(BA) Christianity

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23 July 2022

Christianity is the world's largest religion. Started by Jesus as a movement within Judaism, it was quickly taken by Paul to non-Jews.

In its very earliest days, all Christians were Jews but not all Jews were Christian. As non-Jewish converts began to pour in, the two overlapped. One could be Jewish and Christian, non-Jewish and Christian, Jewish and non-Christian, or non-Jewish and non-Christian. Eventually, Judaism and Christianity came to be seen as mutually exclusive. One could be Christian, Jewish, or pagan. The precise details of the "parting of the ways" continue to be debated in modern scholarship. Daniel Boyarin wrote some interesting stuff on it.

Christianity took over as holy scripture the Hebrew Bible and a variety of other works, including writings produced within Christianity itself which would come to be known as the New Testament. It grew originally within the territory of the Roman Empire, but quickly expanded beyond it.

In the first, second, and third centuries, Christianity was marginalized and at times violently suppressed by the Roman Empire. In addition to conflict with the outside world, the first few centuries saw a great deal of conflict within Christianity, as the nascent Catholic Church sought to define Orthodoxy and marginalize dissenters.

In the early fourth century, Christianity had spread so successfully that the Roman Empire began to transition from suppressing Christianity to embracing it. Under Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, the Council of Nicea served an important purpose in helping to cement the official doctrines of the Church. Further councils followed.

In 451, the Council of Chalcedon worked to continue refining the nuances of Trinitarian society. Certain churches located outside the Roman Empire did not accept the Council of Nicea, and became noticeably separate from the larger Church within the Empire. These six churches -- which maintain communion only with each other -- are now known as the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and are found in the primarily in the Middle East and Africa.

A much larger schism, between East and West, occurred in 1054, and separated the Latin-influenced, Pope-centered Western Church -- now known as Roman Catholicism -- from the Greek-speaking Eastern Churches in the area of influence of the Byzantine Empire. Over time, Eastern Orthodoxy declined demographically as Islam expanded, and today most Christians are affiliated with Western Christianity, either in its Catholic or Protestant forms.

In 1517, the Protestant Reformation began, as large numbers of Western Christians disaffiliated from the Roman Catholic Church, and a period of major conflict over religion began in Europe which lasted until about 1648, when with the peace of Westphalia a settlement was reached in which each nation settled its own religious affairs.

The Protestant Reformation began at about the same time that Americas were discovered, and a massive period of European expansion began, making Christianity the dominant religion in some European-dominated areas, such as the Americas. Africa below the Sahara has experienced a massive growth in both Islam and Christianity over the past century or so, to the point that it is now almost equally divided between the two religions. Christianity has not had so much success in Asia and in majority-Muslim countries in the Middle East.

Since the nineteenth century, perhaps the greatest source of conflict has been the liberal vs. conservative struggle within Christianity, and the difficulties posed by the rise of secularism in the world's richer countries. Christianity is finding it harder to grow as time passes, as it is in noticeable decline throughout the rich countries of the world, while all the poor countries are heading down the path to becoming richer. Even in the more persistently poor countries of Africa, almost all non-Muslims have converted to Christianity, which leaves little room for growth through conversion, giving the ongoing resistance of Muslims worldwide to evangelistic efforts.