In the Roman Empire, the first Christians weren’t persecuted for believing too much. They were persecuted for believing too little.
When we hear the word “atheist” today, we think of someone who denies the existence of the divine. But to a 2nd-century Roman, an atheist wasn’t someone who lacked an inner belief—it was someone who lacked a public practice.
In this episode, we dismantle our modern assumptions about religion and return to a world where “God” was woven into every marketplace, military oath, and political assembly. We explore why the Roman system—which was famously tolerant of thousands of local deities—could not tolerate the exclusive worship of Jesus.
