A fly in the ointment is the fact that no Christian writer on the sub-
ject—and there are not many who wrote on this subject—boasts of supe-
rior survival rates. We assume that they would have done so, if matters
were as dramatic as Stark suggests. It would have been good publicity.
Instead, the texts we have show Christians dying off in as large numbers
as their pagan neighbours. Let us, then, revisit the sources used by Stark
and look at them more closely.
Writing about the plague of 250 CE, Cyprian suggests that the high
mortality among Christians was causing a crisis of faith: “Now it troubles some
that the infirmity of this disease carries off our people equally with the
pagans, as if a Christian believes to this end, that, free from contact with
evils, he may happily enjoy the world and this life, and, without having
endured all adversities here, may be preserved for future happiness. It trou-
bles somethat we have this mortality in common with others” (Mort.8,
emphasis mine; see also Mort.15: “Many of us are dying in this
mortality...without any discrimination in the human race, the just are also
dying with the unjust”). In Mortality1, Cyprian notes that, although most
Christians are confident, a few are not standing firm in the faith, hence
Cyprian’s pastoral tract to encourage his flock and interpret the situation
for them. Stark (1996, 77, 81) notes, but does not address, this issue.
Dionysus of Alexandria, also writing about the plague of 250 CE, sim-
ilarly notes that Christians and non-Christians were being stricken:
[The plague] did not keep away even from us,but it came out against
the heathen in force...[Christians are] fearlessly visiting the sick and
continually ministering to them, serving them in Christ, most cheerfully
departed this life with them, becoming infected with the affliction of others,
and drawing the sickness from their neighbours upon themselves,and willingly
taking over their pains. And many,after they had cared for the sickness
of others and restored them to health, themselves died,transferring
their death to themselves...the best of the brethren among us departed from
life in this manner,some presbyters and deacons and some of the
laity...this form of death, which had its origin in much piety and strong
faith, seemed to be a little short of martyrdom. (Dionysus of Alexandria,
cited in Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 7.22, emphasis mine)Stark (1996, 82–83) quotes this passage, but emphasizes the mortality dif-
ferential suggested in the first sentence: “it came out against the heathen
in force.” We are probably justified, however, in looking behind this text and
imagining that the deaths of “the best of the brethren” caused a crisis in
the Alexandrian Christian community. The phrase “even from us” sug-
gests an expectation (also seen above in Cyprian) among some early Chris-
“Look How They Love One Another” 221