Examples of How Greco Roman Culture Influenced Early Christian Ideas, Art, and Architecture

There’s no debate that Christianity borrowed much of its culture from past civilizations and religions. In this essay the reader will be introduced to Art, Architecture, and Ideology borrowed from Greco Roman Culture. With a religion directly threatening a dictator’s power as to who his subjects should worship its understandable Christians would be persecuted, it also helps the reader understand why it was difficult for them to express themselves. Much of Christians art had to be disguised and laced with strong hints of symbolism only a dedicated worshiper could recognize. Many of the more famous Christian art pieces are based off early Greek gods and tales. When a religion branches off from another, similarities are expected, but to what extent before they’re considered an ideological theft? And when your finally given a chance to express yourself and your beliefs would you settle for a paganistic form of architecture? Or the vast and intricate Roman basilicas as influence.

One example of how Greco Roman culture defined Christian ideology was the strong influence of “YAWEH” that helped form the 10 commandments. The Christian religion was a rooted in Second Temple Judaism, basically speaking it originated as Judaism but due to changing beliefs a split occurred. When comparing the two religions there are more similarities than differences, aside for the differing opinion regarding Jesus as the messiah and the old vs new testaments. These similarities are especially apparent when compared to a Hellenistic Jew. Greek philosophy was a big influence on Christianity, it started a way of thinking that was against polytheism and in favor of monotheism. Many Greek philosophers has theories that influenced or were directly used by Christians in the making of their religion “Plato also held the view that there are two worlds; the visible world and the invisible world. The visible world is the shadow of the real world. He further stressed that reality is not temporal, but it is spiritual and eternal.” (Ekeke, Vole.3, iss.1, pg. 30, Jan 2013)

This belief shares a striking resemblance to the Christian belief of heaven. On that same note Greeks could also be credited for “Stoicism” this relating directly to Christians 10 commandments a code of ethics to get you into the eternal afterlife. But Greek enlightenment wouldn’t last forever as the Romans conquered them in 146 BC. This led to an absorption of Greek culture and an alteration in the names and powers of some gods. Alexander the great even continued spreading “Koine” throughout the East and western parts of the world. Even though Christianity was illegal until Constantine’s ruling in 313 AD, Christians still had a vast amount of information and reference to take of Greek and roman gods for influence. This fueled the underground worship and finalization of the religion’s backstory. Following this Constantine’s legalization allowed the religion to grow at rapid rates and after 10 short years it became the official religion of the empire.

One example of how Greco Roman culture affected Christian architecture is the “Apse” a polygonal recess in a church directly taken from roman architecture. Christians had a dilemma regarding the ideal church they needed to express themselves and their new religion. On one hand there was the old temple design used by Romans to worship religions, but it was associated with paganism and that would be conflicting. Constantine struggled to find a powerful yet meaningful piece of architecture that would divulge the struggle Christians went through, until the idea of the Basilica was brought forth. Before this Basilicas had been used solely for public matters such as meetings or law courts, they were the ideal design. The basilica was not only a big enough design to where the Christians could meet and worship god it also possessed the “Apse” a large semicircular extension to the building. This provided a powerful symbolic feature and a holy space inside a church where the altar or clergy are located. Another important Piece of culture borrowed was the idea to use catacombs to house the dead during persecution of Christians. Another significant idea used by Christians would be the catacombs, this was originally used by Jewish to bury their dead outside the city of Rome. It was a place people could bury their dead appropriately in accordance to their religion. Christians even chose to build their catacombs adjacent to Jewish ones when present.

One of the many ways in which Greco Roman culture influenced Christian art would be the art style Frescoes, with this style Christian art was able to evolve into what it is today. Roman art played a huge role in early Christian art whether your addressing Greek or strictly Roman styles. Greeks were known for their artistic values with powerful advancements in sculpting and detailed religious paintings. The Geeks are responsible for the creation of relief sculptures, Mosaics, and even Sarcophagi. When looking at early Christian art it’s apparent Greek art directly contributed to how Christian religious figures looked, for instance take the “shepherd figure” it dates to 6th century BC Greece and shares a strikingly similar appearance to what Christians believed Jesus looked like. But that’s not the only example by a long shot, there’s the philosopher figure, the law giver figure, and the infamous “festive meal” used by Christians as the last supper. There can be pages found on the similarities between their art but one of the most important pieces of culture used would be the sarcophagi. There have been direct correlations between Christian burial practices and Roman as shown in the quote “Families would have chambers or cubicula dug to bury their members. Wealthy Romans would also have sarcophagi or marble tombs carved for their burial. The Christian converts wanted the same things. Christian catacombs were dug frequently adjacent to non-Christian ones, and sarcophagi with Christian imagery were apparently popular with the richer Christians. (Kahn Academy, Early Christian Art, 2014) One of the most apparent pieces of culture used was the act of painting peacocks which represented resurrection in roman mythology, also Hercules which represented strength. The works of art previously stated directly show ideals taken from Greco Roman culture, but the Shepherd figure statue goes into depth with the symbolism discussed earlier. A statue of “the good shepherd” at first glance appears to be a piece of roman art but when inspected closer one notices the “Chi rho” symbol draped across the figure’s chest. Another interesting detail is the lamb draped over the figures shoulder, lambs in the Christian religion have a deeper symbolic meaning of “symbol of Christ as the Paschal Lamb and also a symbol for Christians (as Christ is our Shepherd and Peter was told to feed His sheep). The lamb is also a symbol for St. Agnes (Feast Day 21 January), virgin martyr of the early Church.” (Tucciarone Tracy, Christian symbolism, 1996)

After learning of the persecution and adversity Christians faced early on from the Roman empire its quite understandable as to why so much of their religion and culture is like that of the Greco Roman style. With no way to openly express themselves many Christians found it beneficial to learn from previous civilizations like the Greek and even that of the modern Jew. Many stories found in the Christian bible are similar if not identical to ones of the Torah and Quran. Christians were hated by the Romans and this drove them into hiding, to display one’s Christian values openly would ensure imprisonment and even death, it just wasn’t an option. The Romans had an ignorant view of the Christians and flat out didn’t like them. This was understandable in the eyes of a Roman, for one Christians wouldn’t fight in the army seeing as it goes against their religion, Jesus taught that all are equal which went against the Roman class system, and the religion even threatened Roman rule. It could be argued that so much of Greco Roman culture was borrowed due to the lack of knowledge by Christians in that time period, or even that the Roman government censored any information it saw unfit to be shown to the public. Either of these two would’ve resulted in Christians seeing only one side of a false truth like that of the shadows in Plato’s allegory of the cave. In the end can one truly blame the Christians for “borrowing” so much when that was their only choice? Or was the unoriginality just a short cut to developing the most dominant religion of all time.