Borrowing from the old adage, “all roads lead to Rome”, it appears that all ancient Mediterranean cities led to Christianity. Even despite Christianity being a minor movement in the first century, the sophisticated (for ancient times), Roman-designed travel routes throughout the Mediterranean and Asia Minor allowed early Christians to mingle with other cultures and gain a more diverse audience (Brown 64).
What’s more, with the combination of Roman, Greek, and Jewish influence strongly at play, citizens of various countries or regions – whether it was Greece, Palestine, Syria, or beyond – formed individually diverse cities that encouraged the locals to fit in with society, or sub-section of society, and enjoy connecting with like minded groups: guilds, unions, and public places of worship, to name a few (Brown 64, 65).
This mixing of cultures, however, wasn’t immune from prejudice or hostility between foreigners and locals. Jews were notoriously marginalized, depending on how liberal or conservative they were in their beliefs, the location they were visiting or inhabiting, and to what degree affluent Jews could exercise their influence on the local culture (Brown 65).
This also affected how the apostles shared the Gospel and dealt with other cultural or religious practices that attempted to merge with Christian belief. For instance, Paul forbade fellow Christians from participating at altar tables where Pagan sacrifices occurred. Ironically enough, Paul did not take issue with eating the sacrificial food, as he did not consider it a form of idolatry (Brown 65).
Yet one of the most significant boosts to Christian evangelization and cultural inter-mixing – although often dangerous — was the allowing of Gentiles to become Christians. And while this barred Christians from some of the same legal protections that Jews had received under Roman rule –and which included non-Christian Jews marginalizing Gentiles and Jewish Christians – it apparently did not stop Christians from pressing on with evangelization campaigns in major cities (Brown 65, 66).
In a way, this relates to the modern-day spread of Christianity, particularly via the Catholic Church. That is, the very meaning of Catholic – “universal” – is a call to all cultures, all people from diverse backgrounds, to unite with the Church’s mission of spreading the Gospel. Still, the modern world faces many of the same challenges as the first Christians did: competing faiths that have a history of persecuting one another, the language and communication struggles that go with blending different cultures, and government powers that may or may not always be receptive to religious movements that conflict with local cultural practices.
Works Cited
Brown, Raymond. An Introduction to the New Testament. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.