Hi, I have always been a fan of Roman history but the other day I realised I have never really looked in depth into how Christianity managed to rise in popularity and overtake the already entrenched beliefs of the empire past the idea of the church being more ‘organised’ than the relatively disparate pagan beliefs. If you also have good follow up resources on this period of Roman history that would be appreciated. Also, how did the followers of the religion react to the multiple periods of persecution? Thanks!
There are some great answers in the FAQ to this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/faq/religion#wiki_christianity
The ones that directly address your question are:
/u/talondearg 's answer to How did Christianity go from a small, hated cult to the state religion of the Roman Empire? What made it so different than the hundreds of other small cults throughout the Empire?
and also, answered by the same user" Why did Christianity, and not another contemporaneous cult, spread so rapidly within the Roman Empire?
There is also an AMA about the History of Western Christianity