The past was more Christian? At times perhaps, in others, though, no.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I don't believe necessarily the past is in the past. It's eternal, it's all around us.
A tendency could not but arise to reconcile with Christian profession a good many modes of life, enjoyments, occupations, social actions and customs, from which the first Christians had recoiled.
God cannot alter the past, though historians can.
It is hard to celebrate the past in an ecumenical way, or even in a fair-minded one, apparently. The trouble with the past is not just that it's behind us, it's that it is not even over yet.
And in times and places where there was not much persecution, people could become and continue Christians who neither were nor professed to be very devoted persons.
I think the intellectual consistency of Christianity in historical evidence is frankly overwhelming, but my materialist colleagues regard me as a slightly sad case.
Christianity emerged from the religion of Israel. Or rather, it has as its background a persistent strain in that religion. To that strain Christians have looked back, and rightly, as the preparation in history for their faith.
My family background was deeply Christian.
I don't think anything predated Christians.
If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.