Christians as the Romans saw them

From ABP Senior Columnist David Gushee:

My Christmas week reflections are inspired by a brilliant 25-year-old book by historian Robert L. Wilken. I picked up The Christians as the Romans Saw Them in hopes of finding resources for my research on the sanctity of life. I thought that Wilken might reveal the extent to which the Romans noticed the unique early Christian commitment to protecting human life.

Instead, the book focuses on five pagan observers who offered a barrage of criticisms of the young religion. The five critics in chronological order were Pliny, Galen, Celsus, Porphyry and Julian, and each critic was more sophisticated and devastating in his critique than the one before.

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As the article continues, Professor Gushee (Mercer University) focuses on the writings and work of the apostate Julian. You may read Gushee's article here.


[Spoiler Alert]--
If you don't have the time to read the entire opinion piece now, I'll give you his challenging conclusion:
Christianity was persecuted not because most Roman leaders couldn't handle religious diversity, but because they could not accept a kind of diversity that taught people to detach from primary loyalty to the Empire, its sponsoring deities and its way of life.
I am among those who teach that precisely this detachment is a non-negotiable aspect of our faith. But I see that it is just as destabilizing to nations and tribes now as it was then. Christians will always feel both internal and external pressures to resort to nationalized religion, and this corrupted form of the faith is the version most prevalent in the United States.