Conflicts of providence: The rise of Christianity in the Roman 'web of power

This dissertation explores the tenacious, ancient tradition that Rome's imperial success originated in divine ordering, often expressed as the PROVIDENTIA DEORUM. The work details various early components of Greek and Roman civil religion and the further definition of the Roman "web of power" or religious-political system through Hellenistic influences. Furthermore, it analyzes the "conflicts of providence" in the late Republican civil wars and the emergence of the Augustan focus on the Emperor as the symbol of communal unity as well as the visible manifestation of the PROVIDENTIA DEORUM. Continuity and conflict of tradition regarding divine order and the Roman "web" is stressed in this analysis as well as in a subsequent discussion of the imperial dynasties.;This analysis is then applied to provincial ideas of divine ordering and the conflicts that emerged within the Roman "web," particularly in Judea. The positive and negative interactions between the Empire and its provinces as well as among the provincials themselves will lay the foundation for the final phase of this study. Here, a lengthy analysis of how Christian writers utilized and/or rejected Judaic and Roman expressions of providence in human ordering will be provided along with Roman responses to Christian perspectives of the imperial "web of power.";The final chapter will discuss the Constantinian conflation of these perspectives. This emperor utilized a variety of providential ideas to maintain his imperial power and the new Roman "web" that now included Christian participation. This situation created new conflicts of providence between both Christians and pagans illustrating, again, the continuity of both tenacious tradition and necessary innovation.