The Diversity Found in Christianity in Its First Three Centuries

I believe this is one of the reasons Christianity thrived because people needed some shrivel of hope.

Christianity is one of the most influential religions on both ancient and modern Western society, with the religion based on the teachings of the prophet Jesus Christ who lived approximately between the years of 5 BC and 33 AD. It is claimed that Christ was the son of God whose spirit was embodied and sent to Earth as a human being to bring peace and prosperity to the less fortunate, and absolve the world of its sin. Jesus preached a doctrine of a supreme monotheistic god who ruled over the universe, as well as ethics and morals especially centred on the concept of faith and forgiveness. If one was to live their life in accordance to the Will of God and the teachings of Christ found in the written word of the Holy Bible, one would be absolved of their sin and ascend to the spiritual realm of God, known as Heaven, after their physical death.

The positive influence of Christianity is far reaching especially in the rich history and culture of Western Civilization despite a long standing ignorance or adamant denial of its contributions. The Bible itself is responsible for much of the language, literature, and fine arts we enjoy today as its artists and composers were heavily influenced by its writings. Paul Maier, in writing the forward to the book How Christianity Changed the World by Alvin J. Schmidt, says this about the profound impact Christianity has had on the development of Western Civilization:

Throughout time, Christianity has changed constantly. In order to survive, Christianity has had to evolve and split. It has split into many denominations, some of which have become extinct over the centuries. The religion has changed and divided due to influential people and events in time.

Christianity was born and flourished in an empire where the common language was Latin and Greek. Two important people like Paul and Constantine further influenced and were a major part of the development of Christianity. The history of the Jews leading up to the time of Jesus had a major impact on the development of Christianity. “When Christianity was clearly identified as a distant religion, the new religion was considered by its members to be the fulfillment of Judaism rather than a new religion.” “Since Jesus was a Jew and preached to the Jews, Christianity was closely linked to Judaism.” The development of Christianity was due to several historical, political, and social circumstances.

The evidence that exists to prove the diversity of the early Christian community is the many other writings which have been discovered by historians from the same time period (Harris 2014). In addition, the writings reveal that each separate group of Christians from this era had their own understanding of what Jesus was teaching His followers. The “fifth gospel” of Thomas paints the picture of Jesus as a guide towards His disciples by enlightening them with the message that God’s Kingdom already rules, but many people would not believe him. The portrait that Thomas provokes is an example of the diversity of the early writers and several of his ideas are similar to Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Harris 2014).

When thinking about the history of the world, one must always consider that merchants as well as trade have played an immerse role in shaping the world as it is today. They are responsible for many of the cross-cultural interactions that we have had in the past. Christianity and Islam, the two predominant religions of the world today, have both grown and spread through merchants and trade also. These two chief religions both have attitudes towards merchants and trade that have either developed or decreased overtime. According to these documents, from up to the year 1500, Christianity went from a negative view of merchants and trade to a positive view while Islam went from a positive view to a negative view, but both sides

Factors Which Led to the Spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire Christianity was not born in a vacumn. There were many social, geographical, historical and religious issues prevailing at the time of Christ and all of which were favorable to the spread of Christianity. Geograpicly, Christianity came into being in the Meditation world, the largest of the various centers of civilization at that time. Israel stands almost central to the five continents, dividing the east and west.

In the book “The Unexpected Christian Century,” the author Scott Sunquist believes that the twentieth century is the most recent one in the Christian history. During the time of the geometric era, it was believed that the importance of gravity moved from the Christian nations of Europe and North America to the “Global South,” where Christians were done wrong minority. Simply in the third and the sixteenth centuries was when Christianity had experienced a change of comparable greatness.

Religion is often a driving force behind civilizations, and Christianity is no different. During the Middle Ages in Europe when chaos and instability ruled, Christianity was a guiding light in the darkness. Shaping the European continent, Christianity affected it in ways that paved the road to the modern-day Western civilizations. After the fall of Rome in 476 CE, anarchy erupted in Western Europe. Christianity rose to power as the single dominating and unifying central authority, acting as a government in many aspects, helping preserve history and progressing Western Europe into a more developed age. On the other side of the continent, the Byzantine Empire was continuing on in relative peace. Yet during the reign of Justinian, a deadly plague, known as the bubonic plague swept through the empire. The plague killed half of the empire’s population and without the manpower to run the empire, left the infrastructure in ruins. Politically and economically weakened, the Byzantine Empire was on its knees. Christianity helped support the Byzantine Empire forward in many regards, but because of the hierarchy of the Eastern Orthodox Church compared to the singular Pope in the Roman Catholic Church, Christianity left a more lasting effect in the West than in the Byzantine Empire. Especially in the West, having combined the forces of emperors and the church working together, which benefited politically and economically, influencing art and culture, and increased the domain of the

Throughout history, Christianity always had a reputation, or a “name” following it. Different perspectives approached the reputation that was attached to Christianity in different manners. Justin Martyr and Porphyry had objectives when defining whether this “name” really defined Christianity and the past. They wondered whether the past really represented Christianity. Additionally they honed in on the question of was the past that people represented as Christianity really the roots of Christianity? All around Porphyry and Justin was perceptions of what Christianity rooted from and stood for.

The part of Christianity I personally thought was the most intriguing/interesting is how the religion has split into many different denominations. It evolved from a single official Church into three major branches––Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism, with subdivisions among each one of those branches. Every branch and subdivision of Christianity started out with the same book, the Bible, however, each one of those groups have interpreted the teachings different ways. In general, I believe that the diversity of Christianity is a strength and weakness at the same time. It’s a strength because many different people can find communities that share their own particular beliefs, however the different interpretations of the Bible’s

Each of them is itself one, but because they manifest themselves everywhere in association with actions, bodies, and one another, each of them appears to be many.' "

As human, Christ had a body, he had a soul and spirit, he had human characteristics, and he was called by human names. In Luke 2:52, it is written that Christ, even though he had a virgin birth, He was born with a human body that was conceived by a human body. Christ's humanity included both the material and immaterial aspects of the human body (he was flesh but at the same time he was also Soul and Spirit).

For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. (Romans 12:4-5,KJV)