Lesson 3.2: The Rise of Christianity

• Objective: Students will answer questions regarding theh shift away from paganism and towards Christianity within the Roman Empire based on videos and a presentation that includes the analysis of primary sources with an 80% success rate
• Vocabulary: paganism, Zealots, diaspora, the Great Schism

Directions:

• Get a copy of this worksheet (3.2: The Rise of Christianity) and answer the questions on the worksheet based on the parts listed below

Part 1: The Pagan World (Questions 1 & 2)

• The purpose of this section is to gain an understanding of paganism
• Paganism is the word used by early Christians to describe polytheistic religions outside of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Please note that there is no single "Pagan" religion, but rather a number of pagan religions.
• Here are some well-known examples of pagan religions:
  • Ancient Greece (e.g. Zeus, Hercules, Poseidon, Aries)
  • Norse (e.g. Thor, Freya, Oden)
  • Egyptian (e.g. Horus, Osiris, Ra, Isis)
  • Roman (e.g. Bacchus, Mars, Jupiter)
• To get a better understanding of Roman paganism, watch the video below

If you have trouble answering #3 based on the article, read the following:

Polytheistic religions tend to be more accepting of other polytheistic religions. When a polytheistic empire, such as Rome, conquers other polytheistic religions, the conquered do not simply switch one set of gods for another, but add the gods of their conquerors to their pantheon (all of the gods of a religion). For monotheistic religions, like Judaism, Christianity, and later Islam, this is impossible. For them, there is but one god, and asking them to accept additional gods into their worldview would mean betraying their faith. The resistance of these monotheistic religions to accept Roman culture and religion let to increasing friction.

Part 3: The Rise of Christianity (Questions 7-14)

• Click on the link below to access the documents needed to answer the questions in this section
• The Rise of Christianity