“We are told that the air of the world is unbreathable. I agree. But the first Christians found each morning at their doorstep an atmosphere saturated with vice, idols, and incense offered to the gods. For more than two hundred years, they were relegated, slandered, and marginalized by the current of the social river that swept them away and cast them back out all at once. Do we consider that the grace of their baptism kept them almost entirely separate from urban life? They refrained from participating in major civic events, such as the inauguration of a magistrate or the triumph of a victorious general, because neither of these ceremonies could begin without a sacrifice of incense offered to the emperor, a divine figure. The grace of their baptism kept them away from the baths, a popular morning meeting place for Romans, because of the nudity of the bodies and the immodesty of the behavior.” They also renounced circus performances because of the scenes of cruelty that constituted their main subject matter. But these early Christians formed a society, and this society, through the power of the spirit, shattered the shell of ancient paganism. Their earthly hope was limited to the desire not to die before seeing Christ return on the clouds, and they were the founders of Christian Europe
Dom Gérard, in Tomorrow Christendom
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