It was the 5th century AD when the Western Roman Empire was under siege. Barbarians from Germany and Central Europe were rushing toward various Roman cities, hoping to loot and plunder. The citizens feared for their lives; they could only find one group of people to blame for all that has been happening—the Christians.
The Christians during the time of extreme persecution in Rome were blamed for calamities like fires and earthquakes. This was one of the reasons why Christians were being burned at arenas or fed to the lions, aside from the fact that they wouldn’t bow down to pagan gods.
A couple of centuries later, after the rule of Diocletian, Christianity became legal and Christians were then free to roam and worship within the realms of the Empire. It spread to the point that Emperor Theodosius I finally proclaimed that it would be the official religion.
The pagans weren’t too happy—there were then only a few worshipers of civil gods left, and they felt that their gods would not be pleased at this. And they thought they were right at this assumption—the barbarian forces were growing stronger and the Western Empire was weakening as they spoke. So it was there that they drew a conclusion: Because of the spread of Christianity and the weakening of the worship of civil gods, the empire also weakened. They assumed they were being punished by their gods and they knew who to blame.
The pagans felt contempt toward the Christians, who have destroyed the temples and places of worship. The Christians supposedly “betrayed” them into thinking that civil theology and Christian theology would be able to go together in tolerance, without compromise. But they saw that Christianity rose up over the civil religion and at the same time, the Empire was at the defensive.
Finally, it was there that the Roman Empire fell: Buildings were pillaged, houses were burned down, great edifices were torn and lives were lost—an ending of an era and of a civilization which still fascinates us today; and the Christians were to blame.
What difference is there back then and today? I mean, we are still being blamed for the fall of the Roman Empire, the wars, the “un-progressiveness” of some cultures, etc. The fingers are usually pointed at us for a whole lot of reasons.
The modern world has become anti-Christian, similar to that of the pagan Roman Empire. It is currently under the tyranny of relativism and has become idolatrous. People worship idols such as hedonism, utilitarianism, modernism and others.
St. Augustine’s The City of God argues that the empire had already been falling even with the widespread pagan worship—it was eating itself from within due to immorality and degrading values. Rome was slowly killing itself, and its decline had already begun way before Christianity came into the picture.
Isn’t that what’s happening now? Isn’t society slowly eating itself from within? Is it not killing itself?
Are we not experiencing another barbarian invasion, in forms of riots, economic meltdowns, demographic winters, etc.? Perhaps this is a clear example of history repeating itself—pagan Rome has returned in modern society, and is currently besieged by “barbarians.”
However, the chaos within “modern Rome” is definitely not caused by the lack of worshipers to civil gods, but is most likely caused by our rejection of the Judeo-Christian God and objective morality.
How many times have we been telling God to get out of our governments, in our public schools and in public places? How many times have we been asking God to shut up in favor of our own version of morality? And then, how could we ask ourselves how God could let all this unrest happen, when we’ve been telling Him to keep his distance and to stay away from us?
Perhaps such is an example of a loving God, who listens to us and to the dictates of society, to stay away. But then, what happens to a society without God and without objective morality, built on pagan values and the worship of man-made idols? What would happen to a selfish society which rejects genuine solidarity in the pursuit of power? Lastly, how are the values of modern society different from those of pagan Rome, which ate itself from within?
Is the past truly repeating itself?
5 thoughts on “Barbarian Invasion: Then and Now”
“St. Augustine’s The City of God argues that the empire had already been falling even with the widespread pagan worship—it was eating itself from within due to immorality and degrading values. Rome was slowly killing itself, and its decline had already begun way before Christianity came into the picture.”
Truly one of the great books. I like the point which he makes early on about how the barbarian invaders under Aleric basically spared people who took shelter in the Catholic churches throughout the city. As for Aleric, well, merciful though he was to spare those who sheltered in the Christian houses of worship, he and his hordes were anything but merciful to the rest of the people.
Yes. I’m not so sure if the St. Augustine movie was historically accurate, but in it, the Vandals did not include the books in the carnage–including The City of God.
One difference today – I don’t know that secular society blames Christianity as a cause of the current malaise. They certainly don’t consider it the cure, and perhaps see it as a hinderance to progress, but that is the entire problem. What current secular society considers “progress” is in reality degeneration.
An interesting question – is demographic winter a cause of increased wealth in those nations, or an effect of it?
I’m pretty sure it’s not a cause of increase wealth, looking at the examples of Japan and Europe, whose fertility rates are below the 2.1 “replacement rate” needed for a stable population.
Lesser young people = lesser taxpayers. Add into the equation the fact that in the future, there’d be more old people than young people. More people for the government to provide pensions for + less taxpayers, and we pretty much know the result of that.
*increased wealth. Typo.