Deviance, Persecution and the R oman Creation of C hristianity

Although R oman persecution of C hristians was sporadic and localised for much of the first three centuries of the church's existence, it is argued here that such persecution was nevertheless crucial in the creation and shaping of a distinct C hristian identity. The primary deviance of the radical J ewish sect that had surrounded J esus himself created a “sticky reputation” that endured even when the church had become largely politically and socially conservative. Periodic outbreaks of violence towards those labelled C hristians by the authorities created a transactional relationship, in which the victims and their co‐religionists responded by the explicit adoption of a deviant identity and experienced the corollary reconstruction of the self in terms of attitudes, mores and affiliations (secondary deviance). This transaction halted a drift towards religious syncretism that might otherwise have seen J esus take his place within the henotheistic R oman P antheon, and thus ensured the survival of the C hristian faith as monotheistic and oppositional to R oman religio .