The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World

By Bart D. Ehrman

In the early first century, a small group of illiterate peasants from the backwaters of the Roman Empire proclaimed that an executed enemy of the state was God’s messiah. Less than four hundred years later theirs was the official religion of Rome with some thirty million followers. How did this happen?

Christianity didn’t have to become the dominant religion in the West. It could have easily been just another forgotten sect of Judaism fated to have the historical importance of the Sadducees or the Essenes. Bart Ehrman, a master explainer of Christian history, texts, and traditions, explores what it was about the Christian message that converts found so compelling. Through meticulous research and luminous prose, he upends the way we think about one of the most important cultural transformations our world has ever seen – that which has shaped the art, music, literature, philosophy, ethics, economics and law of modern Western civilization.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Release date: Feb 22, 2018
• ISBN: 9781786073020

Bart D. Ehrman

Bart D. Ehrman is one of the most renowned and controversial Bible scholars in the world today. He is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and is the author of more than twenty books, including the New York Times bestsellers How Jesus Became God; Misquoting Jesus; God’s Problem; Jesus, Interrupted; and Forged. He has appeared on Dateline NBC, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, CNN, History, and top NPR programs, as well as been featured in TIME, the New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and other publications. He lives in Durham, North Carolina. Visit the author online at www.bartdehrman.com.

Reviews for The Triumph of Christianity

[unlikely_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Books narrative stops centuries before the crusades

[john_warner-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

How did a backwater Jewish sect comprising one charismatic leader and twelve disciples grow to become the predominant religion in the Roman Empire through the conversion of 30 million people in four centuries? According to Early Christianity historian Bart Ehrmanit was due to Paul's missionary trips and Constantine and subsequent emperors. The author provides and an easily read and well-referenced treatise on the rise of Christianity.

[nmele_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ehrman examines the historical record using primary and secondary sources to explain what factors led to the growth of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire. Turn out Constantine didn't have that much to do with it after all. Along the way, Ehrman offers a fair bit of information about the way Christianity spread in the centuries between Christ and Constantine, much of it about different aspects of Roman society.

[cdogzilla · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting history. Ehrman's style is ... not terrible, but artless. He's methodical and I appreciate the notes and sourcing. I'm more skeptical than Ehrman that there was an actual Jesus, but the point is irrelevant to the thesis, just one of a few quibbles I had with some of his assumptions.

[nbmars · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jesus died around 30 CE., at which time he had only a handful of followers, all of whom considered themselves to be Jews. But by the late third century, Christianity had attracted enough followers that the Roman Emperor, Diocletian, felt it threatened the stability of the state and vigorously persecuted it. Despite the persecutions, by 313, it had grown sufficiently powerful and significant that the new Emperor (Constantine) even converted himself. He then issued the Edict of Milan, which granted official tolerance to Christianity. And in 380, Emperor Theodosius issued the Edict of Thessalonica, making it the only authorized religion in the Empire. How could the religion have grown so fast?Bart Ehrman, professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina, attempts to answer that question in The Triumph of Christianity. Ehrman points out that the Romans were generally very tolerant of all religions. When new peoples entered the empire (usually by conquest) the Romans simply added and adopted the gods of the new people to their pantheon (with a lower case ‘p’). In fact, they did not even have a word for “pagan,” since virtually everyone in the empire recognized some or all of the Roman gods. The Romans even tolerated the Jews, who worshipped only one god, probably because the Jews did not proselytize. But the Christians were different. They proselytized vigorously. Moreover, they were exclusive in that they taught that the worship of gods other than their own was sinful. There was no room for other gods in their society. Each new convert to Christianity reduced the number of believers in the traditional Roman deities.Ehrman argues cogently that Saul of Tarsus, better known as Saint Paul, was the most important convert in history. Although a Jew by birth, Paul fundamentally changed early Christianity from an inward looking Jewish cult to a cosmopolitan, outward looking, proselytizing organization. What arguments did the early Christians use to convert others? To the Jews, the Christians asserted that Jesus fulfilled Jewish prophesies of a Messiah. This argument required a rather radical reinterpretation of those prophesies since most Jews expected the Messiah to create a formidable Jewish earthly kingdom. The argument had limited success. To the pagans, the Christians claimed that Jesus worked many miracles. Although few if any Christians had actually witnessed the miracles, many had heard about them and repeated the tales with great conviction. Ehrman also notes that Christianity as a community resource was very attractive to Roman pagans: it emphasized the church as an accepting family that would care for all of its members; it welcomed women; and as a bonus, guaranteed life after death. Finally, the Christians threatened nonbelievers with the prospect of eternal damnation and hellfire. That argument was strong enough to convince even the brilliant philosopher, mathematician, and gambler Blaise Pascal (albeit many centuries later) that it paid to hedge one’s bets and practice Christianity.The actual growth rate of Christianity was not a staggering as it may first appear. Ehrman shows that the church had to grow at only about 3% per year to reach 10% of the population - 2.5 million people - by the year 300. By 380, it had reached majority status. The second most important convert of all time after Paul was probably Emperor Constantine I. Although many historians have argued that he may have feigned his conversion, Ehrman argues that it was genuine. He had little to gain politically from converting since Christianity was a distinct minority at the time. Moreover, he took an active part in shaping Christian doctrine, calling for the historic Council of Nicaea in 325 to settle various theological issues. His conversion was especially significant not only because of the example he provided, but since all of his successors (except Julian, who ruled only from 361 to 363) espoused Christianity as well. The story of the first two centuries of Christianity is open to a lot of speculation because the cult was too small to attract the attention of contemporary secular historians. The accounts in the apocryphal gospels are too fantastic to merit credibility. Even the canonical gospels are hard for nonbelievers to accept. Thus it is important for serious modern historians like Ehrman to piece together and interpret what is actually known about that time. Evaluation: As usual, Ehrman doesn’t break any new ground, but repackages what is already known into a non-academic, reader-friendly format. His subject matter happens to be endlessly fascinating and consequential, which also helps.(JAB)