First published 2018
Bart Ehrman examines how Christianity transformed from a small Jewish sect into the dominant Western religion within four centuries. The religion began with roughly twenty illiterate laborers following Jesus in remote Galilee. It could easily have remained as historically insignificant as the Sadducees or Essenes. Instead, Christianity became Rome's official religion and converted approximately thirty million people in just four hundred years. Ehrman traces this remarkable expansion through careful historical analysis. He shows how this transformation affected every aspect of civilization, reshaping art, music, literature, philosophy, ethics, economics, and law. The author combines extensive research with clear storytelling to explain this cultural shift. Readers discover how a marginal religious movement achieved such unprecedented growth and influence across the Roman Empire.
Genres: history, non-fiction, christianity, academic
Vibes: thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-fiction
Setting: Galilee, Roman Empire
Period: 1st Century, 4th Century
352 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster