num_pages: 336
description: How and why did the early church grow in the first four hundred years despite disincentives harassment and occasional persecution? In this unique historical study veteran scholar Alan Kreider delivers the fruit of a lifetime of study as he tells the amazing story of the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Challenging traditional understandings Kreider contends the church grew because the virtue of patience was of central importance in the life and witness of the early Christians. They wrote about patience not evangelism and reflected on prayer catechesis and worship yet the church grew--not by specific strategies but by patient ferment.
language: English
title: The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire
publisher: Baker Academic