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Christianity |
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Part of a series on |
History of religions |
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The history of Christianity follows the Christian religion as it developed from its earliest beliefs and practices in the first-century, spread geographically in the Roman Empire and beyond, and became a global religion in the twenty-first century.
Christianity originated with the ministry of Jesus, a Jewish teacher and healer who was crucified and died c. AD 30–33 in Jerusalem in the Roman province of Judea. Afterwards, his followers, a set of apocalyptic Jews, proclaimed him risen from the dead. Christianity began as a Jewish sect and remained so for centuries in some locations, diverging gradually from Judaism over doctrinal, social and historical differences. In spite of persecution in the Roman Empire, the faith spread as a grassroots movement that became established by the third-century both in and outside the empire. New Testament texts were written and church government was loosely organized in its first centuries, though the biblical canon did not become official until 382.
The Roman Emperor Constantine I became the first Christian emperor in 313. He issued the Edict of Milan expressing tolerance for all religions. He did not make Christianity the state religion, but he did provide crucial support. Constantine called the first of seven ecumenical councils. Christianity was both defined and transformed in Late Antiquity in what is sometimes called the "golden age" of Patristic Christianity. By the Early Middle Ages, Eastern and Western Christianity had already begun to diverge, while missionary activities spread Christianity west and north. Monks and nuns played a prominent role in establishing a Christendom that influenced every aspect of medieval life.
From the ninth-century into the twelfth, politicization and Christianization went hand-in-hand in developing East Central Europe, Russia, language, literacy and literature. Byzantium was more prosperous than the west, and Eastern Orthodoxy was influential in Eastern Europe. Both Islam and western crusading negatively impacted Eastern Christianity. During the High Middle Ages, Eastern and Western Christianity had grown far enough apart that differences led to the East–West Schism of 1054. Temporary reunion was not achieved until the year before the Fall of Constantinople.The conquering of Constantinople in 1453 put an end to the institutional church as established under Constantine, though it survived in altered form.
Various catastrophic circumstances, combined with a growing criticism of the Catholic Church in the 1300–1500s, led to the Protestant Reformation and its related reform movements. Reform, and the Catholic Counter-Reformation, were followed by the European wars of religion, the development of modern political concepts of tolerance, and the Age of Enlightenment. Christianity also influenced the New World through its connection to colonialism, its part in the American Revolution, the dissolution of slavery in the west, and the long-term impact of Protestant missions.
In the twenty-first century, traditional Christianity has declined in the West, while new forms have developed and expanded throughout the world. Today, there are more than two billion Christians worldwide and Christianity has become the world's largest, and most widespread religion.[1][2] Within the last century, the centre of growth has shifted from West to East and from the North to the Global South.[3][4][5][6]
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