ABSTRACT

At that time Jesus of Nazareth had not started his mission, there could have been no Christians: no one believed or had even heard of the central doctrines of Christianity. By the time of Christ the Greco-Roman world had lost its belief in the Olympian gods; 'human reason had already obtained an easy triumph over the followers of paganism'. Christianity would not have become the religion of the Mediterranean world if people had not thought it true. Today Christians do not think Jehovah so partisan as the Jews of the Old Testament did, but even today confidence in the justice of one's cause is good for morale. Besides saying that kings who accepted Christianity hoped for victory and their subjects hoped for riches, Richard Fletcher argues that the impetus to conversion came from the upper strata of society.