Juan Ramón Carbó García (Universidad Católica de Murcia),
La Religión de Estado en el Imperio Romano antes de Constantino. Poder, intolerancia y control ideológico [The State Religion in the Roman Empire before Constantine. Power, intolerance and ideological control]
Keywords: religious policy, Roman Empire, Christianity, tolerance, intolerance, religious violence, ideological control.
Abstract: The State Religion in the Roman Empire before Constantine. Power, intolerance and ideological control. Within the framework of the study of the religious fact in its Western political context, in which Christianity is the fundamental reference – if not the only one –, the objective of this article is to analyze the religious policy of the Roman Empire at the time when Christianity made its appearance and then developed, considering their interaction prior to the time when the first edicts of religious “tolerance” were promulgated. This analysis will focus on four main aspects: 1- we will take a brief look to the Roman religious policy developed during its imperial conformation and the religious aspect of the process known as Romanization; 2- several paradigmatic cases of extreme violence will be presented as a religious policy of the Empire towards foreign territories, which will serve to dismantle any claim on an idyllic general religious tolerance of the Romans prior to their encounter with Christianity; 3- in the light of these attitudes, the focus will be on imperial persecutions within the Empire, especially – but not only – against Christians; 4- the Roman religious policy on the ideological use of certain state-type cults throughout the imperial age will be analyzed, something of vital importance to be able to understand the subsequent use of Christianity as a religion capable of bringing together all the citizens of the Empire and giving them an unique religious identity. All this will lead us to the culminating moment of the fourth century A.D., to Constantine and to Theodosius, to the so-called edicts of Roman religious tolerance and to the conversion of Christianity into “State Religion” of the Roman Empire. Through those four points, such as cardinal points of the map of the analysis, it will be possible to get a better understanding of the fundamental features of Roman religious policy towards other religions. And then, we will understand how could it happen that, in the course of a few centuries, the political attitude developed towards a new religion – although arising from another much older than the Roman one – went from indifference, contempt and even sporadic but increasingly implacable persecution, to tolerance and, shortly thereafter, to its political use, favorite first and unique later.
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