The Rise of Christianity - excerpt
Just like the blog entry below, this quote is from Keller’s Gospel and Heart course. It comes from a book by sociologist Rodney Stark called, “The Rise of Christianity - How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries.”
It is an awesome book that details the powerful ways that the Christian community lived radically different, and attractive lives. Stark believes the selfless care believers offered plague sufferers was a significant factor in the growth of the church. He offers a different interpretation on just how quickly the early church grew (not explosively but steadily, comparable to the growth of the Mormon church today). It is great source material.
Here is the quote:
“Christianity served as a revitalization movement that arose in response to the misery, chaos, fear and brutality of life in the urban Greco-Roman world… Christianity revitalized life in… cities by providing new norms and new kinds of social relationships able to cope with many urgent urban problems. To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christinity offered a new basis for social solidarity. And to cities faced with epidemics, fires and earthquakes, Christianity offered effective…services.”
Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity, (Harper, 1996), p. 161.