In the 2nd century, we have records of what is now called the Antonine plague (165AD-180AD). There are questions: what exactly was it? Where did it originate? What is not questioned was its impact. Carried through the empire by the military, it decimated the Roman world. Some claim up to a third of the Roman Empire died, but at least 10% perished.
It also led to a significant increase in the Christian population.
People become more religious in times of great need. The rate of temple building increased during this plague. A general increase in religiosity would account for an increase in Christianity. But Christianity grew disproportionately – outstripping other religious traditions.
One reason is that in the cities, Christians died from plague at a lower rate than the general population.
A miracle? Who's to say – but the more likely reason is that Christians stayed in the city, to take care of the sick and the needy – family, friends, neighbours. This level of care – just basic nursing – led to their surviving at a higher rate than others, whose support networks collapsed when the populations fled the cities.
So the population of a city decreased overall, and the percentage that was Christian increased.
This led to the belief that the Christian God was saving Christians, so people converted in large numbers.
A century later, another plague. This the Plague of Cyprian (then Bishop of Carthage).
Around 5,000 people were dying in Rome each day. Cyprian's sermons challenged his congregations to risk themselves and care for others, to remember Christ in whose image they are called to be.
Non-Christian sources corroborate that, again, Christians stayed, in significant numbers whilst others fled. Again, they offered basic nursing care, and again those in their care survived at a higher rate. Importantly, Christians nursed everyone, not just those in their own community.
Emperor Julian (Julian the Apostate), the radically anti-Christian, wrote: "the impious Galileans in addition to their own, support ours, it is shameful that our poor should be wanting our aid." Thus Christian and radically anti-Christian sources agree on how Christian responded to the plague, that they stayed and cared for others, and not just for other Christians.
This was a Christianity practiced, not a Christianity preached. By their actions, Christians became a beacon for others, and those people wanted to know why they stayed. The risks, the care, the compassion, was all there in their sacred scriptures.
In the 1st century, Christianity was a Jewish movement. In the 2nd, there was their example during the Antonine Plague. In the 3rd, the Plague of Cyprian. By the 4th, Christianity was the dominant religion in the Western world.
Was all this entirely attributable to the fact that Christians cared for each other, and for their neighbour? No, probably not. But I do think that perhaps those examples stood as a better testament to the power of the gospel, than the sophisticated arguments of theologians over obscure lexical interpretations.
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Carlo Urbani was an Italian doctor with a specialism in infectious and tropical diseases.
Urbani started volunteering in Africa. After years working in the epidemic medicine field, he became an external consultant of the World Health Organization. He joined Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and moved with his family to Phnom Penh, Cambodia for a year.
As president of the Italian section of MSF, he campaigned against multinational pharmaceutical companies that kept up the high prices of medicines against AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. He was a member of the delegation that received the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of MSF. With the prize money, Urbani created a fund to promote an international campaign for access to essential medicines for the world's poorest populations.
In February 2003, while holidaying in Asia, he was called into The French Hospital of Hanoi, Vietnam, to observe a patient that was causing concern. Urbani realised that the patient was suffering from an unidentified but highly contagious disease. He immediately isolated the ward, himself and the staff who had been exposed to strict quarantine measures. He notified the WHO, and on the strength of his reputation got them to act without delay.
He spoke to his wife on the phone. She asked him to come home. He said "Where else would you expect me to be?"
Against some resistance, he persuaded the Vietnamese Health Ministry to isolate patients and screen travelers, a move which slowed the early pace of the epidemic. His patient died, as did some of the staff exposed. But the outbreak was contained.
In March, he flew from Hanoi to a conference in Bangkok, Thailand. He began feeling unwell, and a colleague who met him at the airport called an ambulance. Urbani had contracted SARS while treating infected patients in Hanoi. His Bangkok hospital room became an improvised. He died on the 29th of that month.
His humanity and compassion in the face of suffering and risk stand as a testament to the best in human nature. In my book he's a saint. There are millions like him, some believers, some atheist, some agnostic.
We might not be the best thing God ever came up with, but that's no reason in itself to demean ourselves.
