Quotes from my prep for Sunday

Our preaching text sunday is Acts 11:19-30 contains, among other things, an account of the rapid and cross-cultural growth of Christianity. Ever wonder, humanly-speaking, why?
“A reason for Christianity’s success is to be found in its
inclusiveness. More than any of its competitors it attracted all races and
classes....Judaism never quite escaped from its racial
bonds....Christianity however gloried in its appeal to Jew and Gentile,
Greek and barbarian. The philosophies never really won the allegiance of
the masses....they appealed primarily to the educated....Christianity,
however...drew the lowly and unlettered...yet also developed a philosophy
which commanded the respect of many of the learned....Christianity, too, was for both sexes, whereas two of it main rivals were primarily for men.
The Church welcomed both rich and poor. In contrast with it, the
mystery cults were usually for people of means: initiation into them was
expensive....No other [religion] took in so many groups and strata of
society....The query must be raised of why this comprehensiveness came
to be. It was not in Judaism. Why did it appear in Christianity?”
--K.S.Latourette, A History of the Expansion of Christianity vol.1 (Harper
and Row, 1937).

The 9am Class "The Crusades... for Dummies, from a Dummy"
"I say this to those who are present, it meant also for those who are absent. Moreover, Christ commands it. All who die by the way, whether by land or by sea, or in battle against the pagans, shall have immediate remission of sins. This I grant them through the power of God with which I am invested." Urban II, the pope who "launched the 1st Crusade