The first Christians were a small group of illiterate peasants from the backwaters of the Roman Empire, who proclaimed that an executed enemy of the state was God's messiah.

Less than 400 years later it would be the official religion of Rome with some 30 million followers. How did this happen?

From Jesus's death in the early first century to the conversion of Emperor Constantine and its aftermath in the fourth century, Bart Ehrman chronicles the epic historical narrative of Christianity's rise. Through meticulous research and luminous prose, he reveals why people took heed of accounts of Jesus's miracles amidst a plethora of such tales in the ancient world, and examines what was unique about the Christian message that converts found so compelling.

The Triumph of Christianity upends the way we think about one of the most important cultural transformations our world has ever seen that which has shaped the art, music, literature, philosophy, ethics, economics and law of modern Western civilization.