Not divine right of kings, which referred to the doctrine that God somehow granted kings the right to rule, so rebelling against the king was not only treasonous but heretical. A claim by a king that he was divine would get him excommunicated at the very least.
As for early Christians, I don’t know but it might have been a ploy to get people who asked “why should I listen to you instead of to the divine Nero?” to pay attention. Rome was quite multicultural in terms of religion, something Christians wanted to shut down.
Really? Christians wanted to shut down multcultural Rome? I mean early Christians? Or do you have a specific period in mind for when they wanted to do this?
I can get some of the reasoning of it but I would think it wouldn’t be until much later they would want this.
Maybe he means when Constantine became the first Christian emperor, but I hope not. The Edict of Milan did pretty much the opposite of shutting down religions other than Christianity.
I didn’t mean the earliest ones - I have no idea of what they wanted, but in any case they didn’t have the secular power to do anything. However, it is certainly true that as Christians did assume secular power they did eliminate pre-existing pagan religions. That is quite unlike the Romans or the Greeks.
The Emperor of Rome didn’t have the secular power to do anything? He did, and what he chose to do what extend religious tolerance to everybody.
One of the reasons for the Edict of Milan was to bring an end to the persecution under Diocletian. He and Nero and so forth certainly did what they could to eliminate Christianity. That doesn’t sound real tolerant to me.
I need hardly point out that attempts to eliminate prior religions once you gain political power is hardly confined to Christians.
There is a big difference between banning or persecuting one religion and all but one. Germany bans Scientology, I think - that is a far cry from only allowing one religion in each of the states.
Since it turns out to have worked out so well for Christianity, it has been the rule, not the exception. In terms of growing your religion, this makes perfect sense. Most people didn’t care all that much back then, and weren’t going to risk being killed by openly worshiping pagan gods.