There are three main inter-related factors that contributed to the growth and expansion of the church, and ultimately its success. These factors can be summarized under three main headings. These are an combination of political, social and economic factors. The first of the reasons that the Christianity spread was a political factor. Rome was a dominant force in the world at this time and had excellent roads and shipping, which made it ‘easy’ of missionaries to travel and spread the word of the gospel.
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This travel and preaching was ‘easy’ because there was never a continuous policy against the Christians and no imperial edicts were ever decreed. Therefore the missionaries cold travel relatively safely in times of little persecution. Christianity’s attitude towards society and its social impact also lead to the expansion and success of the church. The church was particularly well known for its acts of charity, indeed Chadwick said “The practical application of charity was probably the most potent single cause of success”.
The church offered this charity to everyone, including pagans. By the third century the Church was looking after one thousand five hundred widows in need. They were also socially accepted, in some areas, because of their courage during the persecutions and the strength of their faith and the support they showed one another. This caring Christian attitude made conversion appealing to many and may have been a major cause of Christianity’s success.
Christianity’s high moral standards also made it very appealing to society because it offered an alternative from the pagan religions lack of morality. Also Christianity and its friendships formed form within the Church lead to its successful growth because those who had received the Gospel felt that their duty was to pass it onto their friends, leading to a close knit community and this was appealing in this era when it was down to you to look after yourself.
In this era religious and social life was very much interlinked. People used to consider religious meeting as the principal source of recreation. Christianity also came at the right time, when there was growing unrest with pagan practices and a general spiritual unrest. There was an increasing prosperity and there was the possibility for enhanced enjoyment, but there was also a spiritual hunger for salvation, which Christianity offered if you followed God’s word.
Like Christianity the Roman Religion was for the ordinary man but interest was waning and Mystery religions were too complicated for the everyday person, therefore the people’s obvious choice was Christianity. Christianity also offered optimism to a usually pessimistic society that believed that their destinies were fixed, either to be in the Gods’ favor or to be out of it, with no hope of redemption. Christianity offered an alternative with the much-desired possibility of salvation.
The fact that more people were financially stable or well off benefited the church because usually when a person physical self is happy people being to question the spiritual side of their life. The dissatisfaction with pagan practices and mystery religions lead to Christianity being an obvious choice. Also the church itself was well off and according to Chadwick by the year 251 that the church supported “the bishop, 46 presbyters, 7 deacons, 7 sub deacons, 42 acolytes and 52 exorcists, reader and doorkeepers, but also more than 1500 widows and needy persons”.
The churches obvious financial stability leads it to be popular and it successful expansion because to those I need it offered help and often converted to Christianity as a result of the kindness and attention they received. Christianity also flourished because of its improvement in the treatment of women, and it elevation of their social status. Christianity considered unfaithfulness in one partner as serious as in the other and that in accordance with the New Testament husbands should treat their wives with such consideration and love as Christ manifested for his Church.
Though women were still considered homemakers and wives; it is believed that Christianity made its way into the aristocracy in Rome at the time through the influence of their wives. Overall there are many factors that contributed to the success of the church or improbabilities or coincidences. Chadwick even said “nothing was less likely to succeed by any ordinary standard of expectation”, however it did through the Christian application of charity, its simple guide to salvation and the churches itself economic policy.
