Cities of God

by Rodney Stark

social networks are the basic mechanism through which conversion takes place.36 To convert someone, you must first become that person’s close and trusted friend.

Well before the birth of Jesus, two goddess-based ‘oriental’ religions achieved great power and prominence across the empire: Cybele from Phrygia (central Turkey) and Isis from Egypt.

Mani created two levels of membership: the Auditors and the Elect. The former ‘heard’ the word but did not live a life that could qualify for admission to the Kingdom of Light upon their death. Rather, they could hope only to be reborn as vegetables and then to be eaten by the Elect and “belched” to freedom from the evil archons and sent on their way to the Kingdom of Light. As for the Elect, they were bound by extraordinary restrictions: no sex, no alcohol, no meat, no baths, and virtually no physical activity of any kind. They could meet these requirements only if Auditors waited on them hand and foot.

Constantine was not responsible for the triumph of Christianity. By the time he gained the throne, Christian growth already had become a tidal wave of exponential increase (see Chapter 3).

As Kurt Rudolph noted, the “Gnostic sects” enjoyed “complete immunity” from the Roman persecutions of Christians. Clearly, the Romans did not regard them as Christians even though their teachings included some Christian elements. The crucial aspect probably was that, like Basilides and his disciples, these heretics were willing to eat meat that had been sacrificed to pagan gods, and “consented to take part in pagan religious ceremonies on demand.”88 They were not Christians with some pagan leanings; they were pagans attempting to incorporate Christianity. These connections make a mockery of revisionist claims that Gnosticism was the true Christianity, long suppressed by despotic bishops.