What caused the fall of the Roman Empire? Did Christianity play a role?
As the saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” and neither did the Roman Empire fall in a day. There are a number of reasons for the collapse of the Roman Empire — a decline that took place over many hundreds of years. The rise of Christianity did play a small, but not insignificant, part in the decline, in that it eroded traditional Roman beliefs and values and caused conflicts between Christians and those who continued to hold onto the old pagan philosophies. These conflicts led to persecution of the Christians, until the first Christian Emperor of Rome, Constantine, put a stop to the persecution.
