“The world into which Christianity came forth was racked with cruelty and superstition. Severe asceticism, hyper-spiritualized Gnosticism, and infant sacrifice all reflected distorted notions of the relationship of body, soul, and spirit, concepts corrosive to the meaning of human life. As Christian faith spread throughout the Mediterranean and beyond, it transformed human self-understanding, and with it social structures and practices. Most significantly, within the prayerful reflection and lived experience of Christian faith, a deeper spiritual anthropology was distilled –one that magnified the sanctity and dignity of the human person. Christians rescued the unwanted babies abandoned on the trash heaps of Rome; and abortion, a practice that was widespread in the ancient world, was strictly forbidden in the Didache, one of the earliest Christian writings. A family of faith emerged, transcending boundaries of rich and poor, slave and free; and male and female were recognized as “joint heirs to the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7). ”
The whole essay is well worth reading.