Religious tolerance in Roman history

Posted by Seth Fuller on Oct 26, 2010 in Church History

In his book, “Evangelism In The Early Church,” Michael Green writes about the clash of Roman and Jewish religion:

In their approach to the religions of other nations, the Romans showed great respect. They were not going to wage war on anyone’s gods. So they tended to identify the foreign deity with a god of their own who performed the same function or, if there was no obvious candidate, they simply added the god in question to their pantheon. Mutual recognition marked the attitude of Romans and other nations to each other’s gods, and this worked well until they met the Jews. These exclusive monotheists refused to allow Yahweh to be added to the pantheon or to be identified with Jupiter. He was the God of the whole earth, and they would worship him alone. This seemed very odd and narrow-minded to the Romans but they were a practical people, adaptable and tolerant in religion, as in so much else. (p. 58, emphasis added)

How often history repeats itself. . . Christians today are in the same situation now. Be brave in the face of this modern-day challenge without cowering in fear.