Historian Rodney Stark says that early Christianity spread so rapidly because the love and service of Christians amidst urban problems was so striking. "To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as real hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachment. To cities filled with widows and orphans, Christianity offered a new and expanded sense of family… once Christianity did appear, its superior capacity for meeting human problems soon became evident and played a major role in its ultimate triumph. Christianity brought was not simply an urban movement, but a new culture.
