early christianity: set of ideas that are insane by the standards of normies, but able to inspire genuine sacrifice by the most intellectually and morally serious people (or those wishing to signal they are). in an era where other institutions are rotting, builds up new ones. on a collision course with the αρχές και δυνάμεις; not guaranteed to win, but the only sort of thing that can

middle christianity: set of assumptions so pervasive they set the grounds for all other thought; normies, pointdexters, and the criminal overclass alike embrace with varying degrees of hypocrisy and sophistication but without reservation. boundaries of acceptance constitute the boundaries of civilization, within which contestation is not abolished (heresy cannot be eliminated, however much force is applied) but is contained (heretics = Christian heretics)

late christianity: embraced perfunctorily by legacy institutions; ideas laughed at and primarily embraced out of inertia or contrarianism; constant loss of rearguard battles

less interesting to ask “is this ideology a religion,” than “what kind of religion is this?” on this & other dimensions