Christianizing the Roman Empire Quotes

“It is a very good exercise, at least from a historian's point of view, to imagine oneself a devout pagan while reading various Christian writings.”
― Ramsay MacMullen, Christianizing the Roman Empire: A.D. 100-400

“Simplicity could only have been bought at a great price in accuracy.”
― Ramsay MacMullen, Christianizing the Roman Empire: A.D. 100-400

“...god contradicts his own perfection if he can be reached, touched, disturbed, or in any way changed from it by anything in this material world below.”
― Ramsay MacMullen, Christianizing the Roman Empire: A.D. 100-400

“Last, we may suppose that it gave pleasure both to relate and to hear wonderful stories, because such is human nature; and the pleasure can be increased, at least till the point of incredulity is reached, by exaggerating the wonderful. So some real happening at the base of an account may be reconstructed by shrinking the account down to the physically possible.”
― Ramsay MacMullen, Christianizing the Roman Empire: A.D. 100-400