Roman, I think the Meek
Roman, I think the Meek article (post #94) I cited disputes that the early Christians were peasants, the section I quoted stated:
Meek wrote:
The range of social status in the early Christian groups thus seems very nearly to replicate that of the society at large, omitting the two extremes – the Roman aristocracy and the agricultural and mining slaves and the landless peasants.
this is published in a CUP resource, so hardly fringe scholarship, so it's unsustainable to maintain that the scholarship is in that teh early Christians were exlusively among the poor. The wider citation from Meek mentions that non-Christian patrons, as with other cults would have provided locales for gathering of christian cells.Another chapter tells us:
Vinzent wrote:
A variety of different Christian communities is attested by Hermas, who constantly pleads for unity. The mid-second-century material suggests a number of small communities, based in households, only loosely held together, often led by immigrants. ‘Schools’, too, such as that of Justin, would have been house-based. This situation continued for a long period of time, with different congregations acknowledging one another by passing around a portion of the communion bread, but actually remaining fairly independent.43 The ‘fractionalised’ house churches were scattered around various districts,44 each with its own leadership, while the secretary or president of the overarching forum of presbyters and teachers was spokesperson for the Roman congregations collectively in relation to churches elsewhere in the empire, and perhaps also the co-ordinator of relief for the poor
Vinzent, M. (2006). Rome. In M. Mitchell & F. Young (Eds.), The Cambridge History of Christianity (Cambridge History of Christianity, pp. 397-412). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.