Did the rise of Christianity cause the decline of Rome?

Answer 1

Actually, Christianity was adopted by Constantine the Great to solidify his hold on the empire, because he felt it would parallel his idea of one God, one Emporer. The main reasons the empire fell are its excesses, the fact that it became so bloated, and the way it treated conquered nations. It laid waste to all its territories to support itself and to provide entertainment (several animals went extinct just because so many of them were used in the Roman games).
It also became larger than its army could defend. Finally, the people of conquered lands also began to think of themselves as Romans, too, but Rome refused to treat them as citizens. Some of the "Barbarians" weren't necessarily attacking Rome--at least one landowner was apparently shocked when a "Barbarian" came to his estate and wasn't there to steal it--he wanted to buy it!

Answer 2

I agree with the gentleman above who pointed out the corruption and decadence had more to do with it, but there are a few other things that go into it. Christianity had little to do with the downfall of the empire, but it's definitely noteworthy to say that it certainly wouldn't have spread without it, either.
When a society like that falls into disarray it usually has to do with the political forces rather than what happens with the military. Granted, the weakening of a state's military can have adverse effects leading to its downfall, but the thing is that a military is only a wing of the government that carries out a government's policies by force. The lack of available soldiers or the decline of a military is only a symptom of something else going on, and by the time Christianity gained prominence inn the empire, there were still plenty of available men to fight in the legions. Since the Roman society had an exposure to a wide array of different gods/goddesses to pray to, the likelihood of the senate losing sway with the citizenry after the rise of Christianity is not that likely, and by that time Diocletian had disbanded the Senate, which was mostly symbolic anyway after the rise of Caesar Augustus. What really killed it was the political restructuring into Eastern and Western empires, with the East being far more economically viable, and the West being cut off from the central authority and being left out to dry, vulnerable to attack, with Rome itself being in the Western Empire, leading to the rise of Byzantium in Eastern Europe, and Western Europe beginning the Dark Ages.

Answer 3

Not at all, what caused the Fall of the Roman Empire was not in any way the rise of Christianity, the fall of the Roman Empire was caused by the corrruption of the government and the Emperors and the lack of morality in the people, leading to Romans being to interested in their own luxuries rather than to join the legions and defend the empire. When the people will not rise up and defend themselves, the empire will ALWAYS fail.

A great lesson for the idiotic leftists who want to abolish or eviscerate the US military.

whale

Answer 4

it's kinda did, like egypt, rome is "BIG" because of their large number of Gods, the court family and the senators can move the people with the religious emotion that they have, they can make their will into "God's will"

But then, when Christianity raised, it made a huge difference when the leaders doesn't have their Ace card anymore, it made the already democratic rome to be the uncontrolled rome for the leaders, they must do a lot of negotiation in order to make the citizens ran away, there are no country without citizens

Answer 5

Christianity arose because of the decline of the Roman empire, not the other way around. Once emperors took command, the empire started to get more and more chaotic, lost more support and fewer people willing to serve in the military.

Answer 6

No. Religion was more a result of the empires ineptness, i guess...common folks needed recess from the corruption of there government, social deterioration, and that was just one of many things they turned toward for easement.
Empires crumble because they 'govern' them selves to death.

Answer 7

It's largely considered to be a contributing factor but is by no means the only one. Check out other popular theories here:

http://killeenroos.com/1/Romefall.htm

Answer 8

nope- that simple