this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2023
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I know you're joking, but that's a great question that I wonder if Marxist historians have tackled. What were the material conditions for the rise of Christianity? The fall of Rome? Disruption of the slave economy? The plague and famines of the 3rd century?
Christianity didn't come from nowhere, it became popular in an era where many "mystery cults" plagued the Roman empire. The Cult of Isis was the other major popular one, but there were dozens. Clearly the mystery cult era was a response to material conditions, and Christianity happened to be the one that took off. It became the social component of the superstructure.
Definitely worth looking into.
marxist analysis of historical periods is a bit of niche topic (sure marx wrote about that but who reads marx anyway amirite), the most i can recall is G.E.M. de Ste. Croix's titanic work "Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World" which despite being marxist analysis, it's so good "non-partisan" historians will cite it (with the pre-requisite disclaimer of "this is a marxist book, i am not a marxist")
Also perry anderson transition to feudalism and some links therein
I have Ellen Meiksins Wood's "The Origins of Capital" open on my browser. https://cominsitu.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/ellen-meiksins-wood-the-origin-of-capital-a-longer-view.pdf