Here is a historical question that I've always wondered about. Not interested in religious or bigotted answers, and to the ususal forum idiots - please go and play with some razor blades.

From a historical viewpoint, what explains the amazing growth of christianity from an obscure jewish cult to over 2 billion adherents spread over the globe?

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1. Early Christianity, despite being misunderstood by the Roman intelligentsia, was a moral triumph.
2. Christians believed that prayer could be effective with their god(s). While this was not a novel idea in Rome, (Isis could be asked to intercede in ones life) it was devoutly to be wished.
3. The new cult made its way through women, slaves and others who where not a part of Rome's important people. It helped give them hope by promising a happy life after death.
4. Some think that Constantine adopted it, though not its exclusiveness, just before a big winning battle. He made Christianity an official religion of the Empire.
Note: His primary faith was the worship of Sol Invictus. He was baptized by Arian Christians on his deathbed and may not even have been conscious for the sacramental administration. Arianism was soon after deemed to be heretical.

There's a lot of white folks out there jake!

How about orther countries, and a very wide spectrum of cultures? I was reading how christianity spread through the scandinavian countries in the early second millenium. Here's a group of warlike peoples, and yet they seem to readily adopt a religion that talks about turning the other cheek, forgiveness, etc. (A stream of consciousness aside: one sunday I was strolling in Kiruna, in northern sweden - and heard singing coming from a historic several hundred year old wooden church - it was Amazing Grace. )

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Accuracy, Promise, and God .

Actually, probably because...When it spread into parts of Europe, the Nords and Pagans up there didn't care what religion they were or what god they worshiped as long as they got women, money, and food.

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"Duty is the most sublime word in our language. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less." - Robert E. Lee

Religions tend to spread where a) believers are more powerful than nonbelievers or b) the idea of an all-powerful god swamped the limited power of existing gods. Often b) was reinforced by a). Throw in the genuinely attractive elements of Christianity, and you can see why the message was attractive, too.

Somewhere around here is a thread linking to a movie that shows the spread of major religions throughout history. Christianity remained a relatively minor player, confined to Europe, for most of recorded history. Islam, for instance, had an amazingly rapid spread throughout Asia and Africa and remained dominant for centuries.

Christianity started to spread rapidly when Europe started becoming world-powerful -- fueled first by expansion in the Americas, and essentially spreading wherever the West and Western missionaries got a foothold. But it's mostly been a phenomenon of the last 150 years.

I think it's no coincidence that Christianity's reach has grown along with the West's.

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Man up.

I remember posting a link to something like that...

http://www.mapsofwar.com/ind/history-of-religion.html

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"Duty is the most sublime word in our language. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less." - Robert E. Lee

That's it. Thanks!

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Man up.

One thing that made Christianity so successful in spreading worldwide was its ability to adapt itself to other religions. Specifically, it was the mediaeval cult of the saints that enabled Christianity to essentially enter new markets, so to speak. Simply take the old religion and make all the lesser gods into saints while putting a Christian meaning on all the old festivals. Concentration of political and religious power in ancient and mediaeval times helped, too. Convert the king and then the whole darn country is forcibly converted as well.

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Theodore Lamar Heiks
BA, History/Political Science, Western State College of Colorado, 1984
MBA, Entrepreneurship/Marketing, City University of Seattle, 1993

The earliest Christians embraced saints (living and dead) and used them as apotropaics to gain favor with their deity. The cult of Mary- later known as Maryology, began pretty early on.
Mary was and is prized for her special intercessory capabilities. This development is a direct follow-on to the very popular Isis cult widely practiced in those times.
Isis was about the only god that was believed to actually take an interest in individuals and was thought to have the power to change the course of a person's life.