religions spread by being the religion of the oppressor
This is highly questionable sociology. It would be as true to say that religions spread by being the religion of the oppressed—i.e. people taking on religious identity and practice in opposition to dominant societal forces. This is, for example, how Iraq became majority Shi’i.
But frankly the claim is so vague and value-loaded as hardly to be a claim about the world. “The oppressor”? C’mon. It really just boils down to “boo religion.” Your comment has many good points, but too much of it is like this, which means that the interesting parts get lost.
Even so, Christianity around 300 AD was about the same size as Mormonism is today.
Yes, in raw numbers, but the world population was approximately 5% of what it is today, so the comparison is flawed. A significant proportion of the world’s population was Christian in 300 AD. The growth is particularly impressive when you consider the much greater difficulties in communication in those days. The article you link is particularly dishonest because it lists various advantages that early Christianity had over present-day Mormonism, but neglects to consider all the many disadvantages. That isn’t fair.
This is why Christianity is relatively unsuccessful in parts of the world that aren’t directly or indirectly descended from the Roman empire (India, Japan, etc.).
In what way are, say, Scandinavia and Russia descended from the Roman Empire? Never part of the Roman Empire, never colonised by a country in the Roman Empire. In what way are the Philippines an indirect descendant of the Roman Empire that doesn’t also apply to India? Even more fatally for your argument, look at England. Christianity died out there after the Romans left and the country went pagan, but then the new people converted to Christianity. It’s only after they became Christian that the Anglo-Saxons started seeing the Roman Empire as part of their cultural heritage. It looks to me like your causation is precisely backwards.
Why was the ruler of Russia called Caesar? Because a some culturally Roman guy conquered them, as in JQuinton’s narrative? No. Rather, because they converted to Christianity, and so they greatly respected the (Eastern) Roman Empire and saw it as part of their world, and so their rulers started calling themselves Caesar to invoke that heritage. In other words, they took to the Roman (Byzantine) cultural heritage because they became Christian, they did not become Christian because they had Roman or Byzantine heritage.
This is highly questionable sociology. It would be as true to say that religions spread by being the religion of the oppressed—i.e. people taking on religious identity and practice in opposition to dominant societal forces. This is, for example, how Iraq became majority Shi’i.
But frankly the claim is so vague and value-loaded as hardly to be a claim about the world. “The oppressor”? C’mon. It really just boils down to “boo religion.” Your comment has many good points, but too much of it is like this, which means that the interesting parts get lost.
Yes, in raw numbers, but the world population was approximately 5% of what it is today, so the comparison is flawed. A significant proportion of the world’s population was Christian in 300 AD. The growth is particularly impressive when you consider the much greater difficulties in communication in those days. The article you link is particularly dishonest because it lists various advantages that early Christianity had over present-day Mormonism, but neglects to consider all the many disadvantages. That isn’t fair.
In what way are, say, Scandinavia and Russia descended from the Roman Empire? Never part of the Roman Empire, never colonised by a country in the Roman Empire. In what way are the Philippines an indirect descendant of the Roman Empire that doesn’t also apply to India? Even more fatally for your argument, look at England. Christianity died out there after the Romans left and the country went pagan, but then the new people converted to Christianity. It’s only after they became Christian that the Anglo-Saxons started seeing the Roman Empire as part of their cultural heritage. It looks to me like your causation is precisely backwards.
Russia is a poor counter-argument, given that the ruler of Russia was called Caesar.
No, Russia is an excellent counter-argument.
Why was the ruler of Russia called Caesar? Because a some culturally Roman guy conquered them, as in JQuinton’s narrative? No. Rather, because they converted to Christianity, and so they greatly respected the (Eastern) Roman Empire and saw it as part of their world, and so their rulers started calling themselves Caesar to invoke that heritage. In other words, they took to the Roman (Byzantine) cultural heritage because they became Christian, they did not become Christian because they had Roman or Byzantine heritage.