Summarizing the work of Peter Brown, James Davison Hunter ( To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World 
Prior to Christianity, the poor were those who had no standing at all, since they “belonged to no urban grouping.” Christianity changed that: “When the bishops declared themselves to be ‘lovers of the poor,’ the church was unwittingly offering a new model of society. The care of the poor emphasized a very different and more universal bond of social solidarity [than was customary in Roman society], namely, a common humanity. The fact is, the Christian church reached more people. Even though it was still a demographic minority, a church that was seen to reach out to the margins of the social order established its ‘right to stand for the community as a whole.’ The ‘care of the poor became a dramatic component of the Christian representation of the bishop’s authority in the community.’”
In short, “by stressing their relationship with the socially and economically marginal . . . the bishops projected a form of authority within the city that outflanked the traditional leadership of the notables.”
