Does anyone know, or can point me to a source, that has Christianity's numbers?

Gibbon says about 5 million, or 5% of the Roman Empire before Constantine did his thing. In 300 years, despite all the evangelists, martyrs, liftings from paganism, and (allegedly) the backing of the only supernatural deity, this number sounds very unimpressive.

It almost makes me wonder if Christianity would've faded away if Constantine didn't make it the official religion, etc.

Any numbers?

I can't tell you the numbers, but I can tell you this from reading Michael Grant's The Ancient Historians. The Persian Empire also had it's share of Christians, according to Grant about the same percentage as the pre-Constantine Roman Empire did. Christianity didn't survive there, primarily because it didn't gain any powerful adherents. Undoubtably, what remained of Christianity in that area was swept away by the Islamic jihads of the 7th century.

The conversion of the Roman ruling classes was absolutely crucial to the survival of Christianity. It is doubtful if it would be around today if it weren't for that.



[This message has been edited by DennisMcD (edited July 08, 2001).]

This is from Freke & Gandy (_The Jesus Mysteries_, p. 230):

"We have only one actual statistic, and that from the fourth-century Christian 'historian' Eusebius, who is an extremely unreliable source. He tells us that in 251 'more than fifteen hundred widows and poor people' were supported by Rome's Christians, who included 154 ministers of varying rank (52 of whom were exorcists![152] Scholars estimate that by 250 about 2 percent of the Empire's population was Christian.[153] After this time, it may have reisen to around 4-5 percent of the population.[154]

"[152] Eusebius, History of the Church, 6.43.11

"[153] Lane-Fox, R. (1986), 317

"[154] Ibid., 592"

The book by Lane-Fox is _Pagans and Christians_.

best,
Peter Kirby
http://home.earthlink.net/~kirby/writings/