because it made them rare by comparison. A simple case of supply and
demand. The religious marketplace would select Christianity because demand
for this superior product would be high, and the market would likewise ren-
der paganism extinct as demand disappeared.
Factually, this did not happen. We know that Christianity triumphed, but
we must avoid “the quite crude error of supposing the now familiar outline
to have been already clear in the Fourth Century” (MacMullen 1981:136). If
Christianity offered some special reward that would motivate great personal
risk, it was not charity for the poor and succor for the sick and lonely. Stark’s
assertion that membership in early Christian groups was high in terms of
personal sacrifice is likely not accurate. Barraclough, for example, shows that
sincerity in Christian devotion for centuries often amounted to “the untaught,
wandering prophet, naked and dirty, who appears often to have been regarded
as a prophet simply because he was an unbalanced lunatic” (Barraclough
1976:24). Indeed, it was the ease of membership, rather than the trials and
tribulations, that appealed to ruling elites who could convert easily, yet make
a strong political statement in the process. Comparatively, the personal cost
to join any number of pagan cults was often much higher. For any particu-
lar cult, initiation might require castration, self-flagellation, poisoning, lacer-
ations, serving others in humility, or any number of combinations that often
endured for days or even weeks (Turcan 1996). After initiation, ancient cults
required regular demonstration of devotion, which typically involved repeated
trials as well as monetary contributions. Again, Christianity was in practice
simply one of many sects that exacted some form of commitment, and offered
certain rewards in return, no greater or substantially different from the others.
We will return to a more likely motivation later (politics), but for now,
we must reject Stark’s further assumption that the Great Conversion of 313
CE (the year Constantine legalized Christianity) meant a decisive death for
paganism.
The Fallacy that Paganism Simply Died
In reality, it is difficult to overestimate the enduring influence of pre-Christian
(i.e. pagan) beliefs and practices. Despite “laws against sacrifices, seizures of
idols by the state, and so back through the crowded chronicles of violence
to suppress paganism... The pagans survived, unterrified” (MacMullen
1981:134). Many communities beyond the major cities in the late empire –
Rome, Antioch, and Constantinople – refused to convert to Christianity, even
234 • George Lundskow