The Fall of Paganism

Why did paganism lose out to Christianity in ancient Rome and what pagan practices survived? Only a tiny fraction of Romans were Christian when the Emperor Constantine converted. John Hamer of Toronto Centre Place looks at why the old religions failed to meet the challenge of the new faith.

[Greg-clrc]

I love these lectures here, the professor does an amazing job.

I wish these questions from students were screened, however. Many of them are not questions but more like attempts from the student to try display their knowledge. Very few simply ask a question or offer real insight. I often skip them, some make me cringe/

[charleswilson]

i just recently found your channel. its my new favorite. ive been watching lectures nightly. your knowledge of history and languages and the way you make things easy to understand is remarkable. thank you very much for sharing. i think ive actually learned a lot.

[EddyNumberFive]

What a wonderful talk; I love the multi-layered explanation. Thank you, John Hamer, for your clear, yet nuanced, explanation. Be well.

[mrmadmaxalot]

You have this mentioned on the slide at 44:12 but it is worth pointing out a little more specifically what the Crisis of the Third Century was and the role it played. The Roman Empire was in the process of falling apart. It became divided into several more or less independent regions, was in near constant civil war or intrigue for a number of decades, and went through dozens of emperors, most of whom were assassinated.

Aurelian was able to begin pulling this together in the 270s and reunited the empire. There seemed to be a real sense that a spiritual and ideological disunity underlied the political disunity. Earlier emperors had tried to force sacrifices and persecuted those who did not participate (typically including Christians) in an attempt to solve this problem. The Valerian Persecution of the 250s is a good example.

Aurelian went a different route and attempted to unite the empire under one religious tradition which was that of Sol Invictus. This was a logical choice since it was the traditional practice of those in the military. The military was a decent percentage of the male population (most of the common people would have known someone in the military) and it was also the source of unity or division depending on how it was used. As such it was a belief system that would have been familiar across the empire and would have united the important elements of society.

This attempt of course did not pan out and Aurelian was assassinated in 275, with some degree of stability not returning until the 280s under Diocletian. Later in his reign he would again adopt the earlier practice of seeking unity by persecuting those not participating in sacrifices for the empire's well being (the Diocletian Persecution roughly in the first decade of the 300s). After his retirement things began to look shaky again as civil wars popped up, and it is at this point that Constantine successfully unites the empire both politically and spiritually under his newly converted Christian rule. Christianity was also a belief extant, if not exactly common, within the military and that was fairly well known across the empire (it was not a regional belief, in other words). So in this sense, if one wants to be a bit cynical, it made sense to use Christianity for the purpose of imperial unity. Needless to say, this attempt was much more successful than the earlier one.

[robbchristopher]

I got baptized by an elder in the rlds church back in the1980s. I've attended a number of different churches throughout the years and I got to say there needs to be more lectures like this in other churches.

[horizonprinterspubli]

From Delhi India. I watch your teachings and like your clarity on each subject. Horizon pub.

[noriyakigumble]

Thank you so much for this! My history class was cancelled today, so tuning in to learn about the Decline of Roman Paganism instead was such a treat! I didn’t know much about the subject of pagans in Rome, And this lesson was super enlightening

[Articolate]

Audience commentary, random Q+A mid lecture: more disruptive than additive. Esp so when topic is so diffuse & rambling as here. Please reconsider as format? Q+A much more enjoyable when concentrated at the end.

[rogerwelsh]

I love the series of lectures given on this station

[OnEwHoRiDesLinEs]

Loved that off topic moment when 3 people who didn’t know the difference between personify and anthropomorphize weighed in with their best guesses 😅

[dapaulson]

This guy is quite amazing! He is, for the most part, academically slot on. He is like a self deprecating old Norwegian. This guy is special. He should be in a fine university with a huge audience!

[jakecarlo]

This lecture is astronomically amazing by the way. Sincere thanks to the speaker.

[zipperpillow]

More like, "The Fading Away of Paganism". Great idea for a talk, and very interesting speculation that the species of state religion didn't matter, the structure and the functionality of social coercion would have been similar, or identical as it turns out. Great food for thought.

[armyofninjas]

I took Economics courses in college. But....I always loved history. Always enjoyed history classes.

[KateGladstone]

At timestamp 24:24, you talk about the Romans doing divination with the livers of “gooses.” Why did you say “gooses” instead of “geese” there? Have I been wrong to say and write “geese” all these years? (I’m asking because I’d thought I spoke this language natively. Is “gooses” current standard English, and has it superseded “geese”?)

[kevcaratacus]

The Roman bassilica in my city had a saxon Christian church built on top of the part where the pagan temple was.
Many saxon churches in England are built on top of earlier pagan temples .

[TheMindIlluminated]

So is it fair to say that hellenism was more transcendental and intellectual, while Romanism was legalistic and practical?

[ashevibes]

The lady that started singing sent me 😭😭

[nosuchthing]

The bright red shirt is a great choice for yt

[drligme]

You're the best lecturer I've seen on Theology. Love this channel.