Discuss the Greek background into which Christianity developed during Essay

Discuss the Greek background into which Christianity developed during the first century A.D.and discuss the Jewish bckground into which Christianity was born uring the first century A.D - Essay Example ace, the order would have to overcome the culturally and religiously embedded polytheistic ideas that served as a bridge between the current Greek society and the historical Greek society. Making the cultural transition from this set of religious doctrine to that of the Christian one would not be seamless; however, there were aspects of the Greek religious and cultural landscape that facilitated the shift in parallel to one taking place in the Roman Empire. The Greek religious context of First Century Christianity was predominantly one of an ideologically opposed polytheism in which a pantheon of different gods and goddesses took part in influencing the course of human and natural events. The hierarchy of gods, with a king Zeus having a level of power over other gods, displays a very anthropomorphic center in the Greek folk religion. Each of these gods and goddesses possessed control over some general category of nature, or, in other cases, some abstract concepts. The Greek deities were immortal but not all-powerful (omnipotent). The gods were subject to a sense of fate that could not be violated. Like human beings, the Greek deities were not perfect, and often had extensive relationships with human beings. The gods had human vices and fell victim to the same kinds of weaknesses in will that humans are famous for, such as the will to outdo others in competition. In addition, the Greeks associated certain individual gods with cities, su ch as the famous association of Athena with the city of Athens. Clearly, there are some ideological parallels between this description of Ancient Greek faith and the orthodox Christianity that emerged in the First Century. The Christian God was immortal (though omnipotent), and was profoundly anthropomorphic, especially in the traditional Old Testament conception. The hierarchy of gods in the Greek religion corresponds to the hierarchy of the orthodox faith, especially in what many Christians would come to create with the Great