Spread of Christianity Among People Groups
From the very beginning times of Christianity, its message has identified with and transformed communities of people. Christianity itself grew out of a people group who had an identity that stretches back in time thousands of years. The worship of Yahweh, geographically born in ancient Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) has spread through history to the farthest islands of the seas.
Born into the people of Israel, Jesus gathered a small group of followers living and working with them until his ascension to heaven. From these few, the Christian faith spread to other Jews in Israel and the further reaches of the Roman Empire, including parts of southern Europe and Southwest Asia. As
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Among the groups that might be included in this history are the Vandals, Visigoths, Burgundians, Franks, Ostrogoths and the Lombards.
A pattern begins
Ralph D. Winter comments on the ‘barbarian conversion,’ which took place in the midst of Rome’s decline. He states that, "as the Barbarian tribes people became Christianized, they became a greater and greater threat to Rome." He also notes that as the Barbarian tribes encroached on Rome they held high regard for the Christian faith and avoided the desecration of church properties. This respect was a result of what Winter calls a faith of at least ‘superficial’ proportions on the part of the Barbarians.
Winter explains that they received this faith through the missionary efforts of the Eastern church in Rome rather than the Western church. He conjectures that, "Perhaps a little more Christianity might have prevented the complete collapse of the governmental structure of the Roman Empire in the West." Perhaps this lack of effort on the part of the Western church in Rome to reach their neighbors to the north with the message of Christ can be credited in part for the West’s quick demise.(2, pB-10)
The unknown East
Another historical branch of the spreading Christian faith, though not as geographically and historically noted was to the east. A significant branch of Christianity spread to Persia, which grew to a point of sending
Several factors contributing to the rapid spread of Christianity from the period ca. 50 to 500 CE but, among the more influential were political and social conflict, missionary work, word of mouth, and women in leadership. Starting as a Jewish sect, Christianity gradually began to attract those outside of the Jewish heritage. Though the first few centuries of this movement were anything but glamorous, both Jewish and Gentile Christians remained steadfast. The ecclesiastical works of the early Church Fathers offer solace to such who were continually persecuted, a people of lower society status or even slaves. During this era, the dissimilation of subversive ministries advanced the appeal of Christianity by challenging previously established social order and its structures of power, authority, and hierarchy. By late 300 CE, Christianity had revolutionized and was adopted as the universal religion of the Roman Empire as a result of the conversion of its emperor. Thus the strength behind Christian communities lead to the discovery and conversion of indigenous cultures around the world using force, wealth, missionary work, and the gospel.
Christianity is a widespread and powerful religion because of its beginning in the Roman Empire. Factors contributing to this included spreading ideas without difficulty throughout the entire empire, the appeal of Christianity to the people, and the rule of Emperor Constantine.
‘Christians to the lions’ as Trajan would say, an emperor in the early centuries Christianity to them have alienated the favour of their gods which has and would continue to cause disasters in the Roman Empire. The misfortune of Christians did not stop during this period, but it did come to a composed halt as Galerius, gave Christians the right to worship in some sense. Christianity during the early stages was clearly a course of persecution and forced pagan accusations. Constantine dramatically changed the recourse of religions with the battle of Milvian Bridge as Christianity became the predominant religion of the Roman Empire.
In the novel title “The Lost History of Christianity”, author Philip Jenkins attempts to convey the message that there are many aspects of Christianity that are unknown to Christian followers today. Jenkins start by implying that Christianity essentially starts in Northern Mesopotamia. Jenkins then traces the history of Christianity from Africa to the Arab world to the heart of Asia, in what he consider to be the “golden age” of Christianity. He informs the readers of the stories of churches and movements that thrived over a millennium and then largely died out, though there are remnants of these churches here and there, spread across different parts of the world. Jenkins is a firm believer that Westerners are blinded by the impression the Christianity began in Europe and Northern America, and believe that in some ways they are superior among other religions. Jenkins suggest, “When they think about Christian history, most modern Westerners follow the book of Acts in concentrating on the church 's expansion west, through Greece and the Mediterranean world, and on to Rome. But while some early Christians were indeed moving west, many other believers-probably in greater numbers-journeyed east along the land routes, through what we today call Iraq and Iran, where they built great and enduring churches. Because of its location-close to Roman frontier, but just far enough beyond it to avoid heavy-handed interference-Mesopotamia or Iraq retained a powerful terms of the number and
The Christian religion began around 2000 years ago in Judea, which is now Israel. Christianity began with Jesus of Nazareth and his disciples. Jesus traveled from village to village, teaching in the synagogues, and healing those who were sick and suffering. He challenged the authorities to
Christianity started as a religion in first century AD and spread through Roman empires. It is said that the religion itself started in Palestine. The stories of Jesus and his disciples is depicted in a book called the Bible. The Christian religion gives us stories from the Bible, pertaining to how we ought to treat others and bases for how we should live our lives. All of these bases are given and as a reward of following those bases you are promised a place up in heaven. If you sin and don't expect your sins you go to
There were many sects of early Christianity, many with conflicting beliefs. But in general, Christianity brought several ethnic groups together and find common ground while the polytheistic system allowed each group to continue their own individual traditions. This meant that as Christianity spread it became the major belief over the variety of polytheistic religions. By the end of the fourth century CE the cities of the Roman Empire were mostly Christian based and it continued to spread to the rest of the
The document The Spread of Christianity & Hypatia talked about the major spread of Christianity in many parts in Rome. The start came around the time of the foundation of Rome and a new movement came into Alexandria and many other empires. This movement started the development of Christianity and then the spread of Christianity in Rome. Even though it got recognition in Rome, in the year 249 to 250 AD, everyone was forced to worship the roman god. If they didn’t, the chance of death wasn’t a low chance. At the time, the Church only as one third of the population of the greek speakers and less than 10 percent of the latin speakers. It was until the fourth century where Christianity was being converted in Rome. Even the emperor Constantine
Prior to the spreading of Christianity,
During the 700’s a new civilization was developing within the outer domains of the forgoing Roman Empire. Inside the British Isles and Scandinavia, the pagans, Roman and Christians were all mixed together. In the time of Charlemagne’s rule he wanted all Romans to convert to Christianity. Charlemagne was so set on Romans converting to Christianity that he threatened death to any and all that did not want to convert.
Among others, Rome encountered many Jews, Muslims, and Christians. Because of these encounters, there was a massive spread of Christianity starting with the poorer classes and spreading to more powerful
Then, finally, in the fourth century the Lord provided freedom for His people. The Roman Empire came to grips with the fact that persecuting Christians would not make the faith disappear, but force survivors to rally together and become a stronger body of Christ. The number of believers were escalating. And because of that, in 311 A.D. the East declared Christianity to be a
Palestine, a Roman province, faced the birth of the Jesus movement, today known as Christianity. Followers
Christianity began as a Jewish sect in the eastern Mediterranean and quickly grew in size and influenced many people just over a few decades. By the 4th century Christianity had become the dominant religion within the Roman Empire. The history of Christianity goes back into Jewish ancestry and contains around the 300 prophecies in the Old Testament which reveals the upcoming of a Jewish Messiah who would be a Savior of humanity. The birth of Jesus Christ also claimed a revolution and the revival of the teachings of Judaism. In the beginning Christianity was considered as a sect of Judaism. later on, the teachings of Jesus established the foundation of Christianity. This is the well known history of Christianity, I decided to interview my
These reasons are the undoubted reasons for moving the capital to such a strong and protected city, despite Rome’s significant morale association to the people. As the empire began to fall in Western Europe, the barbarian chieftains also used Constantine’s idea of conversion to unite their neighboring tribes. Some used the justification after a battle and others claimed it to be divine intervention that bought about their baptisms, but the end result was the beginning of nations that exist to this day.