the work of mortal men and women…

Book review:

The Rise of Christianity:

A Sociologist Reconsiders History

by Rodney Stark (1934-2022)

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996

246 pages

The rise of Christianity in the centuries after the life of Jesus relied on the work of mortal women and men.

Stark offers a patient and compelling description of how Christianity spread from Nazareth in Galilee and became a powerful force throughout the known Greco-Roman world before Emperor Constantine embraced the faith early in the 4th century AD.

This is not a “religious” book. The words “bible,” “hymn,” “communion,” “priest,” “Pope,” and “prayer” are not in the index. The Rise of Christianity acknowledges but does not dwell on the doctrinal aspects of the Christian faith in the early years.

I wouldn’t presume to summarize Stark’s account of the sociological, emotional, and political factors that enabled the rise of Christianity.

You may find it surprising and valuable to know that the new religion appealed to both the rich and the poor, that women were the majority of first converts, that women held leadership positions in the early churches, and that the Christian commitment to help one another notably enabled the Christian communities to do better in surviving the plagues that killed so many people in the early centuries (the pantheons of non-Christian gods were conspicuously unhelpful).

Stark says: “Finally, what Christianity gave to its converts was nothing less than their humanity. In this sense, virtue was its own reward.” (p215)

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New England Encounters (book review)

…the complex relations between Indians and colonists

click here

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