The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

by Rodney Stark

Overview

Celebrated religious and social historian Rodney Starktraces the extraordinary rise of Christianity through its most pivotal andcontroversial moments to offer fresh perspective on the history of the world’slargest religion. In The Triumph of Christianity, the author of God’sBattalions and The Rise of Christianity gathers and refines decadesof powerful research and discovery into one concentrated, concise, and highlyreadable volume that explores Christianity’s most crucial episodes. The uniqueformat of Triumph of Christianity allows Stark to avoid densechronologies and difficult back stories, bringing readers right to the heart ofChristian history’s most vital controversies and enduring lessons.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062007681
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/25/2011
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	6.36(w) x 9.22(h) x 1.57(d)

About the Author

Rodney Stark is the Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University. His thirty books on the history and sociology of religion include The Rise of Christianity, Cities of God, For the Glory of God, Discovering God, and The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success. Stark received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part 1 Christmas Eve

1 The Religious Context 9

2 Many Judaisms 33

Part 2 Christianizing the Empire

3 Jesus and the Jesus Movement 49

4 Missions to the Jews and the Gentiles 71

5 Christianity and Privilege 87

6 Misery and Mercy 105

7 Appeals to Women 121

8 Persecution and Commitment 137

9 Assessing Christian Growth 153

Part 3 Consolidating Christian Europe

10 Constantine's Very Mixed Blessings 169

11 The Demise of Paganism 183

12 Islam and the Destruction of Eastern and North African Christianity 199

13 Europe Responds: The Case for the Crusades 213

Part 4 Medieval Currents

14 The "Dark Ages" and Other Mythical Eras 237

15 The People's Religion 255

16 Faith and the Scientific "Revolution" 273

Part 5 Christianity Divided

17 Two "Churches" and the Challenge of Heresy 299

18 Luther's Reformation 315

19 The Shocking Truth About the Spanish Inquisition 333

Part 6 New Worlds and Christian Growth

20 Pluralism and American Piety 353

21 Secularization: Facts and Fantasies 369

22 Globalization 387

Conclusion 413

Bibliography 419

Notes 461

Index 495

Editorial Reviews

2012 Book of the Year

World Magazine

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.

Kirkus Reviews

2012 Book of the Year” — World Magazine

From the Publisher