Please read the arti­cle below for class as well as the Rod­ney Stark arti­cles “Epi­demics, Net­works, & the Rise of Chris­tian­ity” and “the Rise of Early Chris­tian­ity” from Read­ings for Early Chris­tians Times in the  older archived class materials.

Please note there is room for dis­agree­ment with Pro­fes­sor Stark on sev­eral points.  As with all read­ings in the course, no one nec­es­sar­ily “gets it all right.”  We have respon­si­bil­ity to read well and take truth wher­ever we find it.  With Stark, for instance, I dis­agree that the num­bers in Acts are off and that he is unnec­es­sar­ily skep­ti­cal in that regard.   I also dis­agree that per­se­cu­tion of the early Chris­tians was his­tor­i­cally mainly top down from its lead­ers, for it could involve all lev­els of soci­ety.  I believe the best sum­ma­tion on per­se­cu­tion in gen­eral is by  his­to­rian Everett Fer­gu­son, “Per­se­cu­tions … were local and spo­radic, …  The threat of per­se­cu­tion was ever present, but per­se­cu­tion was not a con­stant expe­ri­ence.”    The extent and inten­sity of per­se­cu­tion increased immensely in 250 AD under the empire-wide per­se­cu­tion by Decius.

From Jesus to Christ and Rise of Chris­tian­ity Stark on Front­line (click to read)

Salt of the Empire by mike aquilina (click to read)

Also enjoy here a short excerpt from Ran­dall Niles (a skep­tic who came to believe) on the Gospel/Acts writer Luke as a his­to­rian.  The ret­roschol­ar­ship ques­tion is, “How can we use Luke as a source when it was writ­ten by a Chris­t­ian?”   The his­tor­i­cally informed ques­tion today is:  How can we not use Luke to inform our history?

Ran­dall Niles short on Luke as His­to­rian (click to read)

Here is a link to Arti­cles on Per­se­cu­tion in the Early Church from Chris­t­ian His­tory Mag­a­zine.  Note espe­cially those by Everett Fer­gu­son and Robert Wilken, and enjoy as well the Per­se­cu­tion Timeline.

Chris­t­ian His­tory Mag­a­zine on Per­se­cu­tion (click to access)

Below is the text of Jim’s talk on under­stand­ing the remark­able (yet over­looked) prop­erty of self-criticism as an impor­tant aspect of Chris­t­ian heritage.

The Fall and self-criticism by Jim McAlister

Below is the link to his­to­rian Paul Johnson’s arti­cle, “The Neces­sity of Christianity.”

1truth08.html#

In the class, we want to give oppor­tu­nity for those who would like to delve into one of the top­ics and even a related but not yet men­tioned topic.  For instance, David Boyd plans to address the Chris­t­ian Rev­o­lu­tion in Music.  We would be delighted to have folks address the class on The Chris­t­ian Rev­o­lu­tion and …  Art,  or Archi­tec­ture, Law, or Lit­er­a­ture, or other areas of your interest.

There is also room for those wish­ing to delve deeper into the var­i­ous top­ics listed, such as focus­ing on learn­ing in the Mid­dle Ages, or, for instance, review­ing Peter Harrison’s new book below.  (Pro­fes­sor Peter Har­ri­son is the Gif­ford Lec­turer for 2011.)  Another book of inter­est in this area would be Ronald Num­bers new book called Galileo Goes to Jail: and Other Myths about Sci­ence and Reli­gion (Har­vard Press, 2009).

We may have a report on Peter Leithart’s new book enti­tled, Defend­ing Con­stan­tine: The Twi­light of an Empire and the Dawn of Chris­ten­dom (Inter­Var­sity Press, 2010).

Defend­ing Constantine

The Inqui­si­tion by Hitch­cock (click to read)

The Truth About the Span­ish Inqui­si­tion by Mad­den (click to read)

Who Burned the Witches

Cru­sade Myths by Mad­den (click to read)

Cru­sade Pro­pa­ganda by Mad­den (click to read)

The Cru­sades by Craw­ford (click to read)

The Real His­tory of the Cru­sades by Mad­den (click to read)

What the Cru­sades Were Really Like by Mad­den (click to read)

Mad­den review of Movie \“King­dom of Heaven\” (click to view)

Cru­saders and His­to­ri­ans (click to view)

How Chris­tian­ity Led to Free­dom, Cap­i­tal­ism, and the Suc­cess of the West by Stark (click to read)

The Not So Dark Ages by Schall (click to read)

The Dynamic Mid­dle Ages (click to read)

Myths of Mid­dle Ages (click to read)

Five Myths About Chris­tian­ity, Islam, and the Mid­dle Ages (click to read)