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Article: The Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History.
- Article from:
- The Christian Century
- Article date:
- November 6, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 The Christian Century Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By Rodney Stark. Princeton University Press, 261 pp., $24.95.
This book raises, simply and brilliantly, just the kinds of questions anyone concerned with early Christianity should ask. Rodney Stark, a sociologist at the University of Washington writing on a "cherished hobby," applies to the rise of Christianity the theory that early Christians like everyone else made "rational choices" and therefore can be tracked statistically. His test case is "the martyrs," who represent an able argument for "sacrifice as rational choice."
Stark posits for early Christianity a slow but steady growth rate of "40 percent per decade (or 3.42 percent per year). Though he ...