Christianity is a religion that has grown over time to become the largest religion the world has ever seen. However, a big curiosity of many is where has the Christian religion come from? The history of the Christian religion dates back to the death of Christ and its start as a sect of Judaism.
Under the guide of the Twelve Apostles, this Jewish sect moved around the Eastern Mediterranean and tried to spread the teachings of Christ. From the beginning, they came under direct and consistent assault and persecution from Romans as well as other sects of Judaism that did not think they were legitimate. In the 4th century, Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and then Theodosius I made it the religion of the Empire. The first two breaks from Christianity were the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Church.
When the Roman Empire collapsed, the Church took over many aspects of politics in Rome. This also included all the Christian territories in the old Roman territories. However, a few centuries after the fall of Rome, Islam appeared and they began to conquer territory in the Middle East. With Islam spreading and conquering more territory, the Pope called for a Crusade. However, it was during the time between the 7th and 11th centuries were more groups breaking off from the Catholic Church. However, the single biggest schism yet was the 11th century schism that broke Christianity into East and West: Orthodoxy in the East and Catholicism in the West.
During the Second Council of Lyon and the Council of Florence, the two churches tried to come together and reunite; however, the Orthodox refused to give in on some of their arguments. Therefore, to this day, the two churches are split. However, over time, the Catholic Church was able to assimilate some of the small Eastern churches.
In 1517, Martin Luther presented his 95 Theses against the Catholic Church. This resulted in the Protestant Reformation. Here, Luther wanted to go back to the very basics of Christianity. In other words, he wanted to focus only on what the Bible said. The Catholic Church, though, wanted to keep a lot of their other preaching that had been created over time. This resulted in Lutheranism. Following this, other branches appeared such as Anglicanism and Anabaptism.
In the Modern Era, Christianity has been having problems. Churches are losing numbers. People are not signing up to be clergy. Some European groups as well as Indigenous Americans are looking to go back to their culture’s old religious ways known as neo-paganism. The western civilization no longer is the standard bearer of Christianity; that has spread to Africa, South America and other nations, especially found in third world countries that have had much success with missionaries.
The ultimate question, when looking at the history of Christianity, is where is Christianity headed in the future? Will it remain one of the largest religions of the world or will it fade away? That history is yet to be seen.