Abstract
Throughout the history of the United States, its inhabitants have looked upon their nation as a special place. In some cases, this has exceeded the natural and simple love of home and country and taken a more extreme form. Important to this bent is the tendency to see the nation, its beliefs, and its actions around the world as divinely sanctioned and inspired in some regard. This is a generally necessary component to the idea of American Exceptionalism, which views the United States as a nation with a divinely imposed mission to spread civilization, freedom, and democracy to the ends of the earth. In many ways, the Roman Empire shared these pretentions of being the bearers of civilization to the rest of the world and of being a divinely chosen nation with that vocation. Voices within Christianity, as it developed, provided a potent antithesis to this aspect of Roman imperial ideology, critiquing Roman ideas of their own exceptionalism. By comparing the ideological basis of Roman and American concepts of exceptionalism, this thesis will attempt to apply the critique made by people like Jesus, Paul and Augustine to the United States today.
Notes
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Thesis Completion
2012
Semester
Fall
Advisor
Coverston, Harry
Degree
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.)
College
College of Arts and Humanities
Degree Program
Humanities
Subjects
Arts and Humanities -- Dissertations, Academic;Dissertations, Academic -- Arts and Humanities
Format
Identifier
CFH0004283
Language
English
Access Status
Open Access
Length of Campus-only Access
None
Document Type
Honors in the Major Thesis
Recommended Citation
Tindall, Ryan, "My peace i give unto you christianity's critique of roman and american exceptionalism" (2012). HIM 1990-2015. 1374.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses1990-2015/1374