The Triumph of Christianity

How the Jesus Movement Became the World's Largest Religion

By: Rodney Stark

Narrated by: Bob Souer

Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Celebrated religious and social historian Rodney Stark traces the extraordinary rise of Christianity through its most pivotal and controversial moments to offer fresh perspective on the history of the world's largest religion. In The Triumph of Christianity, the author of God's Battalions and The Rise of Christianity gathers and refines decades of powerful research and discovery into one concentrated, concise, and highly accessible volume that explores Christianity's most crucial episodes. The unique format of The Triumph of Christianity allows Stark to avoid dense chronologies and difficult back stories, bringing listeners right to the heart of Christian history's most vital controversies and enduring lessons.

©2011 Rodney Stark (P)2020 Tantor

very educational

Fascinating history with reliable citations. Frightening to think how many "truths" we take as common knowledge are based on one popular author's ignorant statement or flawed research whose corrections are not advertised.

Fascinating

Clears up so many misconceptions about Christianity in clear, data-driven prose. Rodney Stark is an eminent sociologist and helps address many inconsistencies throughout history supplied by those antagonistic to one form of Christianity or another. Check it out!

Useful Summary of the Christian West.

The book makes clear claims and provides clear evidence. Though the author clearly favors Christianity, he is fair and does not shy away from sharing and contextualizing the good and bad portions of history.ich nonsense is dismissed, and many interesting facts are shared. Highly recommend.

(Audible version) Reader was surprisingly hard to follow

Very interesting material. However, I would have gotten more out of this book had the reader been easier to follow. While he has a very pleasant voice and great diction, his tone was so flat that I would repeatedly have to rewind in order to figure out the meaning in his string of flat words. Straining to follow his words became too great a challenge. Too often I found myself tuning the reader out.

The book seems good though. I will consider buying it in paperback so I can reference some of the key points.

The author presents an historical account of Christianity that counters common assumptions. The content is presented through the lenses of social science and history. It is not an apologetic. This is a welcome aspect of the book.

Balanced and unapologetic, excellent read

The book is an encyclopedia of topics related to the rise and presentation of Christianity throughout the ages. The book is a must read for any serious seeker of the history and development of Christianity as well as its influence in today’s world. Stark presents both sides of every topic with a compelling evidence based input. I am now a Rodney Stark fan.

Valuable summary

The book examines numerous deeply rooted misconceptions about the history of Christian Church. Its conclusions are based on solid archival research to be taken seriously.

Excellent Analysis of Christianity's Growth

The work is a well researched analysis of how and why the Jesus Movement triumphed. Very detailed. I've learned quite a bit. The only downside I've uncovered is that there should be a PDF that will show the listener the graphs and charts that is mentioned in the text.

Fabtastic Read!!

This book is amazing. Though I think the final chapters are a little out of date seeing the rapid decrease in religious participation in the past decade. Overall 10/10.

beware of Amazon's recommendation system

Amazon floods me with related Christian books now. I just listened to this one because I was curious, I don't want to go down this rabbit hole any further, no thank you Bezos.

An apologetic- not a history

The author is a sociologist, not a historian, and it shows. The book has one major and seemingly valid point to make regarding the successful rise of Christianity. It is that mass conversions did not play a major role, but the influence of small groups and social networks did. In this, the role of women has been vastly underrated. Moving forward the book mainly tries to to show how Christianity became dominant, but to justify Christianity and Catholicism by doing such things as denying the Dark Ages (by using a definition no historian would countenance) and arguing the Pope was correct to try and imprison Galileo. A far better book on this subject is Dominion by Tom Holland, a real historian.