One of the best living sociologists of religion is Rodney Stark. Stark is an interesting fellow. Born in North Dakota to a Lutheran family, Stark has spent much of his career identifying as an agnostic but has recently re-converted to non-denominational Christianity. The focus of his scholarship is how Christianity has changed the world and that, even as an agnostic, Stark has always taken a pro-Christian stance in his work. His most important book, The Rise of Christianity, looks at a specific element of the impact Christianity has had on history – the Christianization of the Roman Empire.
When one considers the historical circumstances on the Christianization of the Roman Empire, the fact that it even happened is hard to believe. How did a marginal religion, emerging from a minority of a minority on the fringes of the Roman Empire, eventually convert the greatest empire in the known world? It gets even odder when one considers the Christian persecutions at the hands of their Roman masters. Certainly, few people – be they Christian, Jew, or pagan – would have expected Rome to be a Christian state within 300 or so years after the Crucifixion. Remember that Stark was an agnostic for much of his life, including when he wrote The Rise of Christianity, so he’s looking for a naturalistic answer to this question.
For Stark, the answer lies in the social structure early Christians created. In contrast to pagan Rome, Christians created a social network that allowed them to enjoy greater survival rates and gain more converts. When plagues hit Rome, the pagans would usually flee; meanwhile, Christians would stay behind and take care of the people, allowing them to have lower deathrates when plagues would arrive. Furthermore, by taking care of the pagans as well, Christians were able to win over new converts.
Another element that allowed Christianity to thrive was its treatment of women. Modern feminists like to portray historical Christianity as a deeply misogynistic religion that keeps women oppressed. However, for Stark, this is clearly ahistorical. Early Christians enjoyed a disproportional amount of female converts because they treated women better, namely by demanding chastity of men, including upper-class men. In ancient Rome, an affair was considered a right for men, while women could be put to death for having an affair. Rape was also a very common occurrence in pagan Rome. Rape was only a crime if the woman was married to someone else, and even then, the crime was against her husband, not her. By demanding both men and women restrain their sexual passions, women appreciated that and converted to Christianity, and this was a great influence on the religious beliefs of their children.
Ideology had a major impact on how Christianity took over the Roman Empire, too. As the Roman Empire began its deep decline, especially with the advent of the Crisis of the Third Century, pagan Rome was unable to offer a satisfactory explanation for what was happening to the Empire. Christians, however, were able to offer a reason, and were also able to offer hope. That Christ suffered and would suffer with His people was comforting in a world falling apart and helped win converts.
But, perhaps, one of the most important elements of the Christianization of Rome was the difference between Christian and pagan attitudes toward infanticide. Infanticide was prevalent throughout pagan Rome, just as it had been in all of antiquity. Getting rid of excess population was considered morally unproblematic. Christianity offered a different worldview – there were strict prohibitions against birth control, abortion, and infanticide. Of course, this meant the Christian birthrate was higher, which overtime allowed Christians to grow. But there was another aspect of the Christian attitude regarding infanticide that needs to be explored. In pagan Rome, it was common for unwanted infants to be thrown off bridges to their deaths. Understanding what was happening, early Christians would hide under the bridges and fish the children out before they drowned; in turn, they would raise them as Christians. How many great heroes of the faith were created this way is unknown, but what is known is that by saving what their pagan neighbors had callously discarded, early Christians were able to save lives and transform Rome.
Today, the Dissident Right must take these lessons laid out by our Christian forbearers and create the social structure that can allow dissident rightwingers to survive and, eventually, overtake globohomo. We must build parallel institutions that can work as alternatives to the Establishment. Creating a form of insurance for people who have been doxxed, and are now unemployable, is a good idea, as is our own social media and even businesses. This is especially pertinent to Southern Nationalists. If you are in the position to do so, hire Southerners. Jews and blacks certainly hire their own, ethnic nepotism is a widespread practice across all peoples (minus Whites, of course). Rather than being angry at them for doing so, take their advice. Everyone has the right to protect and support their own, we are no different. This can even be things such as becoming a surrogate family for those who have been disowned by their family for their political views. And, of course, to harken back to Christianized Rome, we must remain steadfast in our opposition to infanticide.
Eventually, this can work. Globohomo is quite fascinating in that, though they are fanatics, they ultimately believe in nothing, hence why they shift from one cause to the next so quickly. They have no real foundation in their lives. This is why leftists have moved from hating corporations to ratting their employees out for thoughtcrime. This matters because there is a parallel between this and the Roman Empire. The pre-Constantine Roman Empire is commonly considered as being pagan – i.e., believing in multiple gods. But this is also misleading. Rome had not sincerely believed in its Olympian faith for generations at that point. For all practical matters, Rome, at the eve of its Christianization, was atheistic. They believed in pleasure and materialism. And that weakened the structure of the Empire, allowing Christians, by offering another way of life and one that gave life more meaning, to transform the Empire.
Much like the Christianization of the Roman Empire, the creation of a new (or rather old) society out of globohomo will not be easy. As was the case with Rome, it could take centuries and success is not guaranteed. But by examining the history of the Christianization of Rome, we can have a model by which we can utilize. Christians were able to eventually triumph over the might of Rome, however improbable that may have looked in AD 33, because of the social structures they created. The Dissident Right must do the same.
I might agree if one’s Christian eschatology was espousing some kind of global usurpation a la Nimrod, but belief in transcendent law doesn’t set aside a concurrent recognition of the problem of the Fall and its effects, which won’t be eradicated (in my view) until Christ returns.
“The sun itself is not advancing to perfection, but is ever perfecting the shrub, which, receiving life from it becomes a majestic tree. It is the same with Christianity and man. The Gospel places the goal, toward which that Christian Society ought to tend, beyond the vail which separates the two worlds. Thus, the Gospel summons society to a progress incomparably beyond all that human systems demand, and assigns a task which can only be accomplished in eternity.” p. 170.
J. H. Merle D’Aubigne, ‘Classic Reformed Discourses and Essays’, Discourse X, The Study of the History of Christianity
It is clearly ahistorical from the viewpoint of most anyone who knows anything about it, or who is not otherwise determined to deceive the ignorant and impressionable masses (I’m talking to you, Mr. Leftist College Professor, among others). Kudos to Mr. Stark in any case for having recognized the fact, even in the face of his own (temporary) apostasy.
Speaking of which, people who advocate for the overthrow of genuine Christianity and its influence on society know not the literal hell on earth they advocate for. Or, perhaps many of them do. After all, we know there exist many people “of the world” whose happiness derives from creating chaos and more human misery, not less. “Misery loves company,” as the old adage has it.
As you know, a phobia, properly speaking, is an irrational fear of some something or other. From my view of the subject, the (very commonplace) fear of subjection to the rule of a “Christian Theocracy” is its own phobia. Feminists (and others) afflicted by this irrational fear of theocratic government are literally their own worst enemies. As you point out in the article, the condition of woman is raised in Christian society, not lowered. But this also informs as to the nature of sin.
Properly defined, sin is rebellion against, or a rejection of, the God of Creation (the God of the Bible) and His authority. The ineluctable laws of nature and nature’s God have it that sin makes one stupider and more self-destructive, not smarter and less self-destructive. Hence, the self-destructive and self-annihilation tendencies (i.e., childlessness) we so often witness in women who embrace feminism/reject the authority of their Creator.
Good article!
This article is like “pagans were the REALLL sexists!”
No but seriously good article.
I remember believing, up until sometime in high school, that there was basically no technological progress from the fall of the Roman Empire until the “Enlightenment”
The whole “dark ages caused by Christianity” meme