宗教研究通往罗马路上的文化交流和融合通往罗马路上的文化交流和融合——解读早期基督教会从受迫害的宗教到成为“国教”的历史

早期罗马帝国的宗教格局是多元的。罗马帝国在不危及其政治统治的前提下容忍各种民族宗教的存在。到了罗马帝国后期,罗马皇帝想把某一种满足其需要的宗教扶植为国教,以便建立大一统的帝国意识形态。这里有政治方面的考量,也有文化和社会方面的因素。罗马后期,某些宗教已经从一种地域性的宗教演变为流传于罗马全境的具有“公共性”特征的宗教,基督教就是其中的一个典型。罗马皇帝最初选择把拜日教(太阳神崇拜)立为“国教”,但遭到基督教不屈不挠的反抗。鉴于基督教是一种“公共宗教”,在很大程度上能满足帝国的需要,罗马皇帝最终选择收编基督教为“国教”。这样做的原初目的是为了强化其统治,但宗教政策上的这一重大转变也带来新的问题。成为“国教”的基督教并不能挽救罗马帝国覆灭的命运,这种大一统的宗教导致西方文化从古典多元形态的“活跃期”走向中世纪的一元形态的“僵化期”。
Abstract：In the early Roman Empire the religious pattern was plural. The Roman Empire tolerated the existence of various national religions without prejudice to its political domination. At the end of the Roman Empire, the emperor of Rome wanted to foster a religion that met its needs as a state religion in order to establish a unified empire ideology. Why did the Roman emperor do that? There are political considerations, but also cultural and social factors. In the late Roman period, some religions had evolved from a regional religion to a religion of “public nature” that spread throughout Rome, and Christianity was one of them. The emperor of Rome had chosen to set Mithraism (sun-god worship) as a “state religion,” but was rebelled by Christianity. In view of Christianity is a “public religion,” to a large extent to meet the needs of the empire, the Roman emperor finally chose to incorporate Christianity as the “state religion.” The purpose of doing so was to strengthen its rule, but this major change in religious policy also brought new problems. Christianity, which became the “state religion,” did not save the fate of the Roman Empire, and this dominant religion brought the Western culture from the classical “active period” of the pluralism to the “rigid period” of the monolithic form.