THE CATACOMBS AND THE SYNCRETISM WITHIN

Abstract

This capstone examines the phenomenon of employing religious syncretism in the art of the Roman catacombs as a means to promote the Christian faith during the first through mid-fourth centuries CE. Christianity, like many other religions, appropriated from the common stock of significant Greco-Roman symbols used in many regions throughout the Roman Empire. In its initial onset, Christian appropriation of such symbols and imagery was a means to move Romans away from worshipping other deities and toward Christianity. By changing the narratives of well-known Roman stories, teachings and interpretations were delivered in such a way that Christianity was appealing to the masses and so more easily moved throughout the Roman Empire garnering support. I argue that archaeological research of the catacombs was skewed with a Christian bias that created a problematic and contentious resource for scholarship. Syncretism was refuted as a plausible explanation because of the dogma of the Church and as such, the influence of Roman-derived imagery was ignored, deemed insignificant, or altogether denounced by Christian scholars, especially before the mid-twentieth century. This capstone argues that syncretism, both visual and religious, served as a viable tool not only to assist in the recruitment of Christian followers, but also for early believers to evade persecution from the non-Christian Roman society.