Abstract
The work of Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923) explores Christian origins more deeply than do other classic contributions to religious sociology. In his view, early Christianity represents a “typical period” of a religious essence subjected to but undiminished by socio-economic factors. He insists rather on the relative autonomy of the “Christian idea” and its dialectic. Troeltsch takes his inspiration primarily from his friend and colleague, the sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920). To the latter we owe a notion of typology which permits a better understanding of the rapid expansion of nascent Christianity, and especially of its passage from original charism to ecclesiastical institution. With Troeltsch, Weber shares a resolutely critical interest in the marxist theory of ideologies. This theory, articulated at its inception as much by Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) as by Marx, maintains that in the last analysis religious phenomena are explained by their economic infrastructure. Like modern socialism, earliest Christianity announced to the oppressed and exploited an approaching deliverance; but whereas early Christians situated salvation in the hereafter, the workers' movement of the 19th century locates it in a radical transformation of society.