Coming Out Christian in the Roman World, by Douglas Boin

The “Fall of Rome . . . is not a historical event; it’s more akin to a theological idea.” So proclaims Douglas Boin, sacking the understanding of early Chris­tian identity that has prevailed since at least the second century.

Nineteen hundred years ago Tertul­lian best encapsulated the traditional story: “The more you cut us down, the more we grow. The blood of Christian martyrs is like a seed.” Living in a hostile world, Christians expected persecution, and they surely found it. Yet somehow the little movement managed to grow—despite, perhaps even because of, the persecution. Eventually Christianity came to dominate the Roman Empire, and the empire could not withstand the transition. Then came the Goths, who ushered in the unfortunately named Dark Ages. This is the story we have received, powerfully confirmed by Edward Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and more recently by Rodney Stark’s social scientific account, The Rise of Christianity.

Tertullian did not invent the narrative. Every significant layer of the New Testament—all four Gospels, Acts, Paul’s letters, Hebrews, the Petrine epistles, and Revelation—anticipates persecution for Jesus’ followers. Polycarp’s martyrdom, the letters of Ignatius, Justin’s Apology, and the countless chronicles of martyrs attest to the same narrative arc. Before hostile crowds and bewildered authorities, persecuted but courageous Chris­tians testified to their faith with their own tortured bodies. This storyline still shapes Christian identity in many quarters; just three days before I wrote these words, ISIS militants filmed themselves beheading 21 Coptic Christians. According to the standard account, Christianity started small, stood tall in its conflict with pagan culture, grew rapidly, and eventually quashed Roman culture with Christendom.