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The Rise of Christianity
by Rodney Stark
-As reviewed by Paul Barnett
(Dr Paul Barnett is a New Testament historian)
In AD 33, after the First Easter, there were only 120 Christians in the world. Yet by AD 300 it has been estimated that there were about six million, or about ten percent of the population of the Roman Empire. This dramatic growth continued so that by the mid 300's Christian numbers had swelled so that about one in every two person was a church member.
These remarkable statistics are carefully documented and are more or less agreed to by Rodney Stark and other demographers who study these rather technical matters.
Rodney Stark, is a Sociology Professor from the US and well informed about Christian beliefs and Christian history. His book, The Rise of Christianity is easy to read, very compelling and relevant at this critical stage in history.
Stark and others calculate that the rate of growth throughout these first 260 years of Christian history was about 40 per cent per decade. Wildly exaggerated you say ? Think on this. The Mormons have grown at 43 per cent per decade during the past century. Equally sobering is the reality that in the developed world, of which Australia is part, our church membership is not growing at all but in many quarters is falling away. Moreover, within just a quarter of a century one person in two in Sydney will have come from a non-Christian culture. Unless Christians see a dramatic turnaround in church membership we can only look forward to an even more marginalised status than at present.
Is there something for us to learn from these earliest centuries ?
Not only does Stark face us with the astonishing 40 per cent per decade growth rate, equally he tells us how this growth occurred. But, wait for it. You may be shocked by what he says: this dizzying expansion did not occur as a consequence of evangelism, at least not primarily. It is not that Stark is reflecting on intentional missioning and the rise of Christianity. That is my inference, though it is quite reasonable. Of course, as Stark readily acknowledges, Christians in this period did engage in evangelism. But not to the degree that we might assume given the statistics of growth he marshalls. In our present day church growth 'culture' we naturally think that growth in church membership is the result of a definite strategy. But this seems not to have been the case. Strategy appears to have been lacking and evangelism haphazard and sporadic.
What, then, was it that magnetized the pagans of Graeco-Roman antiquity into the churches?
The answer, as I read Stark, was that their secret was conviction about what they believed which they fearlessly expressed in the face of hostility. Theirs was a certainty of hope based on the resurrection of Jesus in face of disillusionment among the general populace about the gods of Greece and Rome.
The Christians' beliefs and practice, however, were not held in a historical vacuum. In AD 165 and 250-260 two dreadful epidemics swept through the Empire, in each case wiping out up to half the population. Unhygienic and stinking places at the best of times cities like Alexandria reeked with dead and diseased people.
In 260 Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria observed that the unbelievers 'pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead...' By contrast, 'our brother Christians...heedless of danger...took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ.' The rudimentary nursing care which they provided - giving food and drink to the sick - saved many lives.
The gods had failed the people. Furthermore, they inspired no higher ethic. Love and mercy, however, flowed from the Christians' hope. They stayed behind to minister while the majority fled. Two things occurred as a consequence of the epidemics. First, pagan numbers fell drastically and Christian numbers fell less drastically, becoming a significantly higher proportion of the overall population. Second, many turned from the gods and were drawn to the God of the Christians who inspired such hope in the face of death, a hope expressed practical love for others.
A century later, after the era of persecution ended, Christians were establishing hospitals for the sick, hostels for the homeless and they cared for the graves of the dead. The Emperor Julian was annoyed that the Christians cared for the needy of society, not just their own people. He decreed that the pagan priests do the same. These Christians had been nurtured in such teachings as, 'I am my brother's keeper' and 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'
Another major factor, also driven by deeply held convictions , related to what could be called 'family matters.' Sexual promiscuity and serial marriage was rampant in the community with accompanying venereal disease leading to a fall in their numbers. Christians (like the Jews) were committed to lifelong fidelity in marriage so that their numbers increased, including as a rising proportion of the whole community. Again, abortion was prevalent among pagans, with massive loss of life of women through ghastly medical process. Thus, because the pagan women were always fewer than men (through loss of life in abortions) pagan numbers declined because there were fewer pagan child bearers. Christian women, however, because they did not terminate their pregnancies and suffer death in the process, did not diminish relative to male numbers. Indeed, the evidence suggests that women among the Christians outnumbered the men. Stark suggests that numbers of pagan men were drawn into marriage with Christian wives and, in consequence drawn into church membership, along with children of those unions, again adding to the swelling ranks of the baptized.
Another factor explaining their dramatic growth, which was also an expression of their beliefs, was Christian inclusiveness. In New Testament times tens of thousands of Gentiles were 'God-fearers' who attended the synagogues. Most, however, shrank from conversion to Judaism on account of the perils and pain of (male) circumcision as well as the general unpopularity of Jews (especially after the Jewish War, AD 66-70). But Christianity, an offshoot of Judaism, had all the advantages (monotheism, lofty ethics) but none of the disadvantages (vilification of Jews and popular anti-Semitism). Furthermore, Christianity had the supreme advantage that it was based in the hope of eternal life based on Jesus' resurrection. In an Empire that consisted of a patchwork of ethnicities and minority groups, the Christians were the one group in society that offered a welcome to all comers, regardless of race.
These various belief-driven distinctions of the early Christians were set against a background of hostility and periodic persecution against them. Such opposition only served to demonstrate that Christians were in deadly earnest about their beliefs. They would die rather than deny their Lord and Master, Christ. One really striking element was that prominent among the Christian martyrs were women. In that culture women were regarded as not fully human. The arena was the place for men, for gladiators, to show their maleness in the face of death. But these women, who carried no sword or spear to defend themselves, were even braver than the men who bore arms in their hand to hand struggle with one another. Martyrs like the woman Perpetua apparently made a huge impact and created the impression that a radical new reality had come into the world.
You won't agree with all you read in Stark's book, but it will certainly give you something to think about. One thing is crystal clear. Heartfelt beliefs expressed in practical ways towards the wider population created a huge impact, with dramatic growth in membership of the churches.
Is there a message from Rodney Stark's interesting book ? Yes there is. Pure and simple it is: be sure what you believe and give practical expression to it, including out there among people in a society that has forgotten about the faith that gave it its best values. The negative flip side to that is: don't water down what you believe. A pagan society might be hostile to Christians but it recognises a watered down version of it for what it is, insipid.
by Rodney Stark
-As reviewed by Paul Barnett
(Dr Paul Barnett is a New Testament historian)
In AD 33, after the First Easter, there were only 120 Christians in the world. Yet by AD 300 it has been estimated that there were about six million, or about ten percent of the population of the Roman Empire. This dramatic growth continued so that by the mid 300's Christian numbers had swelled so that about one in every two person was a church member.
These remarkable statistics are carefully documented and are more or less agreed to by Rodney Stark and other demographers who study these rather technical matters.
Rodney Stark, is a Sociology Professor from the US and well informed about Christian beliefs and Christian history. His book, The Rise of Christianity is easy to read, very compelling and relevant at this critical stage in history.
Stark and others calculate that the rate of growth throughout these first 260 years of Christian history was about 40 per cent per decade. Wildly exaggerated you say ? Think on this. The Mormons have grown at 43 per cent per decade during the past century. Equally sobering is the reality that in the developed world, of which Australia is part, our church membership is not growing at all but in many quarters is falling away. Moreover, within just a quarter of a century one person in two in Sydney will have come from a non-Christian culture. Unless Christians see a dramatic turnaround in church membership we can only look forward to an even more marginalised status than at present.
Is there something for us to learn from these earliest centuries ?
Not only does Stark face us with the astonishing 40 per cent per decade growth rate, equally he tells us how this growth occurred. But, wait for it. You may be shocked by what he says: this dizzying expansion did not occur as a consequence of evangelism, at least not primarily. It is not that Stark is reflecting on intentional missioning and the rise of Christianity. That is my inference, though it is quite reasonable. Of course, as Stark readily acknowledges, Christians in this period did engage in evangelism. But not to the degree that we might assume given the statistics of growth he marshalls. In our present day church growth 'culture' we naturally think that growth in church membership is the result of a definite strategy. But this seems not to have been the case. Strategy appears to have been lacking and evangelism haphazard and sporadic.
What, then, was it that magnetized the pagans of Graeco-Roman antiquity into the churches?
The answer, as I read Stark, was that their secret was conviction about what they believed which they fearlessly expressed in the face of hostility. Theirs was a certainty of hope based on the resurrection of Jesus in face of disillusionment among the general populace about the gods of Greece and Rome.
The Christians' beliefs and practice, however, were not held in a historical vacuum. In AD 165 and 250-260 two dreadful epidemics swept through the Empire, in each case wiping out up to half the population. Unhygienic and stinking places at the best of times cities like Alexandria reeked with dead and diseased people.
In 260 Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria observed that the unbelievers 'pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead...' By contrast, 'our brother Christians...heedless of danger...took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ.' The rudimentary nursing care which they provided - giving food and drink to the sick - saved many lives.
The gods had failed the people. Furthermore, they inspired no higher ethic. Love and mercy, however, flowed from the Christians' hope. They stayed behind to minister while the majority fled. Two things occurred as a consequence of the epidemics. First, pagan numbers fell drastically and Christian numbers fell less drastically, becoming a significantly higher proportion of the overall population. Second, many turned from the gods and were drawn to the God of the Christians who inspired such hope in the face of death, a hope expressed practical love for others.
A century later, after the era of persecution ended, Christians were establishing hospitals for the sick, hostels for the homeless and they cared for the graves of the dead. The Emperor Julian was annoyed that the Christians cared for the needy of society, not just their own people. He decreed that the pagan priests do the same. These Christians had been nurtured in such teachings as, 'I am my brother's keeper' and 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.'
Another major factor, also driven by deeply held convictions , related to what could be called 'family matters.' Sexual promiscuity and serial marriage was rampant in the community with accompanying venereal disease leading to a fall in their numbers. Christians (like the Jews) were committed to lifelong fidelity in marriage so that their numbers increased, including as a rising proportion of the whole community. Again, abortion was prevalent among pagans, with massive loss of life of women through ghastly medical process. Thus, because the pagan women were always fewer than men (through loss of life in abortions) pagan numbers declined because there were fewer pagan child bearers. Christian women, however, because they did not terminate their pregnancies and suffer death in the process, did not diminish relative to male numbers. Indeed, the evidence suggests that women among the Christians outnumbered the men. Stark suggests that numbers of pagan men were drawn into marriage with Christian wives and, in consequence drawn into church membership, along with children of those unions, again adding to the swelling ranks of the baptized.
Another factor explaining their dramatic growth, which was also an expression of their beliefs, was Christian inclusiveness. In New Testament times tens of thousands of Gentiles were 'God-fearers' who attended the synagogues. Most, however, shrank from conversion to Judaism on account of the perils and pain of (male) circumcision as well as the general unpopularity of Jews (especially after the Jewish War, AD 66-70). But Christianity, an offshoot of Judaism, had all the advantages (monotheism, lofty ethics) but none of the disadvantages (vilification of Jews and popular anti-Semitism). Furthermore, Christianity had the supreme advantage that it was based in the hope of eternal life based on Jesus' resurrection. In an Empire that consisted of a patchwork of ethnicities and minority groups, the Christians were the one group in society that offered a welcome to all comers, regardless of race.
These various belief-driven distinctions of the early Christians were set against a background of hostility and periodic persecution against them. Such opposition only served to demonstrate that Christians were in deadly earnest about their beliefs. They would die rather than deny their Lord and Master, Christ. One really striking element was that prominent among the Christian martyrs were women. In that culture women were regarded as not fully human. The arena was the place for men, for gladiators, to show their maleness in the face of death. But these women, who carried no sword or spear to defend themselves, were even braver than the men who bore arms in their hand to hand struggle with one another. Martyrs like the woman Perpetua apparently made a huge impact and created the impression that a radical new reality had come into the world.
You won't agree with all you read in Stark's book, but it will certainly give you something to think about. One thing is crystal clear. Heartfelt beliefs expressed in practical ways towards the wider population created a huge impact, with dramatic growth in membership of the churches.
Is there a message from Rodney Stark's interesting book ? Yes there is. Pure and simple it is: be sure what you believe and give practical expression to it, including out there among people in a society that has forgotten about the faith that gave it its best values. The negative flip side to that is: don't water down what you believe. A pagan society might be hostile to Christians but it recognises a watered down version of it for what it is, insipid.
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