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>Slaves were abundant and the practice was widely accepted in paganism. Slavery in various forms was widely utilized across all of humanity until the last few
by Dalewyn 3y ago
>Slaves were abundant and the practice was widely accepted in paganism.
Slavery in various forms was widely utilized across all of humanity until the last few centuries, and in some ways it still is utilized today. We just don't call it slavery anymore.
"Paganism" has nothing to do with it.
- tomohawk 3y agoChristianity promoted this teaching: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" This was a radically different teaching from other world views at the time, paganism being the main one in question during Roman times. Paganism may or may not have specifically promoted slavery, but it did not offer any teaching that there might be a fundamental problem with it.
- Dalewyn 3y agoUnless you're deliberately cherry picking, Christianity was the poster child of slavery both explicit and implicit. Of course, they are not any more wrong than all the others who utilized slavery. Framing slavery as rooted in paganism isn't accurate, and more importantly isn't helpful in having a worthwhile conversation. All it does is paint Christianity as some moral paragon, which it is not.
- Veen 3y agoThere's some truth to the argument that Christianity introduced novel concepts and ethical ideas that eventually led to the opposition to slavery, ideas that were not present in Graeco-Roman thinking, for example. The fact that those ideas took so long to come to fruition doesn't invalidate that line of argument.