Early Christianity and Its Ambiguous Relationship with the Roman Empire: Between Resistance and Assimilation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14422//ee.v101.i398.y2026.003Keywords:
Roman Empire, beginning of Christianity, patriarchy, piety, resistance and assimilationAbstract
The relationship between the first believers in Christ and the Roman Empire was complex and ambiguous, which makes it difficult to explore in a single article. As an initial approach, and without claiming to be exhaustive, we shall focus on one of the most prominent features of the Empire’s stability since the time of Augustus: the virtue of piety (pietas, eusebeia) understood as loyal devotion to one’s homeland and family, and its expression in the institution of patriarchy. This article examines certain literary traditions from the first two generations of believers in Christ (ca. 30–110 CE), in which one can trace their understanding of and attitude toward the memory of Jesus’ death and conformity to patriarchy. The findings reveal a significant distance between these traditions and imperial institutions, even in those cases that seem to show some degree of assimilation.Downloads
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