10.3 Universal faiths

Syncretism and the spread of the mystery cults reflect a scaling-up in the worship of gods, whereby faiths spread farther and combined with new elements in the new areas. They also show that it became more common for distant cultures and populations to share faith elements. The new universal faiths that arose in the Near East, on the other hand, reflected a new type of religious dynamic. During the AoE, no less than four major universal faiths arose or developed in known literature, namely Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Christianity. Derivations or sub-branches of these faiths also existed, such as Christian Gnosticism. While some of these faiths have branches today that may have less universal claims, during the AoE clear universalist claims either arose or became evident. These religions are defined as universal because they have religious philosophies that claim a central belief is applicable to all societies (Berkey 2003).

Scholars have attributed the origin or spread of universal faiths to empires (Burbank and Cooper 2010: 445). One discussion is about how empires, specifically the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian states, helped shape the idea of one god in Judaism, perhaps the first universal faith, and certainly among the earliest (Smith 2001: 165). For instance, in the transition of Judaism to monotheism, universalism could be seen as a survival tactic. In this study the theological concepts that shaped universal faiths are not critical. The fact that universal concepts became more acceptable as empires developed does show that universal faiths have a relationship with the presence of empires. What is relevant here is that population movement helped shape and spread universal faiths and that universal faiths enabled large states to become more durable, even as they also created conflict.

Universal faiths show that shared ideas transcended ethnic and cultural boundaries, which suggests that the exchange and movement of ideas were important in the development of universal faiths, as we have already seen in relation to syncretic polytheistic faiths and mystery faiths. Concepts of divine judgement, good versus evil and the resurrection of the dead are some of the ideas shared by the universal faiths that arose in the AoE. In fact, even mystery faiths probably incorporated ideas such as good versus evil and resurrection, which suggests that universal faiths and other religions shared religious themes that now spanned much of the Near East and Europe (Ulansey 1991; McCabe 2008). Other beliefs common to some universal and non-universal faiths were baptism, shared sacred and communal meal and virgin births (Johnston 2004; Orlin 2016). Disparate and geographically widespread religions, at least regarding their places of origin, were sharing ideas as greater movement and spread of population occurred. Just as knowledge and commerce were moving farther, as discussed above, religious ideas were also moving greater distances as communication and long-distance movement became established. Followers of different universal and non-universal faiths were not just communicating their ideas but also moving to and living in new regions, spreading their faiths through proselytization (Ferguson 2003).

While shared ideas among universal and non-universal faiths are evident, the other noticeable factor in the AoE is how quickly religions spread. Like the growth of trade and exchange in the AoE, particularly during the Roman period, movement of religious ideas became more rapid. Mithraism, discussed earlier, spread rapidly across the Mediterranean basin and into Europe and the Middle East. With the aid of social networks and ease of movement, this religion moved easily, or at least fast, among populations. Similarly, the newer universal faiths such as Christianity also made rapid gains between the first and fourth centuries CE (Nabarz 2005; Drake 2005: 8). Both Mithraism and Christianity spread far, but were not dominant religions in most of the areas in which they were found. It took state authority to establish Christianity fully. Shared ideas would be a natural result of increased contact as populations moved and mixed. Thus, even universal and polytheistic faiths began to share common concepts (Fürst 2010: 89–90). Universal faiths also took on the characteristics of mobile populations, as these religions did not require a central temple but could be worshipped in many places (Seland 2013: 384). The deities, looked at in another way, became mobile and omnipresent rather than fixed to specific dwellings or a more limited range as was seen in the pre-AoE.

As discussed in Chapter 8, the emergence of universal faiths gave empires a new vehicle with which to integrate their populations. The concept of one king over many people from different ethnic backgrounds was already well established by the Achaemenid period. Universal religions, in their essence, reflect a philosophy that was already present politically. Although one can only speculate what effect a prolonged period of empires might have had on the concept of one god or religion over many different peoples or ethnic groups, the concept of a universal faith, or one god over many people, became less alien than it would have been in the Bronze Age. Because a unified social and political understanding for many ethnic groups was poorly developed in the pre-AoE, in which many cultural groups had their own clear religious hierarchies and national gods, shared religious ideas and gods over many would simply have been alien to many pre-AoE cultures. An increased possibility of people believing in universal concepts is evident in philosophy dated to the Achaemenid period. The principle and origin (or archê) of all things in a universal world-order (kosmos) and its manifestations are evident in Greek ideas and philosophers found in Ionia, western Turkey, at the edge of the Achaemenid Empire in the sixth century BCE (Algra 2006). Ideas about beliefs that were relevant to all people were established and even shared before most universal faiths developed, or at least became evident in the textual sources known to us.

Mass conversions and missionaries also became part of the cultural landscape in universal faiths, particularly Christianity. Zoroastrianism was practised by non-Iranians as well as Iranians, but the extent of proselytization is less clear, although evidence exists of Zoroastrian missionaries living in different regions (Buck 1999: 76; Boyce 1996: 255). Judaism also spread through conversions; sources show that adherents who had moved to cities such as Rome converted some parts of the population (Epstein 1994: 101). For religions in general, in addition to religious fervour or belief, force, incentives such as economic benefits, and even social constraints, facilitated mass conversions. Texts show that such methods were used during the rise of Islam to convert communities en masse, which further demonstrates how religions could have spread quickly across communities and landscapes. The conversion of some Zoroastrian and other communities to the new Islamic religion in the seventh century CE was, at least in part, based on incentives to continue or become actively engaged in economic or international trade networks such as those along the Gulf and the Arabian Sea (Lapidus 2014: 271). As another example, conversion to Zoroastrianism seems to have allowed slaves in the Sasanian Empire to become automatically free from Zoroastrian masters (Perikhanian 1983: 639).

While states used incentives, such as economic or social benefits, to obtain converts as a tool for social and political integration, one could also advance in social class as the universal faith was accepted. For states that used universal faiths as part of their national identity, such as the Byzantine Empire, religion became a vehicle to unify people from different social backgrounds. They also allowed people from different social backgrounds to participate in the religious hierarchy, giving opportunities for social benefit to many different ethnic groups. For example, Arab bishops are known to have participated in important ecclesiastical meetings in the state (Shahîd 1989: 523). Universal faiths, while at times divisive, made it possible for socially diverse states to become more politically cohesive, as a common religion transcended ethnic and class boundaries while allowing people from different backgrounds to benefit, within and outside of established religious institutions (Browning 1992: 127). Conversions may have been achieved through incentives or coercion, or by persuading the converts of the truth of the religion. Once the faiths were well established, they grew even faster than when they were new, and mass conversions were possible (Ebrey and Walthall 2014: 95).