the triumph of christianity rodney stark

The ability of Christianity to mobilize rich and poor alike in showing mercy as well as its welcoming stance towards women made the early Christian movement very attractive amidst the misery so common even for the wealthy in Greco-Roman cities. He then paints a picture of Jesus as a reasonably wealthy and well-trained rabbi rather than a peasant in poverty and seeks to demonstrate that the early church was made up of wealthy converts who had the time and energy to be dissatisfied with their faith, whether Jewish or pagan. Stark establishes the religious pluralism of ancient Rome by introducing the pagan temple societies and the competition occurring within a multifaceted Judaism in Palestine at the time of Jesus’ birth. » The council of Jerusalem was pivotal in positioning Christianity as a viable competitor amidst the religious pluralism of Rome in the first through third centuries. In support of this thesis, Stark maintains that: These events are the council of Jerusalem which gave Christianity a multi-ethnic shape and propelled it to the level of a world religion (413), the conversion and edict of Constantine which eliminated doctrinal diversity and unleashed all manner of violence and suppression (415), and the Reformation which “undid much of Constantine’s harm to Christianity” and set the stage for the reinvigoration of Christianity in multiple forms including the Catholic and Pentecostal resurgence in Africa, Latin America, and China (416). Writing from the perspective of a sociologist, he highlights “the three most crucial events, aside from the Christ story, influencing the course of…Christian history” (6). In The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World’s Largest Religion, Rodney Stark seeks to revise various misconceptions about the “Jesus movement” from it’s inception in first century Rome to the current state of Christianity around the world. The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World’s Largest Religion. HarperOne, 2011.

The triumph of christianity rodney stark