宗教竞争与罗马的虔诚

Abstract:The market theory of religious economies predicts that when the state neither supports an official religion nor effectively limits religious options，there will exist a number of competing religious groups with the consequence that the overall level of public religious commitment will be high. In addition，the more effective and innovative religious organizations will prosper and the less effective will decline. Applied to ancient Rome，these predictions are strongly supported. An additional finding is that Roman religious persecution was prompted by governmental fear of and antagonism towards all faiths that sustained intense，local congregations，which accounts for the persecution not only of Christians and Jews，but of several pagan faiths as well.

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