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Book Review
The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries
Sunny Tanuwidjaja
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The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries Rodney Stark. 246 Pages. Harper Collins, 1997. Category: History and Religion |
Why did Christianity grow so rapidly in the first four centuries AD? How come an unknown and tiny movement from a group of thirteen people grew to be one of the dominant forces in the Roman Empire, one of the most dominant empires in human civilization? Most of the time, without sufficient historical background, “God’s providence” and “miracles” has been the easiest way to explain such a puzzle. Yet, stopping at such answers deprives us from the opportunity to better understand the complexity of the early Christians growth and robs us from the lessons we can gain from the experience.
Fortunately, Rodney Stark, professor of sociology and comparative religion at University of Washington, was curious enough to scrutinize the puzzle. In “The Rise of Christianity”, he identifies several factors that contribute to the spread and acceptance of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire from 0 to approximately 400 AD. He challenges the idea that the rate of growth of Christianity during that period can only be explained by miracles and mass conversion; instead using creative social science tools he shows how the characteristics of Christianity became appealing to many. He notes however that his account is not an attempt to deny the probable role of the divine, but instead he believes that worldly societal factors can help explain the puzzle.
Stark begins by developing a projection on how fast Christianity grew in the first four centuries. He estimates that Christianity grew about 3.42 percent a year and approximately 40 percent per decade. The rate is not something impossible to achieve and is not something that deviates from modern phenomena. The Mormon Church according to Stark has been growing at approximately the same rate in the last century, and there has been no claim of mass conversions occurring in the Mormon Church.
Two main theories become the bases of his explanation. First, conversion to a new, deviant religious group (Christianity in its early birth can be considered as such) occurs mostly through existing social networks based on strong personal attachment. Thus, the ability of a religious group to continue to maintain and expand it social networks, allow the new groups to grow. Secondly, new religious groups draw their converts mainly from discontent, inactive, and members of most accommodated religious groups. Factors that Stark identified as contributing to the growth of Christianity confirm the propositions above.
In its early growth, Christianity began its appeal mostly to the middle class and the more privileged group of societies. According to current sociological propositions, it is in the more privileged groups that newly deviant religious groups gain adherents because it is where religious skepticism is most prevalent and more possible. Without sufficient sophistication and without having experience material sufficiency, people are less able and less willing to look for new alternatives. This fact matters because if Christianity was a proletarian movement, it would have been considered dangerous by the Caesar, which would have secured its extinction. Epidemics, which killed almost a third of the Empire’s population, occurred in the middle of the second century provided another opportunity for Christianity to grow in numbers. Due to its value of love and charity, Christians were better equipped to serve each other in their community during the epidemics, leading to a higher survival rate. During such a huge disastrous upheaval as the epidemics, failure of traditional faith to provide explanation lead to the adoption of new religion. In addition, Christianity was able to mobilize people for actions to help many, and their higher survival rate was considered as “miracle” by some pagans. From this event, Christianity was able to expand their networks and to satisfy the discontent citizens of the Empire.
Several other are worth mentioning briefly. Christians’ rejection on infanticide, abortion, and birth control usage led to higher fertility in the Christians communities. Christians became appealing to women because by adopting Christianity they were able to avoid infanticide, abortion, and birth control practices, which at that time can be very harmful and physically hurtful. Christianity was able to deal with the crises of confidence efficiently. According to Stark, one way of individuals gain confidence on their faith is by looking at their fellow members. When fellow members maintain high level of commitment and faith, all else being equal, individuals’ confidence tend to be maintained. Thru some courageous martyrs, Christians were able to secure significant confidence of their members. The population density of Romans cities was extremely high; five times of Chicago, four times of New York, and approximately at the same density as in Calcutta. The comparison is somewhat misleading because in the Roman cities, public buildings, monuments, temples accounted for approximately 35 to 40 percent of the city. To make matter worst, sanitation system was primitive, and houses were lacking in much needed ventilation since furnaces and fireplaces were used for cooking and heating. With such living conditions, mortality rate was high, and social chaos occurred in many cities because new groups of population were introduced often, which means that assimilation opportunity was limited.
Stark concludes that the Christians doctrine was able to inspire the life of the citizens and this ability led to its growth. “And it was the way these doctrines took on actual flesh, the way they directed organizational actions and individual behaviors, that led to the rise of Christianity (pg. 211).” Christianity was appealing because it offered a culture beyond ethnicity. For cities where cultural chaos was prevalent, Christianity provided a basis of social solidarity. Christianity promoted liberating relationships between genders. For the sick and homeless, it offered service. “Above all else Christianity brought a new conception of humanity to a world saturated with capricious cruelty and the vicarious love of death .”
This book is a must read, and is accessible to almost everyone who can read. Its language and arguments are clear. Unlike many history books, it uses enlightening sociological propositions in its analysis of historical data, which help to strengthen its already convincing and original arguments. Two points for cautions for those who are interested in reading the book and persuaded by his arguments. First make sure to accept them only tentatively because for those of us who lack the ability to assess historical sources would not be able to assess thoroughly his choices of literatures. Secondly, some degree of skepticism is required here because his utilization of modern sociological propositions might not be totally applicable. Although he claims that generalization is possible, logically there must be some significant fundamental changes in societies and how human behaves from the first four to the 20th century that might affect the validity of the generalizations.
To conclude, several questions that are important for us to address based on the issues raised in and lessons learned from this book. Do we, as a community of Indonesian Christians, posses the characteristics of “open network”? How, then do we develop such a characteristics if we have not yet have it? How about our so called theology, has it becomes “flesh” that responds and addresses the real needs of our time? How do manifest our theology to become such a “flesh”?
Sunny Tanuwidjaja is currently pursuing Ph.D. in Political Science at Northern Illinois University
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