[Serious] Book reports

[GrandizerII]

Is it possible that, rather than Christianity influencing this kind of thinking, it was the circumstances of the time in which Ovid's Baucis and Philemon and the earliest Christian writings were written that, gradually emerging from prior times and following some natural progression in resources and understanding (leading to progression in ethical thinking and such) stimulated the sort of thinking that is apparent in the New Testament?

A quick Google indicates that the story wasn't known before Ovid. Is that what you've heard? So it makes sense to think that there might have been a fairly widespread change in values in the area. Something that people in the year 1AD are able to think, while Homer wouldn't. It is certainly believable that Christianity reflected a more general change in the Roman world. If it turned out that things were headed that way, more or less anyway, but Christianity happened to be the system that rode the wave, that wouldn't surprise me. If Christianity had been TOO alien of a system, it couldn't have caught on.

To answer your question, yes, that's what I read on Wiki, though it's clear that the story nevertheless shares a few themes found in the Old Testament and perhaps prior pagan sources.

What do you think of this perspective?

In the early 19th century, Ludwig Feuerbach gave the immortal reply to those who insist that modern life owes much to its Christian prototype. What if, the German philosopher asked, Christians had incubated some early versions of modern ideas that eventually required toppling Christianity itself to come into their own? If so, then in spite of its opposition to paganism, Christianity had to be smashed as the last form of idolatry — the worship of a human fiction rather than the embrace of the full possibilities and powers of human beings themselves.

https://www.ft.com/content/ffa37216-d30b...ef889b4137

Another notable quote from the article:

Yet the illustration of the conquest of the west by Christianity risks becoming so total that it explains everything and nothing: “There were many gateways, many roads,” writes Holland. “The only constant was that they all had their origins in Christendom.”

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Weird, the article was accessible before.