Sex Drugs & Rock ‘n’ Roll

How Roman Counterculture Shaped Christianity

Preamble:
Death and rebirth are central themes of Christianity, both in its mythology—the story of Jesus is about coming back from the dead—and in its actual history. Christianity resurrected dead and dying older traditions and carried them forward into the Middle Ages and beyond.

Three major examples—all readily allegorized by death and rebirth—are debt …