Rodney Stark Research Articles

Plagues, Pagans, and Christians: Differential Survival, Social Networks, and the Rise of Christianity

AbstractIn his book, The Rise of Christianity, Rodney Stark argues that the early Christian church indirectly benefitted from the plagues that struck the early Roman Empire in the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Common Era. In particular, he argues that the early church's doctrines concerning love, charity, and social service would have led Christians to enjoy higher survival rates than pagans, which would have left the social networks of the former relatively intact, while those of the latter in disarray. Moreover, since recruitment to new religious movements occurs largely through social ties, the probability that an average pagan would have converted to Christianity would have been greater after the plagues than before. In this article, we use computer modeling to test Stark's hypothesis. Not only do we find support for his hypothesis, we also show that higher survival rates for either group not only would have benefitted their respective social networks but also would have benefitted their competitor's social networks, highlighting how network effects often flow in multiple and unexpected ways. We conclude with suggestions for future research, in particular how scholars can build upon our analyses and explore alternative assumptions.

The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World by Bart D. Ehrman

Reviewed by: The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World by Bart D. Ehrman Lee M. Jefferson Bart D. Ehrman The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018 Pp. 352. $28.00. In his new book, Bart Ehrman abandons the particular study of the historical Jesus and New Testament traditions, for the history of the early church writ large. In The Triumph of Christianity, Ehrman puts on the hat of social historian and offers his own contribution to the debate over how and why this diverse [End Page 143] messianic movement evolved from an initial scattered following to the official religion of the Empire in the late fourth century. Church historians have long argued that the rise of Christianity as the dominant religion of the Empire rested on Constantine and his recognition of Christianity as a religio. As Ehrman points out, this viewpoint regarding Constantine deserves to be destabilized. Ehrman relies upon Rodney Stark's data from his work The Rise of Christianity to chart the dramatic growth in the Christian population from the first century to the fourth century. But deviating from the Constantinian argument, Ehrman suggests that the "triumph" of Christianity in the fourth century was not entirely due to Constantine, rather Christian ascendance would have happened with or without Constantine's intervention. Ehrman begins his examination in a rather unexpected fashion by starting with the vision and "conversion" of Constantine in an initial chapter, then moving back to the first-century context by examining Paul. Ehrman focuses his first chapter on the vision of Constantine at the Milvian Bridge and his subsequent promotion of the Christian religion. Ehrman does an apt job weaving through the various testimonies regarding Constantine's vision (chi-rho, draped cross), and charts his rise to power. Here, Ehrman shows his strength as an author by distilling various historical sources into a very readable and accessible narrative about Constantine's ascension to the throne. However, here and elsewhere, Ehrman uses the language of conversion to describe Constantine and his attitude towards the Christians which is problematic given his well-documented background as a devotee of Sol Invictus. The notion that Constantine "converted" to Christianity is controversial, even admitted by the author, and Ehrman does suggest that Constantine was politically savvy enough to understand that his support of Christianity would have ramifications on traditional Roman cults. Ehrman argues that Constantine did not aim to coerce others to convert; rather he supported peaceful conversion to the new religio. There are noticeable gaps in Ehrman's depiction of Constantine, as the emperor embodies the henotheism that Ehrman describes but it is still unclear where Constantine's true allegiance lies. The following chapter treats a subject that is more in the author's wheelhouse: the apostle Paul. Ehrman situates Paul into his first-century context and provides a brief overview of his life, thought, and impact on the Jesus movement in the first century. Ehrman states that Paul was the most important convert of Christian history (even more so than Constantine), but again the language of conversion is problematic since there was no "Christianity" for Paul to convert into. Rather, Ehrman acknowledges Paul's contribution as opening up the understanding of salvation through Jesus's death and resurrection as not tied to Jewish identity but open to gentiles. This chapter is almost an abstract of other works Ehrman has written on Paul. The thesis of the book, however, demands a more thorough treatment of this figure and his contribution to the movement. Ehrman's most useful and successful chapter treats the immediate context of religion in the Roman world, conversion, and engagement of Judeo-Christianity with polytheism. This chapter exemplifies how Ehrman continually engages both scholarly and general audiences. He describes the pluralism of the Roman Empire in detail and succinctly describes the difference in worldview between monotheists like Jews and Christians, and Roman polytheists. Although the language he [End Page 144] employs could be aided by some religious theorists such as J. Z. Smith, Ehrman does a useful job of explaining how polytheists worked their religion differently than their monotheistic neighbors who would soon...

Rodney Stark, Bearing False Witness: Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History

Rodney Stark, <i>Bearing False Witness: Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History</i>

Destroyer of the Gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World by Larry W. Hurtado

Reviewed by: Destroyer of the Gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World by Larry W. Hurtado Douglas Boin Destroyer of the Gods: Early Christian Distinctiveness in the Roman World. By Larry W. Hurtado. (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press. 2016. Pp. xiv, 290. $29.95. ISBN: 978-1-4813-0473-3.) After Constantine, the changes that befell Rome guaranteed a lasting place for the emperor in histories of the Church. For Eusebius, he upended a way of life: ransacking sanctuaries, granting Christians tax privileges, banning sacrifice. For some modern historians, from Rodney Stark to Peter Brown, Romans flocked to Christianity in the decades following. Constantine looms over Larry Hurtado's new book, as well. In his retelling, "Constantine adopted Christianity likely because it had already become so successful despite earlier efforts to destroy the movement" (p. 5). What "success" has meant for groups throughout history, of course, has always been in the eye of the beholder: from numerical increase to a welcome acceptance. Hurtado inclines towards the former. In his view, a "combination of the power of persuasion, whether in preaching, intellectual argument, 'miracles' exhibiting the power of Jesus' name, and simply the moral suasion of Christian behavior, including martyrdom" ensured "the growth of Christianity in the first three centuries" (p. 5). Those "first three centuries" are a crucial frame for his project, too. Traditionally seen as the period when Christian Scripture was slowly being compiled, the period before the Edict of Milan is a unit of time that still carries heavy theological baggage: imagined by many Christian denominations today as an age of purity before Constantine's political compromises. Tellingly, Hurtado never ventures into the details of this later world, and readers may wonder why. A critical voice might even ask how it was possible for the author to make an argument about the changes that swept through fourth-century Rome ("destroyer of the gods") without ever analyzing a shred of fourth-century evidence. What Hurtado's book offers, instead, is a series of well-researched looks into behaviors that would have made early Christians seem "distinct" to those around them. Chapter 1 suggests that Romans were concerned about Christianity's being "programmatically transethnic in its appeal" (p. 25). Chapter 2 summarizes methodological advances in "religion" to argue that Christians were taught to see their faith as requiring "an exclusivist stance" (p. 58). Chapter 3 contrasts Mithras and Isis with Christianity; only the latter demanded Christians "make their Christian commitment the exclusive basis of their [distinct] religious identity" (p. 86). [End Page 143] Chapter 4, on manuscript copying and the innovative use of letter exchange (pp. 120–21), is perhaps the book's most thought-provoking look at many members of the early movement who were literate, educated, and likely from wealthy backgrounds; in it, Hurtado contends that christians chose to write in a codex form as a "deliberately countercultural move" (p. 136). Chapter 5 builds a case for Christian distinctiveness through an analysis of sexual ethics, infant exposure, marriage, divorce, and child abuse in the early Church, largely through Paul's writings, with occasional reliance on second- and third-century Christian sources. Hurtado's book is engaging precisely because it wants to situate these topics within a larger framework. And while the book doesn't really attempt to explain change over time, it is good at inviting readers to imagine the "similarities or differences between early Christianity and its Roman-era environment" (p. 196). Disappointingly, it also clear that Hurtado wants to use his research to point an accusatory finger at "classic liberal forms of modern Christianity" which, in his opinion, "have often been concerned to align themselves with the dominant culture, affirming its values, even shifting in beliefs and practices markedly so" (p. 7). Not surprisingly, any evidence for Christian cultural compromise in the first three centuries is dismissed here as a marginal phenomenon (p. 58). This is a history of the Church still blinded by Constantine. Douglas Boin Saint Louis University Copyright © 2018 The Catholic University of America Press

Bearing False Witness: Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History, written by Rodney Stark

Bearing False Witness: Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History, written by Rodney Stark

Review: Sociology of Religion: A Rodney Stark Reader by Rodney Stark, edited by Dedong Wei and Zhifeng Zhong

Review: Sociology of Religion: A Rodney Stark Reader by Rodney Stark, edited by Dedong Wei and Zhifeng Zhong

The History of the Jehovah's Witnesses: An Appraisal of Recent Scholarship

Zoe Knox's analysis of the English‐language historiography of the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society was published in this journal in 2011. It assessed four types of historical writing on the organisation: the Watch Tower Society's own publications; material produced by two categories of detractors, namely ex‐Witnesses and Christians writing from other denominational perspectives; and academic studies. There are vast quantities of all but the last of these. Her article thus concluded with a call for scholars to take this religious community more seriously as an historical subject, echoing an appeal made by Rodney Stark and Laurence Iannaccone to social scientists in 1997. This review essay is intended to supplement Knox's historiographical analysis by appraising recent publications on the history of the Jehovah's Witnesses. As we shall see, although scholarship on this topic remains sparse, particularly given the organisation's visibility, since 2011 several important books have appeared alongside others which make contributions to the limited sum of our knowledge of the origins and emergence of the organisation and the way it has operated in different historical contexts. In short, the field requires reappraisal in light of these publications.

From the Editor: Studying Religion in a Rapidly Changing World

From the Editor: Studying Religion in a Rapidly Changing World

Religious Pluralism: Undermining or Reinforcing Religiosity?

This article deals with the question whether the pluralization of the religious field enhances or undermines the stability and intensity of individual religiosity. The classical theory developed by Peter L. Berger points out the corrosive effects of religious pluralism. The so-called economic market model (Rodney Stark and his followers) revises Berger’s assumption and states that the vitality of religion is not weakened but fostered by the competition of various religious providers. By comparing the effects of religious pluralism in the United States and in some Western European countries, this analysis concludes that a religiously heterogeneous surrounding does not strengthen, but rather weakens individual religiosity. To that extent it confirms Berger’s hypothesis. But if modernization inevitably leads to religious pluralism, as Berger assumes, and religious pluralization leads to religious relativization, we can conclude that modernization very likely leads to secularization, which contradicts Berger’s recantation of the secularization theory.

Why Is Stark Wrong on His Criticism of the Secularization Theory?

Rodney Stark is an American author and researcher in the area of sociology of religion. Stark's article 'Secularization R.I.P.' is a well-constructed elaboration on the lack of soundness in the secular argument and a defence of the revival of religion in the public space through the privatization of belief and the renovation of religious, but piety. But Stark is wrong in his assessment as secularisation theory continues to be the central paradigm to address the divide between the secular and the religious worlds in modern era.

Primal experiences and the role of narrative paradigms in the conversion of individuals to new religious movements

Sociologists like Rodney Stark, William Sims Bainbridge and Eilene Barker have made important contributions to our understanding of why individuals join new religious movements. In doing so they have drawn attention to the role of friendship networks and the choices people make as they become members (Barker 1984; Stark and Bainbridge 1985). What they usually downplay or totally overlook is the importance of religious experiences to the new convert and the way these experiences are interpreted in terms of living stories that inspire their actions. This paper explores the reality and dynamic of vivid experiences that make sense within narrative frameworks provided by religious communities.

Holistic Transformation Leading to Sustainable Development in China

Abstract China’s phenomenal economic development since 1979 has caught the attention and envy of the rest of the world. 500 million Chinese have been lifted out of poverty since then.1 Yet, it has come with a huge price which threatens not only China but the rest of the world. These challenges include corruption, environmental issues, social inequalities and a rapidly aging population. If China is not able to overcome any of these, then its development will not be sustainable and the impact will be immensely negative just as its development over the last three decades have been positive on the rest of the world. The purpose of this article is to show that there is a little-known transformation happening in China which may address the above issues. It is the thesis of the author that China’s present developmental challenges are fundamentally a problem of misplaced values, i.e. unsustainable priorities. And the little known transformation is that tens of millions of Chinese are quickly embracing a new set of values and accepting a biblical worldview.2 Rodney Stark, socialogist and popular author, has shown through his many works, such as For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slavery,3 that societies which have espoused the monotheistic belief system are able to successfully overcome similar social challenges and remain viable.

El reciente resurgimiento del confucianismo popular en China continental: el redescubrimiento de los confucianistas clásicos, las academias y los ritos

Este artículo investiga los recientes movimientos confucianos en la China continental examinando tres aspectos específicos: la campaña de recitar los clásicos confucianos, el renacimiento de las academias confucianas, y la restauración de los ritos confucianos. También examina el fenómeno de Jiang Qing, el llamado fundamentalista confuciano, que ha sido una figura central detrás de todos los movimientos confucianos. Con el préstamo de las teorías de Anthony Wallace y de Rodney Stark en el fundamentalismo religioso, el artículo argumenta que las condiciones sociopolíticas y culturales de la China contemporánea han allanado el camino para el surgimiento de los movimientos tradicionalistas, con el confuciano como un ejemplo, y que la combinación de filosofía fundamentalista de Jiang Qing y su autodisciplina estricta moral ha dotado a la iniciativa confuciana con un toque de sinceridad religiosa.

Renewal: How a Generation of Faithful Priests and Bishops is Revitalizing the Catholic Church by Anne Hendershott, Christopher White (review)

Reviewed by: Renewal: How a Generation of Faithful Priests and Bishops is Revitalizing the Catholic Church by Anne Hendershott, Christopher White Linda Kawentel Renewal: How a Generation of Faithful Priests and Bishops is Revitalizing the Catholic Church. By Anne Hendershott and Christopher White. Jackson, TN: Encounter Books, 2013. 248pp. $25.99. In Renewal: How A New Generation of Faithful Priests and Bishops is Revitalizing the Catholic Church, Anne Hendershott and Christopher White assess the current state of American Catholicism with regards to the culture wars, arguing that an orthodox renewal is presently underway. This renewal consists of Catholic bishops and priests taking stances in line with official church teaching on controversial cultural issues, as well as the growth of new movements within the Church that strongly support bishops’ authority. From the beginning of the book, Hendershott and White make clear where they fall on the liberal to conservative spectrum of Catholicism, describing themselves as “members of what we believe to be the side that is faithful to the non-negotiable teachings of the church on faith and morals” (13). Faithful (or orthodox) Catholics are those who are loyal to the magisterial teaching of the pope and bishops, while liberal Catholics are described as rejecting the authority of the hierarchy, and dissent from church teaching on issues such as abortion, contraception, same-sex marriage, male-only ordination, and priestly celibacy. A key focus of Renewal is understanding why some dioceses produce more seminarians and priestly ordinations than others. Hendershott and White argue that “the theological attitude of the bishop, along with his concern for new priestly vocations, has a significant impact on ordination rates” (23). Bishops who are faithful to church teaching and adequately counter those who challenge hierarchical authority are presented as transformational leaders. The authors highlight a number of current bishops whom they consider to fall into this category and point to a plentiful number of seminarians in these bishops’ dioceses compared to the dioceses of more liberal bishops. [End Page 77] From a sociological standpoint, Renewal takes up an important question in seeking to understand differences in diocesan ordination rates. However, for a book that moves beyond social commentary and into the realm of sociology, the authors provide little description of the data they use to support their claims and do little data analysis. This is unfortunate given that they discuss the importance of systematically collecting and analyzing quantifiable data to assess program effectiveness (99). Even though their book is not meant for an academic audience, I would have liked to see an analysis of the data in the appendices, e.g. showing and discussing correlation coefficients. A second criticism I have pertains to the authors’ literature review. It is surprising that Hendershott and White did not discuss Rodney Stark and Roger Finke’s research on Catholic religious vocations (seen in The Churching of America, 1776–2005: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy (2005), Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion (2000), and a December 2000 article in the Review of Religious Research). Stark and Finke’s research looks at why some dioceses have more priestly vocations than others and discusses the relationship of diocesan culture to ordination rates. Though Hendershott and White discuss other elements of Stark and Finke’s work, it would have been beneficial for them to mention and engage this research given the similar topic. Linda Kawentel University of Notre Dame Copyright © 2014 American Catholic Historical Society

Is It Good To Be A “New Religion”? Mormonism and the Status Politics of Novelty

Is It Good To Be A “New Religion”?: Mormonism and the Status Politics of Novelty John‐Charles Duffy Since the 1970s, new religion has been the preferred scholarly nomenclature for a category of movements that American sociologists had earlier referred to as “cults,” often as part of a Troeltsch‐derived classification of “church,” “sect,” and “cult.” In this tripartite scheme, “churches” were established, elite religions; “sects” were groups that had broken out of the churches; and “cults” were more dramatically innovative movements lacking a direct genetic link to either churches or sects. Cult became a problematic term for scholars from the 1970s forward as a result of its deployment by the anti‐cult movement, advocacy organizations which sought to mobilize public opinion and state power against groups they labeled “cults.” As a result of these organizations’ usage of the term, cult became very negatively charged, leading many scholars to favor new religion or new religious movement (NRM) as neutral, even positively tinted, alternatives (Melton ). For scholars who use new religion in this way, the term is not pejorative. But how is it viewed by groups to whom it is applied? For such groups, the term has the potential to be problematic because it locates them, however, neutrally in intent, on the cultural fringes. Like its predecessor cult, new religion designates movements that enjoy less social respectability than either churches or sects. It is telling that when scholars went looking for a term to replace cult, other candidates were alternative religion and fringe religion. Those terms would have indicated more clearly than new religion the perceived marginality of the groups in question. Yet new religion has the same function, albeit more obscurely: that is, scholars use new religion to gesture to groups that the scholars understand as occupying the margins of a cultural landscape. As NRMs scholar J. Gordon Melton () puts it, “new religions” are defined by their having been “assigned outsider status” within their cultural milieu (p. 28). Therein lies the potential problem. Adherents who recognize their group as standing outside the mainstream might be pleased to see scholars redescribe them with a term that gives their outsider status a neutral‐to‐positive cast, as new religion is meant to do. This reaction is especially likely if the group recognizes new religion as a salutary alternative to cult. However, if a group desires to shed outsider status—that is, if the group is trying to move closer toward the cultural center—then being labeled a new religion might displease adherents if they recognize that the term pushes them back to the margins, into the company of “alternative” or “fringe” religions. Mormons are such a group. Mormonism is one of the movements that scholars, since the 1970s, have baptized a “new religion.” However, from their movement's formative period, Mormons have displayed ambivalence toward outsiders characterizing theirs as a “new religion.” Mormons have warmed to the description to the extent that they perceive it to aggrandize their movement—that is, when they understand the label as acknowledging that Mormonism is worthy of attention and admiration. But Mormons have resisted the way that designating their movement as “new” complicates their efforts to claim a place within Christianity and thus within a religious mainstream. In the late twentieth century, this ambivalence can be seen primarily in Mormons’ responses to the work of two American scholars, sociologist of religion Rodney Stark and religious historian Jan Shipps. In examining Mormon reactions to the “new religion” label, I am elucidating the status politics of novelty. That is, I am clarifying what a religious group perceives itself to gain or lose in terms of its cultural location (mainstream or marginal) when it is designated “new.” Mormons are a particularly attractive case for this investigation for two reasons. One is that since the 1970s—that is, during the same period that new religion has become a standard term of analysis in scholarship—Mormons have struggled to secure a more mainstream status. What I am calling the status politics of novelty has been part of that struggle. A second reason for using Mormonism as a case study is practical: extensive electronic databases of Mormon publications exist, with coverage going...

The Effects of Importance of Religion and Church Attendance on Adolescents' Moral Beliefs

Drawing on the work of Emile Durkheim ([1912] 1995) and Rodney Stark (2001) as well as research on the anti-ascetic thesis and reference group theory, we formulate a series of hypotheses regarding the effects of church attendance and importance of religion on adolescents' moral beliefs about marijuana use, getting drunk, hitting, and property offenses. The results of our study suggest that moral beliefs are more consistently and strongly related to importance of religion than to church attendance. Furthermore, much of the effect of church attendance on moral beliefs is mediated by importance of religion. Finally, we find evidence that importance of religion moderates (interaction) the effect of church attendance on moral beliefs. When adolescents believe religion is important, frequent church attendance further strengthens their moral beliefs. On the other hand, when adolescents believe religion is not important, frequent church attendance may actually reduce moral beliefs.

The Rise of Christianity through the Eyes of Gibbon, Harnack and Rodney Stark. By Jan N. Bremmer

The Rise of Christianity through the Eyes of Gibbon, Harnack and Rodney Stark. By Jan N. Bremmer

Science vs. Religion: What Scientists Really Think By Elaine Howard Ecklund Oxford University Press. 2010. 240 pages. $27.95 cloth

In 1916, James Leuba published a paper examining whether scientists are less religious than ordinary people. They were, and higher status scientists were even less religious than ordinary scientists. A similar study by Rodney Stark in 1963 reached the same conclusion. Differentiating between types of scientists, in 1968 Lehman and Shriver found that social scientists were less religious than natural scientists, and this was replicated by others. In 1997, Larson and Witham replicated Leuba's 1916 study, and got very similar results. The problem with this entire tradition is that it is not clear what these conclusions mean. Is the “God” of the scientists the same “God” that ordinary Americans worship? We need much more detail, and we have it in Ecklund's book. The book reports on a survey of over 1,600 scientists at 21 elite American universities and in-depth interviews with 275 of these respondents. The surface-level finding is similar to the findings going back to 1916: elite scientists are much less conventionally religious than the general population. Unlike some previous studies she does not see a strong natural science/social science divide. But unlike the existing literature, we get better detail on what these surface-level data mean.

Rodney Stark's One True Vision: retrograde historiography and the academic study of religion

Although Rodney Stark is best known for his work on religious economies, he has recently turned his attention to the social effects of monotheism. If we look carefully on the theoretical trajectory evident in this recent work, what we find is a social-evolutionary approach to religion that was prevalent in the 19th century, but long ago assumed by most academics to be discredited. Furthermore, as becomes increasingly evident going through this series, the particular social-evolutionary sequence that Stark constructs has been shaped by a vision of Protestant triumphalism, and a privileging of evangelical Protestantism, that also belongs to an earlier time. While it would easy to ignore Stark's work (and the last two books in this series do seem to have been ignored in academic circles), there are reasons (which include the popular appeal of his work and his treatment of Islam) for taking his work seriously.

Secularisation, R.I.P.? Nonsense! The ‘Rush Hour Away from the Gods’ and the Decline of Religion in Contemporary Japan

Abstract Sociologists of religion such as Rodney Stark and José Casanova have pronounced secularisation theories to be dead or a ‘myth,’ and in so doing they have often cited Japan as an example of the vigour of religion in the modern world. This article refutes their claims by examining the contemporary Japanese religious situation and showing that, far from being vibrant, religion, whether organised, institutional, or related to popular and folk practices, is in decline. It draws on extensive survey data to show that levels of faith, adherence and practice have decreased significantly, and that they do so especially in conjunction with rising levels of urbanisation and education—two conditions identified in secularisation theory as associated with religious decline. The study examines counter-claims that some areas (notably pilgrimage and ‘spirituality’) are growing in Japan, and shows that the reverse is true. Pilgrimages are losing support while there is evidence that the ‘turn to spirituality’—cited by some scholars as a replacement for organised religion—has petered out in Japan. Thus there is a strong secularising tendency in Japan that refutes the claims of those who wish to bury secularisation theory; as the Japanese case shows, it remains a potent force in the modern world.