The Social Crisis Theory of Religious Conversion: Why Christianity and Islam Conquered Hearts The Pattern of Collapse and Renewal Christianity and Islam, the world's two largest religions, share a remarkable similarity in how they spread across continents and transformed civilizations. Yet their success had little to do with the theological truth of their doctrines. Instead, both religions emerged and flourished because societies had grown sick of themselves and desperately craved change. Societies in Moral Decay When Christianity emerged in the Roman Empire and Islam arose in the Arabian Peninsula, both civilizations suffered from profound moral and social crises. The patterns were strikingly similar. In both societies, cruelty and injustice had become normalized. The wealthy exploited the poor without restraint, treating them as disposable resources rather than fellow human beings. Women faced systematic abuse from men who wielded unchecked power over them. Sexual morality had ...