Ancient Roman Christians

Christian beliefs and practices in the 2nd and 3rd centuries

Icon of Mary, Rome (6th century or earlier)
Image source: Asia

Based on the sources discussed below, the following can be surmised about early Christianity, before it was fused with Roman government and political power:

• These Christians believed in one God as the “single ruler over all things”, such that no other Gods should be acknowledged. Some, if not many, early Christians equated the monotheistic God of Christianity with Sol / the sun, and others equated the Christian God with “the One” of Neo-Platonism. Thus there was, at least for some, a fusion between traditional Greco-Roman beliefs (now updated to embrace monism) and Christian scripture.
• While the core belief of ancient Christianity was monotheism and belief in Jesus as the son of God, there was a diversity of other beliefs amongst early Christians whereby there was debate on such things as:

─ the exact nature of Jesus (how much was of Christ was human versus how much was divine),

─ whether or not God was trinitarian or utterly singular (ie, separate from Christ),

─ whether or not scripture should be taken as literal truth or interpreted allegorically.

• Veneration of Mary, the Saints and relics were early practices, certainly arising before Constantine and the Council of Nicaea. 
• Early Christians believed in demons, and some alleged the traditional Gods were demons.
• They adhered to traditional gender binaries, eg, men should be masculine (not effeminate or androgynous) but exercise personal restraint, especially in relation to violence, food and sex. Nonetheless, though men led the Church, Christian women were extremely active and some women were deaconesses.
• They met with each other regularly (eg, on a Sunday morning) and at these meetings the following might take place:

─ the reading out of “sacred words of holy books”,

─ hymns were sung to Christ / God,

─ something akin to a sermon was delivered,

─ prayers would be made while standing and with hands spread “toward God”,

─ members would commit themselves to moral precepts, such as not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to lie, etc,

─ food was shared which included bread and wine,

─ those who could afford it would donate money to the Church so that it may engage in philanthropic activities, such as feeding the poor and taking in orphans and widows who had no-one else to care for them.

• Individual Christians engaged in regular fasting / moderation in food and drink.
• Some Christians appear to have been proto-monks and nuns by engaging in lifelong celibacy.

Christianity in the 2nd century

Given that I have a good understanding of the religious landscape in ancient Rome it seems fitting to look at Christianity during this era. Many contemporary analyses of this kind focuses heavily on the New Testament, with a particular focus on 1st century Christians. As there is nothing I can add to the discussion on 1st century Christians I am instead starting in the 2nd century, with a focus on this nascent religion as it was before it became a major political force in the 4th century CE.

The Protestant Mind Virus

Destruction of "Idols" by Protestants (1524)

I have found myself in an awkward spiritual spot. Years ago I thoughtfully rejected Christianity – I even wrote a blogpost in 2013 about my reasons why. But lately a trinity of events have occurred such that I feel compelled to reconsider my position.

First, a good friend persuaded me to look at a particular window at St Mary’s Cathedral (Sydney) for the aesthetics. It showed Mary on a crescent moon with a halo of stars. It was beautiful and as I looked at it I had a strange sense of a medieval and mystical version of Christianity, and a thought “what a shame this type of Christianity no longer exists”.

Second, my approach to religion subtly shifted over a period of many months until I arrived at a position where I was starting to think maybe God exists in some great cosmic sense, and that the Gohonzon (the sacred mandala of Nichiren Buddhism, which I have been venerating for a number of years) is a portrait of God, and that (at least some of) the benevolent Gods might be God’s helpers.

Third, I listened to a podcast on Martin Luther and had a thunderstruck moment when I realised that the religion I had so thoughtfully rejected a long time ago was perhaps not Christianity but something rather more specific – Protestant Christianity. In my mind Protestantism was Christianity and vice versa, simply because I didn’t know any other type. The Christianity I knew was rather uninteresting and uninspiring so it never occurred to me to explore any variations of it. More than 400+ years of Protestant ancestry had taught me to look somewhat askance at Catholicism, thus I tended to avoid it. My very limited encounters with Orthodox Christianity suggested it was a religion inextricably tied up with ethnic and cultural identities that had nothing to do with me, so I never thought about it, other than to admire the aesthetic. I did not even know there was a church further to the east than Lebanon until a few months ago, such was my general disinterest in Christianity.

The notions I had thought were synonymous with Christianity but are actually features of Protestantism (mostly inspired by Martin Luther and then John Calvin) include:

Northern European Food Curse – Salicylate Sensitivity

"Kitchen Scene" by van Rijck (17th century)

There is a well-known trope about British people having the runs after a night eating curry. One of the reasons for this, at least for some, is salicylate sensitivity – a heritable food intolerance that many people know nothing about, though it is estimated to affect perhaps around 2.5% of Europeans. An allergy specialist I saw years ago described the phenomenon as “edge of the world syndrome”, she told me that on some days every person in her waiting room with food sensitivities was red-haired, and explained that many people with northern European ancestry are today eating a diet that is utterly alien to that of their ancestors. Basically, northern Europeans adapted to eating a diet that was, for the most part, naturally low in salicylates. In so doing some of them lost the ability to efficiently metabolise the higher amounts of salicylates naturally found in the skin of most fruit, herbs and spices (as well as many vegetables) found further south on the globe – foods that are becoming increasingly common in modern Western diets. Today, many people put up with the symptoms of salicylate sensitivity because the symptoms are either mild enough to ignore or because they don’t understand the root cause of troubling health issues. 

There seems to be a cultural reluctance to point out that there are some significant genetic differences between ethnic groups. If east Asian people live longer then surely their diet is healthier for all humans? Not necessarily – because ethnic groups evolved for tens of thousands of years apart from each other and in so doing their ancestors who flourished did well on food native to their homelands. Northern Europeans prospered on a diet based on animal products, supplemented by small amounts of highly seasonal and localised nuts, fruit and vegetables. Within the last few thousand years grains and legumes (which are mostly low salicylate) were added to the mix. The overwhelming majority of fruit, vegetables, herbs, spices and long-life foods commonly eaten today were totally unavailable. Even the much praised Mediterranean diet is too exotic for people with salicylate sensitivity. By comparison, traditional northern European food tends to be naturally much lower in salicylates, eg, oatmeal with sugar and milk, yoghourt, bread and cheese, bacon and eggs, pancakes, custard, baked pear and cream, fish and chips with mushy peas, fish pie, roast lamb with carrots and parsnips, steak with mashed potato and brussel sprouts, baked potato with sour cream and chives, kasha, ham and pea soup, beef and carrot stew, etc.