COMMUNALITY, NOT CEREMONY:

Ehrman, author or editor of 30 books on the religious environment of the period, turns to the historical record, supplemented by modern statistics, to peg the Christian population of the empire at 30 million by 400 CE. This may seem like an astounding advance in numbers, but Ehrman calmly delineates the sound statistical case that Christianity enjoyed a "steady and plausible rate of growth" to embrace half the empire's population.

Still, Rome, in the first four centuries CE, was swarming with religions, including many so-called Mystery cults centered on the worship of gods violently done to death, only to rise again later. (At least one of these, as Apuleius [c.120-170 CE] describes in his picaresque narrative, The Golden Ass, involves a ritual wherein the initiate undergoes a displaced though superficially bloody recreation of the god's death and resurrection.)

So what accounts for Christianity's preeminent success in drawing converts? Ehrman suggests two factors, both related, from this reviewer's perspective, to a convert's need for felt community. In the first place, Roman religions -- whether cults worshipping luminaries from the "classical" pantheon, or regional/local/household gods or figures from the Mysteries -- made no claims on a devotee's select loyalty. He or she could simultaneously worship gods or goddesses of any flavor, from any cult.

Christian practice, on the other hand, was exclusivist: The devotee had to worship only the (tripartite) Christian god and reject all others. (We risk a disorienting leap into the banal by pointing out that modern branding research has demonstrated the appeal of membership in a shared and exclusive community. Know any Apple fans?)

A second, and perhaps more telling, point: The practice of Roman Christianity extended well beyond the "cultic" nature of other religions of the day. When their pagan counterparts took part in rituals, it was one-and-done: this was the extent of their religious exercise (and spiritual obligations).

For their part, Christians prized loving community as lived in a world that was an extension of the ritual space. They gathered in non-ceremonial contexts, shared good fortune, helped indigent members, and perhaps provided rudimentary healthcare.

In short, one could argue (although Ehrman stops short of asserting this) that they walked the talk ascribed to Jesus and promulgated by his most-inspired advance man.

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