A Doubter's Guide to Jesus Quotes

“How can Christians possibly hope to convince Westerners that Jesus Christ came to serve, suffer, and save them, if they are thought of as bullying, grumbling, and grasping for cultural ground? Only when the followers of Christ are known for denying themselves and taking up their public “crosses” will they begin to look like the One they claim to represent.”
― John Dickson, A Doubter's Guide to Jesus: An Introduction to the Man from Nazareth for Believers and Skeptics

“My own desire is, for the common good of the world and the advantage of all mankind, that Thy people [Christians] should enjoy a life of peace and undisturbed concord. So let those who still delight in error [the pagan majority] be made welcome to the same degree of peace and tranquility which those who believe have. For it may be that this restoration of equal privileges to all [i.e., the removal of repressions of the Church] will prevail to lead them [pagans] into the straight path. Let no one molest another, but let every one do as his soul desires. . . . We pray, however, that they [pagans] too may receive the same blessing, and thus experience that heartfelt joy which unity of sentiment inspires. . . . Once more, let none use that to the detriment of another which he may himself have received on conviction of its truth; but let everyone, if it be possible, apply what he has understood and known to the benefit of his neighbour. (“Constantine’s Edict to the People of the Provinces on the Error of Polytheism,” Life of Constantine 2.56 in The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 512–14.) For”
― John Dickson, A Doubter's Guide to Jesus: An Introduction to the Man from Nazareth for Believers and Skeptics

“He applied his new-found faith to matters of state bringing far reaching benefits to ordinary citizens. He did not impose Christianity on the empire. His approach was simply to end the persecution of Christianity and grant the church the rights of any other religion or civic association. But he did “Christianise” (if there is such a thing) certain Roman laws. He humanised the criminal law and the law of debt, eased the conditions of slaves, and, importantly, introduced imperial financial support for children of poor families. The effect of this last measure was to discourage the common Roman practice of “exposure,” abandoning unwanted babies. With the conversion of Constantine, the empire established by brute force was beginning to be conquered by the message of a Servant Lord.”
― John Dickson, A Doubter's Guide to Jesus: An Introduction to the Man from Nazareth for Believers and Skeptics

“The notion that the gods care how we treat one another would have been dismissed as patently absurd. . . . This was the moral climate in which Christianity taught that mercy is one of the primary virtues—that a merciful God requires humans to be merciful. . . . This was revolutionary stuff. Indeed, it was the cultural basis for the revitalization of the Roman world. (Stark, The Rise of Christianity, 209–15.)”
― John Dickson, A Doubter's Guide to Jesus: An Introduction to the Man from Nazareth for Believers and Skeptics