With nearly 2.5 billion followers around the globe, Christianity is seen by many as the world’s largest religion. However, it is not a simple religion, but a way of life that completely shaped the European idiosyncrasy and, consequently, the destiny of the geopolitical constitution of our days. Are you interested in knowing how a message of peace became such a massive religion that it spread across the five continents? We talk about the expansion of Christianity.
It all began in the Middle East, where the first Abrahamic religion emerged, Judaism, which would be one of the first monotheistic religions in the world. As you may know, wandering Jews came to inhabit the Roman province of Judea during the Roman era, where their religion was the majority.
JESUS OF NAZARETH (4 BC – 33 AD)
Among the Jews, one of the most outstanding and controversial figures in history would emerge, Jesus of Nazareth. Citizen of humble origins who would become a charismatic preacher who toured the regions of Galilee and Judea, spreading a message of love for others and criticism of the hierarchy.
A parenthesis is necessary here. The existence of this character has two types of sources; the Christians, in the well-known four gospels, where much of his life appears and all divine qualities such as miracles and the resurrection are attributed to him; and non-Christians, where some historians such as Flavius Josephus and Suetonius mention it in some references but without such attributions.
And as you know, according to their beliefs, the Jews were waiting for the arrival of a messiah, a title that many people of the time began to attribute to him. Anyway. Jesus was seen as a threat to the Roman authorities, so he was crucified, but his message remained with his followers, who, when they were also persecuted, spread this message throughout the empire.
PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE (33 – 325)
Battle of Constantine against Maxentius. This fresco is found in the “Constantine Room” in the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican. The work was executed by Giulio Romano, although the design is attributed to Raphael.
Although the number of believers grew rapidly, during the first centuries Christians were persecuted for not believing in the Greco-Roman gods. Although that would change over time. The turning point, was the Battle of Milvian Bridge, in which Emperor Constantine the Great had a divine revelation: The cross guided him to victory, and in gratitude, he legalized religion in the empire.
CONSTANTINE AND THE COUNCIL OF NICEA (325 – 395)
Constantine would convene the Council of Nicaea, in which the canons or laws of the church were promulgated and the trinitarian doctrine would also be outlined: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Decades later, Emperor Theodosius I would transform Christianity into the official religion of the Empire. Some say it out of populist convenience, others out of pure faith. What do you think?
And it is here when Christianity is no longer followed by a few weak people, but rather the aristocracy itself converts to Christ. Now any foreign belief is called paganism. Over time, a religion that allows you the forgiveness of your sins with the promise of eternal life would become popular throughout the empire.
THE FALL OF THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE (395 – 476 AD)
It is important to take into consideration that soon the division of the Roman Empire into two would begin. With this, the East, later known as Byzantium, would hold its councils from Constantinople, which did not always agree with Rome.
EXPANSION OF CHRISTIANITY THROUGH EUROPE (476 – 800)
Around 476, the Western Roman Empire fell under the pressure of the northern barbarians. Some of them were already converted to Arianism, others continued with their pagan beliefs. Without an emperor, the Church, under the government of the pope, would monopolize the power vacuum. It is at this moment that religion and politics begin to concatenate.
Added to this is the action of various precursors of Christianity throughout Europe, who preached the gospel by spreading their faith. Saint Patrick in Ireland, Cyril and Methodius in Russia, Martin of Tours in France, Boniface in Germany, and Willibrord of Utrecht in the Netherlands.
The beginning of the decline of paganism would occur in 498, with the conversion to Christianity of the Frankish Merovingian king Clovis, with which one of the most influential Germanic peoples joined the ranks of Christianity. In 751, the Catholic Church began to have its sovereign state, founding the Papal States, with its capital in Rome which would occupy a large part of Central Italy.
Imperial Coronation of Charlemagne, by the German painter Friedrich Kaulbach. This fresco is located in the Bavarian Regional Parliament.
But the direct link between ecclesiastical and monarchical power would occur with the coronation of Charlemagne, of the Carolingian Empire, by Pope Leo III during Christmas in the year 800. Although of course, Charlemagne would also perpetrate the first genocide in the name of the expansion of Christianity to kill 4,500 pagan Saxons. Jesus’ message of peace was losing shape.
It is also important to highlight the appearance of a new religion in the Arabian Peninsula at the beginning of the 7th century, Islam, which expanded rapidly throughout the Middle East and North Africa, areas in which Christianity would lose ground. The Umayyad Caliphate even conquered the Iberian Peninsula. With this Christian Europe would be threatened.
AFTER THE CORONATION OF CHARLEMAGNE (800 – 1054)
Do you remember that I told you about the Carolingian Empire? After its division into three branches, the Holy Roman Empire was formed, which was a political grouping of various kingdoms, duchies, and electorates that showed loyalty to the Catholic Church. As the hegemony of Europe was divided between this empire and Byzantium, the northern and eastern states of the continent would also convert to Christianity. Vikings, Hungarians, Poles, Serbians, Bulgarians. Christianity was unifying a common identity, the European one.
THE GREAT SCHISM OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH (1054 – 1096)
Although of course, in the long run, the two hegemonic powers could not handle their differences and in 1054 the Great Schism would occur, in which the Pope of the Roman Church and the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church excommunicated each other. Christendom is divided for the first time and to this day both sides claim to be the only legitimate descendant of the early Church.
THE CRUSADES AND THE CHURCH FACTIONS (1096 – 1272)
With the spread of Islam, Muslims take Jerusalem, a holy city for both religions, so Christians from the East ask the West for help. Pope Urban II called for a crusade, supposedly to liberate the holy land, although of course… it didn’t hurt to have control of the Mediterranean.
Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, July 15, 1099, Émile Signol, oil on canvas (1847).
After nine crusades, the Christian states formed in the Levant would come to an end, the Byzantine Empire would be more than weakened and more blood would be shed in the name of god… or the political and economic interests of the rulers.
However, not everything in the church was greed for power. Some religious would make contributions such as founding monasteries throughout Europe in which they supported the dissemination of knowledge and provided help to the humble nearby communities.
These can be considered members of the Base Church, following the initial message of Jesus, unlike the Hierarchical Church which was the one that carried out all these messes. In addition to this, the founding of congregations that sought to spread the gospel peacefully and provide help to their neighbors stands out. One of the first, the Benedictines, founded in 529.
NEW SCHISM AND THE INQUISITIONS (1272 – 1492)
Well, returning to the geopolitical topic, the weakened Byzantine Empire ended up falling after being conquered by the emerging Ottoman Empire, so Christianity is no longer the majority in Anatolia, although it has not completely disappeared. Faced with the subsequent Ottoman conquest of Eastern Europe, some states would convert to Islam.
However, the flame of Orthodox Christianity would continue to expand with the rise of a new power, Russia, which over the centuries expanded through Siberia, until reaching the Pacific Ocean. Eventually, this great state became the most important in this branch of Christianity.
Returning to the West, a new schism would occur, in which three popes came to dispute power. Amid all this disorder, the figure of the revolutionary Jan Hus appears, who would be one of the first to question the authority of the pope and to suggest resuming the basis of Christianity. For this affront, Jan Hus was accused of heresy and burned at the stake after the Council of Constance (1414 – 1418).
When I mentioned bonfire, the Inquisition surely came to mind, which as you know, were institutions dedicated to persecuting anyone who questioned the Christian faith, under the accusation of heresy. Founded in the 12th century, some of them were the Pontifical, the Roman, the Portuguese, and the Spanish. One of its most representative victims was Giordano Bruno, who questioned the cosmological vision held by the Catholic Church.
CHRISTIANITY LEAVES EUROPE AND THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION (1492 – 1618)
And here, a new expansion would begin. First, the Muslims were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492. The Catholic Monarchs took power and, in search of new trade routes to the West, crossed paths with a new continent, America. After a few decades, they managed to conquer large territories in America and expand both their language and their faith. In this expansion, the participation of the company of Jesus, founded by the well-known Saint Ignatius of Loyola, stands out.
Do you remember the martyr Jan Hus, perhaps he was burned, but his ideas would regain life a century later with the Protestant Reformation, a movement started by Martin Luther that led to a new schism in the Catholic Church to give rise to new churches called Protestant.
Some countries would abandon Catholicism, including England, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and some German states. And as expected, violence for faith would begin once again. Various wars broke out throughout Europe, one of the bloodiest being the Wars of Religion in France, where the Saint Bartholomew Massacre occurred, in which some 20,000 Huguenots or followers of Calvinist doctrine were murdered.
THE THIRTY YEARS WAR (1618 – 1648)
But these conflicts would reach an international scale with the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) in which the Catholic and Protestant powers supposedly confronted each other for religious reasons, but which in the end would end up becoming a fight for hegemony of the continent. Yes, faith is always being used by rulers for their respective agendas.
This bloody war that ended up being a demographic catastrophe, especially in the German states, would weaken the Holy Empire, reduce the power of the Catholic Church, and reconcile the beginning of religious tolerance on the continent. All this was signed in the Peace of Westphalia.
NEW EXPANSION OF CHRISTIANITY (1648 – 1870)
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, European powers continued to expand, especially the United Kingdom, which would spread Christianity to new territories; Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States. The latter is currently the country with the largest number of Christians in the world and where various new Protestant congregations would expand before its independence.
Returning to the 18th century, a new movement emerged that further weakened the Christian churches: the Enlightenment. Above all, she sought reason. This coincides with a series of scientific discoveries to many questions that the church could not answer.
THE DECLINE OF THE POWER OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH (1870 – 1929)
Remember how I mentioned the Papal States? Well, with Italian unification, the sovereign territories under the control of the pope were absorbed. Thus, the power of the Church is further diminished. By the end of the 19th century, the political influence that the churches had had declined considerably.
However, with the Berlin Conference in 1885, and the consequent division of Africa, a new great Expansion would be achieved, in which almost all of Sub-Saharan Africa converted to Christianity. Logically, the countries under British rule would follow Protestantism, just as those under French and Portuguese rule opted for Catholicism.
SINCE THE 20TH CENTURY (1929 – PRESENT)
During the 20th century, the church tended to depend on the political scene. With the Lateran Pacts, the Catholic Church would once again obtain a sovereign state, the Vatican we know today, in exchange for recognizing the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini.
In the Soviet Union, the Orthodox Church was not so lucky and was even expropriated and repressed by the communist regime who sought to establish state atheism, which although it did not achieve 100%, left a mark that lasts to this day, being Russia is one of the countries with the highest percentage of atheists in the world.
Thousands of faithful during a ceremony in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City. Credits: Norbert Oriskó
Over the last few decades, with the digital revolution, the percentages of believers throughout Europe have fallen considerably, especially in northern countries. On the other hand, in countries where Christianity was taught by Europeans, called Latin America and especially Africa, it remains valid.
For better or worse, Christianity is a key religion for understanding Western idiosyncrasy, shaping European society and, consequently, that of much of the world. Although on the one hand, a lot of blood has been shed in his name, on the other, various congregations of the Base Church that still preserve the true essence of Christianity continue to spread the message of peace of Jesus of Nazareth.