Where would christianity be without the Roman Empire?

Question

A peaceful persecuted underground religious sect(Christianity) is claimed by the fiercely violent Roman empire and turned into a justification for war, persecution etc. Where would Chritianity be without the Roman empire today? Would the entire religion be something more like the Quakers and other pacifist sects, or would it even still exist without Roman patronage?

Answer 1

What would have happened to Christianity if the Roman Empire didn't exist?  Persia and Carthage would probably have filled the power vacuum in the Mediterannean, and Christianity would have become the major religion in these countries instead.  The Vatican would have ended up in

the Middle East, instead of Rome.

The other alternative is that Christianity remained a small-time religion.  In that case, during the Middle Ages, Europeans would have lacked the will (provided by Christianty, to defend their land against other faiths) to resist Islamic invaders.  Europe would be conquered by Islam.

Do you really think the Romans used Christianity as a 'justification for war?'  Remember that Christianity didn't become legal till 315AD (when the Empire was already starting to fall), and not the state religion till 426 AD....It fell in 476.   This was during Rome's decline, so they didn't have to 'justify' war to anybody; all their war's would have been in self-defence...Wars over religion were more something of the MIDDLE AGES.

Answer 2

I somewhat think it would be in the world, but not a big religion.

It's in Africa right now but it is not a big group down their

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the only thing that was holding the countryside together was the Catholic church. The people who once belong to the Western Roman Empire now need it as a form to help control the chaos of the dark ages and also the church saved things about the roman empire like music. The world would be different without Christianity being accepted by the Roman Empire

Answer 3

Rome's sole task was to stop Christianity ..it sure didn't work, maybe if they hadn't tried to stop it the Followers of Christ might have been able to witness to more to the middle east ( what would be the current  world situation if most of the countries in the middle east were considered christian ones?) The Roman Catholic doctrine is based on guilt, guilt of what was done in the past.

Answer 4

It's hard to say. But that's what happens when a religion becomes political & part of a form of government. First of all how many countries kingdoms ect, do you know of that never go to war, or never went to war. Very few lol, & the ones that didn't surely didn't become great kingdoms in size, strength, or influence. Would it exist today, maybe as a small sect. You have to remember it didn't do that well among the jewish people themselves. If the Romans didn't accept christianity or their interpretation of it, the catholic church & the orthodox church would hardly have become what it became & it wouldn't be what it is today. As for protestants, yeah it's possible that protestantism still would have flourished. Of course the English form of protestantism was just as bad if not worse than the other forms i mentioned. And then in the usa you had groups like the KKK ect. which were horrible as well. Of course would we have the in your face sort of protestants today who say you're going to h**l if you don't repent ect. instead of exentuating the love of jesus. Who knows. You probably would have still have had things happen like the salem witch trials ect. Cause in that case it was local authorities that acted, not some big powerful government with a standing army ect.