Cities of God: The Real Story of How Christianity Became an Urban Movement and Conquered Rome Reprint Edition, Kindle Edition

Mr. Stark is a professional historian who describes himself as a lapsed Lutheran. He seems to have taken as his professional mission the refutation of the Enlightenment's misrepresentations about the classical, medieval, Renaissance and post-Renaissance culture of Europe. Since he is a brilliant and sagacious writer, his books are delightful to read as well as informative. If you think you know pre-modern, history, read Mr. Stark.

I have enjoyed Rodney a Stark’s books in the past and looked forward to this one. However, instead of a treatise on how Christianity progressed in the 1st and 2nd centuries after Jesus, it was more an analysis of the different religions that existed at that time. Only about 1/4 actually dealt with what enabled the church to progress, and even that was more assertion that it was supported. Also, it was disappointing that he dismissed out of hand the report of thousands being saved in Acts 2, with no support, just his opinion that it couldn’t have happened. While helpful to understand the religious culture into which the church was born, it wasn’t helpful to understand how it grew.

Rodney Stark writes well. On topics that can turn even talented writers boring, Stark's books consistently arouse interest and curiosity. His books are smooth, easy to read, and avoids cumbersome language. As a result, it usually takes me about half the time to finish books by Stark compared to other books related to classical history. Cities of God is no exception.

Stark begins by given descriptions of all the significant cities in the ancient Roman world. These descriptions alone are quite valuable and provide insight into the Roman world and day-to-day life within it. But his collection of cities is just the beginning, as Stark goes on to explain how they became Cities of God.

The subtitled of the book is "The Real Story of How Christianity Became Urban Movement and Conquered Rome." True enough, but another subtitle could be, "How to Use Statistics to Test Historical Propositions." Stark is a big believer in the use of statistics and math to solve histories elusive problems. The extent to which he succeeds I will leave to readers and his peers statisticians. But the book is an interesting read just to see how such an approach to history could work. For my part, I thought some of Stark's propositions, such as that cities closer to Jerusalem were Christianized sooner, that Hellenistic cities Christianized sooner than Roman ones, and that large cities Christianized sooner than smaller ones, were well established.

I am less confident in his conclusions about certain mystery religions "paving the way" for monotheism. Even if the numbers reflect ancient reality, the conclusion does not seem to follow from the premise. However, Stark's arguments about Gnosticism and related heresies being late and derivative are well taken.

Stark also continues to advance two theories he mentioned in his The Rise of Christianity. First, he emphasizes relationships and the practical usefulness of a religion over its beliefs and dogma in explaining its spread. In Cities of God, he seems to give more importance to belief than before. This is a useful corrective, as belief often helps explain the emphasis on relationship and practical usefulness in a religion. Second, Stark believes that the Gentile mission was not all that successful at first and that most early Christians were Jewish Diaspora converts. He gives more evidence for his theory here, but anyone looking to test the theory will still have to look elsewhere for fuller discussions.

All told, Stark makes some good arguments, fails to prove others but raises good questions in the process, and leaves the reader with more knowledge and insight than when he or she started.

This book is a great piece on church history. Rodney Starr, the author did a great job of explaining how the faith expanded. He uses statistics to accent his points. I also liked how he interjected some pieces of current day events to also back up the point.

I agree with his conclusions about the growth of the church. I don't think there is anything to foreign with his points. The way he explained the church really causes one to take a second look at the works of Paul. I think some view Paul as a catalyst. This book shows how Paul was following a trend. His point of the church growing through friends of relatives telling others is really interesting. People think growth comes from a Billy Graham. That helps but his book shows the growth comes from personal evangelism.

I do think anyone serious about church history should read this book. He gives a wealth of information about the world which early church founders operated in. This helps us, in today's world better understand the events of the early church.

Excellent books. Makes a clear and convincing case for the earliest spread of Christianity. The only thing missing, which is probably not knowable, is what was it about the early faith and service that brought people back.

I can't verify his data, but he provides a lot of interesting information about ancient religions and cities around the time of Christ. For those interested in Gnosticism, Stark provides evidence of a lack of correlation with Christianity.

The book could have been shorter and still fulfilled its purpose. It does show both the importance and acceptance of the gospel message to the people of the time.

Basically interesting info on the civil and political development without much consideration for the reality of the embellishments within the Gospels.