Freedom of Religion/History/Country sources/Early Christianity
What have religious and philosophical traditions contributed to our understanding of this right?
Early Christianity
The introduction of Christianity met intolerance in Rome as a new religion. Its novelty was justification enough for widespread suspicion and scorn for its new followers. “Judaism's ancient history is one of the primary reasons why Rome tolerated its presence and made special exemptions with regards to emperor worship and Jewish rituals” (Weibe 2008, 15). Deviance from existing religious cultures was a test of the tolerance of free religion in society. While Judaism had an accepted position in common society, the history of persecution at the onset of early Christianity proves a lack of said freedom. "Association with Judaism would then have had advantages, since Christians could move under the protective umbrella of Judaism"1 (Wilson 1995, 13). The guise of Judaism provided Christianity with virtue, making it more tolerable. This would not prove successful, as the subsequent persecution of Christians took place on the basis of complete intolerance. “The mere declaration Christianus sum made them liable to the death-penalty” (Janssen 1979, 134). As enforced by the Roman government beginning after the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD, Christian persecution would become the standard in the Roman Empire. “[D]uring actual persecutions, oftentimes those interrogating accused Christians would allow them to live if they recanted being a Christian” (Weibe 2008, 10). Freedom of religion was notably nonexistent at the early stages of Christianity.
Other religions in Rome, however, experienced tolerance differently. Policies of toleration within the Empire were curtailed "when [...] cults were reputed to be immoral or were a danger to the good order and security of the state" (Canfield 1913, 45). Thus, Christianity posed a significant threat to the social order in its earlier centuries. Nero’s rule was an early example of the persecution to come. "Decius (249-251) was the first emperor to launch a systematic persecution against Christianity" (Plescia 1971, 124). Later, under Emperor Diocletian’s rule, religious edicts led to greater intolerance towards Christianity. "Following conferences in Nicomedia (302-303) among Diocletian, the Caesar Galerius, and their chief adviser, Hierocles, Diocletian decided to 'terminate' Christianity" (Lactantius, Mort. pers. 16.4; Ferguson 2013, 898). The severity of each persecution varied by ruler, but ample evidence indicates that religious freedom for Christians was consistently limited.
This changed with the Edict of Milan in 313. History shows a significant shift in societal acceptance of Christianity under Emperor Constantine. This newfound integration of the religion in Rome marked a transition from external intolerance to an understanding of religious freedom within Christianity itself. Lactantius, an early Christian author, became an advisor to Emperor Constantine. Constantine was the first Christian Emperor of Rome and passed the Edict of Milan, which "decriminalized Christianity and decreed that Roman citizens had ‘the liberty to observe the religion of [their] choice, and [their] particular mode of worship’" ("Arch of Constantine," Piranesi in Rome). Given his advisory role and influential contributions in early Christianity, "Lactantius [...] influenced Constantine’s religious policy" and "is an ideal lens through which to study Rome’s religious transformation" (Digeser, Elizabeth DePalma. The Making of a Christian Empire: Lactantius & Rome. Cornell University Press, 2000). It is with this perspective that freedom of religion from the viewpoint of an early Christian was permissible.
In Divine Institutes, his most notable theological work, Lactantius wrote about his views on religious tolerance: "But since the truth is revealed from heaven to us who have received the mystery of true religion, and since we follow God, the teacher of wisdom and the guide to truth, we call together all, without any distinction either of sex or of age, to heavenly pasture" (Lactantius, The Divine Institutes, Ante-Nicene Fathers 7:12). Lactantius’ views on the universality of true religion and his understanding of God being accessible to everyone reveal a tolerance for religious practices other than Christianity. While the Edict of Milan pushed the Roman Empire to embrace Christianity, it did not necessarily exclude alternative faiths.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430) was another influential theologian who advanced the idea of Freedom of Religion under Christianity. While he is commonly regarded as a figure whose idea of tolerance became stricter over time, interpretations of the reasons for this shift vary. Some justifications view his intentions as policy driven while others argue more along the lines of selfishness and his personal religious values (Rohr 1967, 60). Despite his wavering attitudes on religious tolerance, Augustine is considered a key figure in shaping Western Christianity (O'Donnell 2024). With such importance, his philosophical and theological contributions were highly regarded. Throughout his life, his ideas grew more intolerant as "Augustine sharpened his ecclesiological ideas and developed a theory of religious coercion based on an intentionalist understanding of Christian love" (Tornau 2024). The evolution of Augustine’s theological contributions is evident in a famous "vitriolic debate with the Pelagianist ex-bishop Julian of Aeclanum, who accused Augustine of crypto-Manicheism and of denying free will" (Tornau 2024). This denial of freedom was grounded in Augustine’s interpretation of original sin and divergence from a Christian approach to life, indicating a more assertive agenda as Christianity grew beyond its early years.
References
Canfield, Leon Hardy. The Early Persecutions of the Christians. Reprint, Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, vol. 55, no. 2. ATLA Monograph Preservation Program. New York: Columbia University, 1913. Originally published by Harvard University. Digitized May 16, 2006. ISBN 0790541947, 9780790541945.
Christian Tornau, "Augustine of Hippo," in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. by Edward N. Zalta and Uri Nodelman, Summer 2024 ed., Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, 2024, https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2024/entries/augustine/.
Janssen, L. F. “‘Superstitio’ and the Persecution of the Christians.” Vigiliae Christianae 33, no. 2 (1979): 131–59. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1583266.
Lactantius. The Divine Institutes. In Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7, edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, page 12. Accessed July 7, 2024. https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf07.toc.html.
Lactantius, Mort. pers. 16.4 (Ferguson, Everett, ed. Encyclopedia of Early Christianity: Second Edition. Vol. 1839 of Garland Reference Library of the Humanities. 2nd ed. Reprint. New York: Routledge, 2013), 898.
Luther, Martin. "Secular Authority: To What Extent It Should Be Obeyed." In Works of Martin Luther, Vol. 3, edited by A. J. Holman, 225-273. Philadelphia: A. J. Holman, 1915. Accessed July 9, 2024. https://www.onthewing.org/user/Luther%20-%20Extent%20of%20Secular%20Authority.pdf.
O'Donnell, James. "St. Augustine." Encyclopedia Britannica, April 23, 2024. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Augustine.
Plescia, Joseph. “On the Persecution of the Christians in the Roman Empire.” Latomus, vol. 30, no. 1, 1971, pp. 120–32. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41527858.
Rohr, John A. "Religious Toleration in St. Augustine." Journal of Church and State 9, no. 1 (1967): 51–70. Accessed August 1, 2024. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23913378.
Stephen G. Wilson, Related Strangers: Jews and Christians: 70-170 CE, Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995, 13.
Weibe, Melissa. “The Early Struggle: Understanding the Persecution of the Early Christians.” Master’s thesis, Concordia University, 2008. https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/979201/1/MR67303.pdf.