Rodney Stark: “To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered immediate basis for attachments. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and extended sense of family. To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christianity offered […]
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Martin Luther and John Calvin were more than theologians. They were organizers of new churches. The reformation was a time of great conflict in which theological loyalties became intermixed with political loyalties. New churches arose which attracted political and religious refugees who were not strangers to conflict. Thus, the early protestant churches were themselves filled […]