Cities of God: The Real Story of How Christianity Became an Urban Movement and Conquered Rome

A lot of historical scholarship consists of perceiving historical phenomena and then working out plausible explanations for the phenomena. Such explanations are largely untested, but they often become accepted as "historical truth" when they are little more than "just so stories." The example from the final chapter of Schlesinger's "huge upswell" of popular democracy during the era of Andrew Jackson is a case in point. Going back and counting the votes from previous elections shows that the voter turnout in the Jackson era was actually lower than many previous elections. It is all well and good to devise hypotheses to explain historical events, but they should not be accepted as truth unless they can be tested. Stark undertakes to test a number of historical hypotheses relating to the rise of early Christianity, and does so through statistical analysis. This entails a lot of spadework, but the results are worthwhile. A lot of Stark's findings validate many of the hypotheses of previous scholarship, and this should lead to no controversy. A lot of his findings invalidate the hypotheses of "cutting edge" Biblical scholarship, and this should mean that Stark's book won't be profiled on prime time television. Some of Stark's more interesting findings are: (1) Orthodox Christianity, not "Gnosticism" or some other "Lost Christianity" was the original form of the religion. (2) "Gnosticism" was a loopy, lunatic fringe blend of paganism and Christianity. (3) Orthodox Christians did not persecute paganism into oblivion. (4) Pentecost most likely did not result in 3,000 newly baptized Christians, but simply 3,000 wet Jews and pagans. (5) Paul did not invent Christianity and actually had very little to do with the spread of Christianity throughout the Empire. (6) Paul was much more successful in converting Jews to Christianity than in converting Gentiles. (7) Hellenized Jews provided large numbers of Christian converts during the first four centuries of Christianity. Stark's writing, as always, is entertaining, educational, and thought provoking.

I am not a Christian, but I am interested in the history of Christianity. Rodney Stark, I've concluded, is probably the leading historian of Christianity and, best of all, he doesn't defend, proselytize. mythologize - he simply describes the history. And, surprisingly, according to Stark, the history of Christianity is a more positive force than many historians want to give it credit for. Stark takes many contemporary historians, like the late Arthur Schlesinger, for their devotion to personal ideologies than to fact. As an example, Stark thoroughly dissects Schlesinger's misunderstanding of Andrew Jackson's popularity in a Pulitzer Prize winning book. With that quality in mind, Stark debunks many popular, but apparently false, myths about early Christianity. Factoids: many Roman emperors appointed many pagans to political office during the ascendancy of Christianity in Rome, contrary to the myth that Christians forced paganism out of existence. The book is rich in historical detail, some of it drawn from surprising sources: the inscriptions on ancient tombstones. The basic theme is that Christianity became an urban religion that ultimately conquered the failing Roman Empire. Another surprise: the larger cities developed Christian populations sooner then smaller cities. Overall, for any student of history, Stark provides a valuable contribution. There is no overtly religious content in the book, so people with an aversion or animus to religion can read it comfortably. Jerry

There are a great many famous biblical scholars, but most of them write narrow, even crabbed, books on narrow, crabbed subjects. Which is why Rodney Stark is such a breath of fresh air. He ask the big questions, then hunts down the answers using sociology and statistics, not the usual tools of the biblical scholar. In book after book, he wrote en about early Christianity in ways that challenge old stereotypes, and did it in his typically brisk, clear style. Within the first few pages in "Cities of God" he argues that, "Only monotheism can generate the level of commitment to mobilize the rank and file in missionizing activities" (p 13). And he cites the studies showing how conversion takes place. Against the usual argument that the power of Christianity came from its promises of eternal life, Start says that the faith spread because of the way it could "provide an antidote to life's miseries here and now. The truly revolutionary aspect of Christianity lay in moral imperatives" (p 30). A breathtaking statement. Stark also overturns all the usual liberal dogmas about how Gnosticism represents a more authentic Christianity. As Stark tartly notes, Gnostic manuscripts to not denote social movements. On the contrary. "Gnostic writers are known to have gathered only small schools of devotees" (p 143). They were not an alternative Christianity. They were paganism's attempt to paganize Christianity. This is a well written and well argued book that deserves a wide audience.

Before I picked up "Cities of God", I wondered what Rodney Stark could add to his earlier book on the same subject, "The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal, Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force ....". After reading this new book, my confidence in this consummate scholar of religion was reaffirmed strongly because this book succeeds in numerous ways. It offers a useful gazetteer to the major cities of the Roman Empire and treats variables in the spread of Christianity based on their size and location. Even more interesting is the fascinating glimpse of the exotic and sometimes strange religious background and context in which Christianity competed successfully to become the dominant religion in the Roman Empire. Particularly worthwhile in this respect are the treatments of the worship of Isis and Cybele as quasi-monotheistic religions, which prepared pagans for the practice of monotheism, his critical treatment of the concept of Gnosticism, his revised view of the vigor and durability of paganism following Constantine's victory and finally his dispelling of the myth of Christian intolerance vis-à-vis paganism. Methodologically, Stark makes a solid case for the broader use of statistics and the application of sociological theorems, which he has developed elsewhere. Finally, it should be added that this book is a pleasure to read. "Cities of Gods" is a worthy addition to Rodney Stark's excellent body of research on religion. I highly recommend it.

You can read the summary above. I rated it 5 stars based on does it accomplish what it sets out to do and is it readable by the average person. It does both well. Having advanced knowledge of statistics is helpful and an advantage but not necessary to benefit greatly. So often we think of the growth of Christianity in the abstract, both Christians and non-Christians. Rodney Stark shows that Christianity grew in a real world, in real cultures and in real people and that it grew the way you would expect it to grow given all the culture and geographics in place at that time. You will be surprised how the pagan myths in place at that time actually helped Christianity to grow faster. The estimated numbers of Christians at given times of its development were a surprise to me-maybe because no one has ever talked about it in my readings. For example, in the year 40 AD it is estimated that there were 1,000 active followers of Jesus. He explains what happened to the 3,000 baptized at Pentecost and why it is only 1,000 about 10 years later. Paul's role and the support he received from others will also be a surprise. The whole book helped to put real flesh on to the history of the church. While it may seem to be a very dry subject for many, it really is fascinating and will help you to answer many of the skeptics and others who have created such 'fantasy fiction' like the DaVinci Code and others. Well worth the read.