Chapter 8: The Rise of Universal Religions, 300–600 CE
Chapter Summary
Between 300 and 600 CE, religions with universal aspirations began to spread across different geographic zones. A new spiritual fervor emerged with social and political contacts that gave religious belief powerful significance. This religious expansion built upon the reach of the Roman and Han empires and on the closer commercial and intellectual connections that bound east and west together.
Universal Religions and Common Cultures
A surge of religious ferment swept across the Afro-Eurasian landmass between 300 and 600 CE. Spiritual concerns became more and more important to everyday life and integrated dispersed communities into shared faiths. This new Afro-Eurasian spirituality took shape within imperial frameworks, both shaping those frameworks and being shaped by them. Yet universalizing religions were not an essential ingredient for cultural worlds to spread beyond local communities, as the experiences of the Bantu in sub-Saharan Africa and the Maya in the Americas suggest. The spiritual ferment that emerged in Afro-Eurasia expressed itself in religions that touched more areas of society than previously and touched them in more demanding ways. Religion became a filter through which to process issues of truth and loyalty and many other issues about which individuals had always felt deeply. Religion claimed to give clear answers about the nature of humans and their societies and about obedience and the nature of human relationships such as marriage and families. Religion also claimed to distinguish right and wrong, and in declaring some aspects of ancient, local religious practices wrong, individuals would be free to forge new identities shaped by a shared faith. Similarly, established social bonds could be challenged by new explanations of right and wrong, and within the new categorization of right and wrong resided a new intolerance for neighbors, friends, and family who now came to be defined as wrong. Such “wrong people” could be ostracized, exiled, or killed. And, of course, these universalizing religions believed that they could (and often should) travel anywhere and be rightly established in any culture. Thus, religion and religious leaders could profoundly integrate societies and could also drive them apart.
Empires and Religious Change in Western Asia
By 300 CE, Rome still dominated the western region of Afro- Eurasia, but it was beginning to fragment. Rome’s strength had proven a benefit to new religious ferment, which now burrowed into its decaying structure. As the western part of the empire was taken over by the “barbarians,” the people of the empire looked to the new Christian faith to provide order, founding a papacy in Rome to rule the remnants of the empire. In the eastern part of the Roman Empire, a powerful successor state, the Byzantine Empire, established itself at Constantinople, claiming to be the political arm of Christianity. And further to the east, the Sasanian Empire in Persia also represented something new in Afro-Eurasian polities.
THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY
The rise of Christianity coincided with the appearance of the “martyr” as a religious figure. These martyrs witnessed to their Christian faith through their execution by Roman authorities. Martyrdom took on a powerful role in the life of the early Christian church, as Christians saw their faith as based on “the blood of martyrs”—a foundation in which women played an active role, as opposed to the increasingly all-male leadership of the institutionalized Christian church.
RELIGIOUS DEBATE AND CHRISTIAN UNIVERSALISM
The spread of religious ideas in the Roman Empire included a belief that something bigger and more important loomed behind the physical world. Contact with this “other world” gave worshippers a sense of worth and guided them in this life. Eventually, they would join this other world. Judaism expressed these sentiments as rabbis struggled to rethink their religion after Roman troops destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 CE. Rabbis recast oral traditions into the Talmud of Jerusalem in which Jews would recreate “virtual temples” in their homes and synagogues. In the Roman world, gods were no longer local powers but omnipresent figures to whom humans might come close through loving attachment. Furthermore, the new gods expected to be obeyed, and on this issue Christians entered into debates in the wide debate throughout the Mediterranean on the nature of religion. For Christians, divinely inspired scriptures told them what to believe and do, even when those actions went against the laws of empire and led to martyrdom. In emphasizing texts, Christians followed the new forms of book production directed toward wider audiences.
THE CONVERSION OF CONSTANTINE
In the early fourth century CE, the Emperor Constantine came to power during a tumultuous time in which several claimants fought for control of the empire. A dream led Constantine to place a Christian symbol on the shields of all his soldiers prior to the decisive battle that brought him to full imperial authority. Constantine soon granted privileges to Christian bishops, who quickly exploited these privileges and pushed their rights to the fore. As the century progressed, Christianity pressed other religions into the background. Jewish communities remained proud and prosperous, despite the hostility of Christian emperors and local Christian violence. Christians defined the polytheists who accounted for most of the empire’s populations as “pagans,” declaring them in effect secondclass citizens associated with villages. In contrast, Christians emphasized their own religion as universal and urbane.
CHRISTIANITY IN THE CITIES
Although not the religion of most inhabitants of the Roman Empire, Christianity established itself as the majority religion in the cities. After 312 CE, large churches were built in every major city, open to all and built to display splendor and mystery. Within the churches, the holy spaces of bishops and clergy were marked off. Churches became new public forums. In return for their tax exemptions, bishops became responsible for the metropolitan poor, becoming in effect their governors, and also served as judges for small disputes. As imperial power waned, bishops built for themselves powerful positions that would last into modern times.
THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE
Constantine and his successors were impressed by the unity and expansionist goals of the Christian Church. Christianity was spreading out of cities and into hinterlands, in part by developing written scripts to replace more difficult local scripts. For example, Christian clergy in Egypt created Coptic based on Greek letters to replace the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Constantine hoped to increase the unity of his empire by fostering the universal outreach of the Christian Church. He called all the bishops to the Council of Nicaea where they established a creed to sum up the Christian faith, yet conflicts over issues of doctrine continued. Constantine’s monumental legacy included not only his conversion to Christianity but the conversion of Christianity to the Roman Empire.
THE FALL OF ROME: A TAKEOVER FROM THE MARGINS
After 400 CE, the Roman world began to fall apart. The boundaries of the western European provinces had never been well defined and over time only became more blurred.
WHO WERE THE BARBARIANS?
Along the Rhine and Danube rivers, violent warrior societies produced soldiers for export. The Roman civil wars of the third and fourth centuries were accompanied by massive immigrations of manpower from the frontier peoples who supplemented the armies of the rival claimants to the position of emperor. The “barbarian invasions” constituted peoples from across the frontiers being sucked into the Roman Empire by its ever greater need for Roman soldiers. When the Emperor Valens, in need of manpower, encouraged Visigothic tribes to emigrate into the Roman Empire but then failed to feed them, they revolted and crushed Valens and a large part of the Roman army. Most incidents of “barbarian invasions” occurred as armies from across the frontiers were drawn into Roman civil wars. The “fall” of the Roman Empire was not a sudden collapse, but the consequence of an empire extended beyond what it could continue to support. Furthermore, the great Roman landowners increasingly dominated the landscape outside of the cities and found they could manage without an empire. And the Roman landowners in Gaul, facing peasant revolts with growing frequency, willingly allied with “barbarians” such as the Goths who settled in the region and could provide security against social disruptions or other bands of “barbarian” raiders.
CONTINUITY IN CHANGE
The Roman style of life long survived the Roman Empire, and little changed on the ground throughout the lands of the former empire in the aftermath of the empire’s “fall.” Romans and non- Romans drew together to face a new threat, however. A nomadic people from eastern Central Asia, the Huns united together under the leadership of Attila and terrorized the Germanic and Roman people. Attila fashioned the first empire that Rome faced in northern Europe. He extracted large sums from Roman emperors as tribute, and the Roman Empire in the west lasted just two decades beyond Attila’s death. Future local rulers such as Alaric II made alliances with the landowning classes, and the Roman way of life continued to be defined as superior; however, cities and trade networks diminished. Smaller, weaker states ruled by a warrior upper class became the norm. Rather than the empire, the church now provided a sense of unity, bringing together Romans and non-Romans as people jointly civilized by their faith. The bishop of Rome emerged as the pope—the symbolic head of the western Christian churches—and by 700 the great Roman landowning families were replaced in the power structure by religious leaders who were often their descendants and who regarded Latin culture as the only culture suited to a Catholic Church.
BYZANTIUM, ROME IN THE EAST: THE RISE OF CONSTANTINOPLE
Far from waning during the fourth and fifth centuries CE, the Eastern Roman Empire survived undamaged, rich and selfconfident. Constantine had established a grandiose new city for the Eastern Roman Empire on the site of the ancient Greek city of Byzantium. The city was soon called Constantinople, and in the following centuries it flourished, reaching a population of over 500,000 and echoing Rome in its sites of mass entertainment. The Emperor Justinian came to power in 527 and sought to outdo previous Roman emperors. He reformed Roman laws, establishing the foundation for what came to called “Roman Law.” He reclaimed authority over some former parts of the western Roman Empire. He also built the church of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople whose massive columns and size symbolized the flowing together of Christianity and imperial culture.
SASANIAN PERSIA
Justinian’s reign also faced stiff difficulties. Plague ravaged the empire in the 540s, crippling its heartland in the eastern Mediterranean, and Justinian also faced persistent conflict with the Sasanian Empire of Persia.
KINGS OF ERAN AND AN-IRAN
Established in the mid 220s CE, the Sasanians ruled both the Iranian plateau and the rich lands of Mesopotamia from their capital at Ctesiphone where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers were only twenty miles apart. Ruling at the same time as Justinian, Khusro I Anoshirwan became a model, just ruler. Controlling the crossroads of Afro-Eurasia, including the Silk Road, the Sasanian Empire was more than the equal of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Sasanians learned military techniques from Central Asia and technologies from South Asia that gave them advantages over the Roman armies. In the early seventh century, the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sasanian Empire fought large wars in Southwest Asia that left both exhausted and open to attack from Arab invasions.
AN EMPIRE AT THE CROSSROADS
The Sasanian rulers, themselves Zoroastrians, allowed religious liberties to Jews and Christians. Called Nestorian Christians, the Christians in Ctesiphon spread their faith following the paths opened by Sasanian trade and diplomacy. They established communities across Asia, building a monastery and church in Chang’an, China by 635 CE. When Justinian forbade teaching “pagan” philosophies in Athens in 527, many philosophers moved to Ctesiphon, where they encountered the Central and South Asian cultures.
The Silk Road
Only through Central Asia could the peoples of the Mediterranean world and China learn about each other. The Eastern Roman Empire showed interest by dispatching ambassadors from Constantinople to the nomads of eastern Central Asia. They brought back firsthand reports of the Chinese empire, which amazed them in its stability. The Chinese were less impressed by the tidbits they learned of the Mediterranean world. Confederacies such as the Sasanians, the Hephthalites, and the Turkish confederacy patrolled the Silk Road and helped join together the eastern and western parts of Afro-Eurasia.
BETWEEN IRAN AND CHINA: THE SOGDIANS AS LORDS OF THE SILK ROAD
The Sogdians in the large oasis cities in Central Asia linked the two ends of the Silk Road. They blended Zoroastrian and Mesopotamian beliefs with Brahamic influences.
BUDDHISM ON THE SILK ROAD
The securing and expanding of the Silk Road rendered China more open to the populations and cultures of its far western regions. The conquests of the Hephthalite White Huns made the roads from India into Central Asia more secure, and a new Buddhism spread along this route, transforming the Chinese empire. Buddhist cave monasteries formed along the route into China.
Political and Religious Change in South Asia
Brahmanism (the Vedic religion) did not claim to be a universal faith, but it did strive to explain all theological problems and helped to unify the diverse people of South Asia. Under the Gupta dynasty, the oral epic tales of Brahmanism were written down in classical Sanskrit and became part of a religious canon.
THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE BUDDHA
In addition to Mahayana Buddhism (Greater Vehicle), Hinayana Buddhism (Lesser Vehicle) emerged, which did not accept the divinity of the bodhisattvas. Mahayana Buddhism became a universal religion and spread across East Asia.
THE HINDU TRANSFORMATION
As Buddhism and Jainism had become more popular in cities and commercial regions, the more conservative Brahmans had been relegated to rural India. In response, the Brahmans underwent a revival and transformation that produced Hinduism. They abandoned the ritual animal sacrifices associated with their pastoralist past and adopted Buddhist and Jainist practices, identifying themselves with agricultural societies. The numerous Vedic deities were organized around three major deities—Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva—who were regarded as expressions of the eternal soul, called the atma. These deities appeared in various avatars, yet as expressions of the atma, Hinduism claimed a monotheistic perspective. An element of this new Hinduism was personal devotion to the gods called bhakti—as opposed to sacrificial rituals controlled by the Brahmans—which attracted Hindus of all social strata.
A CODE OF CONDUCT INSTEAD OF AN EMPIRE
Lacking imperial structures, local populations relied on religious and social institutions such as castes and guilds to maintain civic order. The Brahmans compiled law codes drawing upon Hindu moral precepts and customary law, the most comprehensive of which were the Laws of Manu. The Laws of Manu offer clear guidance for living in a caste system, limiting marriage to within castes and setting out dietary rules for each caste. Tremendous religious and social pressure, as opposed to government coercion, was exerted to keep all individuals within specific categories. These regulations provided a mechanism to absorb new groups into the caste system, aiding Hinduism in moving into areas the state did not control. Brahmans also moved southward into lands not previously influenced by Hinduism or Buddhism. Both Buddhists and Brahmans developed educational institutions that promoted debate between the two religions, and these debates helped develop a shared Indic culture. Although divided religiously and politically, a common culture began to develop organized around shared concepts and a shared vocabulary.
Political and Religious Change in East Asia
Later generations of Chinese looked back to the collapse of Han rule as a great disaster—the barbarization of the Chinese world. In reality, “barbarization” meant opening up a proud society to the cultures that had grown up along its margins. The Silk Road, the military talents of the nomads, and the religious message of Buddhist monks provided new inspiration and influences. Buddhism in particular gained strength and popularity thanks to imperial patronage.
DOWNSIZING NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN CHINA
After the fall of the Han dynasty, various smaller states emerged, each fighting for the unified power that the Han had held. Such power remained an elusive ideal. Many northern aristocratic families fled to southern China, beyond the reach of nomadic groups who invaded the north, but life in the south proved difficult. The “barbarians” such as the Xiongnu and the Tuoba who invaded from the north were thought of as inferior by the Han elite. Nevertheless, they had already lived within the Chinese imperial orbit and maintained many Chinese traditions of statecraft. The Northern Wei dynasty, founded by the Tuoba, purposely attempted to imitate Chinese customs and society in order to bring more order and control to its rule and also sought to build alliances with the Han families that had not migrated to the south. Efforts to strengthen the Northern Wei dynasty failed, however, and the dynasty collapsed.
BUDDHISM IN CHINA
As Chinese imperial power reached its low ebb in the third and fourth centuries CE, Buddhist travelers had already become frequent visitors to the capitals of the various states. Particularly important was the Buddhist scholar Kumarajiva, who translated important Buddhist texts into Chinese and clarified terminology and philosophy for Chinese adepts. The idea that persons could be defined by faith rather than kinship took hold powerfully during these years of crisis. Buddhism also provided legitimacy for the “barbarian” rulers. Buddhism adapted to various locales in China, particularly adopting Daoist precepts in the south of China.
DAOISM, ALCHEMY, AND THE MUTATION OF THE SELF
After the fall of the Han dynasty, Daoism lost its political edge, and two new Daoist traditions emerged. One tradition was community-oriented, in which “heavenly masters” guided local religious groups seeking salvation though virtue, confessions, and liturgical ceremonies. These rites often included the use of drugs and chemicals—external alchemy. The second tradition focused on personal expressions of religious faith. Ge Hong promoted the use of trances and meditation—internal alchemy— to control human physiology and prolong human life. Numerous Buddhist monasteries formed during these years.
Faith and Cultures in the Worlds Apart
In sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas, ideas, institutions, and commodities did not circulate easily, and, therefore, universalizing faiths did not develop, but profound and integrated cultural systems did emerge around communities of faith.
BANTUS OF SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
Bantu-speaking people, who speak a variant of the 400 Bantu languages, spread across nearly all of Africa south of the equator, yet little is know of early Bantu history. The regions of tropical rainforests into which many Bantus spread was difficult to prepare for cultivation, requiring extensive work to clear the ground. The Bantus spread rapidly eastward and southward and absorbed hunter-and-gatherer groups already in these regions. Adapting their agricultural techniques to wildly different environments, the Bantus’ skill in agriculture allowed them to did not. Even more mysteriously, the carryover from one society to the next was rather limited. In the Americas, the decline of one society often occurred before another society could rise up, learning from the predecessor.
TeotihuacánAround 300 BCE the people of the central plateau and southeast regions of Mesoamerica began to create state systems. City-states emerged, the largest of which was Teotihuacán. With high agricultural productivity in the Valley of Mexico, the city sustained a population of probably 100,000 (and perhaps double that). Pyramids shaped the cities’ structure and were used as spaces for the ritual slaughter and mutilation of foreign warriors and dignitaries. Teotihuacán did not form into an empire or create a centralized bureaucracy, but the sheer power of its military led Teotihuacán to control the entire basin of the Valley of Mexico. The city’s political influence beyond the basin was limited, but its trade and culture diffused widely in Mesoamerica. As the city’s military power began to wane, invaders sacked the city.
The Mayans The Mayans expanded from 250 CE until reaching their zenith in the eighth century. Living in the inhospitable region of the Yucatán, they still managed to develop a large concentration of people, perhaps as many as 10 million, trade over long distances, and make stunning scientific and mathematical innovations. Yet the Mayan never developed a single great city. Instead, agrarian villages developed among people who traded together and shared the Mayan language and who were linked together by tribute payments from smaller villages to central, mainly sacred towns. The Mayan were divided into a variety of kingdoms revolving around major hubs and their hinterlands, which were frequently in conflict with one another. Social relations within the kingdoms were highly stratified, led by kings who legitimized their positions by extolling their lineages. Lords and their wives performed ritual blood sacrifices to feed their ancestors. A priestly caste may have held great power, but scribes, legal experts, military advisors, and skilled artisans were the pillars of these societies. Most Mayan people remained tied to the land, practicing subsistence farming. Only recently have scholars unraveled the Mayan script, as the advent of writing led to an important caste of scribes. The Mayans also studied the heavens and charted the stars. Cities were not laid out on a grid but developed haphazardly with hubs of activity forming around palaces and ball courts. And they built large tomb pyramids. The elites were obsessed with blood. The need to sacrifice to their gods encouraged warfare so victims could be obtained. Rulers and those of noble descent let blood from their own bodies in elaborate rituals. Warfare both helped the Mayan to survive, as one kingdom fell while another emerged, but also over time escalated into larger, more destructive wars. Entire states fell apart, and people eventually fled the violence. Jungles overtook temples, and the ability to read a shared script vanished.
Conclusion The breakdown of the Roman and Han imperial systems provided an opening to an era in which religion and shared common culture rather than political structures became the social and cultural glue holding together large areas of Afro-Eurasia. In India a political vacuum also helped allow reformulation of the Brahman religion. Differences in belief could also create new divides. In sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas, belief systems remained more localized, but also provided a means of integration more powerful than political or economic influences.
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