alt Hacker NewsI’m sure a book has been written with this thesis, but I often think that a system like Christianity was somewhat inevitable, sociopolitically.
By this I don’t really mean the specifics of the religion; but rather 1) the idea of universalizing the value all human life and not only certain subsets and 2) a synthesis of ideology and politics with the explicit goal of expanding its domain by means of assimilation, not just conquest.
Now of course the reality didn’t actually play out exactly along those lines, but I think a similar sort of movement probably would have occurred across the Roman Empire, had Christianity not specifically grown.
In other words I have a hard time imagining that the world would have continued with Roman values indefinitely. The world was changing and Christianity was as much a consequence as a cause.
Very interesting to consider in any case!
I think there's something to this. For gentiles especially, Christianity was more attractive and life-affirming than what they had, as long-suffering subjects of the Roman Empire with little to hope for. Notwithstanding the enduring core messaging, the allure might have shifted over time between some components as quality of life improved (for instance I think the role of 'sin' and 'salvation' qua deliverance from guilt became more significant later for adherents, where earlier on the "afterlife" sells itself when life is shit).