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[[File:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg|thumb|upright=2|alt=image of painting by Leonardo Da Vinci with Jesus seated at a long table surrounded by his 12 apostles having his last meal before death|[[The Last Supper (Leonardo)|''The Last Supper'']] by [[Leonardo da Vinci]] (c. 1490) in the [[Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan|Santa Maria delle Grazie Church]] in [[Milan]], [[Italy]], depicts the [[Last Supper|final meal]] before [[Crucifixion of Jesus|Jesus' crucifixion and death]].]]
{{Christianity sidebar |expanded=history}}
{{History of religion |expanded=religions}}
The '''history of Christianity''' began with the life of [[Jesus]], an itinerant Jewish preacher and teacher, who was [[Crucifixion of Jesus|crucified]] in [[Jerusalem]] {{circa|AD&nbsp;30–33}}. His followers proclaimed that he was the [[Incarnation (Christianity)|incarnation]] of [[God in Christianity|God]] and had [[Resurrection of Jesus|risen from the dead]]. In the two millennia since, [[Christianity]] has spread across the world, becoming the [[List of religious populations|world's largest religion]] with [[Christian population growth|over two billion adherents worldwide]].

Christianity was initially a [[Grassroots|grassroots]] movement spread within cities by apostles, reaching [[Critical mass (sociodynamics)|critical mass]] by the third century when it grew to over a million adherents. [[Constantine the Great and Christianity|The support]] of the Roman emperor [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]] in the early fourth century was important in transforming it into an [[organized religion]] with [[New Testament|a formalized religious text]]. Constantine's support also allowed [[Early Christian art and architecture|Christian art, architecture]], and [[Christian literature|literature]] to blossom. Competing theological doctrines led to [[Schism in Christianity|divisions]], which were addressed by the [[Nicene Creed]] of 325. The subsequent 5th-century [[Nestorian schism]] produced the [[Church of the East]] and [[Oriental Orthodoxy]]. While the [[Western Roman Empire]] ended in 476, its successor states and its eastern compatriot—which became the [[Byzantine Empire]]—remained Christian.

In the [[Middle Ages]], western monks preserved culture and provided social services. [[Early Muslim conquests]] devastated many Christian communities in the [[Middle East and North Africa]], but [[Christianization]] continued in Europe and Asia and helped form the states of [[Eastern Europe]]. The 1054 [[East–West Schism]] saw the Byzantine Empire's [[Eastern Orthodoxy]] and Western Europe's [[Catholic Church]] separate. In spite of differences, the East requested western military aid against the Turks, resulting in the [[Crusades]]. Faced with internal and external challenges, the church fought [[Heresy in Christianity|heresy]] and established courts of [[inquisition]]. [[Gregorian reform]] led to a more centralized and bureaucratic [[Catholicism]]. Artistic and [[scholasticism|intellectual advances]] among western monks laid the foundations for the [[Renaissance]] and the [[scientific revolution]].

In the 14th century, the [[Western Schism]] and [[Crisis of the late Middle Ages|several European crises]] led to the 16th-century [[Reformation]] when [[Protestantism]] split-off from the Catholic church. Quarrelling royal houses precipitated the [[European wars of religion]]. Christianity spread with the [[European colonialism|colonization]] of the [[Americas]], [[Australia]], and [[New Zealand]]. Different parts of Christianity variously influenced the [[Age of Enlightenment]], [[American Revolution|American]] and [[French Revolution]]s, the [[Industrial Revolution]], and the [[Atlantic slave trade]]. Some Protestants created [[biblical criticism]] while others responded to [[rationalism]] with [[Pietism]] and religious revivals that created new [[Christian denomination|denominations]]. Protestants advocated for [[religious tolerance]], [[separation of church and state]], and moral reform, while nineteenth century missionaries laid the linguistic and cultural foundation for many nations. In the 20th century, Christianity declined in most of the West but grew in the East and [[Global South]].

== Early Christianity (c. 27 – fourth century) ==
{{Main|Early Christianity}}
=== First century ===
{{Main|Christianity in the 1st century}}
{{Further|Chronology of Jesus|Historical Jesus}}
[[File:Cristo crucificado.jpg|thumb|alt=image of Jesus hanging on a cross, crucified|[[Christ Crucified (Velázquez)|''Christ Crucified'']], by [[Diego Velázquez]] {{c.|1632|lk=no}}, depicting the [[crucifixion of Jesus]]]]
[[Christianity]] began with [[Jesus|Jesus of Nazareth]], a Jewish man and itinerant preacher in Galilee and the [[Roman province of Judea]] during the first century.{{sfn|Wilken|2013|pp=6–16}}{{sfn|Young|2006|p=1}} Much about Jesus is uncertain, but [[Crucifixion of Jesus|his crucifixion]] {{circa|30}} is well attested.{{sfn|Young|2006|p=24}}{{sfn|Law|2011|p=129}}{{sfn|Köstenberger|Kellum|Quarles|2009|p=114-115}} The religious, social, and political climate in both regions was extremely diverse and characterized by turmoil with numerous religious and political movements.{{sfn|Wilken|2013|pp=6–16}}{{sfn|Schwartz|2009|pp=49, 91}}{{sfn|Young|2006|p=25}} One such movement, [[Jewish messianism]], promised a [[Messiah in Judaism|messianic redeemer]] descended from Israel's ancient king, [[King David|David]], who would save Israel. Those who followed Jesus, called [[Disciple (Christianity)|disciples]], saw him as that Messiah.{{sfn|Wilken|2013|pp=8, 26}}{{sfn|Young|2006|pp=2, 24-25}}{{sfn|Uthemann|2007|p=460}}

Jesus was a [[Prophets in Judaism|prophetic]] figure who proclaimed an [[Eschatology|"end-of-the-world" eschatological]] message of the coming [[Kingdom of God (Christianity)|kingdom of God]].{{sfn|Broadhead|2017|pp=123, 124}} [[Incarnation]], the belief that God (or the Word of God) was embodied in Jesus,{{sfn|Uthemann|2007|p=460}}{{sfn|Young|2006|p=34}} and [[resurrection]], the belief that after his crucifixion, he [[Resurrection of Jesus|rose from the dead]],{{sfn|Wilken|2013|pp=6–16}}{{sfn|Young|2006|p=11}} were Christianity's earliest beliefs.{{sfn|Dunn|1994|pp=253-254, 256}}{{sfn|Uthemann|2007|p=460}} Its earliest rituals were [[baptism]], a [[Initiation|rite of initiation]], and the communal [[Eucharist]], a celebration in memory of [[Last Supper|Jesus' last meal]] before death.{{sfn|Strout|2016|p=479}}{{sfn|Young|2006|pp=32–34}}

The first Christian communities were predominantly Jewish.{{sfn|Klutz|2002|pp=178–190}}{{sfn|Goodman|2007|pp=30–32}} They gathered in [[house church|small groups inside private homes]] where the typical setting for worship was the communal meal.{{sfn|Esler|2017|p=11}}{{sfn|White|2017|p=686}} Elders (called [[presbyter]]s or [[bishops]]) oversaw the small groups, providing for the economic requirements of the meal and charitable distributions.{{sfn|Stewart|2014|loc=intro.}}{{sfn|McGowan|2016|p=370}}{{sfn|Brown|2012|p=64}}{{sfn|Reed|1905|pp=1-2}} [[Women in Church history|Women]] comprised significant numbers of Christianity's earliest members.{{sfn|Lieu|1999|p=5}} Religion had appeal because women could attain greater freedom through religious activities than Roman customs otherwise permitted.{{sfn|Gardner|1991|p=67}}{{sfn|Pomeroy|1995|p=xv}}{{sfn|MacDonald|1996|p=10-11}}{{sfn|Lieu|1999|pp=20–21}} The Pauline epistles recognize their presence in early Christian congregations.{{sfn|MacDonald|1996|pp=163, 167}}{{sfn|Cloke|1995|pp=5–7, 82}} Christianity most likely began in Jerusalem with fewer than 1000 believers, which grew to approximately one hundred [[Early centres of Christianity|small household churches]], each with an average of seventy members, by the year 100.{{sfn|Hopkins|1998|p=202}}

Of the original believers, Jesus kept twelve disciples close to him who became known as [[Apostles in the New Testament|the Apostles]].{{sfn|McBirnie|2013|p=19}} Saul of Tarsus, who became [[Paul the Apostle]], was a Jewish Pharisee who had not known Jesus and persecuted early Christians. According to his own account, his life turned in the opposite direction after experiencing a vision of Christ on the road to Damascus.{{sfn|Wilken|2013|pp=18-20}} Driven by belief and characterized by passion, the twelve Apostles and Paul identified evangelism as a task to be undertaken, which prompted them to travel through foreign lands sharing their message.{{sfn|Shelton|2018|pp=4, 7}}{{sfn|McBirnie|2013|pp=18, 26, 28}}{{sfn|Wilken|2013|p=18}} Christianity was largely an urban religion{{sfn|Naerebout|2021|p=21}} that spread along the trade and travel routes into the [[Jewish diaspora]] and beyond.{{sfn|Humfress|2013|pp=3, 76, 83–88, 91}}{{sfn|Bokenkotter|2007|p=18}}{{sfn|Bundy|2007|p=118}}{{sfn|Harnett|2017|pp=200, 217}}{{sfn|Hopkins|1998|pp=192–193}} The largest cities in the Roman Empire, such as Rome, [[Alexandria]], Antioch, [[Ephesus]], and [[Carthage]], all had Christian congregations by the end of the first century.{{sfn|Fousek|2018|loc=Discussion}}

Despite martyrs such as [[Saint Stephen|Stephen]], the movement grew, reaching [[Antioch]] where converts were first called Christian by non-Christians.{{sfn|Bickerman|1949|p=110}}{{sfn|McBirnie|2013|p=23}} From Antioch, [[Barnabas]] and Paul went to [[Cyprus]], then [[Anatolia|Asia Minor]], where the gospel was received by both Jewish and [[Gentile|non-Jewish people]].{{sfn|McBirnie|2013|pp=30-31}} The conversion of Gentiles led to disputes with [[Judaizers|a group]] who desired observance of [[Law of Moses|Mosaic law]] including [[circumcision]].{{sfn|Westerholm|2015|pp=4–15}}{{sfn|Adams|Adams|2012|loc=p. 297}} James, Jesus' brother, called the [[Council of Jerusalem]] ({{circa|50}}) which determined that converts should avoid "pollution of idols, fornication, things strangled, and blood" but should not be required to follow other aspects of Jewish Law ([[KJV]], Acts 15:20–21).{{sfn|Fahy|1963|p=249}} As Christianity grew in the Gentile world, it underwent [[Jewish Christian#Split of early Christianity and Judaism|a gradual separation from Judaism]].{{sfn|Dunn|1999|pp=33–34}}{{sfn|Boatwright|Gargola|Talbert|2004|p=426}} Disagreements over Jewish law, progenitors of [[Rabbinic Judaism]], and insurrections against Rome, contributed to this separation.{{sfn|Marcus|2006|pp=87–88, 99–100}}{{sfn|Neusner|1972|p=313}} Nevertheless, Jewish Christianity remained influential in Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor into the second and third centuries.{{sfn|Wylen|1995|pp=190–193}}{{sfn|Marcus|2006|pp=96–99, 101}}

In the early centuries, the languages most used to spread Christianity were [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Syriac language|Syriac]] (a form of [[Aramaic]]), and [[Latin]].{{sfn|Wilken|2013|pp=2, 26}} Christian writings in [[Koine Greek]], including the [[four gospels]] (the accounts of Jesus' ministry), [[Pauline epistles|letters of Paul]], and letters attributed to other early Christian leaders, were written in the first century and had considerable authority, even in the formative period.{{sfn|Barton|1998a|p=14}}{{sfn|Porter|2011|p=198}} Letters sent by Paul the Apostle to [[Early centers of Christianity|Christian communities]] were circulating in collected form by the end of the first century.{{sfn|Ferguson|2002|pp=302–303}}

=== Ante-Nicene period (100–312) ===
{{Main|Christianity in the ante-Nicene period}}
{{further|Great Church|Gnosticism}}
The Christian faith spread east into Syria and Mesopotamia where the population spoke Aramaic, not Greek. Aramaic Christians were in [[Adiabene]] (northern Iraq) by the second century.{{sfn|Wilken|2013|p=26}} By the second century Christianity was in North Africa,{{sfn|Decret|2011|p=x}} and by the third century, it had spread across the Mediterranean region, from Greece and Anatolia into the Balkans in the East, and as far as Roman Britain in the northwest.{{sfn|Trombley|2006|p=311}}{{sfn|Schäferdiek|2007|loc=abstract}} 

Christianity's different ideas, combined with the social impact of the church, were pivotal to this growth.{{sfn|Judge|2010|pp=217–218}}{{sfn|Hopkins|1998|p=224}} Christianity offered people new ways of thinking.{{sfn|Van Dam|1985|p=2}}{{sfn|Brown|1997|p=28}}{{sfn|Brown|1998|pp=24–25}}{{sfn|Judge|2010|p=262}} For example, the idea that the power of God was manifested through Jesus in a reversal of power challenged Roman concepts of hierarchy.{{sfn|Van Dam|1985|p=4}}{{sfn|Judge|2010|p=197}}{{sfn|Malcolm|2013|pp=14–18; 27}} 

The Ante-Nicene period included sporadic but increasing [[Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire|persecution from Roman authorities]], as well as the rise of Christian [[sect]]s, [[cult]]s, and [[Sociological classifications of religious movements|movements]].{{sfn|Siker|2017|pp=207–212; 213–217}} Christians were persecuted by the empire because they did not uphold fundamental beliefs of Roman society and their withdrawal from public religion made them targets of suspicion and rumor.{{sfn|Castelli|2004|pp=38-39}}{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=30–31}}{{sfn|Frend|2006|p=504}}{{sfn|Dodds|1970|loc=pp. 111–112, 112 n.1}} For most of its early centuries, Christianity was tolerated, and episodes of persecution were local.{{sfn|Moss|2012|p=129}} Emperor [[Nero]]'s persecution of Christians during the mid-1st century was confined to Rome. There were no empire-wide persecutions until the 250s.{{sfn|Barnes|1968|p=50}} Official persecution [[Diocletianic Persecution|reached its height under Diocletian]] in 303–311.{{sfn|Rives|1999|p=141}}{{sfn|Croix|2006|pp=139–140}}{{sfn|Gaddis|2005|pp=30–31}}

In sociologist Rodney Stark's view, Christianity constituted an "intense community" which provided a unique "sense of belonging".{{sfn|Stark|1996|pp=207, 215}}{{sfn|Praet|1992–1993|p=73}} Early Christianity demonstrates both inclusion and exclusion.{{sfn|Mitchell|Young|2006|p=588}} Baptism was free and there were no fees, which made Christianity more affordable than traditional Roman religions.{{sfn|Welch|Pulham|2000|p=202}}{{sfn|Praet|1992–1993|pp=45–48}} Belief in the resurrection of Jesus was the crucial and defining characteristic for becoming a Christian, and early Christianity was highly inclusive of any who expressed such belief.{{sfn|Meeks|2003|pp=79–81}}{{sfn|Dowley|2018|p=14}} [[Ancient philosophy]] Professor Danny Praet writes that believers were also separated from unbelievers by a strong social boundary in a unique type of exclusivity based on belief rather than traditional Roman ritual.{{sfn|Praet|1992–1993|p=36}}{{sfn|Green|2010|pp=126–127}}{{sfn|Praet|1992–1993|pp=68, 108}}  
{{multiple image
 | align = right
 | total_width = 500

 | image1 = Good shepherd 02b close.jpg
 | alt1 = photo of very old and slightly damaged representation of Jesus as the Good Shepherd from the catacombs, made {{circa|300|lk=no}}
 | caption1 = Jesus as the [[Good Shepherd]]; [[catacombs of Rome]], {{circa|300|lk=no}}

 | image2 = Half-length portrait of a virgin consecrated to God, from the book Die Malereien der Katakomben Roms, plate 80.jpg
 | alt2 = photo of very old slightly damaged portrait of a woman in robes signifying her consecration to God
 | caption2 = Virgin consecrated to God in the clothes of her office, praying in [[orans]] position; [[Catacomb of Priscilla]] {{circa|275|lk=no}}.
}}
Women are prominent in the Pauline epistles{{sfn|MacDonald|1996|p=10-11, 169}}{{sfn|Guy|2011|pp=10, 75, 188}} and [[early Christian art]],{{sfn|Tulloch|2004|p=302}} while much early anti-Christian criticism was linked to "female initiative" indicating their role in the movement.{{sfn|Gardner|1991|p=67}}{{sfn|MacDonald|1996|pp=126; 157; 167–168; 202; 242}}{{sfn|LaFosse|2017|pp=385–387}}{{refn|group=note|The ascetic life was attractive to large numbers of women because it granted them some control over their destinies,{{sfn|Stewart|2017|p=308}}{{sfn|Kraemer|1980|pp=298; 300–301; 306–307}} offered them escape from marriage and motherhood, and an intellectual life with access to social and economic power.{{sfn|Castelli|2004|p=251}}{{sfn|Milnor|2011|loc=abstract}}{{sfn|Stewart|2017|p=308}}}} The church rolls from the second century list groups of women "exercising the office of widow".{{sfn|MacDonald|2003|p=169}}{{sfn|Guy|2011|pp=10, 75, 188}} There are few records of early Christian art, but the oldest emerged in the catacombs of Rome between 200 and 400.{{sfn|Grabar|2023|p=7}}{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|pp=148–149}}{{sfn|Judith Anne Testa|p=80}} It typically fused Graeco-Roman style and Christian symbolism: the most common image was Jesus as the [[good shepherd]].{{sfn|Goodenough|1962|p=138}}{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|pp=148–151}}

By 200, Christian numbers had grown to over 200,000 people, and communities with an average size of 500–1000 people existed in approximately 200–400 towns. By 250, Christianity had grown to over a million.{{sfn|Harnett|2017|pp=200; 217}}{{sfn|Hopkins|1998|pp=192–193}} House churches were then succeeded by buildings designed to be churches, complete with assembly rooms, classrooms, and dining rooms.{{sfn|Runciman|2004|p=5}}{{sfn|Hopkins|1998|pp=203, 206}} A more formal church government developed at different times in different locations. Bishops were essential to this development, and they rose in power and influence as they began to preside over larger areas with multiple churches.{{sfn|Carrington|2011|pp=153, 266}}{{sfn|Stewart|2014|loc=intro}}{{sfn|Siker|2017|p=216}}{{sfn|Wilken|2013|p=90}}

The four gospels and the letters of Paul were generally regarded as authoritative, but other writings, such as the [[Book of Revelation]] and the epistles [[Epistle to the Hebrews|to the Hebrews]], [[Epistle of James|James]], and [[Johannine epistles|1 John]], were assigned different degrees of authority.{{sfn|Siker|2017|p=205}}{{sfn|Noll|1997|pp=36–37}}{{sfn|De Jonge|2003|p=315}} [[Gnosticism|Gnostic texts]] challenged the physical nature of Jesus, [[Montanism]] suggested that the apostles could be superseded, and [[Monarchianism]] emphasized the unity of God over the Trinity.{{sfn|Siker|2017|pp=212–217}} In the face of such diversity, unity was provided by the shared scriptures and bishops.{{sfn|Siker|2017|pp=216–217}}{{sfn|Cullmann|2018|p=1}}

The fluidity of the New Testament in the first century does not seem to have affected belief in the [[Trinity]] as it connected to Christology and salvation. Christianity's [[Sacred mysteries|central mystery]], the Trinity, defines the Holy Spirit, Father, and Son as one God in three persons.{{sfn|Olson|Hall|2002|p=15}} However, there is an evolution of thought in the [[Church Fathers|Patristic writings]], then the development of the [[Biblical canon|canon]], and later in the theological controversies of the fourth century, that shaped the concept's development and gradually created a more technical Trinitarian vocabulary.{{sfn|Emery|Levering|2011|pp=1-2, 5-6}}{{sfn|Olson|Hall|2002|pp=15-16}}

== Late antiquity (313 – c. 600) ==
{{Main|Christianity in late antiquity}}{{See also|Late Antiquity#Sculpture and art|Church Fathers}}
Late Antiquity was an age of change in which Christianity became a permitted religion, then a favored one that transformed in every capacity.{{sfn|Casiday|Norris|2007|p=1}} In 313, the emperor [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]], a self-declared Christian, issued the [[Edict of Milan]] expressing tolerance for all religions.{{sfn|Cameron|2006b|p=542}} Thereafter, [[Religious policies of Constantine the Great|he supported Christianity]] by giving bishops judicial power and establishing them as legally equal to polytheistic priests.{{sfn|Cameron|2006b|pp=538, 544, 546}} He devoted personal and public funds to building churches and endowed them with funds to support their clergy.{{sfn|Cameron|2006b|pp=546–547}} There were churches in the majority of Roman cities by the end of the fourth century.{{sfn|Cameron|2006b|p=547}} 
[[File:Agape feast 06.jpg|thumb|Ancient fresco of [[agape feast]] from the Roman catacombs|upright=1.8|alt= ancient Christian fresco of Christians sharing a meal]]
[[Early Christian art and architecture|Christian art, architecture]], and [[Christian literature|literature]] blossomed under Constantine.{{sfn|White|2017|p=700}}{{sfn|Weitzmann|1979|p=xix}} The [[basilica]], a type of Roman municipal court hall, became the model for Christian architecture.{{sfn|White|2017|p=673}} [[Fresco|Frescoes]], [[Mosaic|mosaics]], [[Statue|statues]], and [[Painting|paintings]] blended classical and Christian styles.{{sfn|Weitzmann|1979|pp=xix–xx}} Similarly, a hybrid form of poetry written in classical styles with Christian concepts emerged.{{sfn|Croke|2015|p=414}}{{sfn|Agosti|2015|pp=362; 371–372}}{{sfn|McGill|2015|p=343}} In the late fourth century, [[Jerome]] was commissioned to translate the Greek biblical texts into the Latin language; this translation was called the [[Vulgate]].{{sfn|Ullmann|1965|pp=82–83}} Church fathers of this period, such as [[Augustine of Hippo]], [[John Chrysostom]], [[Gregory of Nyssa]], [[Athanasius of Alexandria]], [[Basil of Caesarea]], [[Gregory of Nazianzus]], [[Cyril of Alexandria]], and [[Ambrose of Milan]], wrote vast numbers of works.{{sfn|Humfress|2015|p=97, 100–101; 110}} 

The [[Asceticism|ascetic ideal]] of these early church fathers was also embraced by monasticism, which had begun earlier in Syria, and was key to the development of Christianity.{{sfn|Wilken|2013|pp=2, 90}}{{sfn|Stewart|2017|p=309}}{{sfn|Chadwick|1985|p=1}} In Late Antiquity, these communities became associated with the urban holy places in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], [[Cappadocia]], [[Italy]], [[Gaul]], and [[Africa (Roman province)|Roman North Africa]].{{sfn|Stewart|2017|pp=315–324}} In the 370s, [[Basil the Great]] founded the [[Basileias]], a monastic community in [[Caesarea (Mazaca)]] which developed the first [[health care system]] for the poor, a forerunner of modern [[History of hospitals|public hospitals]].{{sfn|Crislip|2005|pp=100–106}} 

Before the fourth century, Judaism had been an [[religio licita|approved religion]], while Christianity was persecuted as an illegal superstition; during the fourth century, Christianity became favored by emperors and Judaism came to be seen as a [[heresy]].{{sfn| Stroumsa|2007| pp= 151-152, 158}} Still, [[Augustine of Hippo]] argued that Jews should not be killed or forcibly converted; they should be left alone because they preserved the teachings of the [[Old Testament]] and were "living witnesses" of the New Testament.{{sfn|Cohen|1998|pp=78–80}} Aside from the [[Visigothic Kingdom]], Jews and Christians peacefully coexisted, for the most part, into the High Middle Ages.{{sfn|Abulafia|2002|p=xii}}{{sfn|Bachrach|1977|p=3}}{{refn|group=note|The theology of [[supersessionism]] claims that Christians have displaced the [[Jews as the chosen people|Jews as God's chosen people]];{{sfn|Tapie|2017|p=3}} many scholars attribute [[antisemitism]] to this concept while others distinguish between them.{{sfn|Kim|2006|pp=2, 4, 8–9}}{{sfn|Gerdmar|2009|p=25}}}}

Constantine and his successors attempted to fit the church into their political program.{{sfn|Rahner|2013|pp=xiii, xvii}} Church leaders responded with the first fully articulated limitation on secular authority based on the church as a separate entity, arguing that the church was not part of the empire so much as the empire was part of the universal church.{{sfn|Drake|2007|pp=403, 405-406, 411, 412–414}} During this period, the successors to [[Saint Peter|Peter]] as Bishop of Rome (known as the [[Pope]]) had limited influence, and they lacked the power to break free of secular involvement in church affairs. However, papal influence rose as eastern patriarchs looked to the Pope to resolve disagreements.{{sfn|Casiday|Norris|2007|pp=2, 3}}{{sfn|Salzman|2021|p=300}}{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|p=199}} 

=== Geographical spread ===
{{further|Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England|Christianity in Ireland|Christianisation of Scotland}}
Christianity grew rapidly throughout this period.{{sfn|Judge|2010|p=4}}{{sfn|Rosenwein|2014|p=6}} Christians in Persia, (present-day Iraq), were deeply persecuted in Late Antiquity, but their numbers still grew. A form of Christianity made inroads among Arabs in Palestine, Yemen, and Arabia.{{sfn|Casiday|Norris|2007|p=5}} In the fourth century the percentage of Christians was as high in the [[Sasanian Empire]] as in the Roman Empire.{{sfn|Robert|2009|p=8}} Even as the [[Huns]], [[Ostrogoths]], [[Visigoths]], and [[Vandals]] caused havoc in the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries, many of them converted to Christianity.{{sfn|Rousseau|2017|pp=5–15}}{{sfn|Kim|2013|pp=2–5, 36}}{{sfn|Bury|1967|pp=55, 91, 109}} Syria was home to a thriving theological school.{{sfn|Casiday|Norris|2007|p=5}}{{sfn|Ware|1993|p=12}} The gospel was first brought to Central Asia and China by Syriac-speaking missionaries.{{sfn|Wilken|2013|p=26}} 

Christian institutions in Asia or East Africa never developed the kind of influence that the European churches and Byzantium held.{{sfn|Bundy|2007|pp=118-120}} Even so, in 301, the [[Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity)|Kingdom of Armenia]] became the first nation to adopt Christianity as its [[state religion]], soon followed by [[Caucasian Albania]] and the East African [[Kingdom of Aksum]].{{sfn|Cowe|2006|pp=404–405}}{{sfn|Rapp|2007|p=138}}{{sfn|Brita|2020|p=252}} Christianity, a minority faith in Britain since the second century,{{sfn|Thomas|1997|pp=506–507}} began to be displaced by [[Anglo-Saxon paganism]] in the fifth century.{{sfn|Higham|Ryan|2013|p=70}} However, this process reversed after the [[Gregorian mission]] of 597.{{sfn|Kirby|2000|pp=35, 120–121}} In the early fifth century, missionaries began converting Ireland.{{sfn|Harney|2017|pp=103, 122}}

===Religious violence===
Late antique Christians identified themselves with peacefulness while describing paganism's practices of sacrifice and martyrdom as inherently violent.{{sfn|Van Nuffelen|2020|pp=522, 524, 528}} This dichotomy fills Late Antique literature with both pagan and Christian allegations of violence aimed at discrediting opponents.{{sfn|Van Nuffelen|2020|p=525}} Traditionally, scholars have seen the writings of bishops accusing other bishops of violent acts as evidence of widespread Christian violence toward pagans and their places of worship.{{sfn|Van Nuffelen|2020|pp=513, 515}}{{sfn|Brown|1998|pp=26,47–54}}{{sfn|Cameron|1993|pp=121–123}} However, twenty first century archaeology has not supported tradition.{{sfn|Raschle|Dijkstra|2020|p=5}}{{sfn|Van Nuffelen|2020|pp=513, 515}}{{sfn|Lavan|Mulryan|2011|p=155}}{{sfn|MacMullen|1997|p=3}} 

Temple destruction is attested to in 43 cases in the written sources; four have been confirmed by archaeological evidence.{{sfn|Lavan|Mulryan|2011|p=xxiv}} Literature says Constantine ordered the destruction of the altar at [[Mamre]] building a church in its place. Archaeology found Constantine's church in a peripheral sector that left the rest unhindered.{{sfn|Bayliss|2004|p=31}} [[Libanius|Libanius’]] describes the destruction of the [[Serapeum]] using the image of monks descending on the countryside like locusts destroying everything in their path. Archaeology identifies the Serapeum as the only certain case of temple destruction in Egypt.{{sfn|Van Nuffelen|2020|pp=515-516}}{{sfn|Lavan|Mulryan|2011|p=xxv}} There were violent incidents, however, their number was not high, most were local and limited, and some (such as the murder of pagan philosopher [[Hypatia]]) were not spurred simply by religion.{{sfn|Watts|2017|pages=114–115}}{{sfn|Brown|1998|pp=26,47–54}}{{sfn|Sághy|Salzman|Testa|2016 |pp=3-5, 8}}{{sfn|Van Nuffelen|2020|pp=513, 515-516}} 

Religious violence between pagans and Christians was not a general phenomenon, but there was legal hostility toward certain pagan practices.{{sfn|Brown|2007|p=267}} Blood sacrifice, which had been a central rite of virtually all religious groups in the pre-Christian Mediterranean, disappeared by the end of the fourth century due to hostile imperial laws.{{sfn|Bradbury|1995|pp=331, 355-356}}{{sfn|Thompson|2012|pp=87, 93}} Still, Polytheism in general remained active into the fifth century, and in some places, into the ninth, even though popular support for the polytheistic religions had been in decline since the second century BC.{{sfn|Drake|2007|pp=418, 421}}{{sfn|Southern|2015|pp=455–457}}{{sfn|Gerberding|Moran Cruz|2004|pp=55–56}}{{sfn|Cameron|2015|pp=10, 17, 42, 50}}{{refn|group=note|This is likely from economic factors such as the decline of urbanism and prosperity that began during the [[Fall of the Western Roman Empire|economic crisis of the third century]]. Further economic disruption occurred from the [[Migration Period|migrations of Germanic peoples]] in the fourth and fifth centuries. Such disruption made fewer public funds and private donations available to support expensive pagan festivals and temples.{{sfn|Cameron|2015|pp=10, 17, 42, 50}}{{sfn|Harper|2015|p=685}}{{sfn|Sághy|Schoolman|2017|p=1}}
{{sfn|Brown|1998|pp=640–641, 646–647}}{{sfn|Bremmer|2020|p=9}}}} 

Pagans were not all murdered or converted, they were excluded from the histories Christians wrote of themselves as victorious.{{sfn|Brown|2003|p=641}}{{sfn|Lavan|Mulryan|2011|p=liv-lv}}{{sfn|MacMullen|1997|p=3}} Constantine's influence led to new public identities and competition.{{sfn|Brown|2007|p=267}}{{sfn|Sághy|Salzman|Testa|2016 |pp=2, 5, 7-8}}{{sfn|Van Nuffelen|2020|pp=515-516}} Debate, using persuasion, [[rhetoric]] and [[Polemic|polemics]], became primary.{{sfn|Van Nuffelen|2020|pp=526, 527}}{{sfn|Inglebert|2015|pp=4–5}}{{sfn|Brown|2007|p=267}} As [[Jan N. Bremmer]] writes, "religious violence in Late Antiquity is mostly restricted to violent rhetoric".{{sfn|Bremmer| 2020|p=9}}{{refn|group=note|Evidence from [[North Africa]] beyond Alexandria reveals tolerance of [[religious pluralism]] with [[apologetics]] in the critical role between Christian and pagan.{{sfn|Riggs|2006|pp=297; 308}}{{sfn|Salzman|2006|pp=266–267, 272, 285}}}} Pagans asserted the true meaning of "[[logos]]" could be found in ancient myths and poetics as [[allegory]].{{sfn|Brown|2007|pp=250, 253-254}} Christians asserted the Christian logos in their first true [[Ontology|ontologies]] distinct from earlier [[apologetics]].{{sfn|Brown|2007|p=267}}{{sfn|Uthemann|2007|p=462}}

Constantine generally supported resolving religious disputes through debate, not violence, but in 304, [[Donatism|Donatists]] formed a schism in North Africa, refusing, often violently, to accept those who had handed over sacred texts during Diocletian's persecution.{{sfn|Tilley|2006|p=389}}{{sfn|Brown|2003|p=60}}{{sfn|Cameron|1993|p=67}} The need to maintain public order and the ''pax deorum'' – the peace between Heaven and earth - made it the emperor's duty to impose acceptance through force.{{sfn|Tilley|2006|p=xxiv - xxv}} However, coercion was ineffective, and in 321, Constantine decided no more punishment would be given to Donatists, but their Catholic victims would become venerated as Christian martyrs.{{sfn|Van Nuffelen|2020|p=524}} In 408, [[Augustine]] defended the government's violent response asserting that coercion could not produce genuine conversion, but it could soften resistance and make conversion possible. According to Peter Brown, Augustine thus "provided the theological foundation for the justification of medieval persecution".{{sfn|Brown|1964|pp=107–116}}{{sfn|Tilley|2006|p=389}}{{sfn|Frend|2020|pp=172; 173; 222; 241}}

=== Heresies, schisms and councils ===
[[File:First Nicea Council Icon from Protatos Church, 1770.jpg|thumb|[[First Council of Nicaea]] icon from Protatos Church, 1770|alt=icon of first Nicene council]]
Regional variants of Christianity produced diverse and sometimes competing theologies.{{sfn|Casiday|Norris|2007|p=2}}{{sfn|Lyman|2007|pp=308-309}} Ancient Christian authors identified any practice or doctrine which differed from apostolic tradition as [[heresy]].{{sfn|Praet|1992–1993|pp=68, 108}}{{sfn|Iricinschi|Zellentin|2008|p=4}}{{sfn|McGinn|2017|pp=838–841}} The number of laws directed at heresy indicate it was a much higher priority than paganism for Christians of this period.{{sfn|Brown|1998|pp=634, 640, 651}}{{sfn|Salzman|1993|p=375}}

For decades, [[Arianism]] embroiled the entire church, [[Catholic laity|laity]] (non-clergy) and clergy alike, in arguing whether Jesus' divinity was equal to the Father's.{{sfn|Goodman|2007|pp=30–32}}{{sfn|Berndt|Steinacher|2014|p=9}}{{sfn|Rankin|2017|p=908}} The [[First Council of Nicaea]] in 325 attempted to resolve the controversy with the [[Nicene Creed]], but some refused to accept it.{{sfn|Berndt|Steinacher|2014|pp=2, 4, 7}}{{sfn|Cameron|2006b|p=545|loc="In one of the most momentous precedents of his reign, during Constantine's twentieth-anniversary celebrations in 325, some 250 bishops assembled at Nicaea..."}} Along the Eastern Mediterranean, where Christian factions struggled without resolution, Christian communities were weakened, affecting their long-term survival.{{sfn|Casiday|Norris|2007|p=4}} 

Biblical commentators between 300 and 600 mostly focused on aiding ordinary Christians whose main concern was sin and salvation.{{sfn|Blowers|2007|p=618}}{{sfn|Casiday|2007|pp=501-502}} Christian baptism was distinctive and demonstrated how Christians understood these concepts in terms of the death of Christ.{{sfn|Casiday|2007|p=502}}{{sfn|Uthemann|2007|p=497}} As theology evolved, it held to the paradox of God’s incarnation, as well as the decisive human contribution to redemption seen in Jesus Christ as "the new human being, who is God".{{sfn|Uthemann|2007|p=497}} Christian scriptures were formalized as the [[New Testament]] and distinguished from the Old Testament by the fourth century.{{sfn|Westcott|2005|pp=12–13}}{{sfn|Bruce|1988|p=215}} 

Despite agreement on these texts, differences between East and West were becoming evident.{{sfn|Brown|2010|loc=Intro. and ch. 1}}{{sfn|Brown|1976|p=2}}{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=68-71}} The West was solidly Nicean while the East was largely Arian.{{sfn|Thompson|2016|p=27}} The West condemned Roman culture as sinful and resisted state control, whereas the East harmonized with Greek culture and aimed for unanimity between church and state.{{sfn|Drake|2007|pp=416; 418}}{{sfn|Brown|1976|pp=7–8}}{{sfn|Mathisen|2002|p=261}} The marriage of clerics was accepted in the East but forbidden in the West.{{sfn|Shaw|2017|p=365}}{{sfn|Stewart|2017|pp=308, 324}} The East advocated [[pentarchy|sharing the government of the church]] between five church leaders, arguing that the [[Patriarch|Patriarchs]] of [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|Constantinople]], [[Patriarch of Alexandria|Alexandria]], [[Patriarch of Antioch|Antioch]], and [[Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem|Jerusalem]] were equal to the Pope. Rome asserted that successors to Peter had [[papal primacy|superiority]].{{sfn|Nelson|2008|p=301}}{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=63}}

Controversies over how Jesus' human and divine natures coexisted peaked when [[Nestorius]] declared Mary as the mother of Jesus' humanity, not his divinity, thereby giving Jesus two distinct natures.{{sfn|Ware|1993|pp=31-32}} This led to a series of [[ecumenical council]]s: the [[Council of Ephesus]] was the church's third council, and it condemned Nestorius. Held in 431, the church in the Persian Empire refused to recognize its authority. This led to the first separation between East and West. Two groups, one mostly Persian and the other Syrian, separated from Catholicism; Persians became the [[Church of the East]] (also known as the Assyrian, Nestorian, or Persian Church), while the majority of Christians in Syria and Mesopotamia became the [[Syrian Orthodox Church]] (Jacobite).{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=178, 180}}{{refn|group=note|The second group includes the ([[Syriac Orthodox Church|Syrian Church of Antioch]]), [[Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church|Syrian Church in India]], [[Coptic Orthodox Church|Coptic Church in Egypt]], [[Armenian Apostolic Church|Armenian Church]], and [[Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church|Ethiopian Church]].{{sfn|Ware|1993|p=11}}{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=177-178}}}} This cut off the flourishing school of Syrian Semitic Christian theologians and writers from the rest of Christendom.{{sfn|Ware|1993|p=12}} The Church of the East lay almost entirely outside the Byzantine Empire.{{sfn|Ware|1993|p=35}} It became the principal Church in Asia in the Middle Ages.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=xii, 177}} 

In 451, the fourth council was the influential [[Council of Chalcedon]].{{sfn|Sabo||2018|p=vii}}{{refn|group=note|The [[Second Council of Constantinople|Fifth]] was in 583, and the [[Third Council of Constantinople|Sixth]] in 680{{Endash}}681.{{sfn|Sabo||2018|p=vii}} The seventh council of the church in 787, the [[Second Council of Nicaea]], was the last one recognized as a general council by the Byzantine Church.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=67}}}} While most of Christianity accepted the [[Chalcedonian Definition]], which emphasizes that the Son is "one person in two natures," there were those who found that description too close to the duality of Nestorianism, so after 484, they separated into [[History of Oriental Orthodoxy|Oriental Orthodoxy]] that sees only [[Miaphysitism|"One Nature of God the Incarnate Logos"]].{{sfn|Chaillot|2016|p=273}}{{sfn|Löhr|2007|loc=abstract}}{{sfn|Cross|2001|p=363}}

===After 476===
For five centuries after the [[fall of the Western Roman Empire]] in 476, Western culture and civilization were primarily preserved and passed on by monks.{{sfn|Herrin|2021|p=90}}{{sfn|Williams|1987|loc=paragraphs 1, 2, 5}}{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|p=196}} Those in the [[Eastern Roman Empire]] continued to see themselves as a Roman Empire with an emperor, a civil government, and a large army.{{sfn|Rosenwein|2014|pp=58, 61}}{{sfn|Rousseau|2017|pp=2–3, 5}}{{sfn|Cantor|1960|p=47}}{{sfn|Brown|2008|p=8}}

The religious policies of the Eastern Roman Emperor [[Justinian I]] ({{reign|527|565}}) reflected his conviction that the unity of the Empire presupposed unity of faith: he persecuted pagans and religious minorities, purging the government and church bureaucracies of those who disagreed with him.{{sfn|Kaldellis|2012|pp=1–3}}{{sfn|Brown|2008|p=8}} Justinian contributed to cultural development,{{sfn|Heather|2007|p=283}} and integrated Christian concepts with Roman law in his ''{{lang|la|[[Corpus Juris Civilis]]}}'', which remains the basis of civil law in many modern states.{{sfn|Pennington|2007|p=386}}{{sfn|Herrin|2009|p=213}} 

In Gaul, the Frankish king [[Clovis I]] converted to Catholicism; his kingdom became the dominant polity in the West in 507, gradually converting into a Christian kingdom over the next centuries.{{sfn|Rosenwein|2014|pp=58, 61}}{{sfn|Rousseau|2017|pp=2–3, 5}} Papal influence rose as the church leaders increasingly relied on Rome to resolve many types of disagreement.{{sfn|Nelson|2008|p=301}}{{sfn|Thompson|2016|p=36}} [[Pope Gregory I]] gained prestige and power for the papacy by leading the response to invasion by the [[Lombards]] in 592 and 593, reforming the clergy, standardizing music in worship, sending out missionaries, and founding new monasteries.{{sfn|Kolbaba|2008|p=214}}{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|pp=198-199}} Until 751, the Pope remained a subject of the Byzantine emperor.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=63}}

== Early Middle Ages (c. 600–1000) ==
{{Further|Early Middle Ages}}{{See also|Christian monasticism|Byzantine Iconoclasm|Illuminated manuscript|Insular art}}
By the early 600s, Christianity had spread around the Mediterranean.{{sfn|Brown|2008|pp=2, 6–8}} However, [[Early Muslim conquests|between 632 and 750]], Islamic [[caliphate]]s conquered the Middle East, North Africa, and the [[Iberian Peninsula]].{{sfn|Barton|2009|p=xvii}}{{sfn|Dorfmann-Lazarev|2008|pp=65–66}}{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|p=4}} Most urban Asian churches disappeared, but Christian communities established in remote areas between the fifth and the eighth centuries continued to survive.{{sfn|Dorfmann-Lazarev|2008|pp=66-67; 85}}{{sfn|Micheau|2006|p=373}} In the same period, war on multiple fronts contributed to the Eastern Roman Empire becoming the independent [[Byzantine Empire]].{{sfn|Rosenwein|2014|pp=39-41, 54}} Until the eighth century, [[Germanic peoples|most of Western Europe]] remained largely impoverished, politically fragmented, and dependent on the church.{{sfn|Rosenwein|2014|pp=58, 61}}{{sfn|Rousseau|2017|pp=2–3, 5}} 

During this period, invasion, deportation, and neglect left many communities without a church, leaving Christianity to [[Syncretism|syncretize]] with local pagan traditions.{{sfn|Brown|2008|pp=11–13}}{{sfn|Abrams|2016|pp=32–41}} The church of this age was only indirectly influenced by the Bible.{{sfn|Oakley|1985|p=171}} Nevertheless, "[[Christendom#Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages|Christendom]]," the notion of all Christians united as a [[polity]], emerged at the end of this age.{{sfn|Herrin|2021|pp=xv, 8, 13}}{{sfn|Van Engen|1986|p=552}}  

=== Monasticism and art ===
Until the end of the Early Middle Ages, Western culture was preserved and passed on primarily by monks known as "regular clergy" because they followed a {{lang|la|regula}}: a rule.{{sfn|Cantor|1960|p=47}}{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|p=199}} The rule included chastity, obedience and poverty sought through prayer, memorization of scripture, celibacy, fasting, manual labour, and almsgiving.{{sfn|Stewart|2017|pp=308–309}}{{sfn|Helvétius|Kaplan|2008|p=277}}
[[File:Book of Hours (Use of Metz) Fol. 27r, Decorated Initials.tif|thumb|alt=image of decorated page from the book of hours|A page from a 15th-century [[book of hours]] (prayer book) with a decorated initial]]
Monasteries served as orphanages and inns for travelers, and they provided food for those in need.{{sfn|Brodman|2009|pp=66–68}}{{sfn|Helvétius|Kaplan|2008|p=295}}{{sfn|Constable|2004|pp=35–36}} They supported [[literacy]], practiced classical arts and crafts, and copied and preserved ancient texts in their [[scriptoria]] and libraries.{{sfn|Ferzoco|2001|pp=1–3}}{{sfn|Woods|Canizares|2012|p=5}} Dedicated monks created [[illuminated manuscript]]s.{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|pp=202–203}} From the sixth to the eighth centuries, most schools were connected to monasteries, but methods of teaching an illiterate populace could also include [[mystery play]]s, vernacular sermons, saints' lives in epic form, and artwork.{{sfn|Van Engen|1986|p=552}}{{sfn|Ferzoco|2001|p=2}}{{sfn|Herrin|2021|pp=40, 80-81}}

This was an age of uncertainty, and the role of [[Relic|relics]] and holy men able to provide special access to the divine became increasingly important.{{sfn|Rosenwein|2014|pp=24, 27–29}}{{sfn|Markus|1990|p=26}} Donations funding prayers for the dead provided an ongoing source of wealth.{{sfn|Brown|2012|pp=514–517; 530}}{{sfn|Bonser|1962|p=236}} Monasteries became increasingly organized, gradually establishing their own authority as separate from political and familial authorities, thereby revolutionizing social history.{{sfn|Helvétius|Kaplan|2008|pp=275–277; 281; 298}}{{sfn|Haight|2004|p=273}} Medical practice was highly important, and medieval monasteries were best known for their public hospitals, hospices, and contributions to medicine.{{sfn|Phipps|1988|loc=abstract}}{{sfn|Crislip|2005|p=3}} The sixth-century [[Rule of Saint Benedict#Secular significance|Rule of Saint Benedict]] has had extensive influence.{{sfn|Truran|2000|pp=68–69}}{{sfn|Butler|1919|loc=intro.}}{{sfn|Dunn|2003|p=137}}

The East developed an approach to sacred art unknown in the West, adapting ancient portraiture in [[icon]]s as intercessors between God and humankind.{{sfn|Herrin|2021|p=12}} In the 720s, the Byzantine Emperor [[Leo III the Isaurian|Leo]] banned the pictorial representation of Christ, saints, and biblical scenes, and destroyed much early representational art.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=65}} The West condemned the [[Byzantine iconoclasm]] of Leo and some of his successors.{{sfn|Halsall|2021}} By the tenth and early eleventh centuries, Byzantine culture began to recover its artistic heritage.{{sfn|Louth|2008|p=46}}{{sfn|Shepard|2006|p=3}}

===Regional differences===
[[File:Cyril Metodej.jpg|thumb|alt=image of a monument depicting Saints Cyril and Methodius|[[Saints Cyril and Methodius|St. Cyril and St. Methodius]] monument on [[Radhošť|Mt. Radhošť]], Czech Republic]]
[[Eastern Europe]] had been exposed to Christianity during Roman rule, but it was [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Byzantine Christianity]], brought by the ninth-century saints [[Cyril and Methodius]], that was integral to the formation of its modern states. Dukes and kings used the new faith to solidify their position and promote unity, while some directly enforced it with new laws, building churches, and establishing monasteries.{{sfn|Radić|2010|p=232}}{{sfn|Ivanič|2016|pp=126; 129}}{{sfn|Ware|1993|p=12}} The brothers developed the [[Glagolitic alphabet]] to translate the Bible into the local language. Their disciples then developed the [[Cyrillic script]], which spread literacy and became the cultural and religious foundation for all Slavic nations.{{sfn|Poppe|1991|p=25}}{{sfn|Schaff|2011|pp=161–162}}{{sfn|Ivanič|2016|p=127}} 

In 635, the Church of the East brought Christianity to the Chinese [[Emperor Taizong of Tang|Emperor Taizong]] whose decree to license the Christian faith was copied onto the [[Xi'an Stele|Sianfu stele]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=189}} It spread into northwestern China, [[Kingdom of Khotan|Khotan]], [[Turpan|Turfan]], and south of [[Lake Balkhash|Lake Balkash]] in southeastern [[Kazakhstan]], but its growth was halted in 845 by Emperor Wu-Tsung, who favoured [[Taoism]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=189-190}} The Church of the East evangelized all along the [[Silk Road]] and was instrumental in converting some of the [[Mongolic peoples|Mongolic]] and [[Turkic peoples]].{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=191}} After 700, when much of Christianity was declining, there were flourishing Christian societies along all the main trade routes of Asia, South India, the Nubian kingdoms, Ethiopia, and the Caucasus region.{{sfn|Casiday|Norris|2007|p=5}}{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|pp=188, 189-191}} 

In Western Europe, [[canon law]] was instrumental in developing key norms concerning oaths of loyalty, homage, and fidelity.{{sfn|Pennington|2011|p=106}} These norms were incorporated into civil law where traces remain.{{sfn|Pennington|2011|p=114}} Within the tenets of [[feudalism]], the church created a new model of consecrated kingship unknown in the East, and in 800, Clovis' descendant [[Charlemagne]] became its recipient when [[Pope Leo III]] crowned him emperor.{{sfn|Nelson|2008|pp=302, 307}} Charlemagne engaged in a number of reforms which began the [[Carolingian Renaissance]], a period of intellectual and cultural revival.{{sfn|Collins|1998|pp=102-107}} His crowning set the precedent that only a pope could crown a Western emperor enabling popes to claim emperors derived their power from God through them.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=29}} The Papacy became free from Byzantine control, and the former lands of the [[Exarchate]] became States of the church.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=29}}{{sfn|Carocci|2016|p=66}} However, the papacy was still in need of aid and protection, so the Holy Roman emperors often used that need to attempt domination of the Papacy and the Papal States.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=29}} In Rome, the papacy came under the control of the city's aristocracy.{{sfn|Carocci|2016|p=66}}{{sfn|Ullmann|1972|p=71}}

In Russia, the baptism of [[Vladimir of Kiev]] in 989 is traditionally associated with the conversion of the [[Kievan Rus']].{{sfn|Poppe|1991|pp=5–7}} Their new religious structure included dukes maintaining control of a financially-dependent church.{{sfn|Poppe|1991|p=12}}{{sfn|Štefan|2022|p=111}}{{refn|group=note| The prince appointed the clergy to positions in government service, satisfied their material needs, determined who would fill the higher ecclesiastical positions, and directed the synods of bishops in the Kievan metropolitanate.{{sfn|Poppe|1991|p=15}}}} Monasticism was the dominant form of piety for both peasants and elites who identified as Christian while retaining many pre-Christian practices.{{sfn|Kenworthy|2008|pp=173–174}}

[[Viking]] raids in the ninth and tenth centuries destroyed many churches and monasteries, inadvertently leading to reform. Patrons competed in rebuilding so that "by the mid-eleventh century, a wealthy, unified, better-organized, better-educated, more spiritually sensitive Latin Church" resulted.{{sfn|Howe|2016|p=3}} There was another rise in papal power in the tenth century when [[William IX, Duke of Aquitaine]], and other powerful lay founders of monasteries, placed their institutions under the protection of the papacy.{{sfn|Helvétius|Kaplan|2008|p=287}}{{sfn|Thompson|2016|pp=177–178}}{{sfn|Costambeys|2000|pp=380; 393–394}}

== High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1300) ==
{{Further|High Middle Ages}}
Membership in the Christendom of this age began with baptism at birth.{{sfn|Cantor|1960|p=57}}{{sfn|Rubin|Simons|2009|p=4}}{{sfn|Dawson|2008|p=282}} Every follower was supposed to have some knowledge of the [[Apostles' Creed]] and the [[Lord's Prayer]], to rest on Sunday and feast days, attend mass, fast at specified times, take communion at Easter, pay various fees for the needy, and receive last rites at death.{{sfn|Van Engen|1986|pp=539; 540; 541; 546}}{{sfn|Tolan|2016|p=278}} The medieval papacy gained authority in every domain of European life as it gradually came to resemble the monarchies of its day.{{sfn|Rosenwein|2014|p=185}}{{sfn|Ullmann|1965|pp=80–81}} 

Canon law became a huge, highly complex legal system, and yet these hundreds of laws largely omitted Christianity's earlier principles of equity and inclusivity.{{sfn|Hastings|2000|p=382}}{{sfn|Nelson|2008|pp=305, 324}} The High Middle Ages saw the formation of several fundamental Christian doctrines, such as the seven sacraments, the just reward for labour, "the terms of Christian marriage, the nature of clerical celibacy and the appropriate lifestyle for priests".{{sfn|Rubin|Simons|2009|pp=2-3}} Heresy was more precisely defined.{{sfn|Rubin|Simons|2009|p=5}} [[Purgatory]] became an official doctrine. In 1215, [[Confession (religion)|confession]] became required for all.{{sfn|Wood|2016|p=11}}{{sfn|Van Engen|1986|p=543}} The [[rosary]] was created after veneration of [[Mary, mother of Jesus]] became a central aspect of the period.{{sfn|Rubin|Simons|2009|pp=1–2}}
[[File:Périgueux - Cathédrale Saint-Front 1047 - Romanesque architecture - 'restored' 1852-95 by Paul Abadie (Architect of Basilique du Sacré-Cœur in Paris) 23.jpg|thumb|alt=example of Romanesque architecture from the Sacre Cour in Paris|[[Romanesque architecture]] preserved in the French [[Périgueux Cathedral]]]]
Beginning at [[Cluny Abbey]] (910), which used [[Romanesque architecture]] to convey a sense of awe and wonder and inspire obedience, monasteries gained influence through the [[Cluniac Reforms]].{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|pp=215-216}}{{sfn|Stephenson|2009|p=7}}{{refn|group=note|During this same period, the monk [[Guido of Arezzo]] created the [[music staff]] of lines and spaces and named musical notes, making modern music possible.{{sfn|Hall|Battani|Neitz|2004|p=100}}}} However, their cultural and religious dominance began to decline in the mid-eleventh century when [[secular clergy]], who were not members of religious orders, rose in influence.{{sfn|Cantor|1960|pp=47, 54}} Monastery schools lost influence as [[cathedral school]]s spread,{{sfn|Cantor|1960|pp=52-53}} independent schools arose,{{sfn|Rosenwein|2014|p=197}} and [[Medieval university|universities]] formed as self-governing corporations chartered by popes and kings.{{sfn|Verger|1995|p=257}}{{sfn|Den Heijer|2011|p=65|loc="Many of the medieval universities in Western Europe were born under the aegis of the Catholic Church, usually as cathedral schools or by papal bull as Studia Generali"}} Canon and civil law became professionalized, and a new literate elite formed, further displacing monks.{{sfn|Nelson|2008|p=326}}{{sfn|Cantor|1960|pp=53-54}} Throughout this period, the clergy and the laity became "more literate, more worldly, and more self-assertive".{{sfn|Matter|2008|p=530}}{{refn|group=note| The [[parish]] emerged as one of the fundamental institutions of medieval Europe.{{sfn|Rubin|Simons|2009|pp=2–3}}{{sfn|Van Engen|1986|p=542}}{{sfn|Matter|2008|p=530}} After the eleventh century, education began at home then continued in the parish of one's birth instead of in the monastery.{{sfn|Rubin|Simons|2009|p=3}}{{sfn|Cantor|1960|pp=50, 52}} The parish priest (secular clergy) celebrated the liturgy, visited the sick, instructed the young, gave aid to the poor, ministered to the dying, and monitored and maintained his parish's income from land, livestock, rents and tithes.{{sfn|Rubin|Simons|2009|p=3}}}} 

=== Centralization ===
The [[Gregorian Reform|reform]] of [[Pope Gregory VII]] (1073–1085) began "a new period in church history".{{sfn|Nelson|2008|p=301}}{{sfn|Larson|2016|p=6}} Previously, the power of kings and emperors had been at least partly founded on connection to the sacred.{{sfn|Cantor|1960|p=56}}{{sfn|Nelson|2008|p=326}} Gregorian Reform intended to divest Western rule of its sacramental character, and to establish the preeminence of the church by freeing it from state control.{{sfn|Cantor|1960|p=55}} This reinforced the popes' temporal power, enabling a reorganization of the administration of the [[Papal States]] which brought a substantial increase in wealth. This enabled popes to become patrons in their own right,{{Sfn|Costambeys|2000|pp=367, 372, 376}}{{sfn|Barnish|1988|p=120}}{{sfn|Carocci|2016|pp=66, 68, 76, 79}} consolidate territory, centralize authority, and establish a bureaucracy.{{sfn|Logan|2013|pp=2–3}}{{sfn|Deane|2022|pp=xxiii, 277}}{{sfn|Nelson|2008|p=326}} 
	
The centralization of governance during this period created conflict between church and state officials competing to claim legal and tax jurisdiction over the same populace.{{sfn|Rubin|Simons|2009|p=3}}{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|pp=244–247}} A major example was the [[Investiture Controversy]] in the [[Holy Roman Empire]], a conflict between the Holy Roman Emperor [[Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor|Henry IV]] and Pope Gregory VII over the secular appointment of bishops and abbots and control of their revenues.{{sfn|Garrett|1987|pp=5–7}}{{sfn|Grzymała-Busse|2023|pp=24, 51}}{{sfn|Thompson|2016|pp=176–182}}{{sfn|Dowley|2018|p=159}} For the church, ending lay investiture would support independence from the state, encourage reform, and provide better [[pastoral care]]. For the kings, ending lay investiture meant the power of the Holy Roman Emperor and the [[European nobility]] would be reduced.{{sfn|Grzymała-Busse|2023|pp=24-26, 51–52}}{{sfn|Thompson|2016|pp=176–177}}{{sfn|Althoff|2019b|pp=173; 175}}{{sfn|Eichbauer|2022|p=3}} The central issue for both was, who has the power to make law?{{sfn|Byfield|2008|p=vii}} 

The ''{{lang|la|[[Dictatus Papae]]}}'' of 1075 declared that the pope alone could invest bishops.{{sfn|Grzymała-Busse|2023|p=25}} Disobedience to the Pope became equated with heresy;{{sfn|Althoff|2019b|p=175}} when Henry IV rejected the decree, he was [[Excommunication (Catholic Church)|excommunicated]], which contributed to a [[Saxon revolt of 1077–1088|civil war]].{{sfn|Garrett|1987|p=8}}{{sfn|Grzymała-Busse|2023|p=52}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2009|p=375}} A similar controversy occurred in England.{{sfn|Vaughn|1980|pp=61–86}}

===Schism, crusade, spread, and retraction===
The Church of the East, which had separated after Chalcedon, survived against the odds with help from Byzantium.{{sfn|Angold|2006|loc=frontmatter}} At the height of its expansion in the thirteenth century, the Church of the East stretched from Syria to eastern China and from Siberia to southern India and southern Asia.{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|p=XXIII}} The second separation between east and west took place in 1054 when the church within the Byzantine Empire formed Byzantine [[Eastern Orthodoxy]], which thereafter remained in communion with the [[Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople]], not the Pope.{{sfn|Ware|1993|pp=11, 33}} 

Christianity was declining in Mesopotamia and inner Iran, although some Christian communities continued to exist further to the east.{{sfn|Micheau|2006|pp=373, 378, 381}}{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=xi}} As churches in Egypt, Syria, and Iraq became subject to fervently Islamic militaristic regimes, Christians were designated as [[Dhimmi|''dhimmi'']], a status that guaranteed their protection but enforced their legal inferiority.{{sfn|Micheau|2006|pp=373, 403}} Different communities adopted various survival strategies: some withdrew from interaction, others converted to Islam, and others sought outside help.{{sfn|Micheau|2006|p=403}} 
 
Along with geographical separation, there had long been many cultural differences, geopolitical disagreements, and a lack of respect between east and west.{{sfn|Kolbaba|2008|pp=214; 223}}{{sfn|Meyendorff|1979|loc=intro}} Nevertheless, the Byzantine emperor [[Alexios I Komnenos]] still asked [[Pope Urban II]] for help with the [[Seljuk Empire|Seljuk Turks]] in 1081,{{sfn|Rosenwein|2014|pp=173–174}} and in 1095, Urban asked European Christians to "go to the aid of their brethren" in counterattack against the inroads of Islam.{{sfn|Byfield|2008|p=vii}}{{sfn|Folda|1995|pp=36; 141}}{{sfn|Tyerman|1992|pp=15–16}}{{sfn|Bull|2009|pp=346–347}} 

Urban's message had great popular appeal. Drawing on powerful and prevalent aspects of folk religion, it connected [[pilgrimage]], [[Charity (practice)|charity]], and [[absolution]] with a willingness to fight.{{sfn|Bull|2009|pp=346–349}}{{sfn|Van Engen|1986|p=523}} It gave ordinary Christians a tangible means of expressing brotherhood with the East and carried a sense of historical responsibility.{{sfn|Bull|2009|pp=340–342; 346; 349–350; 352}} Tens of thousands answered.{{sfn|Byfield|2008|p=11}} 

In 1096, [[Peter the Hermit]] led the [[People’s Crusade]] to a disastrous end.{{sfn|Byfield|2008|pp=16-17, 11}} The [[Crusades]], which lasted from 1095 to 1272, had little to no overall military success, failed miserably as a religious endeavor, contributed to the development of national identities in European nations and, eventually, increased division with the East. Scholars struggle to estimate how many died with no resulting agreement.{{sfn|Kostick|2010|pp=2–6}}{{sfn|Byfield|2008|p=vii}} The [[Chivalry|cult of chivalry]], which upheld the ideal of the Christian knight, emerged with powerful and wide-spread social and cultural influence before its decline during the 1400s.{{sfn|Bull|2009|pp=346-348}}{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|p=208}} Another significant effect of the Crusades was the invention of the [[indulgence]].{{sfn|Bull|2009|p=351}}

The [[Christianization of Scandinavia]] occurred in two stages: first, in the ninth century, missionaries operated without secular support; then, a secular ruler would begin to oversee Christianization in their territory until an organized ecclesiastical network was established.{{sfn|Sanmark|2004|pp=14-15}} By 1350, Scandinavia was an integral part of Western Christendom.{{sfn|Brink|2004|p=xvi}}

===Renaissance, science and technology===
[[File:Wells Cathedral Lady Chapel, Somerset, UK - Diliff.jpg|thumb|alt=example of Gothic architecture in England|[[Gothic architecture]] of the [[Lady chapel|Lady Chapel]] of [[Wells Cathedral]] in [[Somerset]], [[England]]]]
The Christian wars of [[Reconquista|reconquest]], which lasted over 200 years, had begun in Italy in 915 and in Spain in 1009 to retake territory lost to Muslims, causing fleeing Muslims in Sicily and Spain to leave behind their libraries.{{sfn|Hamilton|2003|p=37}} Between 1150 and 1200, monks searched those libraries and found the works of [[Aristotle]], [[Euclid]], and other ancient writers.{{sfn|Bauer|2013|pp=46–47}} The West's rediscovery of the complete works of Aristotle led to the [[Renaissance of the twelfth century]]. It also created conflict between faith and reason, resolved by a revolution in thought called [[scholasticism]].{{sfn|Longwell|1928|pp=210; 214; 216}}{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|pp=219-220}} The scholastic writings of [[Thomas Aquinas]] impacted Catholic theology and influenced secular philosophy and law into the modern day.{{sfn|Haskins|1971|pp=4–7; 342; 345}}{{sfn|Longwell|1928|p=224}}{{sfn|Seagrave|2009|p=491}} Monks revived the scientific study of natural phenomena, which led to the [[scientific revolution]] in the West.{{sfn|Noll|2009|p=4}}{{sfn|Lindberg|Numbers|1986|pp=5; 12}}{{sfn|Gilley|2006|p=164}} There was no parallel renaissance in the East.{{sfn|Herrin|2021|p=12}}

[[Byzantine art]] exerted a powerful influence on Western art in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.{{sfn|Weitzmann|1966|p=3}} [[Gothic architecture]], intended to inspire contemplation of the divine, began in the same centuries.{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|pp=228–237}}{{sfn|Stephenson|2009|p=9}} The [[Cistercians|Cistercian movement]] was a wave of monastic reform after 1098; Cistercians became instrumental in [[Medieval technology|technological advancement in medieval Europe]].{{sfn|MacCulloch|2009|pp=376–378}}{{sfn|Hunter|1978|p=60}}{{sfn|Constable|1998|pp=4–5}}

===Challenges and repression===
The twelfth century saw a change in the goal of a monk from contemplative devotion to active reform.{{sfn|Fox|1987|p=298}}{{sfn|Jestice|1997|pp=1, 5–6}} Among these new activist preachers was [[Saint Dominic|Dominic]] who founded the [[Dominican Order]] and was significant in opposing [[Catharism]].{{sfn|Léglu|Rist|Taylor|2013|p=8}}{{sfn|Rubin|Simons|2009|p=4}} In 1209, [[Pope Innocent III]] and King [[Philip II of France]] initiated the [[Albigensian Crusade]] against [[Catharism]].{{sfn|Marvin|2008|pp=3, 4}}{{sfn|Kienzle|2001|pp=46, 47}} The campaign took a political turn when the king's army strategically seized and occupied lands of nobles who had not supported the heretics, but had been in the good graces of the Church.{{sfn|Rummel| 2006|p=50}} It ended in 1229 when the region was brought under the rule of the French king, creating [[southern France]], while Catharism continued until 1350.{{sfn|Marvin| 2008|p=216}}{{sfn|Dunbabin|2003|pp=178–179}}

Moral misbehaviour, such as sexual misconduct, being drunk and disorderly in public, or heresy by either laity or clergy, were prosecuted in [[Inquisition|inquisitorial courts]]. These courts, which were composed of both church and civil authorities, were established when someone was accused, then after prosecution, they were dissolved.{{sfn|Arnold|2018|pp=363, 365}}{{sfn|Ames|2009|p=16}}{{sfn|Deane|2022|p=xv}} Though these courts had no joint leadership nor joint organization, the [[Dominican Order]] held the primary responsibility for conducting inquisitions.{{sfn|Peters|1980|p=189}}{{sfn|Mout|2007|p=229}}{{sfn|Zagorin|2003|p=3}} The [[Medieval Inquisition]] brought between 8,000 and 40,000 people to interrogation and sentencing; death sentences were relatively rare.{{sfn|Arnold|2018|pp=363, 367}} The penalty imposed most often was an act of penance which might include public confession.{{sfn|Wood|2016|p=9}} Bishops were the lead inquisitors, but they did not possess absolute power, nor were they universally supported.{{sfn|Rubin|Simons|2009|pp=5–6}}{{sfn|Arnold|2018|p=365}} Inquisition became stridently contested as public opposition grew and riots against the Dominicans occurred.{{sfn|Arnold|2018|p=363}}{{sfn|Ames|2009|pp=1–2; 4; 7; 16; 28; 34}}{{sfn|Given|2001|p=14}} The [[Fourth Lateran Council]] of 1215 empowered inquisitors to search out moral and religious "crimes" even when there was no accuser. In theory, this granted them extraordinary powers. In practice, without sufficient local secular support, their task became so overwhelmingly difficult that inquisitors were endangered and some were murdered.{{sfn|Arnold|2018|pp=365; 368}}

From 1170-80, the Jewish philosopher Moses ben Maimon (commonly known as [[Maimonides]]) wrote his fourteen-volume code of Jewish law and ethics, titled the "[[Mishneh Torah]]".{{sfn|Maimonides|1983|pp=iii-v}} A turning point in Jewish-Christian relations occurred when the [[Talmud]] was [[Disputation of Paris|put "on trial" in 1239]] by the French King [[Louis IX of France|Louis IX]] and [[Pope Gregory IX]] because of contents that mocked the central figures of Christianity.{{sfn|Schacter|2011|p=2}} Talmudic Judaism came to be seen as so different from biblical Judaism that old Augustinian obligations to leave the Jews alone no longer applied.{{sfn|Rosenthal|1956|pp=68–72}}{{sfn|Schacter|2011|p=2}}{{sfn|Shatzmiller|1974|p=339}} A rhetoric with elaborate stories casting Jews as enemies accused of ritual murder, [[blood libel]], and desecration of the Christian eucharist host grew among ordinary folk. The spread of the [[Black Death]] led to attacks on Jewish communities by people who blamed them for the epidemic.{{sfn|Rubin|Simons2009|p=6}}{{sfn|Resnick|2012|p=4}}{{sfn|Mundy|2000|p=58}} Jews often acted as financial agents for the nobility, providing them [[usury|loans with interest]] while being exempt from certain financial obligations. This attracted jealousy and resentment.{{sfn|Moore|2007|p=110}} Count [[Emicho|Emicho of Leiningen]] massacred Jews in search of supplies and protection money, while the [[History of the Jews in England (1066–1290)#Massacres at London, Bury and York (1189–1190)|York massacre of 1190]] also appears to have originated in a conspiracy by local leaders to liquidate their debts.{{sfn|Rose|2015|p=70}}

The nobility of Eastern Europe prioritized subduing the [[Balts]], the last major polytheistic population in Europe, over crusading in the Holy Land.{{sfn|Fonnesberg-Schmidt|2007|pp=23; 65}}{{refn|group=note|These rulers saw crusade as a tool for territorial expansion, alliance building, and empowerment of their own nascent church and state.{{sfn|Firlej|2021–2022|p=121}}}} In 1147, the ''[[Divina dispensatione]]'' gave these nobles indulgences for the first of the [[Northern Crusades]], which intermittently continued, with and without papal support, until 1316.{{sfn|Christiansen|1997|p=287}}{{sfn|Hunyadi|Laszlovszky|2001|p=606}}{{sfn|Fonnesberg-Schmidt|2007|pp=65; 75–77, 119}} The clergy pragmatically accepted the forced conversions the nobles perpetrated despite continued theological emphasis on voluntary conversion.{{sfn|Fonnesberg-Schmidt|2007|p=24}}

== Renaissance and Reformation (c. 1300–1650) ==
{{Further|Renaissance}}
=== Division in the West ===
[[Crisis of the late Middle Ages|The many calamities of the "long fourteenth century"]], which included [[Bubonic plague|plague]], [[Great Famine of 1315–1317|famine]], [[Hundred Years' War|wars]], and [[Popular revolts in late medieval Europe|social unrest]], led European people to believe [[Christian eschatology|the end of the world]] was imminent.{{sfn|Lazzarini|Blanning|2021|pp=7–9}}{{sfn|Taylor|2021|pp=109–110}}{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|pp=241–244}} This belief ran throughout society and became intertwined with anti-clerical and anti-papal sentiments.{{sfn|Rubin|Simons|2009|p=4}}{{sfn|Taylor|2021|pp=118–119}}{{refn|group=note|Some claimed that the clergy did little to help the suffering, although the high mortality rate amongst clerics indicates that many continued to care for the sick. Other medieval folk claimed it was the "corrupted" and "vice-ridden" clergy that had caused the many calamities they believed were punishments from God.{{sfn|Taylor|2021|pp=114–115}}}} Criticism of the church became an integral part of late medieval European life, and was expressed in both secular and religious writings, and movements of heresy or internal reform.{{sfn|Swanson|2021|pp=9; 11; 12}}{{sfn|Heß|2013|pp=78–80, 88-89, 94}} Most attempts at reform between 1300 and 1500 failed.{{sfn|Swanson|2021|pp=15–17; 21}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2009|p=378}}{{refn|group=note|In 1320, [[Dante Alighieri]] completed the [[Divine Comedy]], a Christian allegory of reason and divine revelation, sin and ultimate truth, using Catholic doctrine on Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. It became one of the greatest works in literary history.{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998| p=223}}}} 

In 1309, [[Pope Clement V]] fled Rome's factional politics by moving to [[Avignon]] in southern France. By leaving Rome and the "seat of Peter" behind, this [[Avignon Papacy]], consisting of seven successive popes, unintentionally diminished papal prestige and power.{{sfn|Taylor|2021|pp=109–110, 118–119}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2009|pp=375, 559, 561}} [[Pope Gregory XI]] returned to Rome in 1377.{{sfn|Kelly|2009|p=104}}{{sfn|Whalen|2015|p=14}}{{sfn|Taylor|2021|pp=109–110}} After Gregory's death the following year, the [[papal conclave]] elected [[Urban VI]] to succeed him, but the French cardinals disapproved and elected [[Robert of Geneva]] instead. This began the [[Western Schism]], during which there was more than one pope.{{sfn|Olson|1999|p=348}} In 1409, the [[Council of Pisa]]'s attempted resolution resulted in the election of a third separate pope. The schism was finally resolved in 1417, with the election of [[Pope Martin V]].{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|pp=245–246}}{{sfn|Ullmann|2005|p=xv}}

Throughout the Late Middle Ages, the church faced powerful challenges and vigorous political confrontations.{{sfn|Van Engen|1986|pp=526; 532; 538; 552}}{{sfn|Rubin|Simons|2009|pp=1; 7}} The English scholastic philosopher [[John Wycliffe]] (1320–1384) urged the church to again embrace simplicity by giving up its property and wealth, ending subservience to secular politics, and denying papal authority.{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|p=247}}{{sfn|Estep|1986|pp=64, 66-67}} Wycliffe's teachings were condemned as heresy, but he was allowed to live out the last two years of his life in his home parish.{{sfn|Estep|1986|p=64}} In 1382, Wycliffe created the first [[Wycliffe's Bible|English translation of the Bible]].{{sfn|Norton|2011|pp=8–11}} Wycliffe's teachings influenced the Czech theologian [[Jan Hus]] (1369–1415) who also spoke out against what he saw as corruption in the church.{{sfn|Estep|1986|p=69}} Hus was convicted of heresy and burned at the stake.{{sfn|Estep|1986|p=76}} This was the impetus for the [[Bohemian Reformation]] and led to the [[Hussite Wars]].{{sfn|Haberkern|2016|pp=1–3}}{{sfn|Frassetto|2007|pp=196-198}}{{sfn|Estep|1986|pp=76–77}} 

Meanwhile, a vernacular religious culture called the ''[[Devotio Moderna]]'' attempted to work toward a pious society of ordinary people.{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|p=246}} Through the Dutch scholar [[Erasmus|Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus]] (1466–1536), [[Christian humanism]] grew and impacted literature and education.{{sfn|Caspari|1947|pp=91-92}} Between 1525 and 1534, [[William Tyndale]] used the Vulgate and Greek texts from Erasmus to create the [[Tyndale Bible]].{{sfn|Norton|2011|pp=8–11}} King James commissioned the [[King James Version]] in 1604, using all previous versions in Latin, Greek, and English as sources. It was published in 1611.{{sfn|Norton|2011|pp=, 54, 85, 132}}

=== East and Renaissance ===
A reunion agreement between the Orthodox and Catholic churches in 1452 was negated by the [[Fall of Constantinople]] to the [[Ottoman Empire]] in 1453, which sealed off Orthodoxy from the West for more than a century.{{sfn|Kitromilides|2006|pp=187, 191}}{{sfn|Kenworthy|2008|p=173}}{{sfn|Dowley|2018|pp=342–343}} Islamic law did not acknowledge the Byzantine church as an institution, but a concern for societal stability allowed it to survive. Financial handicaps, constant upheaval, [[simony]], and corruption impoverished many, and made conversion an attractive solution.{{sfn|Zachariadou|2006|pp=171–181}}{{sfn|Kenworthy|2008|p=175}}{{sfn|Kitromilides|2006|p=192}} This led to the state confiscating churches and turning them into mosques.{{sfn|Kitromilides|2006|p=192}} The patriarchate became a part of the Ottoman system under [[Suleiman the Magnificent]] (1520–1566),{{sfn|Zachariadou|2006|pp=181; 184}}{{sfn|Kenworthy|2008|p=175}} and by the end of the sixteenth century, widespread desperation and low morale had produced crisis and decline. When [[Cyril Lucaris|Cyril I Loukaris (1572 – 1638)]] became Patriarch in 1620, he began leading the church toward renewal.{{sfn|Kitromilides|2006|p=192}} A shared hostility towards Catholicism led Cyril to reach out to the Protestants of Europe and to be deeply impacted by their Reformation doctrines.{{sfn|Kitromilides|2006|p=195}} Protestant pressure produced the [[Cyril_Lucaris#Calvinism|Lukaris Confession]] embracing [[Reformed Christianity|Calvinism]].{{sfn|Kitromilides|2006|pp=197-198}}

[[File:Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano September 2015-1a.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|alt=image of St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City|The facade of [[St. Peter's Basilica]] in the [[Vatican City]].]]
The flight of [[Greek scholars in the Renaissance|Eastern Christians from Constantinople]], as well as the manuscripts they carried with them, were important factors in stimulating literary renaissance in the West.{{sfn|Hudson|2023}}{{sfn|Ware|1993|p=11}} The Catholic Church became a leading patron of [[Renaissance art|art]] and [[Medieval architecture|architecture]], commissioning work and supporting renowned artists.{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|pp=299, 308–319}}{{sfn|Hebron|2022|loc=Heritage and Rupture with the Tradition}} Even while fifteenth-century popes struggled to reestablish papal authority, the [[Renaissance Papacy]] transformed Rome by rebuilding [[St. Peter's Basilica]] and establishing the city as a prestigious centre of learning.{{sfn|Gordon|2022|pp=6, 9-10}} Reformation Protestants condemned these popes as corrupt for their lack of chastity, nepotism, and selling "hats and indulgences".{{sfn|Gordon|2022|pp=10–11}} 

In Russia, [[Ivan III of Russia]] adopted the style of the Byzantine imperial court to gain support among the Rus' elite who saw themselves as the new 'chosen' and Moscow as the [[New Jerusalem#Eastern Christianity|New Jerusalem]].{{sfn|Shepard|2006|pp=8–9}} [[Jeremias II]] (1536–1595), the first Orthodox patriarch to visit north-eastern Europe, founded the [[Russian Orthodox Church|Orthodox Patriarchate of Russia]] during his journey.{{sfn|Zachariadou|2006|p=185}}{{sfn|Kenworthy|2008|p=175}}

The [[History of the Catholic Church in Japan|sixteenth-century success of Christianity in Japan]] was followed by severe repression, such as the [[crucifixion]] of the [[26 Martyrs of Japan]].{{sfn|Macdonald|2015|p=31}}{{sfn|Jenkins|2008|pp=14–15}}{{sfn|O'Hara|2022}}

=== Colonialism and missions ===
{{Main|Christianity and colonialism}}{{See also|Christianity in China|Christianity in Korea|Christianity in Vietnam}}
[[Colonialism]], which began in the fifteenth century, originated either on a militaristic/political path, a commercial one, or with settlers who wanted land.{{sfn|Gardner|Roy|2020|p=19}} Christian missionaries soon followed with their own separate agenda.{{sfn|Gardner|Roy|2020|p=19, 20, 21}}{{sfn|Nowell|Magdoff|Webster|2022}}{{sfn|Gilley|2006|p=1}}{{sfn|Robinson|1952|p=152}} "Companies, politicians, missionaries, settlers, and traders rarely acted together" and were often in conflict.{{sfn|Gardner|Roy|2020|p=19, 20, 21}} Some missionaries supported colonialism while others took stances against colonial oppression.{{sfn|Gardner|Roy|2020|pp=11, 69-70}}{{sfn|Sanneh|2007|p=134}}{{sfn|Gilley|2006|p=3}}{{sfn|Sanneh|1985|p=200, 204, 210-211}} 

Between 1500 and 1800, Catholic Christianity gained followers worldwide through missionaries from the [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]], [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]], and [[First French Empire|French]] empires.{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|pp=XX-XXIII}}{{sfn|Gilley|2006|p=1}}{{sfn|Robert|2009|p=105}} During the Hispanic colonization of the Americas, Latin America largely became a [[New World]] form of [[History of the Catholic Church in Spain|Iberian Catholicism]], while the merging of native and Spanish traditions also created a multitude of indigenous Christianities.{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|pp=77, 80}}{{sfn|Sanneh|2016|p=14}} Spanish missionaries tried to suppress the trade in [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Amerindian]] slaves in the Caribbean, but the Catholic church became one of the largest holders of black slaves.{{sfn|Eltis|Bradley|Cartledge|Drescher|2011|pp=257–259, 499}}

Long before the first European colonists arrived, indigenous Christian communities, which were often in conflict with the newcomers, had existed in Asia and Africa.{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|pp=XX-XXI}} Prior to the Portuguese' landing, [[Saint Thomas Christians|St.Thomas Christian communities]] in southern India had existed continuously for more than 1000 years.{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|p=9}} In the 16th century, baptized Kongolese Christians were taken by Portuguese slavers to the [[Caribbean]] and [[Brazil]] where there are clear traces that they evangelized among their fellow sufferers. Thereafter,  former slaves returned to West Africa "with Bible in hand", founding [[Freetown]], which played a central role in the Christianization of West Africa.{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|p=XXIII}}  

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, [[Reductions|reductionist villages]] for natives in regions of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil were established by Jesuits and other orders. Jesuits promoted local skills and technical innovations, working exclusively in the native language to form an "agrarian collective" kept separate from the rest of colonial society, with serfdom and forced labor forbidden. The Spanish crown resented this autonomy, and the Jesuit order was banned; its members were expelled from Spain in 1767. Thereafter, reduction territories became open to settlers, and natives often became bondmen.{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|pp=82-83}}{{refn|group=note| In 1986, [[ Roland Joffé]] made a film titled [[The Mission (1986 film)|The Mission]] dramatizing these events.{{sfn|Scranton|2015}}}}

===Women, witch frenzy, expulsion and inquisition===
{{See also|Witch trials in the early modern period}}
[[Women in the Middle Ages]] were considered incapable of moral judgment and authority.{{sfn|Rubin|Simons|2009|p=5}}{{refn|group=note|Women had no access to education within institutions associated with the church, such as cathedral schools and most universities.{{sfn|Rubin|Simons|2009|p=5}} The boundary between men and women was absolute in clerical matters. The church often used the participation of women to demonize movements deemed heretical.{{sfn|Heß|2013|p=84}}}} However, there were women who became distinguished leaders of nunneries, exercising the same powers and privileges as their male counterparts, such as [[Hildegard of Bingen]] (d. 1179), [[Elisabeth of Schönau]] (d. 1164/65), and [[Marie d'Oignies]] (d. 1213).{{sfn|Rubin|Simons|2009|pp=96–97}}{{sfn|Garcia|2004|p=180}} Although the Catholic Church had long ruled that [[witches]] did not exist, the conviction that witches were both real and malevolent developed throughout fifteenth-century European society.{{sfn|Kwiatkowska|2010|p=30}}{{sfn|Levack|2013|p=6}} No single cause of "witch frenzy" is known, although the [[Little Ice Age]] is thought to have been a factor.{{sfn|Behringer|2019|pp=69-72}} Approximately 100,000 people, of whom 80% were women accused by those in their own villages, were prosecuted in mostly civil trials between 1561 and 1670; 40,000 to 50,000 were executed.{{sfn|Monter|2023}}{{sfn|Levack|2013|p=6}}

The medieval church never officially repudiated Augustine's doctrine of protecting the Jews. However, defining them as heretical outsiders became increasingly common in European society of the fifteenth century as the newly centralized states demanded greater cultural conformity from their citizens.{{sfn|Parker|2023}}{{sfn|Heß|2013|p=83}} Local rulers repeatedly [[Expulsions and exoduses of Jews|evicted Jews from their lands]] and confiscated Jewish property.{{sfn|Bejczy|1997|pp=374 fn43, 368}}{{sfn|Cohen|1998|p=396}}{{sfn|Lacopo|2016|pp=2–3}} 

Between 1478 and 1542, the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions were initially authorized by the church but soon became state institutions.{{sfn|Rawlings|2006|pp=1–2}}{{sfn|Marcocci|2013|pp=1–7}}{{sfn|Mayer|2014|pp=2–3}} Authorized by [[Pope Sixtus IV]] in 1478, the [[Spanish Inquisition]] was established to combat fears that Jewish converts were conspiring with Muslims to sabotage [[Hispanic Monarchy (political entity)|the new state]].{{sfn|Tarver|Slape|2016|pp=210–212}}{{sfn|Bernardini|Fiering|2001|p=371}} Five years later, a papal bull conceded control of the Spanish Inquisition to Spanish monarchs, making it the first national, unified, centralized institution of the nascent Spanish state.{{sfn|Kamen|2014|p=182}}{{sfn|MacCulloch|2009|p=587}}{{sfn|Casanova|1994|p=75}} The monarchy centralized state power by absorbing military orders, adapting [[Santa Hermandad|police organizations]] and the Inquisition for political purposes.{{sfn|Parker|2023}} The [[Portuguese Inquisition]], controlled by a state board of directors, incorporated anti-Judaism before the end of the fifteenth century. Many of these forcibly converted Jews, known as [[New Christian|New Christians]], fled to [[Portuguese India|Portuguese colonies in India]], where they subsequently suffered as targets of the [[Goa Inquisition]].{{sfn|Flannery|2013|p=11}}{{sfn|Marcocci|2013|pp=1–7}} The bureaucratic and intellectual [[Roman Inquisition]], best known for its condemnation of [[Galileo]], served the papacy's political aims in Italy.{{sfn|Mayer|2014|pp=2–3, 5}}

=== Reformation ===
{{multiple image
| footer            = In 1517, [[Martin Luther]] initiated the [[Reformation]] with his ''[[Ninety-five Theses]]''.
| align             = vertical
| image1            = Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Martin Luther, 1528 (Veste Coburg).jpg
| width1            = 170
| caption1          =
| alt1              = image of Martin Luther
| image2            = Luther 95 Thesen.png
| width2            = 188
| caption2          =
| alt2              = image of a page listing Luther's 95 theses.
}}
Supported by secular and canon law, the fourteenth century had been among the most violently oppressive of times for [[Minority group|minorities]] in Western Europe.{{sfn|Hastings|2000|p=382}}{{sfn|Nirenberg|2015|p=19}} Protests against the church led to the [[Protestant Reformation]] which began when the Catholic monk [[Martin Luther]] nailed his ''[[Ninety-five Theses]]'' to the church door in [[Wittenberg]] in 1517. Luther challenged the nature of the church's role in society and its authority.{{sfn|Dixon|2017|pp=535–536; 553}}{{sfn|Leaver|1989|p=263}} For Catholics, authority meant the Pope. For the protesters, authority was in the priesthood of believers and Scripture.{{sfn|Leaver|1989|p=263}} Edicts issued at the [[Diet of Worms]] in 1521 condemned Luther.{{sfn|Fahlbusch|Bromiley|2003|p=362}}{{sfn|Barnett|1999|p=28}}

After protracted and acrimonious struggle, three new religious traditions emerged alongside Roman Catholicism: the [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]], [[Reformed Christianity|Reformed]], and [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] traditions.{{sfn|Williams|1995|pp=xxx–xxix}}{{sfn|Prideaux|1986|p=159}} For Luther, the church's role in society was determined by two realms of human existence, the secular and the sacred, where one is not allowed to dominate the other, and only secular authority has the right to use force.{{sfn|Gritsch|2010|pp=12, 110}}{{sfn|Leaver|1989|p=263}} The Reformed churches, formed by followers of theologian [[John Calvin]], argued that the church had the right to function without interference from the state, and they established the ideal of a [[Representative democracy|constitutional representative government]] in both the church and in society.{{sfn|Packer|1966|p=149}}{{sfn|Benedict|2002|page=xiv}} [[Puritans]] and other [[English Dissenters|Dissenter groups]] in England, [[Huguenots]] in France, [[Dutch Reformed Church|“Beggars”]] in Holland, [[Covenanters]] in Scotland who produced [[Presbyterianism]], and [[Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)|Pilgrim Fathers of New England]] are Reformed churches that trace their theological roots to Calvin.{{sfn|Benedict|2002|page=xiv}} The Anglican church was first created as the [[Church of England]] by [[Henry VIII]] (1491 – 1547) who severed it from papal authority and appointed himself [[Supreme Head of the Church of England]]. Henry preserved Catholic doctrine and the church's established role in society.{{sfn|Prideaux|1986|p=161}}{{sfn|Chapman|2006|pp=1, 30}} 

The Roman Catholic Church responded in the [[Counter-Reformation]], spearheaded by ten reforming popes between 1534 to 1605. The [[Council of Trent]] (1545–1563) answered each Protestant claim, and laid the foundation of modern Catholic policies. New monastic orders were formed, including the [[Society of Jesus]] – the "Jesuits" – who adopted military-style discipline and strict loyalty to the Pope.{{sfn|O'Malley|1995|p=16}}{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|pp=329, 335–336}} Monastic reform also led to the [[Spanish mystics]] and the [[French school of spirituality]],{{sfn|MacCulloch|2004|p=404}} as well as the [[Eastern Catholic Churches|Uniate church]] which used Eastern liturgy but recognized the authority of Rome.{{sfn|Kenworthy|2008|pp=175–176}}

Quarreling royal houses, already involved in dynastic disagreements, became polarized into the two religious camps.{{sfn|Matthews|Platt|1998|pp=329–331}} In 1562, France became the centre of [[French Wars of Religion|a series of wars]], of which the largest and most destructive was the [[Thirty Years' War]] (1618–1648).{{sfn|Onnekink|2016|p=3}}{{sfn|Parker|2023}} While some scholars argue that these wars were varieties of the [[just war]] tradition for religious liberty and freedom,{{sfn|Onnekink|2016|p=10}} most historians argue that the wars were more about nationalistic state-building and economics, and less about religion.{{sfn|Murphy|2014|p=481, 484}}{{sfn|Onnekink|2016|pp=3, 6}}

== Modern period (1650–1945) ==
=== Ideological movements ===
The era of [[Absolutism (European history)|political absolutism]] followed the breakdown of Christian universalism in Europe.{{sfn|Aguilera-Barchet|2015|p=141}} Abuses from absolutist Catholic kings gave rise to a virulent critique of Christianity that first emerged among the more extreme Protestant reformers in the 1680s as an aspect of the [[Age of Enlightenment]].{{sfn|Jacob|2006|pp=265–268, 270}}{{sfn|Aston|2006|pp=13–15}} For 200 years, Protestants had been arguing for religious toleration,{{sfn|Coffey|1998|p=961}}{{sfn|Coffey|2014|p=12}} and by the 1690s, secular thinkers were rethinking the state's reasons for persecution, and they too began advocating for religious toleration.{{sfn|Patterson|1997|p=64}}{{sfn|Mout|2007|pp=227–233; 242}} Concepts of [[freedom of religion]], [[Freedom of speech|speech]], and [[Freedom of thought|thought]] began being established in the West.{{sfn|Mout|2007|pp=225–243}}{{sfn|Kaplan|2009|p=119}}{{sfn|Franck|1997|pp=594–595}}

Secularisation spread at every level of European society.{{sfn|Jacob|2006|pp=272–273, 279}} Pioneered by Protestants, [[Biblical criticism]] advocated [[historicism]] and [[rationalism]] to make study of the Bible more scholarly and secular in the 1700s.{{sfn|Law|2012|pp=8, 224}}{{sfn|Baird|1992|pp=118, 201}}{{sfn|McLeod|2006|p=3}} In reaction to rationalism, [[pietism]], a holiness movement within [[Lutheranism]], began in Europe and spread to the [[Thirteen Colonies]] where it contributed to the [[First Great Awakening]], a religious revival of the 1700s.{{sfn|Ward|2006|pp=329; 347}}{{sfn|Smith|2014b|p=19}}{{sfn|Valkenburgh|1994|p=172}} Pietist [[Moravians]] came to [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] in 1732 where they influenced [[John Wesley]], an [[Anglican]] missionary in [[Savannah]].{{sfn|Cairns|2015|p=67}}{{sfn|Towns|Whaley|2012|p=117}} After returning to England, Wesley began preaching in open-air meetings, leading to the creation of the [[Methodism|Methodist]] church.{{sfn|Jones|1974|p=xiii}}{{sfn|Towns|Whaley|2012|p=119}}{{sfn|Jones|White|2012|pp=xi; xv}}{{sfn|Cairns|2015|p=93}} In the colonies, Presbyterians and Baptists contributed to revival, and to divisions over it, which formed political parties and lent crucial support for the [[American Revolution]].{{sfn|Heimert|2006|p=2}}{{sfn|Marty|2006|p=524}}{{sfn|Cairns|2015|p=51}} Spurred by Christians of varying sects, [[Thomas Jefferson]] adapted his earlier [[Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom]] into the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution]], enshrining a [[separation of church and state]] to support [[religious pluralism]].{{sfn|McLeod|2006|p=8}}{{sfn|Zoller|2006}}

The rise of Protestantism contributed to the conceptualization of [[human capital]],{{sfn|Boppart|Falkinger|Grossmann|2014|pp=874–895}} development of [[Protestant work ethic|a new work ethic]],{{sfn|Schaltegger|Torgler|2010|pp=99–101}} the European state system,{{sfn|Becker|Pfaff|Rubin|2016}} modern [[capitalism]] in Northern Europe,{{sfn|Weber|Kalberg|2012|pp=xi; xxviii–xxxvi; xl; 3–5; 103–126}} and overall economic growth.{{sfn|Spater|Tranvik|2019|pp=1963–1994}} However, [[urbanization]] and [[industrialisation]] created a plethora of new social problems.{{sfn|Skocpol|Trimberger|1977|pp=101–104}}{{sfn|Gilley|2006|pp=4–5}} In Europe and North America, both Protestants and Catholics provided massive aid to the poor, supported family welfare, and offered medicine and education.{{sfn|Gilley|2006|p=5}}

During the [[French Revolution]], Jefferson co-authored the 1789 [[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]] recognizing freedom of religion. It did not prevent radical revolutionaries from violently seeking the [[Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution]] leading the Eastern Orthodox Church to reject Enlightenment ideas as too dangerous to embrace.{{sfn|McLean|2004}}{{sfn|Tallett|1991}}{{sfn|Kenworthy|2008|p=175}}

=== Nineteenth and twentieth centuries ===
The [[Second Great Awakening]] - a religious revival of the 1800s–1830s - produced [[Latter Day Saint movement|Mormonism]], [[Restoration Movement|Restorationism]], and the [[Holiness movement]].{{sfn|Caldwell|2017|pp=3-4, 6}} Mormons preached the restoration of first-century Christianity, upheld [[millennialism]] and [[premillennialism]], and sought to create a religious utopia.{{sfn|Howe|2015|pp=27, 8, 29, 30, 32-33}} Restorationists, such as the [[Churches of Christ]], [[Jehovah's Witnesses]], and [[Seventh-day Adventist Church|Seventh Day Adventists]], also focused on restoring practices of the early church, emphasizing biblical authority and baptism as the crucial conversion experience.{{sfn|Ware|1999|p=233}}{{sfn|Caldwell|2017|pp=3, 10}} The Holiness movement contributed to the development of [[Pentecostalism]] by combining Restorationism with the goal of [[Sanctification in Christianity|sanctification]] defined as a deeper spiritual experience.{{sfn|Ware|1999|pp=234, 237}} 
[[File:Slavery19.jpg|thumb|alt=example of an anti-slavery tract concerning the separation of black families|American anti-slavery tract, 1853]]
This revival focused on evidencing conversion through active moral reform in areas such as [[women's rights]], [[Temperance movement|temperance]], literacy, and [[Abolitionism|the abolition of slavery]]. The pursuit of women's rights established "prayer, worship, and biblical exegesis as weapons of political warfare",{{sfn|Saunders|2019|p=abstract}} while the accent on human choice and activism influenced [[Evangelicalism in the United States|evangelicalism]] thereafter.{{sfn|Caldwell|2017|pp=8-9}}{{sfn|Mintz|1995| pp=51–53}}{{sfn|Cairns|2015|p=26}}{{sfn|Masters|Young|2022|loc=abstract}} The 300-year-old [[trans-Atlantic slave trade]], in which some Christians had participated, had always garnered moral objections, and by the eighteenth century, individual [[Quakers]], [[Methodists]], Presbyterians, and [[Baptists]] began a written campaign against it.{{sfn|Brown|2006|pp=517–524}} Congregations led by black preachers kept abolitionism alive into the early nineteenth century when some American Protestants organized the first [[American Anti-Slavery Society|anti-slavery societies]].{{sfn|Brown|2006|pp=525–530}} This ideological opposition eventually ended the trans-Atlantic slave trade, changing economic and human history on three continents.{{sfn|Eltis|1987|pp=71, 103, 236–239|loc=chapter 13}}{{sfn|Brown|2006|pp=525–526}} 

The [[Third Great Awakening]] began in 1857 and took root throughout the world, especially in English-speaking countries.{{sfn|Cairns|2015|p=26}} Nineteenth-century Protestant missionaries, many of them women, played a significant role in shaping nations and societies.{{sfn|Gilley|2006|p=2}}{{sfn|Robert|2009|p=1}}{{sfn|Gonzalez|2010|p=302}}{{sfn|Gilley|2006|p=5}} They translated the Bible into local languages, generating a written [[grammar]], a [[lexicon]] of native traditions, and a [[dictionary]] of the local language.{{sfn|Sanneh|2007|p=xx}} These were used to teach in missionary schools, resulting in the spread of literacy and [[indigenization]].{{sfn|Táíwò|2010|pp=68–70}}{{sfn|Sanneh|2016|pp=279, 285}}{{sfn|Isichei|1995|p=9}} According to historian [[Lamin Sanneh]], Protestant missionaries thus stimulated the "largest, most diverse and most vigorous movement of cultural renewal" in African history.{{sfn|Sanneh|2016|p=xx}}{{sfn|Gilley|2006|p=3}}{{sfn|de Juan|Pierskalla|2017|p=161}}

[[Liberal Christians]] embraced seventeenth-century rationalism, but its disregard of faith and ritual in maintaining Christianity led to its decline. [[Fundamentalist Christianity]] rose in the early 1900s as a reaction against [[Modernist Christianity|modern rationalism]].{{sfn|Gasper|2020|p=13}}{{sfn|Hobson|2013|pp=1; 3-4}} By 1930, Protestant fundamentalism in America appeared to be dying.{{sfn|Gasper|2020|pp=14, 18}}{{sfn|Harris|1998|p=22}} However, in the second half of the 1930s, a theology against liberalism that also included a reevaluation of Reformation teachings began uniting moderates of both sides.{{sfn|Gasper|2020|p=19}}{{sfn|Harris|1998|pp=42, 57}}

The Roman Catholic Church became increasingly centralized, conservative, and focused on loyalty to the Pope.{{sfn|McLeod|2006|p=3}} As Nazism rose, [[Pope Pius XI]] declared the irreconcilability of the Catholic position with totalitarian fascist states that placed the nation above God.{{sfn|Holmes|1981|p=116}} Most leaders and members of the largest Protestant church in Germany, the [[German Evangelical Church]], supported the [[Nazi Party]] when they came to power in 1933.{{sfn|United States Holocaust Memorial Museu|n.d.}} About a third of German Protestants formed the [[Confessing Church]] which opposed Nazism; its members were harassed, arrested, and otherwise targeted. In Poland, Catholic priests were arrested and [[Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Poland|Polish priests and nuns were executed]] en masse.{{sfn|Rossino|2003|pp=72, 169, 185, 285}}

=== Russian Orthodoxy ===
The [[Church reform of Peter the Great|church reform of Peter I of Russia]] in the early 1700s placed the Orthodox authorities under the control of the [[Emperor of Russia|emperor]]. Russian emperors continually involved the church in campaigns of [[russification]], contributing to antisemitism.{{sfn|Shlikhta|2004|pp=361–273}}{{sfn|Klier|Lambroza|2004|p=306}} The [[Bolsheviks|communist revolutionaries]] who established the [[Soviet Union]] saw the Church as an [[enemy of the people]] and part of the monarchy.{{sfn|Bouteneff|1998|pp=vi–1}}{{sfn|Sullivan|2006}}{{sfn|Calciu-Dumitreasa|1983|pp=5–8}}{{sfn|Eidintas|2001|p=23}} The communist Soviet Union heavily persecuted the [[Russian Orthodox Church]],{{sfn|Kenworthy|2008|p=178}} executing up to 8,000 people by 1922.{{sfn|Pipes|1995|p=356}} The [[League of Militant Atheists]] adopted a five-year plan in 1932 "aimed at the total eradication of religion by 1937".{{sfn|Walters|2005|p=15}} Despite this, the Orthodox Church continued to contribute to theology and culture.{{sfn|Kenworthy|2008|pp=177–178}}

== After World War II ==
===Worldwide===
{{Main|World Christianity}}
[[File:Percent of Christians by Country–Pew Research 2011.svg|thumb|alt=map of worldwide Christianity in 2011|Global distribution of Christians based on 2011 [[Pew Research Center]] data{{sfn|PEW Research Center|2022}}]] 
Before 1945, about a third of the people in the world were Christians, and about 80% of them lived in Europe, Russia, and the Americas.{{sfn|McLeod|2006|p=1}} In 2025, there are still 31% of adults around the world that declare themselves Christian, but they are no longer concentrated in the West.{{sfn|PEW Key|2022}} Christianity has been in decline in Europe for decades. Between 2010 and 2015, the number of European Christians who died outnumbered births by nearly 6 million.{{sfn|Pew Center|2017}} From 2019 to 2024, the Christian share of the adult population in the United States stayed between 60% and 64%. Even so, it is estimated that fewer than a quarter of the world's Christians will live in its western locations by 2060.{{sfn|PEW Key|2022}} 

After WWII, [[decolonization]] strengthened the indigenization efforts of Christian missionaries, leading to explosive growth in the churches of former colonies.{{sfn|McLeod|2006|pp=1, 8}}{{sfn|Fontaine|2016|pp=6–8}}{{sfn|Sanneh|2007|p=285}}{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|pp=231, 233-234}} In 1900, there were just under nine million Christians in Africa; by 1960, this number had increased to 60 million, and by 2005, to 393 million, about half of the continent's population, a proportion which has remained constant as of 2022.{{sfn|Sanneh|2007|p=xx}}{{sfn|PEW Research Center|2022}}{{sfn|Isichei|1995|p=[https://archive.org/details/historyofchristi0000isic/page/n13/mode/2up 1]}} According to [[Pew Research Center|PEW]], religion is very important to people in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and Latin America where populations are growing and are likely to continue to grow.{{sfn|PEW Key|2022}} This is shifting the geographic center of Christianity to sub-Saharan Africa where more than forty percent of the world’s Christians are projected to live by 2060.{{sfn|PEW Key|2022}} 

Christianity in Southeast and East Asia, especially Korea, grew faster after colonialism.{{sfn|Jenkins|2011|pp=89–90}}{{sfn|Zurlo|2020|pp=3–9}}{{sfn|McLeod|2006|p=6}} Rapid expansion began in the 1980s.{{sfn|Singapore Management University|2017}}{{sfn|Anderson|Tang|2005|p=2}} The [[Council on Foreign Relations]] reports that the number of [[Three-Self Patriotic Movement|Chinese Protestants]] has grown by an average of 10% annually since 1979, with growth especially prominent among young people.{{sfn|Yoo|2019|p=27 fn.7}}{{sfn|Albert|2018|loc=Introduction}}{{sfn|America magazine|2018|ps=: "A study of the religious lives of university students in Beijing published in a mainland Chinese academic journal ''Science and Atheism'' in 2013 showed Christianity to be the religion that interested students most and was the most active on campuses."}} With the [[Fall of the Eastern Bloc]], Christianity expanded in some Eastern European countries while declining in others.{{sfn|McLeod|2006|pp=1, 8}}{{sfn|Fontaine|2016|pp=6–8}}{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|pp=231, 233-234}} Catholic countries have displayed secularization, while Orthodox countries have experienced a revival of church participation.{{sfn|Northmore-Ball|Evans|2016|loc=abstract}} Orthodox Christianity made a partial resurgence in the former Soviet Union after 1991 and continues to be an important element of national identity for many citizens there.{{sfn|PEW Key|2022}} 

In the first quarter of the twenty-first century, Christianity is present in all seven continents and a multitude of different cultures.{{sfn|Koschorke|2025|p=XX}}{{sfn|Walker|2013|pp=267-271}} Most Christians live outside North America and Western Europe; white Christians are a global minority, and slightly over half of worldwide Christians are female.{{sfn|Ford|2013|p=429}}{{sfn|PEW global|2020}} In 2017, PEW reported that Christianity is the world's largest religion with roughly 2.4 billion followers, equal to 31.2% of the world's population.{{sfn|Gilley|2006|p=1}}{{sfn|McLeod|2006|p=8}}{{sfn|Pew Center|2017}}

===Modern movements===
In the twentieth century, Christianity faced the challenges of secularism and a changing moral climate concerning sexual ethics, gender, and exclusivity, leading to a decline in church attendance in the West.{{sfn|McLeod|2006|pp=2; 7–8}}{{sfn|Fahmy|2022|loc=section 1}}{{sfn|Gilley|2006|pp=1; 3}} In a 2018 PEW survey of 27 countries, the majority of nations had more residents claim that the role of religion has decreased over the preceding twenty years than said it had increased. However, people in [[Southeast Asia|Southeast Asian]] and [[Sub-Saharan Africa|Sub-Saharan African]] countries reported the opposite trend, suggesting that secularization is a region-specific trend.{{sfn|PEW Key|2022}}{{sfn|Casanova|1994|pp=3, 5-6}}

In 2000, approximately one-quarter of all Christians worldwide were part of Pentecostalism and its associated movements.{{sfn|Burgess|2006|p=xiii}} By 2025, Pentecostals are expected to constitute one-third of the nearly three billion Christians worldwide, making it the largest branch of Protestantism and fastest-growing Christian movement.{{sfn|Deininger|2014|pp=1–2; 5}}{{sfn|McLeod|2006|p=4}}

The three main branches of Eastern Christianity are the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Communion, and Eastern Catholic Church.{{sfn|Ware|1993|pp=11, 33}}{{sfn|Angold|2006|loc=frontmatter}}{{sfn|Ware|1993|p=9}} Roughly half of Eastern Orthodox Christians live in formerly Eastern Bloc countries.{{sfn|PEW Orthodox|2017}} Its oldest communities in Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Georgia, are decreasing due to forced migration from religious persecution.{{sfn|Haider|2017|loc=overview}} In 2020, 57 countries had “very high” levels of government restrictions on religion, banning or giving preferential treatment to particular groups, prohibiting conversions, and limiting preaching.{{sfn|PEW Key|2022}}{{sfn|Fox|2013|loc=abstract}} As of 2022, highly authoritarian and totalitarian governments have brought about crises and decline in 186 countries.{{sfn|Majumdar|2024}} Anti-Christian persecution has become a consistent human rights concern.{{sfn|Allen Jr.|2016|pp=x–xi}} 

Orthodox Christians of the Greek, Russian and Balkans branches tend to be more conservative on most issues than Protestants and Catholics.{{sfn|PEW Orthodox|2017}} Less than 40% of Orthodox Christians favor reconciliation with the Roman Catholic Church.{{sfn|PEW Orthodox|2017}} Roman Catholic ecumenical goals are to re-establish full communion amongst all the various Christian churches, but there is no agreement amongst evangelicals.{{sfn|Chinnici|2012|p=22}}{{sfn|Cassidy|2005|pp=106, 544}}{{sfn|Pintarić|2014|loc=abstract}} There is, however, a trend at the local level toward discussion, pulpit exchanges, and shared social action.{{sfn|Asprey|2008|p=3}}{{sfn|McLeod|2006|p=9}}

The multiple wars of the twentieth century brought questions of [[theodicy]] to the forefront.{{sfn|McLeod|2006|p=11}} For the first time since the pre-Constantinian era, [[Christian pacifism]] became an alternative to war.{{sfn|McLeod|2006|p=12}} [[The Holocaust]] forced many to realize that [[supersessionism]], the belief that Christians had replaced the Jews as God's chosen people, can lead to hatred, ethnocentrism, and racism. Supersessionism was never an official doctrine or universally accepted, and supersessionist texts are increasingly challenged.{{sfn|Levine|2022|p=6}}

For theologians writing after 1945, theology became dependent on context.{{sfn|Opoensky|2004|p=5}} [[Liberation theology]] was combined with the [[social gospel]], redefining [[social justice]], and exposing institutionalized sin to aid Latin American poor, but its context limited its application in other environments.{{sfn|Wogaman|2011|p=325}}{{sfn|Chopp|Regan|2013|p=469}}{{sfn|Opoensky|2004|p=5}} Different historical and socio-political situations produced [[black theology]] and [[feminist theology]]. Combining Christianity with questions of civil rights, aspects of the Black Power movement, and responses to black Muslims produced a black theology that spread to the United Kingdom and parts of Africa, confronting apartheid in South Africa.{{sfn|Akanji|2010|pp=177–178}}{{sfn|McLeod|2006|p=13}} The feminist movement of the mid-twentieth century began with an anti-Christian ethos but soon developed an influential feminist theology dedicated to transforming churches and society.{{sfn|Hilkert|1995|loc=abstract}}{{sfn|Muers|2013|p=431}} Feminist theology developed at the local level through movements such as the [[womanist theology]] of African-American women, the [[Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz|"mujerista" theology]] of Hispanic women, and [[Asian feminist theology]].{{sfn|Hilkert|1995|p=327}}

In the mid to late 1990s, [[postcolonial theology]] emerged globally from multiple sources.{{sfn|Segovia|Moore|2007|pp=4–5}} It analyzes structures of power and ideology to recover what colonialism erased or suppressed in indigenous cultures.{{sfn|Segovia|Moore|2007|pp=6; 11}} 

Modern motivation toward missions has declined in some denominations largely from doctrines of inclusivity and polarization over the role of women. Many modern churches bypass missionary agencies sending out individual missionaries from single churches leaving them without extensive support.{{sfn|Guthrie|2014|pp=57-60}} The missionary movement of the twenty-first century has become a multi-cultural, multi-faceted global network of [[NGOs]],{{sfn|Manji|O'Coill|2002|loc=abstract}} volunteer doctors,{{sfn|Campbell|Sherman|Magee|2010|loc=abstract}} short-term student volunteers,{{sfn|Harder|1980|loc=abstract}} and traditional long-term bilingual, bicultural professionals who focus on evangelism and local development.{{sfn|Robert|2009|p=73}}{{sfn|Cooper|2005|pp=3–4}}{{sfn|Guthrie|2014|loc=abstract}}

== See also ==
{{Portal|Bible|Christianity|History|Religion|Saints}}
* [[Historical background of the New Testament]]
* [[Historicity of the Bible]]
* [[Jesus in Christianity]]
* [[Life of Jesus]]
* [[Timeline of the Roman Catholic Church]]
{{Christianity by century verbose}}
{{Clear}}

== Notes ==
{{NoteFoot}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|20em}}
== Sources ==
{{refbegin|2}}
=== Books & periodicals ===
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* {{cite book |author-link=Lesley Abrams |last=Abrams |first=Lesley |title=Vikings and the Danelaw: Select Papers from the Proceedings of the Thirteenth Viking Congress, Nottingham and York, 21-30 August 1997 |chapter=The conversion of the Danelaw |year=2016 |pages=31–44 |publisher=Oxbow |location=Oxford |isbn=978-1-78570-453-6 |edition=Repr. |jstor=j.ctt1kw29nj.7}}
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{{refend}}

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* {{cite web|ref={{harvid|PEW Orthodox|2017}}|author=<!-- not stated --> |date=2017 |title=1. Orthodox Christianity's geographic center remains in Central and Eastern Europe |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/11/08/orthodox-christianitys-geographic-center-remains-in-central-and-eastern-europe/ |website=Pew Research Center |publisher= PEW|access-date=26 February 2025}}
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* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Parker |first=N. Geoffrey |author-link=Geoffrey Parker (historian) |title=The Wars of Religion |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |year=2023 |contribution=The emergence of modern Europe, 1500–1648 |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/The-emergence-of-modern-Europe-1500-1648 |access-date=17 July 2023 |archive-date=18 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230718053403/https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Europe/The-emergence-of-modern-Europe-1500-1648 |url-status=live}}
* {{Cite web |ref={{harvid|PEW global|2020}} |url=https://worldreligiondatabase.org/ |title=All Religions (global totals) |date=2020 |editor-last=Johnson |editor-first=Todd M. |editor2-last=Grim |editor2-first=Brian J. |website=World Religion Database |publisher=BRILL, Boston University |location=Leiden, Boston}}
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* {{cite web |title=Religion in Africa 2022 |url=https://www.findeasy.in/africa-population-by-religion/ |website=Find Easy population & more |date=October 26, 2022 |access-date=4 February 2023 |ref={{harvid|PEW Research Center|2022}} |archive-date=26 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326031606/https://www.findeasy.in/africa-population-by-religion/ |url-status=live}}
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* {{cite web |author=<!-- not stated -->|ref={{harvid|Scranton|2015}}|date=2015 |title=The Mission Film Guide |url=https://www.scranton.edu/the-jesuit-center/mission-film-guide.shtml#:~:text=Context%3A,Southern%20Brazil%20in%20the%201750's. |website=The University of Scranton a Jesuit University|location=Scranton, Pennsylvania |publisher=The University of Scranton|access-date=8 March 2025}}
* {{cite news |last=Sullivan |first=Patricia |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |title=Anti-Communist Priest Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa |date=26 November 2006 |page=C09 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/25/AR2006112500783.html |access-date=29 August 2017 |archive-date=3 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200203130801/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/25/AR2006112500783.html |url-status=live}}
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* {{cite web |title=Understanding the rapid rise of Charismatic Christianity in Southeast Asia |url=https://cmp.smu.edu.sg/perspectives/2012/06/26/understanding-rapid-rise-charismatic-christianity-southeast-asia |website=cmp.smu.edu.sg |publisher=[[Singapore Management University]] |date=27 October 2017 |ref={{harvid|Singapore Management University|2017}} |access-date=10 December 2023 |archive-date=29 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129203830/https://cmp.smu.edu.sg/perspectives/2012/06/26/understanding-rapid-rise-charismatic-christianity-southeast-asia |url-status=live}}
* {{cite web |ref={{harvid|United States Holocaust Memorial Museu|n.d.}} |title=The German churches and the Nazi state |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-german-churches-and-the-nazi-state |website=[[Holocaust Encyclopedia]] |publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] |access-date=24 July 2023 |archive-date=29 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180729142708/https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005206 |url-status=live}}
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* {{cite web |last1=Valkenburgh |first1=Sarah |title=A Dramatic Revival: The first great awakening in Connecticut |year=1994 |url=http://www.schoolinfosystem.org/pdf/2014/04/EPGreatAwakening62.pdf |website=schoolinfosystem.org |publisher=The Concord Review |access-date=19 July 2023 |archive-date=19 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230719182526/http://www.schoolinfosystem.org/pdf/2014/04/EPGreatAwakening62.pdf |url-status=live}}
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* {{cite web |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2279903082 |title=The making of god's subject: Christian conversion and urban youth in china |last=Yoo |first=Wonji |date=2019 |website=ProQuest |publisher=University of Pittsburgh |access-date=1 November 2024 |id={{ProQuest|2279903082}} |quote=recent Chinese converts in Beijing seem to be mainly young people. In her study on churches in Beijing, Gao Shining (2005) points out that Christians under 35 accounted for 39% of Beijing's Christian population until 1990s, but the number increased by 70% in 2000s. Moreover, a survey of college students at Renmin University of China in Beijing shows that 61.5% of respondents were interested in Christianity (Goossaert and Palmer 2011). See – Page 27 Footnote 7}}
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{{refend}}

== External links ==
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The following links give an overview of the history of Christianity:
* [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CPM1XS9K9 ''Historical Christianity: The Ancient Communal Faith'']: Print, ebook, and audiobook
* [http://www.tyndale.ca/seminary/mtsmodular/reading-rooms/history History of Christianity Reading Room:] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190828102942/https://www.tyndale.ca/seminary/mtsmodular/reading-rooms/history |date=28 August 2019 }} Extensive online resources for the study of global church history (Tyndale Seminary).
* [https://archive.today/20071016200443/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1%E2%80%9349 ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas'']: Christianity in History
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120111152750/http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1%E2%80%9350 ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas'']: Church as an Institution
* [https://www.biblestudytools.com/history/sketches-of-church-history/ Sketches of Church History] From AD&nbsp;33 to the Reformation by Rev. J. C Robertson, M.A., Canon of Canterbury
* {{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Church History |volume=6 |pages=330–345 |short=y}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20170420050908/http://historyofchristianity.org.uk/ A History of Christianity in 15 Objects] online series in association with Faculty of Theology, Uni. of Oxford from September 2011
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The following links provide quantitative data related to Christianity and other major religions, including rates of adherence at different points in time:
* [http://www.thearda.com/ American Religion Data Archive]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070202101418/http://baptistpillar.com/bd0547.htm Historical Christianity], A timeline with references to the descendants of the early church.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150924101404/http://www.shol.com/featheredprop/Timeline.htm Reformation Timeline], A short timeline of the Protestant Reformation.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130126010821/http://www.fourthcentury.com/ Fourth-Century Christianity]
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{{Christian History|uncollapsed}}
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{{History of religions|collapsed}}
{{History of Europe}}
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[[Category:History of Christianity| ]]
[[Category:History of religion by religion]]