The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

by Rodney Stark

FINALLY, I HAVE TRIED to bring some of the pivotal moments in the Christian journey to life and to expose many falsifications and errors in the traditional tellings. In closing, here are a few of the points I hope readers will consider and remember: • The first generation of the Jesus Movement consisted of a tiny and fearful minority existing amid a Palestinian environment abundant in zealots willing to assassinate even high priests for not being sufficiently orthodox and pious—let alone willing to tolerate Jews who claimed the messiah had come. • The mission to the Jews probably was quite successful: large numbers of Jews in the Diasporan communities outside Palestine probably did convert to Christianity. • Christianity was not a religion based on the slaves and lowest classes of Romans, but was particularly attractive to the privileged. Jesus himself may have been from a wealthy background. • Christian mercy had such profound worldly consequences that Christians even outlived their pagan neighbors. • In a Roman world quite short of women, women greatly outnumbered men among the early Christians. This occurred in part because Christians did not “discard” female infants and Christian women did not have a substantial mortality rate from abortions done in a world without antibiotics or even knowledge of germs. It also occurred because women were more likely than men to convert. • Paganism was not quickly stamped out by a triumphant and intolerant Christianity, but disappeare...