By Bart D. Ehrman, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
How did Christians attract outsiders to the extent that they eventually wiped out the competition? Probably the most compelling explanation of the this triumph of Christianity that takes account of the surviving evidence is in a classic study by the Roman social historian, Ramsay MacMullen, professor for many years at Yale, in a book called Christianizing the Roman Empire.
Argument by Rodney Stark
Rodney Stark, a modern sociologist of religion, has argued that Christians, and in turn Christianity, survived at much higher rates than pagans during the times of epidemic. Over time, this meant that the Christians grew far more quickly than the rest of the population. This in turn meant that Christianity grew in the world.
Stark is not actually a historian of early Christianity, and the scholars who are, have found numerous problems with this view, as intriguing as it is.
For one thing, it assumes the truth of Christian authors’ claims that they and their co-religionists were far more loving than those uncaring pagans who would just leave their family members to die; a claim that most historians treat with considerable skepticism.
Flaws with the Theory
Moreover, there’s a fatal flaw with the theory. If it were true that Christians tended to the infected more often than pagans did, that would almost certainly mean that Christians themselves became infected far more often than the pagans did. So, they would die more frequently, not less frequently. And that is precisely what our Christian sources indicate.
The 3rd century church father Cyprian, for example, extols the Christian virtues of love in the time of epidemic by admitting that the virtuous believer who tended the dying was almost always the next to be carried out feet first. Increased exposure to epidemic leads to high fatality rates, not to low ones.
This article comes directly from content in the video series The Triumph of Christianity. Watch it now, on Wondrium.
Christian Miracles
Ramsay MacMullen’s study, in a book called Christianizing the Roman Empire, has persuasive explanation for the growth of Christianity.
MacMullen’s view may at first seem very surprising, especially because it sounds like a theological or a religious explanation instead of a historical one. But in fact, it’s historical.
MacMullen argues that Christians convinced people because of the miracles they did, or that they were said to have done. There are reasons to say that this is not a religious explanation requiring belief.
The idea that it was miracles, or alleged miracles, that converted people both makes eminent sense and is attested abundantly throughout our sources. In fact, it’s virtually the only explanation that, in one way or the other, our ancient accounts almost uniformly attest.
Reasons for Worshipping Gods
The reason the appeal to miracles as the basis for conversion in antiquity makes sense is that it connects directly with the one reason for which virtually everyone in the ancient world worshipped the gods in the first place: they worshipped the gods to access divine power.
Of course, people worshipped the gods because that’s how they were raised and brought up, with worship practices simply being part of their family and civic life. They also worshipped because they assumed it was the right and proper thing to do. But what was driving all this religiosity?
For ancient folk, the gods could provide humans with what they could not provide for themselves: successful childbirth, health, healing, rain and sun, fertility of crops and livestock, not to mention the more mundane matters such as economic security and devoted love.
Powerful Christian Gods
One knew that the gods provided help because they answered prayers and gave people what they needed. People wanted to follow gods that could provide the most help.
Christians claimed that their God was more powerful than all the others; who, unlike the others, could provide everything one needed, and who did so in ways that were both highly impressive and obvious. And they showed the power by manifesting it, by doing miracles.
A child is sick, her mother prays to the Christian God, and the girl recovers. A person is possessed by an evil spirit; a Christian holy person drives out that demon. There’s a drought; the Christians pray for rain, and a thunderstorm appears out of nowhere. A young man tragically dies, a Christian leader learns of it, comes and prays over the corpse, and the person rises from the dead.
The Christian God had power over life and death. Since people worshipped the gods because of what they could provide, and if the Christian God could provide better than others, then it was the God to worship.
Common Questions about Growth of Christianity and the Impact of Alleged Miracles
The flaw with this theory is that if it were true that Christians tended to the infected more often than pagans did, that would almost certainly mean that Christians themselves became infected far more often than the pagans did. So, they would die more frequently, not less frequently.
Everyone in the ancient world worshipped the gods to access divine power. For ancient folk, the gods could provide humans with what they could not provide for themselves: successful childbirth, health, healing, rain and sun, fertility of crops and livestock, not to mention the more mundane matters such as economic security and devoted love.
Christians claimed that their God was more powerful than all the others; who, unlike the others, could provide everything one needed, and who did so in ways that were both highly impressive and obvious. And they showed the power by manifesting it, by doing miracles.
