GODPARENTHOOD, GUEST-FRIENDSHIP AND THE S PREAD OF CHRISTIANITY

Scholars have recently come to recognize that in pre-industrial societ ies godparenthood was an extremely adaptable and versatile bond of con siderable importance. They cannot, however, agree upon how this instit ution came to be, the predominant view bring that it was a straightfor ward creation of the early Christians. This article is an attempt to s how that the societies of pre-Christian antiquity already had an insti tution, called xenia by the creeks and hospitium by the Romans, which displayed a long lift of features similar to those associated with god parenthood. The resemblance is so striking as to warrant the conclusio n that the early Christians, rather than creating ex nihilo so complex a social bond as godparenthood, invested the pre-existing pagan insti tution with Christian imagery and symbolism and appropriated it to the service of the new religion. If this suggestion is correct, we may he re have hit upon one secondary reason, hitherto overlooked, for Christ ianity's spectacular spread.