

relative peace and prosperity within the Roman Empire beginning under Caesar Augustus (Octavian), the first emperor of the Roman Empire.

What specific changes implemented by Augustus helped

to facilitate the Pax Romana? Augustus convinced the Senate to give him exclusive control

over the provinces in which most of the Roman legions were stationed, precluding further civil wars. He centralized the bureaucratic, republican administration, which dramatically improved communication within the empire. He also had new highways built and encouraged marriages and the family.


FOCUS QUESTION How did the Pax Romana contribute to the growth

and spread of the Church? The Pax Romana made possible safe and efficient travel

and communication over vast distances, which made the spread of Christianity easier. Extension: Christians could move throughout the empire and maintain communication with one another. For example, the Apostles undertook missionary journeys; St. Clement I, the fourth Pope of Rome, was kept abreast of what was happening in Corinth and wrote a letter to that Church; and ordinary Christians emigrated to other cities and so brought the Faith into new regions.


GUIDED EXERCISE Read aloud the excerpt from Tacitus’s Annals (p. 22),

and then discuss it.


GUIDED EXERCISE Review “All Roads Lead to Rome,” and then discuss the

following questions:

Have you ever taken a road trip in which you did not travel on highways but on country roads? What happened when you came to a town or city?

What would travel be like if there were no interstate highways and all traffic traveled only on city streets and two-lane highways?

What would travel be like if there were no paved roads whatsoever?


CLOSURE Free write for five minutes using the following question:

Based on what you have learned and your previous knowledge, what is the most important relationship between Christianity and the Roman world into which it was born?


HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT Study Questions 2–7 (p. 24) Workbook Questions 12–32 Read “Cultural Impact of the Romans” through

“Categories of Roman Slaves” (pp. 12– 16) Read “The Annals” (p. 22)


ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT Create a simple timeline of the Roman Empire that includes

the following items, finding the dates in your text: The founding of the city of Rome The founding of the Republic The Punic Wars Julius Caesar’s invasion of Italy The beginning of the First and Second Triumvirates The beginning of Caesar Augustus’s (Octavian’s) reign.


ANTICIPATORY SET Open your notebooks and review the graphic with the

three intersecting circles.

The emphasis of this lesson is how the Roman Empire helped the Church grow.

3. The Romans (continued) (pp. 12–16)

BASIC QUESTION How did conditions in the Roman Empire support the

spread of the Gospel? KEY IDEA A unified system of laws and organization and the Pax

Romana aided the spread of the Gospel greatly.


FOCUS QUESTIONS What does it mean to call the Romans a practical people? While the Greeks excelled at philosophy and art, the Romans flourished in

practical disciplines, including organization, administration, government, building, the military sciences, and law.

What is the orbis terrarum? The orbis terrarum was the circle of lands comprising the Roman Empire

(cf. pp. 6–7). It was the known world of the Romans.

In what ways did the Romans influence other peoples living within the orbis terrarum?

Latin culture had a profound impact on the peoples living in the northern and western provinces and in North Africa before the rise of Islam. In the East Roman law was respected, and Latin was spoken alongside Greek.


GUIDED EXERCISE Complete a Think/Pair/Share using the following

questions:

What Roman religious duty did the Jews refuse to perform, and why?

What was the eventual outcome of the intransigence of the Jews?


FOCUS QUESTIONS What was the trend with respect to morality within the

Roman Empire? Generally, it declined infamously. What did Caesar Augustus do to promote population growth

after the devastating civil wars? He enacted laws to restrict the rights of those who did not marry

and who remained childless. This demonstrated Romans saw the family as the place to cultivate moral values.

What is the source of Roman ideas about virtue? The Roman understanding of virtue developed from the Hellenistic

tradition. This is evident in the Roman literature that flourished during Caesar Augustus’s reign.


GRAPHIC ORGANIZER Complete the following table about three widely spoken

Romance languages.


FOCUS QUESTIONS Where did the Romans get their religion? They imported it from Greece; it was a result of Hellenization. Were the Romans tolerant of other religions? Generally, the Romans allowed conquered peoples to worship their

own gods as long as they sacrificed to the Roman gods, too. Sacrifice to the emperor was a civic duty.

What does it mean to say the Romans had a practical outlook

on religion, and how was this reflected in their concept of piety (pietas)?

Religion was a way to enforce political unity; thus, everyone sacrificed to the Roman gods. It was an act of piety to placate the gods so they would protect the Roman state.


FOCUS QUESTIONS Why did the Roman emperors associate themselves with the

god Jupiter? Jupiter was the chief Roman god. The emperors wanted to place

themselves at the center of pagan worship. What class of Romans was most interested in Mithraicism? Soldiers were most interested in this cult because it was a fraternal

order that cultivated virtues important in the life of a soldier. How were some of the rituals of Mithraicism similar to

Christianity? The Mithraic cult shared a communal meal in which members ate

flesh that symbolized their god. They also believed in personal salvation.


FOCUS QUESTIONS What were bread and circuses? To keep the poor happy and content, the emperors began to supply them

with tax-subsidized food and entertainment.

What was the condition of the poor and women in the Roman Empire?

Because of high taxes and competition from slave-labor agricultural estates, the poor in the countryside tended to be forced into cities. Life was precarious for freemen in the cities as there was little money and employment for them. Though during the republic the role of woman as wife and mother was honored, during the era of the empire women were often sold as concubines, a destructive substitute for marriage.

How were most slaves obtained, and how numerous were they? Most slaves were obtained as prisoners of war. During the time of the

empire, more than one-fourth of the population was enslaved.


GUIDED EXERCISE Read silently the section “Slavery” (pp. 15–16), and then

answer the following question in your notebook: What was the original relationship between slavery

and Christianity?


GUIDED EXERCISE 1.Mini-Lecture on religion, philosophy and the natural law.2.Review the section “Stoicism” (p. 15), and then identify the tenets of Stoicism.


GUIDED EXERCISE Discuss how Jews and Christians might have viewed

emperor worship.


FOCUS QUESTIONS What is a chattel slave? A chattel slave is considered not a person but property. Therefore,

the owner held the power of life and death over the slave. Was slavery always a permanent condition? No, a slave could be freed by his master or even earn enough

money to purchase his freedom. Once free, it was even possible for a slave to become a Roman citizen.

What kinds of work did slaves do? Slaves did every kind of work in the Roman Empire except hold

public office. Plautus’s comic plays illustrate the wide variety of jobs slaves performed.


CLOSURE Free write for five minutes about the Basic Questions of

the past two lessons: What major historical events were most important

within the Roman Empire? How did conditions in the Roman Empire support the

spread of the Gospel?


HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT Study Questions 8–11 (p. 24) Practical Exercise 1 (p. 24) Workbook Questions 33–51 Read “The Jews” through “Conclusion” (pp. 17–21)


ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT Closed-book, open-workbook quiz on one or two

questions from last night’s homework.


ANTICIPATORY SET Return to the three interlocking circles you drew in the

first lesson and label the final circle Judaism.

This lesson will include an introduction to Kashrut.

4. The Jews (pp. 17–21)

BASIC QUESTION How did the Jewish religion and people contribute to

the spread of the Gospel? KEY IDEA The Jews, God’s Chosen People, prepared the way for

the coming of the Messiah, Jesus.

4. The Jews (pp. 17–21)

GUIDED EXERCISE Read aloud the two paragraphs on page 17 (“The

history of the Jewish…” and “The Jewish world…”). Complete a Think/Pair/Share using the following

question: In what ways were the Jews singular, that is, unlike

any other people of their time?

4. The Jews (pp. 17–21)

FOCUS QUESTIONS Who were the major figures of Jewish history? Major figures include Abraham, with whom God made a

covenant and who founded the Hebrew people; Moses, who led the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt and gave the Law; Joshua, who conquered the promised land for the Chosen People; and David and Solomon, under whom the Jewish Kingdom of Israel reached its zenith.

What were the staples of Jewish religious life? The staples of Jewish life were reading the Torah, sacrificial

worship in the Temple in Jerusalem, and (later) rabbi-led worship in the synagogue.

4. The Jews (pp. 17–21)

GRAPHIC ORGANIZER Work with a partner to complete the following table

about major persons and events in Jewish history.

4. The Jews (pp. 17–21)

4. The Jews (pp. 17–21)

FOCUS QUESTIONS What is the distinction between the Pentateuch, the

Torah, and the Septuagint? The Pentateuch and the Torah are synonymous; they refer

to the five books of the Law, the first five of the Old Testament. The Septuagint a the Greek translation of the Old Testament.

Why was the Septuagint helpful to the spread of

Christianity? Non-Jews as well as Grecophone converts to Christianity

could read and hear the Scriptures in their own language. The Sacred Authors of the New Testament used the Septuagint to quote the Old Testament.

4. The Jews (pp. 17–21)

FOCUS QUESTIONS Why was the Temple so important to the Jews? The First Temple housed the Ark of the Covenant, and it

became the only place the Jews offered sacrifices to God. After the Jews had returned to Israel from the Babylonian Exile, they built the Second Temple to replace the one the Babylonians had destroyed.

4. The Jews (pp. 17–21)

FOCUS QUESTIONS How did the Old Testament come to be translated

into Greek, and what is that translation called? The King of Egypt requested a Greek copy of the

Scriptures for his library in Alexandria. Since many Jews throughout the empire knew both Hebrew and Greek, a group of rabbis in Alexandria translated the Scriptures into Greek. This translation is called the Septuagint (from the Latin for “seventy”) because seventy-two scholars worked on the project.

4. The Jews (pp. 17–21)

FOCUS QUESTION What was the Diaspora? The Diaspora was the emigration of Jews to areas outside the

Promised Land. During the time of Christ, there were more Jews living outside Judea than within; for example, there were 1,000,000 Jews in Alexandria. There was considerable emigration after Jewish revolts in Judea in 63 BC and AD 115–117.

4. The Jews (pp. 17–21)

FOCUS QUESTIONS What special concessions did the Jews enjoy in the

Roman Empire? They were often exempt from emperor worship. What was the eventual fate of Judea under the

Romans? The Romans destroyed the Temple AD 70 and later

razed Jerusalem. They forbade entrance except one day per year to weep before the ruins of the Temple.

4. The Jews (pp. 17–21)

GRAPHIC ORGANIZER Complete the following table about the Sadducees and

Pharisees.

4. The Jews (pp. 17–21)

4. The Jews (pp. 17–21)

CLOSURE Free write for five minutes on the following question:

How might the influence of the Pharisees on Israel have helped make it the right time for Christ to have been born and found the Church?

4. The Jews (pp. 17–21)

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT Study Questions 12–16 (p. 24) Practical Exercises 2–3 (p. 24) Workbook Questions 52–70

4. The Jews (pp. 17–21)

ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT Review the Vocabulary (p. 23), and then write a

paragraph about the term related to Judaism you believe has the most significance for the history of Christianity.

4. The Jews (pp. 17–21)

THE END

background: the roman world history of the church

Documents

hellenistic worldview

church slide

greek language

greek ideas

day of class slide

greek thought

greek influence

rich language