Christianity is the largest (according to the number of adherents) world religion. The number of people who consider themselves Christians and more or less strictly adhere to religious canons, today exceeds two billion people. Why did Christianity even arise?
Of course, for people who hold materialistic views, there is no, and there cannot be an absolutely accurate answer to this question.
It is known that Christianity originated in the Middle East, in the 1st century BC. The place of its origin was the province of Judea, then under the rule of the Roman Empire. Subsequently, it began to spread quite quickly to other areas of the Empire, including Rome itself.
Why did it originate in Judea? The most likely reason is that the origins of Christian teaching are closely related to Judaism. Jesus Christ himself, according to church canons, is Jewish by birth, like the Apostles and his first adherents. Christ was brought up in accordance with the canons of Old Testament Judaism. He was circumcised, attended the synagogue on Saturdays (holy day for the Jews).
But there is another, very serious reason. Christianity was born in the heyday of the power of the Roman Empire. She achieved such power and influence that it seemed that her unshakable power in the conquered provinces was established forever. Any attempts to resist the Roman authorities were futile, ruthlessly suppressed and led only to even greater misfortune, humiliation and oppression. The inhabitants of Judea also learned this truth from their own experience. Many people who sincerely did not understand how this could happen at all and why their god Yahweh turned his back on his people, this led to despair. Therefore, it is not surprising that the basic tenets of Christianity, which say that one who suffers unjustly in earthly life, suffers torment and humiliation, will subsequently receive a reward in the afterlife, and his oppressors and offenders will be doomed to eternal torment, found a gracious response in their hearts of many people.
For the same reason, Christianity quickly gained many adherents among the population of other provinces under the oppression of Rome. And later - among the Roman slaves, the number of which was simply huge. There is nothing more natural that people who were completely subordinate to their masters (often rude, cruel, even inhuman), enduring beatings and humiliations, were comforted by the thought: now we feel bad, unbearably hard, but after death we will be rewarded according to our deserts, we will fall into heaven, and our tormentors - to hell. Such a religion gave them hope and strength to endure the bitterness of their position.
