Europe at Present [Spring 2003]

RELIGIONS IN EUROPE

The present religious situation in Europe is difficult to characterise and understand without a brief introduction to its history. Additionally many of the primitive beliefs strongly influenced present cultures and are even still alive among many groups in society. Very often the specific features of present religions result from their beginnings. The following text presents a brief summary of religious history of Europe in chronological order. The names of the periods do not come from any official classification, but were worked out for the purpose of this paper.

Pre-civilised period

The first more developed civilisations were these of Mesopotamia and Sumer and Egypt. In Europe it was the time of Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments. It is not completely clear if there had any religious functions, but they could serve as places of sacrifices or praying.²⁶⁹

The Hebraic tribe settled in Palestine around 2000 BC. According to the Bible, the first of them was Abraham. When the famine stroke Palestine, his son, Jacob moved to Egypt with his people, where they became slaves. Yahweh – their one God – rescued them under the leadership of Moses from slavery and oppression in Egypt, and led them through the wilderness of Sinai to a land he promised would be their own.²⁷⁰ They fought the Filistines to create the kingdom of Israel, which they ruled until they were conquered around 700 BC. They believed that the one god established a special relationship with them known as the "covenant".

Greek and Roman world

Rome was settled in 753 BC. From the very beginning it remained under the cultural influence of Greek. In fact, all the roman gods were acquired mainly from Greek but also other cultures like Egyptians and Cartagina.²⁷³

To the Romans, the gods were functions, assigned a precise office which was what was worshipped rather than the personalities of the stories. Religion was related to the basic agricultural economy, with the city of Rome personified as the main deity; they accepted some foreign gods, especially Greek, into their pantheon, modifying the deities to fit their functional need.

Roman religion was essentially state controlled. The state cult gave way to the cult of the emperor. Imperial deification began after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC when the Roman Senate proclaimed him as a god and the deification of strong emperors continued.²⁷⁴

Since the year 597 BC Jews tended to isolate. The ancient Israelites seem to have distinguished themselves from other religious groups by their belief in a god called Yahweh who had shown special compassion towards their ancestors.

At this time Palestine was under the rule of the Greek and many Jews fought the Greek influence, which destroyed their tradition. After fighting back the Greeks, Judea enjoyed 80 years of independence until it was conquered again, this time by Romans. Under the Roman rule many Jews left Judea and settled all over the empire. ²⁷⁵

The land north of the Mediterranean was dominated by two main groups of Northern peoples, the Celtic and the Germanic. At the beginning they lived in the middle Europe since 600 BC. They started to move west and south, and settled as farmers. They traded with their neighbours (Romans, Greek, and other Mediterranean countries) but remained immune to their cultural influence. In France they were called Gals and were conquered by Cesar. Most of the Celtic culture in Great Britain disappeared under the rule of Romans, but it remained strong in the North England, Whales, Scotland and Ireland. ²⁷⁶

The Germanic peoples were essentially polytheistic, and many names of deities are recorded. However, four names occur so frequently that they can be assumed to be of greatest importance - these are Woden/Odin, Thor, Frey and Freyja. These deities were not regarded as immortal, for it was believed that the day of Ragnorak, the doom of the gods, would one day come, causing the gods to die in mortal combat and that the earth and humans would perish with them. After this, the Germanic peoples believed a new heaven and earth would arise as Yggradsil, the world tree, renewed itself.

The most widely used symbols were the runes, which the Germanic peoples believed were discovered by Odin. The runic symbols were thought to be embodiments of truth, and were used for divination, magic, and decoration to honour the gods.²⁷⁷

When Jesus Christ was born, Judea was ruled by Romans. He was born in Bethlehem probably in the year 5 BC. He was brought up in Nazareth, as a carpenter. When he was 27 he started to teach and heal people. He criticised official religions and claimed to be God’s Son, which was perceived as a heresy. Put on trial for sedition, he was executed by crucifixion. Jesus' death did not represent the end of the new movement. His disciples, believing that God had risen Jesus from the dead, proclaimed the resurrection and the beginning of a new age It created a basis for a new religion, strongly connected with Judaism. The most important early convert, Paul of Tarsus, carried the Christian message to various parts of the Roman Empire.²⁷⁸

Christians separated themselves from Jews and other religions; they met in catacombs, as they were safe due to a roman law, which protected burial grounds. In 250 AD Romans started to persecute them. Many of them were murdered in arenas.²⁷⁹

At its height, the Roman Empire stretched from Hadrian's Wall in Britain to the Persian Gulf. When Diocletian came to power in 284 AD, the Empire was too diverse and weak in structure, and could no longer be ruled by one Emperor; power was divided between two rulers and two subordinates, but although theoretically these rulers were joint, the Empire gradually broke into an Eastern and Western half, and outlying provinces fell to barbarian invaders.²⁸⁰

While Eastern grew in power, the power of the Western one declined. In 312 the cesar Constantine became Christian after seeing burning cross in the sky. The Christianity became an accepted religion in the Roman Empire in the year 313 AD with the proclamation of the Edict of Milan. In the year 380 AD it was declared an official religion of the empire. All other religions were proscribed. The year 476 marks the end of Western empire. ²⁸¹