Christianity's Deep Change Catalysts

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Christianity's deep change catalysts involve a shift in normative beliefs brought by the Christian gospels and Pauline letters, particularly highlighting radical egalitarianism and emphasizing sexual morality. This emphasis on sexual ethics, not prominent in other moral teachings like Stoicism, combined with the belief that everyone, regardless of status, is created in the image of God, shapes Christian morality. Additionally, the societal conversion of Christianity, from a persecuted minority to a mainstream movement with influential leaders and diverse followers, contributes to a unique reflection on morality and theology previously unseen.

Nearly a millennium before the swinging ’60s, a revolution in attitudes toward sex and sexuality transformed how we consider marriage, family, the sexes, equality, consent, and even concepts like free will and human dignity.

In this episode of Post-Christianity?, Andrew Wilson and Glen Scrivener interview Kyle Harper, a University of Oklahoma historian of the classical and author of From Shame to Sin: The Christian Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity. Harper unpacks that first revolution, how it shaped the traditional Western understanding of sex, and how it has been challenged and in some ways rejected in the past 60 years.

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Post-Christianity? is a podcast from The Gospel Coalition and The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. Learn more about The Keller Center here.

The Good Book Company is the publisher of The Air We Breathe by Glen Scrivener. For 25% off books on Christianity and culture, go to thegoodbook.com/postpodcast.