History in religion
We may be sure that out of the ruins of our capitalist civilization new religions will emerge, just as Christianity emerged from the ruins of the Roman Civilization. On the one hand, in history, people could be used as a tool for authoritiesy. They used to be an instrument in the struggling game among rulers. It did not matter what procedures they used in order to have control over people. However, the best procedure was by persuading them to follow a religion to believe that there is only one God, no matter whatich faith you believed in. This paper will argue that all religions emerged from Judaism, and rulers used religion foras tha me aneeds of controlling people and empowering the authority of rulers.
In the history of religion, Judaism was the first religion which supported the idea of one God. Before that, paganism was common and each person had his own “God” that they believed in. Therefore, Judaism was not accepted quickly by people, because having only one for the universe it meanst only one power. According to religion's history, God sent a prophet to the people because He wanted them to live a good life. Even though Ibrahim had a small group, they tried to spread Judaism in spite of all the struggles they faced. After the prophet Abraham, many prophets came and Jesus was one of them. Jesus is the prophet of Christianity, who was not accepted by the Jewish because they did not believe him. “Someone of the blood line of Abraham who does not believe in Jesus the Jew” (Goldman, D.,2012). However, at the same time, pagan peoples believed in him because Constantine, who iwas the ruler of the Roman Empire, supported Christianity. “As emperor, he legalized Christianity; he sponsored the Construction of new churches, promoted Christians to high offices in the government, and gave special rights, such as tax exemptions, to the Christian clergy.”(The sSaylor fFoundation 2002).
In history, a power of authority was really important. The Roman Empire was a really big empire with the many cultures, twhichat made it hard to be controlled. A thesis shows that “Constantine invented the new testament literature and Christianity.” (Brown, D., 2004) which explained that the best way to control an empire is by using religion to convince society. Constantine also used the religion of Christianity because Judaism would separate people instead of uniting them. Firstly, in order to be a Jew you should be from a Jewish family. “A Jew is any person whose mother was Jewish or any person who has gone through the formal process of conversion to Judaism” (Torah 101). Secondly, it made sense to accept Christianity because Jesus was sent to prove that there is only one God. Using this, Constantine could persuade the society to believe in Christianity and be united in one religion in order to make controlling society easier.
Furthermore, authority had to be the most powerful for he iwas the emperor of Romane. Using religion was a really effective, psychological way to control society. Religion would make people in the society unitye. Constantine understood the psyche of his public, that they wioulld do anything for the sake of their creator. Therefore, Richardson said: “…these religious unions have diffused into many parts of the world in seek of territorial control to home and their religious traits.” (Richardson, P., 2012). According to this, whenever he wantsed to control them, he would say that it was for the benefit of religion and God. LikBecause of this no one wioulld say no to him, and he wioulld definitely have all the power to control. “A dream led Constantine to place Christian symbol on the shields of all his soldiers prior to the decisive battle that brought him to full imperial authority.”(Davis, E. 2015).