The Triumph of Christianity

November 15, 2011
Stark, author of The Rise of Christianity (1996), expands on the topic in this book, which covers a longer time period, including Jesus' life and ministry and ending with today's Christian outreach. The purpose of the book is not theological, as Stark informs readers in his introduction. His concern is with the more practical: why Christianity expanded and how it happened. The statistical formulations he uses add heft to his observations, which often fly in the face of common knowledge. For instance, Paul's mission may have been to convert the gentiles, but most were not pagans. Rather, they were god-fearers, people already attracted to Judaism but who weren't keen to keep its many laws. Stark also contends that the Dark Ages weren't all that dark and that the church was more pro-science than against it. Sometimes his statements raise eyebrows as well as questions: with a plethora of Jewish sects around, what does Jewish persecution of the early church (more dangerous than that of Rome!) really mean? Written plainly and crisply, this will spur argument and interest.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

October 15, 2011
A no-nonsense, defensive account of Christianity's rise in the West. There is much to correct in the historical record, as sociologist Stark (Institute for Studies of Religion/Baylor Univ.; God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades, 2009, etc.) makes plain here, repositioning the central role of Christianity in Western development. Once it started to spread among the privileged urban classes and, especially, women, Christianity promised a better life in a typically brutish time. Its appeals to mercy and alleviating misery fell on welcome ears amid squalid ancient cities of the Roman Empire. Early Christians elevated the role of women, denounced infanticide and raised the marriageable age. Early persecution only strengthened Christian intransigence, while the "performance" of martyrs proved utterly convincing in the conversion process. With the conquest of Islam, Stark shows how Christianity was mercilessly decimated in the East, forcing the faithful to seek safe harbor in European lands. In the chapter titled "Europe Responds: The Case for the Crusades," the author debunks previous assertions by Karen Armstrong and other historians that the Crusades were essentially colonizing and exploitative; rather, he writes, they were "fundamentally defensive" in protecting Christian pilgrims and shrines from Muslim attack. Moreover, the Medieval era categorized erroneously by the Enlightenment writers as the "Dark Ages" was a rich, inventive period that spurred capitalism (profits, property rights, modern banking, etc.) and science. It was the Christian Scholastics educated in urban universities and steeped in the Christian theology of logic and reason who invented science long before Copernicus and Galileo. Stark credits European belief in "God as the Intelligent Designer" as their scientific mentor. The author provides a refreshing, unorthodox polishing of Martin Luther and the Spanish Inquisition, while crediting the survival and growth of Christianity to the rich pluralism of America. Take that, warriors of secularism.

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