Beliefs likewise prove nothing. Indeed, notions of heaven, for example, the
ultimate reward in Christianity, derived from various pagan sources, and con-
tinued to evolve in the Christian era, and thus no distinctly Christian notion
of the after life exists separately from other religious cultures or the ongoing
effect of time and place (McDannell and Lang 2001). As Riley indicates, his-
torians have long since rejected the “Israel-alone” model (Riley 2001:5) in
favor of syncretic explanations that Christianity formed from a synthesis of
Judaism in combination with Greco-Roman and Syrian paganism and Persian
Zoroastrianism. Both the pagan origins and effects of time and place on
Christian thought, art, and literature are well-documented, as for example in
a general perspective in the classic texts by Edward Gibbon ([1776] 1993) and
in detail by Seznec ([1953] 1995) concerning the Renaissance period, which
beyond artistic rebirth contributed to a new sense of humanism that Christianity
has accepted only intermittently.
Even the most cherished aspects of Christian belief, such as the creation
story, were adapted from paganism in both symbolism and morality (Pagels
1989) and the conflict between light and dark, good and evil, God and Satan
derives from various pagan and non-Western sources (Messadie 1996) and
especially from Zoroastrianism (Boyce [1979] 2001; Nigosian 1993; Riley 2001)
which itself had assimilated and thus altered over time many other tradi-
tions, especially Manichaeanism (Stoyanov 2000). Even the Cain versus Abel
story derives from the ancient Roman myth about how Romulus, who founded
Rome, slew his brother Remus to become sole ruler of the Latins. Moreover,
Romulus and Remus were twins, whose parents were the God Mars and the
mortal Rhea Silvia, a Vestal Virgin (Titus Livius, ‘Livy’ c. 12 CE, cited in Lewis
and Reinhold 1966:52–53). The Christian version parallels the Divine pater-
nity and virgin maternity, with the difference that Romulus becomes a hero
compared to Cain the apostate.
Thus, the development of and transition to Christianity was not a seam-
less linear series of instrumentally rational choices. Indeed, the affective- and
value-rational choice to remain true to tradition and identity often prevailed
over the instrumentally rational choice of submitting to the demands of the
church and its champions. Under Christian oppression, the instrumental costs
of paganism where high and its benefits low,^1 yet it persisted. Even after 312
The Concept of Choice in the Rise of Christianity • 237(^1) The benefits were low in the sense it delivered nothing beyond what people
already had. In contrast, conversion to Christianity offered elevation in social status,