Roman Religion Vs. Christianity Today (Part 1 of 2)- Religion

Roman Religion vs. Christianity Today (Part 1 of 2)- Religion

Objectives:

-To offer middle and high school students a look into Roman religion, and help them to gain a very basic understanding of it.

-To analyze with these students the differences between Roman religious practices and those of Christians.

-To see how our practices may be similar or different today in religion.

-To inspire a deeper level of both understanding the scriptures with this new knowledge of Roman religious practices, and also of faith in general for these adolescents.

Projected Audience:

This class lesson is geared toward an audience of middle and high school students in a fairly typical Sunday morning class setting. As someone who has grown up in the Churches of Christ, I am gearing it toward a youth group in a Church of Christ, and imagining that I am the youth minister giving this lesson to these students. This lesson is written in very a very friendly and familiar style. Since I am imagining that I am their youth minister, I am assuming relationships with most, if not all of them. I am shooting for a time of 45 minutes per class period.

Intro (4 minutes):

Good morning everyone!Welcome to class- I’m glad you all are here, and that you decided, (or that your parents decided for you), to come to class today. I’m pretty excited about this particular lesson and the content that I am going to be discussing today. It is actually a 2-part class, so I will talk about the subject for a while today and will set up the class for next week. Then, next Sunday, we will go a little bit deeper into it. I figured this was the best option, although I thought about extending class today for another hour or two, just so I could do it all at one time. Would y’all have enjoyed that- sitting in this class and hearing me lecture for 2 or 3 hours straight? (There would probably be some smart-alecks in the group that answer yes here, but I would not entertain that rabbit trail for long). Anyways, I decided not to do that to you all, so you are welcome.

I am sure you are all very curious now as to what we are talking about today and next week. Our class today is going to cover Roman religion, and how it compares to Christianity. Next week, we will go a little further and look specifically at prayer in each of these, and how they compare. (Y’all know how much I love prayer and talking about prayer).

Now we are all familiar with Christianity, but how many of you know about ancient Roman religion? (Again, there will more than likely be a few that try for some laughs here). I honestly did not know much about it at all besides some of their different gods and deities until I was in grad school. I took a class that covered more things about ancient Rome than I could probably remember, but I do remember the conversation on Roman religion because I thought it was super interesting. Maybe I’m a nerd. (Actually, I probably am a nerd). One thing I took away from learning about ancient Roman culture, and especially their religious practices, was that it helped me to read the Bible in a different way. So, I want to share a little bit of that with you all today, and maybe y’all will find it interesting too.

Question (3 minutes):

To start off, I want y’all to take a couple of minutes and talk in groups of three or four and answer this question: What do you already know about Roman religion?

(I am not expecting these students to know much about ancient Roman religion, but there may be some that know the gods or something about it).

Bring them back (8 minutes):

(Do not bring them out of their groups, but have them turn to face me from within their groups).

This is a tough question to answer, right? We don’t really talk about Roman religion much in our everyday conversation. It would be weird if [insert name of random student in the youth group] and I were talking, and then all of the sudden, I said, “So I called upon the Lares last night.” Or, if I said, “When I was praying the other day, I couldn’t remember the tenth word for the longest time, so I kept having to repeat it over and over again.” What?! What are the Lares?? Wes- what are you talking about? What tenth word? These things sound pretty crazy to us, right? But these are a couple of examples and elements of Roman religion.

But I want to hear what some of you said- what do you know about Roman religion already? Would any of the groups be willing to share what was said?

(Take as many responses as possible, hopefully between 3-5. Listen to and affirm each response.)

Basic overview of Roman religion (8 minutes):

In the ancient Roman world, religion was something that is fairly different than what we think of today, especially if we are thinking about it as Christians.

-Rome had a polytheistic religion- it identified and worshipped many gods (poly theism)

-In addition to the gods that they already had, Rome would incorporate the gods of those that they defeated in battle into their own religion

-Rome’s religion was practiced as a way to keep the deities benevolent to the Romans, and to gain their goodwill and favor

-In Roman religion, prosperity and material wealth were favored and emphasized more than moral and ethical living.

-Rome had a very ritualized religion and religious practices

-Since Roman religion was for the purpose of gaining the favor and blessings of the gods, a pretty rigid ritual was developed in different Roman religious practices including prayer and sacrifice.

We will actually get more into this next week.

Group Discussions (6 minutes)

Okay, split up into the groups you were in earlier, and I want y’all to discuss again. This time, I have 3 questions.

How is this different or similar to what we do?

What are some advantages to this?

What are some disadvantages?

Bring them back and discuss as a class (6 minutes)

Okay, let me hear what was said. How does this sound similar or different than what we do?

What could some advantages be to this?

What could some disadvantages be?

(Listen and affirm each response. Shoot for 2-3 answers on each question).

We have already hinted at this a little bit, but do we still have rituals in our churches today? If so, what are they?

(Listen to responses and affirm each response. Hopefully 2-3 will respond).

We still have some rituals.

We meet every Sunday at this building; we take communion every Sunday; we have a pretty standard and consistent order of worship from Sunday to Sunday; we sing every Sunday; we pray pretty often- maybe at every meal, as well as multiple times while at church.

In fact, there are some forms of Christianity, like Anglicanism or Catholicism that have a set liturgy, or order of worship. They have a book that practice from every single Sunday.

Group discussion (4 minutes)

Now, we’re going to go into groups one more time. This time, I want you to think about how I described Roman religion, and I want you to think about what you have heard from the Bible as well. Where are some points where this would be contrary to the Bible? Just come up with a list of passages from the Bible. Discuss in your groups.

Bring them back (4 minutes)

What did y’all find? Let me hear from 3 groups.

(Listen and affirm each response).

Conclusion (2 minutes)

Roman religion was obviously pretty different than from what we do today. We see in the Bible that God calls us to identify him alone as the only god, and not to have many different gods. Also, although God does bless us and give us more than we deserve, we know that we are do not only have faith or practice religion in order to get blessings. Lastly, although there are some other denominations within Christianity that still have more of a set ritual than we do, they were not as strict or as particular as Roman religion was. Like I’ve said, we will get a little more into the strictness of Roman religion next week, but this week has hopefully given you an overview of what we’re talking about. I’ll see y’all next week- you are dismissed.