Christianity arose in the first century ad in the Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. At that time, there was a crisis in the spiritual values of the Roman world, the decline of public morality, an alternative to which could be religious and moral quest, manifested in the emergence of various religious groups and ethical teachings. There were also ideological prerequisites of Christianity and its evolution. Ranovich believed that the emergence of Christianity is associated with a deep crisis of the slave economy

To characterize this crisis, he cited in his book excerpts from sources relating not only to the first centuries of our era, but also to the II-I centuries BC, when civil wars took place in Rome, which ended with the fall of the Republic and the establishment of the Empire.

At the present time, scientists consider the civil wars mentioned as a manifestation of the crisis of the ancient civil community, and not the entire slave-owning society. The Roman conquests of the III-II centuries BC, which turned vast areas of the Mediterranean into disenfranchised provinces of Rome, led to complex socio-economic and political consequences, which were caused by the discrepancy of the organizational forms of the civil community to the needs of the “world” power. Of course, in the crisis of the Roman Republic II-I centuries BC. an important role was played by the aggravation of class and social struggles, including powerful slave revolts. However, the economy of the Roman state was multi-layered, and the forms of class struggle-very diverse.

The emergence and spread of Christianity was not directly related to any economic phenomena in the Roman Empire. It was caused by changes in ideology and social psychology: the search for a single universal deity who would be the bearer of the highest justice, the defender of the offended, the fall of the authority of the ancient local gods, the patrons of the city or tribe, the destruction of traditional ties between people – community, civil, family.

The emergence of Christianity was prepared not only by the existing historical conditions, it had a good ideological basis. The main ideological source of Christianity is Judaism. The new religion reinterpreted the ideas of Judaism about monotheism, messianism, eschatology, chiliasm-the belief in the second coming of Jesus Christ and his millennial Kingdom on earth. The old Testament tradition has not lost its meaning, it has received a new interpretation.

The ancient philosophical tradition had a significant influence on the formation of the Christian worldview. In the philosophical systems of the Stoics, the neo-Pythagoreans, Plato, and the neo-Platonists, thought constructs, concepts, and even terms were developed, reinterpreted in the new Testament texts and works of theologians. The Neoplatonism of Philo of Alexandria (25 BC — CA.50 ad) and the moral teaching of the Roman stoic Seneca (CA. 4 BC — 65 ad) had a particularly great influence on the foundations of Christian doctrine. Philo formulated the concept of the Logos as a sacred law that allows us to contemplate existence, the doctrine of the innate sinfulness of all people, of repentance, of Existence as the origin of the world, of ecstasy as a means of approaching God, of logos, among whom the Son of God is the highest Logos, and other logos are angels.

Seneca considered the main thing for each person to achieve the freedom of the spirit through the realization of divine necessity. If freedom does not flow from divine necessity, it will be slavery. Only obedience to fate generates equanimity and peace of mind, conscience, moral standards, universal values. Seneca, as a moral imperative, recognized the Golden rule of morality, which was as follows: “Treat those below you as you would like to be treated by those above you.” We can find a similar formulation in the Gospels.

A certain influence on Christianity had the teaching of Seneca about the transience and deceptiveness of sensual pleasures, care for other people, self-restraint in the use of material goods, prevention of rampant passions, the need for modesty and moderation in everyday life, self-improvement, the acquisition of divine mercy.

Another source of Christianity was the Eastern cults that flourished in various parts of the Roman Empire at this time.