Rodney William Stark was an American sociologist of religion who was a longtime professor of sociology and of comparative religion at the University of Washington.
11 Facts About Rodney Stark
1.
2.
Rodney Stark was born on July 8,1934, and grew up in Jamestown, North Dakota, in a Lutheran family.
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Rodney Stark spent time in the United States Army, before graduating in journalism from the University of Denver in 1959.
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Rodney Stark worked as a journalist for the Oakland Tribune from 1959 until 1961, then pursued graduate work, obtaining his MA in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1965 and his PhD, from Berkeley, in 1971.
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Rodney Stark played high school football with another individual who would go on to have a distinguished academic career, Alvin Plantinga, an influential Christian philosopher who taught at Calvin College and Notre Dame.
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Rodney Stark was an advocate of the application of the rational choice theory in the sociology of religion, which he called the theory of religious economy.
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Rodney Stark was one of the most vocal critics of theories of secularization.
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Alvin Plantinga 8.
Rodney Stark expanded his theory in subsequent works, claiming that statistical data does not support the theory of a decline of religion in modern societies.
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Rodney Stark proposed in The Rise of Christianity that Christianity grew through gradual individual conversions via social networks of family, friends and colleagues.
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Rodney Stark suggested that Christianity grew because it treated women better than pagan religions.
11.
Rodney Stark suggested that making Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire weakened the faithfulness of the Christian community by bringing in people who did not really believe or had a weaker belief.