The Triumph of Christianity: How a Forbidden Religion Swept the World

New York Times Bestseller: A “marvelous” account of how the tiny sect of Christianity rapidly became the dominant religion in the West (Reza Aslan, New York Times–bestselling author of Zealot).

How did a religion whose first believers were twenty or so illiterate day laborers in a remote part of the empire become the official religion of Rome, converting some thirty million people in just four centuries? In The Triumph of Christianity, early Christian historian Bart D. Ehrman weaves the rigorously researched answer to this question into “a vivid, nuanced, and enormously readable narrative” (Elaine Pagels, National Book Award–winning author of The Gnostic Gospels), showing how a handful of charismatic characters used a brilliant social strategy and an irresistible message to win over hearts and minds one at a time.

This book upends the way we think about the single most important cultural transformation our world has ever seen—one that revolutionized art, music, literature, philosophy, ethics, economics, and law.

“Reading about how an entire culture’s precepts and traditions can be overthrown without anyone being able to stop it may not be heartening at this particular historical moment. All the more reason to spend time in the company of such a humane, thoughtful, and intelligent historian.” —The New York Times

“[The author] doesn’t tell us what to think. He gives us a lot to think about.” —Newsday