The Triumph of Christianity Quotes

“In fact, all known societies above the very primitive level have been slave societies—even many of the Northwest American Indian tribes had slaves long before Columbus’s voyage.46 Amid this universal slavery, only one civilization ever rejected human bondage: Christendom. And it did it twice!”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“IN 1710, THE ENGLISH FREETHINKER Thomas Woolston (1670–1731) expressed his confidence that religion would vanish by 1900.1 Voltaire (1695–1778) thought this much too pessimistic and predicted that religion would be gone from the Western world within the next fifty years—by about 1810.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“SCIENCE AROSE ONLY IN Europe because only medieval Europeans believed that science was possible and desirable. And the basis of their belief was their image of God and his creation. This was dramatically asserted to a distinguished audience of scholars attending the 1925 Lowell Lectures at Harvard by the great philosopher and mathematician Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947), who explained that science developed in Europe because of the widespread “faith in the possibility of science... derivative from medieval theology.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“For example, at the fall of Rome there was very extensive slavery everywhere in Europe; by the time of the “Renaissance” it was long gone.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“As Augustine pointed out in his Confessions, the basic Christian message is so simple that it can easily be grasped by children, while its theological ramifications are sufficient to challenge the most powerful intellects.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“the truly fundamental basis for the rise of the West was an extraordinary faith in reason and progress that was firmly rooted in Christian theology, in the belief that God is the rational creator of a rational universe.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“Women were especially drawn to Christianity because it offered them a life that was so greatly superior to the life they otherwise would have led.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“Although many sociologists still echo Max Weber’s (1864–1920) claim that capitalism originated in the Protestant Reformation, capitalism actually originated in the “depths” of the “Dark Ages.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“In any event, there was no “fall” into “Dark Ages.” Instead, once freed of the bondage of Rome, Europe separated into hundreds of independent “statelets.”16 In many of these societies progress and increased production became profitable, and that ushered in “one of the great innovative eras of mankind,” as technology was developed and put into use “on a scale no civilization had previously known.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“If European visitors were amazed at American religiousness, Americans who travelled in Europe were equally amazed at the lack of religious participation they observed there.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“The Catholic Reformation (also known as the Counter-Reformation) was launched at the Council of Trent (1551–1552, 1562–1563). Simony—the sale of church offices—was ended. Priestly celibacy was enforced.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“But if the universe was created in accord with rational rules by a perfect, rational creator, then it ought to yield its secrets to reason and observation.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“But even most free Romans lived at a bare subsistence level, not because they lacked the potential to achieve a much higher standard of living, but because a predatory ruling elite extracted every ounce of “surplus” production.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“BY THE END OF the fourteenth century only tiny remnants of Christianity remained here and there in the East and North Africa, having been almost completely wiped out by Muslim persecution. Thus, as Philip Jenkins put it, Christianity became a European faith because Europe was the only “continent where it was not destroyed.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“From this base in the Maghreb (as the Arabs called North Africa), the Muslim force first made war on the desert-dwelling Berbers, many of whom had long ago converted to Judaism.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“Christianity became a predominately European faith “by default”7 when it was destroyed in Asia and North Africa. The destruction began in the seventh and early eighth century when these areas were overrun by Islam.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“Finally, paganism never fully died out in Europe; it was assimilated by Christianity.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“Consequently, and despite the prevailing historical view, paganism wasn’t quickly obliterated. Instead, it seeped away very slowly.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“Hence, although a great deal has been written about how much the church benefitted from Constantine’s favor, far too little been written about how the support of millions of Christians benefitted Constantine by solidifying his power and ending decades of constantly changing rule.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY depended upon women. In response to the special appeal that the faith had for women, the early church drew substantially more female than male converts, and this in a world where women were in short supply. Having an excess of women gave the church a remarkable advantage because it resulted in disproportionate Christian fertility and in a considerable number of secondary conversions.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“It was by imitation of Christ that Christians were able to live longer and enjoy more comfortable lives.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“We must keep that in mind when we compare the reactions of Christians and pagans in the shadow of death. Christians believed in life everlasting. At most, pagans believed in an unattractive existence in the underworld.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“Fortunately, most New Testament historians no longer believe that the early Christians were a motley crew of slaves and the downtrodden. Had that really been the case, the rise of Christianity would most certainly have required miracles.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“Here, the obvious conclusion is that the Gospels are a quite reliable report of the Christ story as it was believed and told by the original eyewitnesses—members of what is now known as the Jesus Movement.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“For as Albert Einstein(1879-1955) once remarked the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible. A priori one should expect a chaotic world which cannot be grasped by the mind in any way. That is the miracle which is constantly being reinforced as our knowledge expands.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“As one of China’s leading economists put it, “in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. That is why the West is so powerful. The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. We don’t have any doubt about this.”42 Neither do I.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“The great British philosopher concluded his remarks by noting that the images of God and creation found in the non-European faiths, especially those in Asia, are too impersonal or too irrational to have sustained science.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“The truth is that not only did Christianity not impede the rise of science; it was essential to it, which is why science arose only in the Christian West!”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“As the distinguished medievalist Warren Hollister (1930–1997) put it in his presidential address to the Pacific Historical Association, “to my mind, anyone who believes that the era that witnessed the building of Chartres Cathedral and the invention of parliament and the university was ‘dark’ must be mentally retarded—or at best, deeply, deeply, ignorant.”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

“Christianity became a European faith because Europe was the only “continent where it was not destroyed.”44”
― Rodney Stark, The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion