Arts and humanities
> Wednesday, May 15 - 5 p.m.
Interview with Philippe Tarel, history teacher in preparatory classes at Lycée Champollion in Grenoble and lecturer in Roman history at UFR ARSH.
Mr. Tarel will be interviewed by Clément Chillet, Marie-Claire Ferriès, and Marianne Guérin.
Christianity was born in a world dominated by Rome. To a large extent, it was even a product of the Roman world, as the manner in which it spread mirrored the basic structures of the empire.
The movement of people and ideas, made possible by the "Pax Romana," facilitated its spread, giving it a "universal" dimension at a very early stage.
Christians, who were only a minority of the population, showed their loyalty to the imperial power from the very beginning. The lasting rejection they suffered during the first three centuries of their existence was all the more painful.
This was because Christianity, with its exclusivity, clashed head-on with the Roman conception of religion, which was fundamentally tolerant as long as the Roman gods were honored. Participation in imperial worship ceremonies was above all a catalyst for unity in an empire that brought together very diverse populations.
By refusing to participate and rejecting a number of practices that were part of society, Christians excluded themselves from the political community. Periods of persecution, which were never permanent or widespread, were a tragic manifestation of their otherness, which was considered a danger by the majority of the population and by those in power.
Nevertheless, this book focuses above all on showing the importance of the integration of Christians into the society of their time, in which religious divisions were rarely essentialized. This explains the deep roots of Christianity within an empire founded on plurality.
