Spread of Christianity Archives - The Bart Ehrman Blog

How the early church spread among converts.

Who Was The Last Non-Christian Emperor of Rome?

Most people know that Constantine was the first Christian emperor. Lots of other things they think about him are wrong -- for example, that he decided or helped to decide which books would be in the New Testament or that his conversion was just a political ploy. I deal with these in my book The Triumph of Christianity (Simon & Schuster, 2019). But this one's right. He was the first Christian emperor. It's also right that nearly all the emperors after Constantine were Christian. I say *nearly* because of one brief but highly noteworthy exception: his nephew Julian, most frequently referred to as Julian the Apostate. Julian ruled for nineteen months in 361-63 CE. His short reign was highly significant: Julian tried to turn the empire back to the ways and worship of paganism. He is called “the Apostate” because he started out as Christian but then opted to worship the traditional gods of Rome. And he tried to enforce this view on his Empire. Here is how I describe how he did that (or [...]

BDEhrman2022-09-16T15:01:22-04:00September 14th, 2022|Constantine, Fourth-Century Christianity, Spread of Christianity|

The Outrageous Immorality of Early Christians (!) (?)

The question I addressed yesterday: could the obvious benefits of the Christian community – a community of love, fellowship, and mutual support – have drawn converts into it, who very much wanted that kind of thing? The surprising answer, I think, is no, at least in the early centuries when Christianity was trying to establish a foothold in the world. There’s another reason for thinking what I do, and it’s not one you would expect. There were reports about the early Christian communities among outsiders. But it was not that they were a loving and caring group of unusually upright and morally committed people. On the contrary, the Christians were known to be flagrantly immoral, engaged in heinous, licentious, and murderous behavior. Hard to believe, but that is the charge we repeatedly find. Here is what I say about it in my book The Triumph of Christianity. Brace yourself. ************************************************************* In the early centuries Christians were accused of almost unfathomable outrageous behavior. Both Justin around 150 CE in Rome and Tertullian some fifty years [...]

BDEhrman2020-07-12T12:56:35-04:00July 12th, 2020|Early Christian Writings (100-400 CE), History of Christianity (100-300CE), Spread of Christianity|

Did the Benefits of the Christian Community Win Converts? Readers’ Mailbag.

Here's an important question I have received, along with an answer a lot of people think is counter-intuitive. It has to do with why Christianity proved so attractive in the ancient world as they were desperately trying to attract converts. QUESTION: Please help me understand – didn’t first-century Christians offer more than stories of Jesus and a god to pray to? Didn’t they also offer the care and support of a community? Weren’t they actually supporting and providing for each other’s needs? And if so, wouldn’t this make their religion attractive to others in need? RESPONSE: As it turns out, my view of the matter is that the answer to the first three questions is a resounding YES; but the answer to the final question – that is, the one that this reader is most interested in and (I would guess) thinks depends entirely on the preceding three – is MAYBE but the implication that this is why they grew and expanded is probably NO. History is like that sometimes. In my book [...]

BDEhrman2020-07-10T15:48:04-04:00July 10th, 2020|Book Discussions, History of Christianity (100-300CE), Spread of Christianity|

Was Christianity a Missionary Religion with No Missionaries?

Early Christians were bound and determined to convert others to their faith, as I indicated in my previous post. Or at least that’s what their literature suggests; I very much doubt if *everyone* was! But they certainly did convert people – within four hundred years a tiny handful of the disciples of Jesus’ uneducated and unimpressive disciples had become the official religion of the entire western world. The interest in making converts made this religion unlike anything else in the Roman empire (or outside of it). Now *that’s* interesting, and different from what we could expect. But what is also odd to modern eyes is that even though Christianity was evangelistic, there were almost no evangelists. That is to say, hardly anyone – so far as we know – went on a mission to other places to convert people, with one notable exception. So how did the Christians manage to convert millions of people? That’s the subject of this post, again taken from my book Triumph of Christianity. ******************************************** Christians then, starting at least with [...]

BDEhrman2020-04-09T12:54:21-04:00January 4th, 2020|History of Christianity (100-300CE), Reader’s Questions, Spread of Christianity|

Did Superior Health Care Lead to the Dominance of Christianity?

Interesting question from a recent member of the blog: QUESTION: In the August 5/12 New Yorker, a review of a new book, “The mosquito: A Human History of our Deadliest Predator.” In this review, this sentence: “In the third century, malaria epidemics helped drive people to a small, much persecuted faith that emphasized healing and care of the sick, propelling Christianity into a world-altering religion.” I realize that medical history is not your thing. If nonetheless you’d care to comment, any warrant for this assertion? RESPONSE: I don’t know that I’ve ever written about mosquitoes before, either on the blog or anywhere else, but I have dealt with issues connected with ancient health care, and in particular with the theory that superior health care was one of the factors that led Christianity to expand to become a dominant (*the* dominant religion) of the Roman world. It is an intriguing idea indeed, and was a popular theory for a very brief moment, about when this book reviewed in the New Yorker came out. [...]

BDEhrman2020-04-09T13:02:20-04:00August 28th, 2019|History of Christianity (100-300CE), Reader’s Questions, Reflections and Ruminations, Spread of Christianity|

Interview for “Letters & Politics” on The Triumph of Christianity

Here is an interview I did on my book The Triumph of Christianity, back on December 25th, 2018, with host Mitch Jeserich. The program was called "Letters & Politics," for FM 94.1 KPFA. The theme of my book, as you know, is how the Christians took over the religions of the Roman Empire to become the dominant religion of the west. Mitch wanted to know about that. Many years ago, when I started thinking about my book, so did I! Please adjust gear icon for 720p High-Definition:

BDEhrman2020-04-03T10:32:54-04:00May 28th, 2019|Book Discussions, History of Christianity (100-300CE), Public Forum, Spread of Christianity, Video Media|

Constantine and the Christian Faith: My Fourth Smithsonian Lecture

I have found over the years that lots of people have mistaken ideas about Constantine the Great, the early fourth century Roman Emperor who converted to Christianity. I used to have mistaken ideas myself, until I started reading the sources and examining the scholarship. For example, Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the empire, right? (Wrong.) Constantine is the reason Christianity took over the empire, right? (Wrong again). Constantine didn't really convert to Christianity: it was a political move by a savvy politician who remained, at heart, a pagan, right? (Well, uh, sorry...) It is true, though that the conversion of Emperor Constantine in 312 CE is one of Christianity’s pivotal events, and that by the end of the 4th century, Christianity was proclaimed the official religion throughout Rome, leading to the suppression of other religious traditions. Here is a lecture I gave on Constantine and Christianity at the Smithsonian on Feb. 10, 2018. It is the last of the series of four that I have given here on the blog, based on my [...]

BDEhrman2020-04-03T11:01:46-04:00May 2nd, 2019|Book Discussions, Constantine, Fourth-Century Christianity, Public Forum, Spread of Christianity, Video Media|

Why Did Christianity Take Over the World? Smithsonian Lecture 3.

Here is Lecture 3 (out of 4) that I came at the Smithsonian Associates in Washington DC on Feb. 10, 2018, based, again, on my book The Triumph of Christianity. This lecture deals with the key aspects of the early Christian movement to try to explain its success. What was it about Christianity that allowed it to take over the entire Christian empire? People have all sorts of "common sense" answers to the question -- as did I for many years, even as a professional scholar -- which are probably wrong (e.g., Christianity was naturally superior to all the other religions, because of its strict monotheism and strong ethical stance, so naturally people were inclined to convert). The first time I realized the actual answer to the question was when, long ago, I read Roman social historian and Yale professor Ramsay MacMullen's brilliant analysis The Christianization of the Roman Empire. I pondered the matter for years, read massively on it, and here is what I ended up concluding (very much in line with MacMullen, but [...]

BDEhrman2020-04-09T12:47:57-04:00April 23rd, 2019|Book Discussions, Public Forum, Spread of Christianity, Video Media|

Who Were The “Pagans” Christians Were Converting?

PART TWO of FOUR: Pagan Converts and the Power of God This is the second lecture I gave at the Smithsonian on Feb. 10, 2018, based on my book The Triumph of Christianity: How A Forbidden Religion Swept the World. The premise behind the lecture: as Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire, it converted almost entirely pagans (after the first couple of decades). Who were these people, and what were they converting *from*? And why? Paganism is not and was not really a "thing." The term was designed (by Christians) simply to designate all the ancient religious practices that were not either Jewish or Christian -- that is, it lumped together all kinds of religious practices, thousands of them, as some"thing" opposed to the faith in the Jewish god. But is there anything all these religions spread throughout the Roman world had in common? And how did Christians approach people from these traditional religions, religions that each individual would have always assumed was simply right, involving rituals and ideas that had always been part of [...]

BDEhrman2020-04-03T10:54:44-04:00April 14th, 2019|Book Discussions, Public Forum, Spread of Christianity, Video Media|

Christianity’s Most Important Convert: Lecture at the Smithsonian

PART ONE of FOUR: Christianity’s Most Important Convert: The Apostle Paul In February 2018 I gave a series of four lectures for the Smithsonian Associates in Washington DC, based on my book The Triumph of Christianity. It was a bit tricky, as these things always are, figuring out which parts of the book to focus on, since each lecture could really be only on one thing, not lots of things. I decided to give the first lecture on the most important convert in the history of Christianity -- not Constantine (as I argue in the book) but the apostle Paul. Without that conversion, would we even have *had* Christianity as a world-wide religion? Good question! It's hard to know. But it *is* clear that this was a conversion of massive importance. Here is the lecture: Viewing for blog members only! If you'd like to join the blog, we'd like to have you. Doesn't cost much and you get tons of value -- and every penny goes to charity. So go for it! Please adjust [...]

BDEhrman2020-04-03T11:14:56-04:00April 8th, 2019|Book Discussions, Spread of Christianity, Video Media|

How Christianity Grew and Grew

This will be the final post on the new boxes in my Introduction to the New Testament; both of these are on a related topic, tied to my book The Triumph of Christianity, so I will include them both there. One has to do with how miracles allegedly led to conversions of pagans to the new faith; the other charts the rate of growth that it appears the Christian church experienced in the early years. ********************************************************** Another Glimpse Into the Past Box 26.4 Legendary Confrontations with Pagans As the Christian gospel spread throughout the Roman world, a number of legendary accounts appeared portraying the confrontations between Christian missionaries and their pagan opponents (see Box 9.6). In these accounts, the Christians’ miracles trump the power of the pagan Gods. One involves the apostle John in an apocryphal book called “The Acts of John.” John arrives at the magnificent temple of the great goddess of the Ephesians, Artemis, and confronts a large crowd of pagans celebrating the goddess’s birthday, challenging them to a kind of spiritual [...]

BDEhrman2020-04-03T10:48:00-04:00November 5th, 2018|History of Christianity (100-300CE), Spread of Christianity|

Mapping the Diversity of Earliest Christianity

Here is a question I received recently. QUESTION: One of my favourite pieces on the blog is your post from 13 July 2015 titled ‘Earliest Christian Diversity’ on the work of Destro and Pesce. I find it fascinating and thought-provoking whenever I re-read it. It’s like new information hidden in plain sight.. Did you ever do any follow-up research or expansion on this topic? (Sorry if you did and I missed it.) RESPONSE: I have to admit, I had forgotten all about this post, and had to look it up. I agree! It's unusually interesting. Not because of anything I say, but because of an intriguing theory proposed by others. Really fascinating. And no, I haven't followed it up (having even forgotten about it.) But it's definitely worth posting again. Here it is! *********************************************************************** In keeping with the current topic of the diversity of early Christianity, I thought I could say something about a book that I just read that I found to be unusually interesting and enlightening. It is by two [...]

BDEhrman2020-04-04T14:55:28-04:00October 11th, 2018|Canonical Gospels, Reader’s Questions, Spread of Christianity|

When Christianity Became the “Official” Religion of Rome

I have been discussing when Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire. It was not under Constantine, or even one of his sons who succeeded him on the throne. It was only at the end of the fourth century, during the reign of Theodosius. Here is what I say in my book about that new situation some seven decades after the conversion of Constantine. *************************************************************** When Julian was killed in a poorly-conceived and even more poorly-executed battle with the Persians on June 26, 361, he was succeeded by Jovian, one of his military commanders. Jovian, and every Roman emperor who followed him, were Christian. Many of these successors were quite vehement in the public affirmation of their Christian commitments and their resistance to traditional pagan religions. Arguably the most forceful in his views was Theodosius I, also known as “the Great,” who ruled from 379-95 CE, and who was responsible for making Christianity, for all intents and purposes, the official state religion of the Roman Empire. Theodosius was ... The rest of this [...]

BDEhrman2020-04-04T14:31:42-04:00May 2nd, 2018|Constantine, Fourth-Century Christianity, History of Christianity (100-300CE), Spread of Christianity|

Making Rome Pagan Again

After Constantine converted to Christianity, every Roman emperor, for all time, was Christian – with one brief exception: his nephew Julian, most frequently referred to as Julian the Apostate, who ruled for nineteen months in 361-63 CE. This short reign was highly significant: Julian tried to turn the empire back to the ways and worship of paganism. He is called “the Apostate” because he started out as Christian but then opted to worship the traditional gods of Rome. And he tried to enforce this view on his Empire. Here is how I describe how he did that (or tried to do it) in my book on the Triumph of Christianity. The Last Pagan Emperor Julian spent his first six months as emperor in Constantinople, and then nine unhappy and turbulent months in Antioch, before marching against the Persians. He was killed early in the conflict, having ruled the empire for a mere nineteen months. It was, however, an eventful year and a half, especially for pagan-Christian relations. Upon ascending to the throne, Julian declared [...]

BDEhrman2020-04-03T10:36:35-04:00May 1st, 2018|Constantine, Fourth-Century Christianity, History of Christianity (100-300CE), Spread of Christianity|

The Beginning of the End of Paganism

I have decided to pursue further the question of how, in the fourth century, Christianity took over the Roman imperial government (at the highest levels) leading to the proscription of pagan practices. For that I will rely on a couple of extracts from my book, The Triumph of Christianity, over a few posts. Here is the continuation of the story after the death of Constantine. ***************************************************************** Constantine’s father Constantius became Caesar of the West in 293 CE and then senior Augustus in the imperial college with the abdication of Maximian in 305 CE. His dynasty was to last seventy years, until the death of Constantine’s nephew Julian in 363 CE. It was not a peaceful and closely knit family, as seen nowhere more clearly than in the vicious bloodbath that occurred after Constantine’s death on May 22, 337, with the event known as “the massacre of the princes.” Constantine’s three remaining sons – Constantius II, Constans, and Constantine II (the eldest Crispus having earlier been executed) – were to divide his empire among themselves, but [...]

BDEhrman2020-04-03T11:03:45-04:00April 30th, 2018|Constantine, Fourth-Century Christianity, History of Christianity (100-300CE), Spread of Christianity|

Did Constantine Outlaw the Pagan Religions?

In today’s mailbag I deal with an interesting question about when, exactly, Christianity became the state religion of Rome and the traditional pagan religions were outlawed. Was it during the reign of Constantine (as is popularly imagined?)? Later? At the end of the fourth century? Here’s the question. QUESTION: I was listening to The Great Courses lectures on Early Middle Ages by professor Philip Daileader and he mentions that Christianity was made the official state religion of the Roman Empire and that pagan rituals and practices HAD been made illegal BEFORE the reign of Julian the Apostate and that Theodosius only made it illegal AGAIN to practice paganism in 391-392 !?! I always thought (and taught...) that Christianity became the state religion and that paganism was outlawed in 392 for the first time. Since you have been working on this period recently, I would love to know your stand on that matter RESPONSE: I need to say at the outset that I have not listened to this course by Prof. Daileader and so [...]

BDEhrman2020-04-03T10:59:22-04:00April 29th, 2018|Constantine, Fourth-Century Christianity, Reader’s Questions, Spread of Christianity|

Fresh Air – Christianity’s Path From ‘Forbidden’ To A ‘Triumph’

On March 20, 2018 I had an interview with Terry Gross for her NPR radio program Fresh Air, about my book The Triumph of Christianity: How A Forbidden Religion Swept the World. I believe this is the seventh time I've done her program (the first one was for my book Lost Christianities, maybe fifteen years ago). I thought way back then, and I still think now, that she's the best interviewer on the planet. The show runs for about 45 minutes, but we talked for twice that long . On the upside, that means her editors leave out some of the more idiotic things I say. Enjoy! Transcript of this program: https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=595161200 Please adjust gear icon for 720p High-Definition:

BDEhrman2020-04-03T10:33:52-04:00April 26th, 2018|Book Discussions, Public Forum, Spread of Christianity|

Making the Bestseller List

As many of you know, I made an appearance on “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross a couple of weeks ago. I had mentioned in an earlier post that the only way it is humanly possible for a book to become a bestseller is by having some media attention paid to it – a herculean task, especially these days, over the past two years, when the national media wants to talk about nothing but That One Thing. Fresh Air has millions of listeners, though, and I was very fortunate to be on it. The results were fantastic, as I’ve indicated before. And a new indication has just appeared. Triumph of Christianity has made it on the New York Times Bestseller this week, coming in at #11 on the list of Hardback Non-Fiction. That’s a big deal for me. There are something like 600 books that get published every day. To be on this list is special. I don’t expect the book to stay on for more than a week, but still, it is a milestone. There [...]

BDEhrman2020-04-03T10:43:30-04:00April 3rd, 2018|Book Discussions, Public Forum, Spread of Christianity|

Reading The Triumph of Christianity at Quail Ridge Books

On Tuesday February 13, 2018 at 7:00pm, I had a book reading based on my new book "The Triumph of Christianity: How A Forbidden Religion Swept the World" at Quail Ridge Books located in Raleigh, North Carolina. I read excerpts for about 30 minutes, then took questions. Here it is, for your viewing pleasure or amusement! Please adjust gear icon for 720p High-Definition: To see all my posts, 5-6 times a week, join the blog! It doesn't cost much, gives a lot, and raises money for charity. So why not?

BDEhrman2020-04-08T10:08:59-04:00March 4th, 2018|Book Discussions, Public Forum, Spread of Christianity, Video Media|

My Interview with Michael Shermer

On Sunday, February 18, 2018, I did a podcast interview with Michael B. Shermer, a well known author on issues related to science and religion (the one I most recently read: The Science of Good and Evil), based on my new book: The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World. The interview is part of the Science Salon series, number eighteen. Dialogues are hosted by Michael Shermer and presented by The Skeptics Society, in California. Dr. Michael B. Shermer holds a graduate degree in experimental psychology. He is a historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and editor-in-chief of its magazine Skeptic, which is largely devoted to investigating pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. Shermer engages in debates on topics pertaining to pseudoscience and religion in which he emphasizes scientific skepticism Among other things in this interview we discuss the modern atheism movement, religion and politics, the intractable problem of evil, the early understandings of Jesus (how could he be both man and God?), the beliefs of ancient pagans about the gods and [...]

BDEhrman2021-02-03T23:35:06-05:00February 23rd, 2018|Book Discussions, Public Forum, Spread of Christianity, Video Media|