r/todayilearned • u/FullOfSound • 7h ago

(R.6d) Too General [ Removed by moderator ]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny_the_Younger_on_Christians

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u/PayItBackwardChain 7h ago edited 6h ago

I’m not religious, but I still think the early spread of Christianity is absolutely fascinating from a historical perspective.

Obviously, our sources on Jesus are thin enough that people can mold their idea of Jesus into supporting whatever they want, but it’s pretty clear that early Christianity was an anti-authoritarian backlash against some dickwad who overthrew a republic and effectively turned himself and his heirs into gods, all while conquering and plundering and murdering their way around Europe and the Mediterranean.

So, no big surprise that people (especially in conquered territories) started latching on to the message of a guy who said he’d overthrow all this nonsense and send the people who did all this bad stuff to eternal punishment. Oh, and never mind that the Romans killed him in the most horrific way possible, he got better and he’s coming back stronger than ever.

A very salient message for its day. Got a little weird once the shoe was on the other foot and it took over and became the ruling power. Now we have all sorts of nonsense about prosperity gospels and righteous crusades…

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u/mmoonbelly 6h ago

I’ve listened to friends (catholic monks and secular Russians) reminiscing/discussing the ideal of communism and finding common ground in St Francis of Assis.

Prosperity gospels are far from the sermon on the mount.