Aachen, April 10, 2013
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The academic conference that will take place in the Episcopal Academy of Aachen in Germany on April 12–13, is devoted to persecutions of Christians in the Roman Empire: reasons, history, individual historical figures and periods, reports Sedmitza.ru.
Among the announced themes of reports are the following: "Christianity and the Roman state. Prayer for the emperor", "Christians as scapegoats: Nero and the fire", "Silit Martyrs. Unsuccessful persecutor: the Edict of religious tolerance and death of the emperor Galerius", "Changes in policy of religious tolerance: Pliny and Emperors Trajan and Hadrian", "Pogroms in Lyons in 177", and more.
The theme of persecutions of Christians has more and more often become a subject of academic research lately. Conferences devoted to the issue of increased discrimination and violence towards Christians in the modern world are being held, and special reports on persecutions of Christians are being read during meetings held by politicians and public figures.
Increased interest in this theme can be explained by the deplorable statistics that confirm the increase of cases of violence, killings for faith, and sacrilege towards Christian shrines.
According to different information, from 90,000 to 170,000 Christians die for their faith annually.
The theme of persecutions of Christians is not new in the Church history. For the first three centuries of its history the Christian Church acquired tens of thousands of martyrs.
