Aspirin99

In the PBS special, From Jesus to Christ, they mention that one of the appeals of Christianity during the 2nd and 3rd centuries is that they setup various social services that Rome had neglected. They became average-Joe's hero, which was apparently one reason they rocketed to popularity prior to Constantine.

Does anyone know of any original sources where I can read more about this?

Toto

They are repeating the thesis of Rodney Stark in The Rise of Christianity (or via: amazon.co.uk). Check his book for sources. (It's searchable on Amazon).

eta: see Michael Turton's review here.

Roger Pearse

The emperor Julian the apostate in the mid-4th century comments on this in one of his letters to a pagan high priest -- "the Galileans feed not only their own poor but ours too." Not sure that this is online, tho.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

Aspirin99

Thanks, I'll check these out.

mountainman

There is only one source of "things christian" before
the rise of the despot Constantine with effect from
the year 312 CE, and that source is an author who,
by the best estimates of our modern scholars today,
took up his pen between the years of 312-324 CE
and wrote what is known as the "Ecclesiastical History"
of the christian church.

Here is a summary of the work of Eusebius by an
eminent christian scholar of the last century. Note
that even the christian "Biblical scholars" acknowledge
this specific fact.

Everything that there is to be known about the prenicene
epoch has been fed to us, hook, line and sinker, by
just one (editorial) author.

"None ventured to go over the same ground again,
but left him sole possessor of the field
which he held by right of discovery and of conquest.
The most bitter of his theological adversaries
were forced to confess their obligations to him,
and to speak of his work with respect.

It is only necessary to reflect for a moment
what a blank would be left in our knowledge
of this most important chapter in all human history,
if the narrative of Eusebius were blotted out,
and we shall appreciate the enormous debt
of gratitude which we owe to him.

The little light which glimmered over the earliest
history of Christianity in medieval times
came ultimately from Eusebius alone,
coloured and distorted in its passage
through various media.


-- J.B. Lightfoot, Eusebius of Caesarea, (article. pp. 324-5),
Dictionary of Christian Biography: Literature, Sects and Doctrines,
ed. by William Smith and Henry Wace, Vol II.

The only problem with all this is that Eusebius has also
been described as the first thoroughly dishonest
historian of antiquity.

He has also been described in other terms