Christianity

Having a "divine mandate" has been the reasoning behind many political actions, such as the First Crusade.

Christianity is an abrahamic and monotheistic religion thats dogma is based around the writings contained within the bible, a set of myths imperfectly edited and translated for centuries. Christianity is currently the most largest religion on Earth, it having about 2.6 billion adherents as of 2020.

In spite of many christians claiming that they have the "one and true" faith, there exists over 45,000 sects of christianity on Earth, of which, the roman catholic church is the largest in terms of membership, followed by the protestantism (which itself is extremely fragmented), then eastern orthodoxy.

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 misson" and things of that nature have been used, be it in past or present eras, to legitimize slavery, feudalism, fascism, genocide, and capitalism.

With the rise of mass public schooling, literacy, and other factors, adherence of religion has declined, with an increasing rate of secularism, agnosticism, and atheism, and otherwise lack of religion.

History

Early Development

The early history of christianity is unclear, with reliable facts few and myths many. Being as how christianity itself likely began with the life of Jesus, of which, the earliest historical account of his life was made at around 70 CE - decades after his legendary dealth - it is unclear how and when christianity first appered as a religion.

Divergence from Judaism

By the middle of the first century CE, there had emerged a particular group a jews whom had begun to adapt heterodox views compared to normal followers of judaism. This nascent jewish sect is known by modern scholars as "jewish-christians", or "jewish followers of Jesus". The jewish-christians had applied the theological view of a "savior" or "messiah" to Jesus.

While the first followers of Jesus were located almost entirely in roman Judea (modern-day Isreal), by means of missionaries, this early form of christianity was able to spread across the roman empire. These first theological missions were originally targeting the jewish communites outside judea, but over time, gentiles (non-jews) became early christians as well. Overtime, the theological difference between jewish-christians and jews got to a point where those jewish-christians became christians, particularly after more-and-more non-jews became members of this sect.

Early Christianity

By the year 150 CE, early christianity had appered as a sperate religion from judaism. Furthermore, these early christians lived in often urban communities, located in the heart of the roman empire. The early christians would begin to form a common clerical structure and theological docturne. This phase in christianity is known today as the ante-nicene period, that is, the time before the first council of nicaea, which happened in 325 CE.

The time from 150-325 CE saw a wide range of christian sects apper, often failing to concur with eachother on things such as the divinity of Christ, the nature of the trinity, and other things like that. The ante-nicene period also saw a large amount of persecution, namely from roman authorites, but as the turmoil of the crisis of the third century along with the hardships of the forth and fifth centuries wore on, and as the old economic order of slavery and patricians was slowly replaced by the emerging economic system of feudalism, the citizens and denizens of the moribund roman empire slowly left behind their ancient paganistic religion, and embraced christianity.

By the forth century CE, christianity had become common place in roman civilization, and in 313 CE, the edict of milan was put in effect, legalizing the practice of christianity. By the end of western part of the roman empire in 476 CE, christianity had firmly rooted itself in both the government and commoners of europe and north africa.

Christianity during the late classical age

In the year 380 CE, christianity was made the official state religion of the roman empire. Furthermore, with christianity now enjoying acceptance at a governmental-level, the structure of the clergy would now change greatly. Among some of the most politically impactful changes would include the formation of a system known as the pentarchy - that is - a system where five bishops would be appointed to manage the theological workings of five locations, or sees. These five locations included rome, constantinople, jerusalem, antioch, and alexandria. These bishoprics largely survive to this day, for example, the present bishop of rome is also known as the pope - and head of the vatican city state of the roman catholic church.

Later on, when the western roman empire fell during the fifth century CE, the theological leaders of christianity were forced to adapt to the rapidly changing politcal and social climate of that time. The christian clergy had to contend with the theological ideas of the new barbarian overlords, while still maintaining loyalty with the clergy of the remaining part of the roman empire.

Christianity during the 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 into christianity were the british isles, largely anglo-saxons at first, and the barbarian rulers located in what is now france. Later on, the pagan-worshiping regions in what is now northern germany were forcefully converted to christianity.

However, christendom 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 isreal, jordan, lebanon, and 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.

Eastern roman christianity during the low medieval period

Unlike in western europe, the east - that is - the eastern roman empire, saw much more political stability. As such, mutations in the theological or clerical structures were generally slower than with the christain church's western counterpart.

East-West Schism

Due to centuries of political and geograpthic separation between the christianity of western europe and the christianity of eastern europe, there soon began to apper differences between the two churces. Many of these discrepancies while relatively small, such as the way in which ritualistic bread was prepared, others were relatively big, such as the practice of clerical celibacy, or the structure of the clergy.

These theological conflicts reached a metaphorical boiling point when, after a set of heated theological debates, the western and eastern christian churches both excommunicated each other in 1054 CE. At this point, both the roman catholic and eastern orthodox churches had become distinct from each other.