Author(s): Zekiye SÖNMEZ*
Christianity emerged as a Jewish revival movement in the Palestinian region within the borders of the Roman Empire at the beginning of the first century AD. However, this religion was reacted by both Jews and Roman citizens. In this context, some allegations were made against the Christians, such as incest, child murder or cannibalism, and Christians were sometimes subjected to persecution. The formation of these claims was primarily influenced by the fact that Christians did not have a certain place of worship during the first centuries, that they were gathered in homes, and especially that these meetings were held at night. Contrary to Roman practices, the secret nature of these meetings led Christians to be seen as suspicious and spread rumors about them. Yet another reason is that the main proponents of paganism cannot accept and understand Christianity. In addition, the different interpretation of the sacred texts of Christianity and the attitudes and behaviors of Christians in their religious practices such as Eucharist were effective in the formation of the claims. However, all these claims were tried to be refuted by the fathers of the church with historical and logical evidence. In this study, the Eucharist worship, the historical background of the allegations, the accusations of Christians by the pagans and the answers of some church fathers to these claims will be mentioned
The Journal of International Social Research received 8982 citations as per Google Scholar report
