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Notes -
Yet that does not explain why Christianity overtook the Roman Empire, given that its first adherents were low-status losers literally thrown to the lions for the sport of the roaring crowds.
They were able, in time, to convert virtually the entire Roman elite through sheer force of conviction. Tom Holland has written a great book on the rise of Christianity, it certainly helped shed some of my cynicism. Come to think of it, idealism is in fact a very powerful force. Sometimes for very destructive ends (e.g. many of the most brutal communists truly believed in their utopia).
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