INTRODUCTION
Unlike most books, Rodney Stark’s The Rise of Christianityappeared with
two different subtitles. Taken together, these offer a succinct and accurate
description of Stark’s approach and subject matter. “A Sociologist Recon-
siders History,” the subtitle borne by the hardbound edition, labels Stark’s
field and signals his use of sociological principles in the service of histori-
cal reconstruction. “How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became
the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries,”
the subtitle that graces the paperbound edition, describes the specific his-
torical questions addressed in the book.
Stark’s argument is that the spread of the early Christian movement
was due not to mass conversions or the persuasive power of the Christian
message but, rather, to “the arithmetic of growth” (1996, 4). To grow from
approximately one thousand members in the year 40 CEto close to thirty-
four million adherents in 350 CErequired an expansion rate of 40 per cent
per decade (1996, 7 [Table 1.1]). While this rate may sound high, it is con-
sistent with the patterns of other movements, such as the Mormon com-
munity, which has grown 43 per cent per decade over the past century (see
Stark 1996, 7; cf. Donaldson, chapter 6).
Stark’s fundamental question is: “How was it done?” (1996, 3). Histo-
rians’ approaches to this question consider the complexities of the Roman
Empire, its specific political, economical, theological, and social conditions,
particular personalities and events in Christian and Roman history, and a host