Christianity full circle

After Constantine the Great converted his religious beliefs to those of the Christian faith, Rome began to accept and adopt some of the Christian practices. Rome had a culture that allowed them to take on the beliefs of others if it bettered the community as a whole. The morals and ethical practices of the Christian religion provided individual motivation toward order in the city. The Romans eagerly welcomed the ideas of individual purpose in life, and an afterlife of salvation and individual immortality. In terms of politics, Romans used the Christian name to establish trade connections with other Christians and eventually Christianity became the only legal religion in Rome. Also, the ability to publicly promote the religion allowed for interaction with many different cultures and provided a larger sense of community among many different peoples.

An interesting connection can be made between the assimilation of Christianity into Roman society and the extraction of it in America society today. The Romans used Christianity to grow not only socially, but also politically. Today, Americans are in a constant state of protest against the founding principles of Christianity in the government. Many Americans want the word "God" to be taken out of the pledge of allegiance, and many more are calling for the removal of Christian influence in the courts. The way in which the Romans were willing to accept beliefs of different religions and adopt them into their community, is exactly opposite to the practices of the United States in regards to religion. The U.S. is trying very hard to rid itself of religion in government all together. Instead of including all the different religions in some way into the practices of the whole community to create a state of acceptance; Americans are discluding every religion in the hopes that everyone will be equal in their position of no voice religiously.

Pastoral Societies

When I was going through my textbook "Ways of the World", an assigned book for my history class, I stumbled upon some interesting facts. I was reading about pastoral societies, and found it intriguing that the women of that culture had a different role in society than those of women in other agricultural civilizations. Women in these societies had better opportunities in public life and had statuses equal to men. They were involved in productive labor as well as their own duties, could initiate divorce, were political advisers and acted in military affairs. Other civilizations scorned upon the equality of women in the pastoral societies. I find it interesting that this ancient civilization was able to adopt the concept of gender equality in things such as tasks, both powerful and mundane. This civilization was very ahead of its time, considering America only recently allowed women to assume masculine roles in society.

If the idea of gender equality was accepted in all ancient societies and given the chance to progress through out history, the struggles of the feminist movements today might not even have occurred. Women in America had to fight for the right to an opinion in the government, or the right to vote, and didn't receive this unalienable right until 1920; even though women in pastoral communities had this power hundreds of years ago. I feel as though communities of today have taken on a more primitive line of action when it comes to gender equality and should learn from the advanced theories of the pastoral societies view on women.

To further explore the methods of the pastoral communities and the active role of women in their society:
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