The Challenge Of "heresy" And "orthodox" Formation

Roman Empire fell into crisis in 3century A.D., while the Christianity developed quickly during this period and acquired legitimate status in 313. As a kind of religion came from outside of the Empire, Christianity, which was a "heresy", challenged the tradition religion of the Empire, which became "pagan" in the eyesight of Roman people gradually.In 361, Flavius Claudius Julianus became the emperor of the Empire. He was the nephew of Constantine the Great and the cousin of ConstantiusⅡ, who was his predecessor. His early life was full of pain experience. This experience made he hate Christianity; disapprove the policy of his uncle and cousin, which supported the Christianity and their conversion to this religion and attribute the decline of Empire to the development of Christianity. He received a kind of education secretly, which cultivated his zealousness of Greek culture, made him feel the strength of pagan and dream to create a new religion, which could be different from Christianity and against it. The Greek culture also made him feel the vigor of the philosophy and dream to be an ideal king, who could master philosophy and govern the Empire like Marcus Aurelius in the near future. Julianus led a religious reformation, aiming at fighting against the Christianity, while the dramatic status change of the Christianity and tradition religion was still went on, and was called "Julian the Apostate" by Christian fathers.His resent of Christianity and enthusiasm to the pagan gods hindered him from acquiring the realization of some important facts. Julian didn't suspect that Constantine the Great had changed the Christianity to be a political tool; he also unaware of why this religion could spread in the empire, so he failed to grasp the man points to make his reformation successful.Julian inspected Christianity and refuted its doctrines like a Greek intellectual, but his theory exerted few influence upon Roman people; he intended to weaken the Church by sharpening its inner conflicts, but this trick was not very useful; because he didn't know that Church had already been a part of government, which could not be destroyed by the words of one person. He thought the rebuilding of Jerusalem Temple would make the church seem dim, but he was wrong, because the holy palace of Christianity had been set up in the hearts of Roman people.As an emperor, Julian didn't understand the connection between religion and politics. He was unaware of his incapability to control the overstaffed bureaucracy of Empire and limited pagan officers could not carry out his religion policy. He thought an emperor like a philosopher should keep distance from vulgar people, so he emphasized the sacrifice, auspice and the taboos of food, for which the tradition religion lost attraction to Roman people. When they were sick of his policy, he still expressed his religion theory by writing, explaining the relation between Helios and his son, Asclepius, and how could they bless the human kind with other gods subordinated to them, but he never discovered that his Helios and Asclepius had similar appearance with God and Jesus, respectively.The plan of Julian's reformation included an expedition, by which he wanted to prove he could rebuild the large domain of Empire by the inspiration of the gods. This plan ended his dream, by leading to his death in a cruel campaign in 363. His religious reformation failed after his death. From then on, there was no large scale of movement against Christianity in Roman Empire.Julian's reformation was not a separate phenomenon, but a result of the changes in that period. He lived in a special era, during which the status of Christianity and tradition religion changed dramatically. This change reflected the union tendency of the Empire religion; his reformation can be viewed as an attempt by an Emperor to explore a kind of monotheism for the Empire, but he himself was unconscious. He carried through his religious reformation for reviving pagan in way actually met the need to a monotheism reformation, that's the main cause of his failure. Noticeably, "Julian the Apostate", who despised Christianity, impelled the process, in which the Christianity replaced the tradition religion. Christianity, which was a "heresy", turned to be "legitimacy" at last by his acceleration.