When I was in seminary, I did a research paper on the Roman Emperor Julian. He became known as “Julian the Apostate”. Although he was raised as a Christian and was considered as such, when he became emperor he attempted to reintroduce "paganism", or better yet, traditional religion with its temples, sacrifices, its priests and priestesses. I explained in my article that it was easy for Christians to revert to paganism because I was unsure of the depth of the Christian faith. I also thought that if Julian had not been defeated in battle by the Sassanids, the Roman Empire might have reverted to paganism and modern Europe might have had a religious face of modern India with its Hinduism and its many temples with many gods. made a very different point of view than mine (and I listened to him because he certainly researched this point): Julian did not recognize how entrenched the religious novelty (Christianity?) was , and how apathetic the traditional faithful tended to be. If Julian had survived the Persian War and returned to press his claim to restoration, he would have had a long, rocky road ahead of him (196). This book, of course, is much more comprehensive than my “seminary paper,” but it surprised me: paganism was on its way out when Christianity began to take its place. I was aware that many Greek philosophers before Christ had moved from polytheism to some sort of "impersonal" force or God, but this had greater significance in ancient society than I realized. Traditional religion was not revived in Julian's time, although he attempted to present such a view. The one sentence in the book that clarified and haunted me was this: The gods were no longer needed (242). Since the ancient gods and the T...... middle of paper ...... has been deeply rooted in and influenced by Christianity. This is mainly reflected in our laws which attempt to create all equal, even though we know this is not reality, and yet it is before us; but, the part of the book that haunts me: the gods were no longer necessary. Have we arrived at a time when “God is no longer necessary”; or, as many say, “God is dead.” This ties into another book I read this year: After God by Mark C. Taylor. In the United States, there is a trend towards less worship attendance and those who do worship tend to turn to “megachurches” (see in particular, American Trends: Contemporary Religion by Mark Chaves). Nevertheless, perhaps God is dead to many people, just as the old ways and traditions were to many during the last centuries of the Roman Empire. The question arises: if this is indeed true, what will replace it with? ??