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{{Infobox religion|name=Christianity|scripture=The Bible|type=Monotheistic, Abrahamic|number_of_followers=2.6 billion|icon=Christian cross.png|founded_date=~150 CE}} | {{Infobox religion|name=Christianity|scripture=The Bible|type=Monotheistic, Abrahamic|number_of_followers=2.6 billion|icon=Christian cross.png|founded_date=~150 CE}} | ||
'''Christianity''' is an Abrahamic and monotheistic [[religion]] with a dogma that is based around the writings contained within the [[Bible]], a set of myths imperfectly edited and translated for centuries. Christianity is currently the largest religion on Earth | '''Christianity''' is an Abrahamic and monotheistic [[religion]] with a dogma that is based around the writings contained within the [[Bible]], a set of myths imperfectly edited and translated for centuries. Christianity is currently the largest religion on Earth, it having about 2.6 billion adherents as of 2020.<ref>{{News citation|newspaper=countrymeters.info|title=World Population|date=2020|url=https://countrymeters.info/en/World#religion}}</ref> | ||
In spite of many Christians claiming that they have the "one and true" faith, over 45,000 sects of Christianity exist on Earth, of which, the Roman Catholic church is the largest in terms of membership, followed by Protestantism (which itself is extremely fragmented), followed by | In spite of many Christians claiming that they have the "one and true" faith, over 45,000 sects of Christianity exist on Earth, of which, the Roman Catholic church is the largest in terms of membership, followed by Protestantism (which itself is extremely fragmented), followed by eastern orthodoxy.<ref>{{News citation|author=Donavyn Coffey|newspaper=Live Science|title=Why does Christianity have so many denominations?|date=2021-2-27|url=https://www.livescience.com/christianity-denominations.html}}</ref> | ||
Christianity (along with most religions in general) has been used by the [[ruling class]] during various stages of economic and historical development, mostly as a tool of justifying the social and economic order relative to that historical epoch, which would further secure the power and wealth of said ruling class. Things such as a "divine mandate" or a "god-given mission" and things of that nature have been used, be it in past or present eras, to legitimize [[slavery]],<ref>{{Citation|author=Edward J. Cashin|year=2001|title=Beloved Bethesda : A History of George Whitefield's Home for Boys|title-url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Beloved_Bethesda.html?id=XEmvyv3LO2AC|publisher=Mercer University Press|isbn=9780865547223|trans-lang=English}}</ref><ref>{{News citation|author=Juan Siliezar|newspaper=Harvard Gazette|title=Slavery alongside Christianity|date=2019-1-7|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/01/a-harvard-exhibit-on-slavery-and-christianity/|retrieved=2022-6-16}}</ref> [[feudalism]],<ref>{{Citation|author=Gerd Althoff|year=2007|title=Christian Values and Noble Ideas of Rank and their Consequences on Symbolic Acts|title-url=https://journals.openedition.org/e-spania/4053}}</ref> [[fascism]],<ref>{{Citation|author=Roger Eatwell|year=2003|title=Reflections on Fascism and Religion|title-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070501024852/http://staff.bath.ac.uk/mlsre/ReflectionsonFascismandReligion.htm|trans-lang=English}}</ref> [[genocide]],<ref>{{Citation|author=Willliam E. Weeks|year=1996|title=Building the Continental Empire: American Expansion from the Revolution to the Civil War|title-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vcsk8UsgNRsC|page=61|trans-lang=English}}</ref> [[capitalism]],<ref>{{Citation|author=Kate Bowler|year=2013|title=Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel|title-url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199827695.001.0001/acprof-9780199827695|isbn=9780199827695|trans-lang=English}}</ref> and [[colonialism]].<ref name=":1">{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Tricontinental]]|title=Religious Fundamentalism and Imperialism in Latin America: Action and Resistance|date=2022-12-19|url=https://thetricontinental.org/dossier-59-religious-fundamentalism-and-imperialism-in-latin-america/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221222193617/https://thetricontinental.org/dossier-59-religious-fundamentalism-and-imperialism-in-latin-america/|archive-date=2022-12-22|retrieved=2023-01-05}}</ref> | Christianity (along with most religions in general) has been used by the [[ruling class]] during various stages of economic and historical development, mostly as a tool of justifying the social and economic order relative to that historical epoch, which would further secure the power and wealth of said ruling class. Things such as a "divine mandate" or a "god-given mission" and things of that nature have been used, be it in past or present eras, to legitimize [[slavery]],<ref>{{Citation|author=Edward J. Cashin|year=2001|title=Beloved Bethesda : A History of George Whitefield's Home for Boys|title-url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Beloved_Bethesda.html?id=XEmvyv3LO2AC|publisher=Mercer University Press|isbn=9780865547223|trans-lang=English}}</ref><ref>{{News citation|author=Juan Siliezar|newspaper=Harvard Gazette|title=Slavery alongside Christianity|date=2019-1-7|url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/01/a-harvard-exhibit-on-slavery-and-christianity/|retrieved=2022-6-16}}</ref> [[feudalism]],<ref>{{Citation|author=Gerd Althoff|year=2007|title=Christian Values and Noble Ideas of Rank and their Consequences on Symbolic Acts|title-url=https://journals.openedition.org/e-spania/4053}}</ref> [[fascism]],<ref>{{Citation|author=Roger Eatwell|year=2003|title=Reflections on Fascism and Religion|title-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070501024852/http://staff.bath.ac.uk/mlsre/ReflectionsonFascismandReligion.htm|trans-lang=English}}</ref> [[genocide]],<ref>{{Citation|author=Willliam E. Weeks|year=1996|title=Building the Continental Empire: American Expansion from the Revolution to the Civil War|title-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vcsk8UsgNRsC|page=61|trans-lang=English}}</ref> [[capitalism]],<ref>{{Citation|author=Kate Bowler|year=2013|title=Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel|title-url=https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199827695.001.0001/acprof-9780199827695|isbn=9780199827695|trans-lang=English}}</ref> and [[colonialism]].<ref name=":1">{{Web citation|newspaper=[[Tricontinental]]|title=Religious Fundamentalism and Imperialism in Latin America: Action and Resistance|date=2022-12-19|url=https://thetricontinental.org/dossier-59-religious-fundamentalism-and-imperialism-in-latin-america/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221222193617/https://thetricontinental.org/dossier-59-religious-fundamentalism-and-imperialism-in-latin-america/|archive-date=2022-12-22|retrieved=2023-01-05}}</ref> | ||
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==== Spread of Christianity during the low medieval period ==== | ==== Spread of Christianity during the low medieval period ==== | ||
In spite of the rapidly decaying societal state of western Europe in the decades following the fall of the western Roman empire, Christianity was nonetheless able to spread rapidly by means of missionaries. The primary regions that were converted to Christianity were the British Isles, largely [[Anglo-Saxons]] at first, and the barbarian rulers located in what is now [[France]]. Later on, the pagan regions in what is now northern [[Germany]] were forcefully converted to Christianity. | In spite of the rapidly decaying societal state of western Europe in the decades following the fall of the western Roman empire, Christianity was nonetheless able to spread rapidly by means of missionaries. The primary regions that were converted to Christianity were the British Isles, largely [[Anglo-Saxons]] at first, and the barbarian rulers located in what is now [[France]]. Later on, the pagan regions in what is now northern [[Germany]] were forcefully converted to Christianity. | ||
However, the | However, ''christendom'', or the lands where Christianity was the dominant religion, would contract in size during the rise of [[Islam]], which happened during the seventh-to-eight centuries CE. Before the Islamic invasions, regions such as northern [[Africa]] and the levant (a region comprising modern-day Palestine, [[Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan|Jordan]], [[Lebanese Republic|Lebanon]], and [[Syrian Arab Republic|Syria]]) were largely Christian, and ruled by [[Byzantium]], a Christian empire; after the Islamic invasions of around 622 to 750 CE, these region would become mostly Muslim, and remain that way into the present era.<ref>{{Citation|author=Fred M. Donner|year=2014|title=The Early Islamic Conquests|title-url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Early_Islamic_Conquests/l5__AwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0|pdf=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Early_Islamic_Conquests/l5__AwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=1400847877|trans-lang=English}}</ref> | ||
==== Eastern Roman Christianity during the low medieval period ==== | ==== Eastern Roman Christianity during the low medieval period ==== |