INTRODUCTION
The American sociologist Rodney Stark and the early third-century Chris-
tian apologist Tertullian (Apology39) each contrast early Christian charity
with the heartlessness of the pagan world. In The Rise of Christianity(chap-
ter 4), Stark asserts that a significant factor in the success of Christianity
was the care of the sick voluntarily undertaken by Christians, particularly
during crisis situations. Stark considers empire-wide plagues that occurred
during 165–180 and 251 CE. He finds that the conventional institutions of
Greco-Roman society—medicine, civic religion, the philosophical schools—
were unable to deal with these plagues as effectively as the simple pallia-
tive care of Christians, who were a new religious movement in the empire.
In this chapter, I evaluate Stark’s thesis and examine charity in the Roman
Empire. While Stark’s idea has merit, the situation is not as black-and-
white as he and Tertullian have claimed.
ANALYSIS OF STARK’S WORK
Overview
Drawing upon the work of several historians (McNeill 1976; Zinsser 1934;
Boak 1955), Stark estimates that two plagues in the second and third cen-
turies CEwere major turning points in the history of the Roman Empire.
Stark admits (1996, 75) he is closely following William H. McNeill’s brief
discussion (1976) of the plagues and the evidence of Cyprian and Diony-
sus of Alexandria. Despite Stark’s implied claim to the contrary (1996,