The Canon · No. 031
Christianity
The Way; the Church
c.30–33 CE – present · Abrahamic · Living · Global; largest in the Americas, Europe, sub-Saharan Africa
IV. THE CLASSICAL & IMPERIAL WORLD — c.200 BCE – 500 CE
How many
About 2.3 billion (Pew, 2020), 28.8% of humanity. The largest religion on earth, and the most geographically distributed.
Who began it
Jesus of Nazareth (c.4 BCE – c.30–33 CE), a Galilean Jewish teacher and healer executed by crucifixion under the prefect Pontius Pilate. His existence as a historical figure is accepted by effectively all historians of the period, religious and secular alike; what he claimed and what happened afterwards is where the disagreement lies. Paul of Tarsus (c.5–c.65 CE) is the decisive second founder — he never met the living Jesus, and his letters are the earliest Christian writings we have, predating the gospels.
What it is for
To reconcile humanity to God. The diagnosis is that humanity is estranged by sin and cannot fix it; the remedy is that God became human, died and rose, and that trusting this reconciles the person to God.
What it worships
One God in three persons — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — one substance, three persons, a formula hammered out over four centuries of bitter argument and rejected by a minority of groups then and now. Jesus Christ is held to be fully God and fully human, two natures in one person, which is the Chalcedonian definition of 451 and the point at which several ancient churches parted company.
What it holds
Incarnation — God took on human flesh. Atonement — the crucifixion deals with sin, though how is genuinely disputed between substitution, ransom, victory and moral-example models. Resurrection — bodily, on the third day, and Paul says flatly that if it did not happen the whole faith is worthless. Grace — salvation is a gift, not an earned wage, though Catholics and Protestants have fought wars over the role of works. Original sin, in Augustine's formulation, is inherited and universal; Eastern Orthodoxy holds a milder version (ancestral sin) and rejects inherited guilt. Second coming and final judgment. The ethical core is love of God and neighbour, with the Sermon on the Mount as its most demanding statement.
What it does
Baptism and Eucharist (communion, Mass, Lord's Supper) are near-universal; Catholic and Orthodox churches count seven sacraments, most Protestants two. Sunday worship. Prayer, including fixed liturgies and the Lord's Prayer. Scripture reading. Lent and fasting; Advent. Confession. Monasticism from the 3rd century. Missionary activity, which is doctrinally mandated and has made it the most actively spreading religion in history. Festivals: Easter, the oldest and theologically the most important, and Christmas, fixed on 25 December only in the 4th century.
After death
Bodily resurrection at the end of history, then judgment, then heaven or hell. Note that the biblical hope is resurrection of the body into a renewed creation, not an immortal soul escaping to a non-physical heaven — the latter is Platonic (see entry 021) and entered through Greek philosophy, though it dominates popular Christian imagination. Heaven is classically defined as the beatific vision, seeing God directly, rather than as a pleasant location. Hell is described as eternal separation from God; three positions exist within the tradition — eternal conscious torment (the historic majority), annihilationism (the lost cease to exist), and universalism (all are eventually saved, held by Origen and condemned in 553, but never entirely dead). Purgatory, a purifying state before heaven, is Catholic doctrine, rejected by Protestants and not taught in the same form by the Orthodox. Roughly a quarter of Christians globally hold something other than the standard eternal-torment view.
Its texts
The Bible: Old Testament (39 books in Protestant reckoning, 46 in Catholic including the deuterocanon, more in Orthodox and Ethiopian canons) and New Testament (27 books, universally agreed) — four gospels, Acts, twenty-one letters, Revelation. Creeds: Nicene (325/381) and Apostles'. Church Fathers: Augustine, Athanasius, the Cappadocians, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin.
Its branches
Catholic (~1.4bn), Protestant (~900m, itself splitting into Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal and thousands more), Eastern Orthodox (~220m), Oriental Orthodox (~60m), Church of the East (small), plus restorationist groups such as Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses whose Christian status is disputed by mainstream churches.
Of note
Christianity is the only major religion whose founder wrote nothing, whose earliest documents are letters written by someone who never met him, and whose central claim is about an event rather than a teaching.
Its timeline
- c.4 BCE Birth of Jesus (the conventional calendar is off by several years — Herod the Great died in 4 BCE).
- c.30–33 CE Crucifixion in Jerusalem. The disciples report resurrection appearances.
- c.34 CE Paul's conversion on the Damascus road.
- c.49 CE Council of Jerusalem decides Gentile converts need not be circumcised or keep the Mosaic law — the single decision that turns a Jewish sect into a world religion.
- c.50–62 CE Paul's letters; the earliest Christian documents.
- c.70–100 CE The four gospels written, Mark first.
- 64, 249–251, 303–311 CE Persecutions under Nero, Decius and Diocletian.
- 312–313 CE Constantine's vision at the Milvian Bridge; the Edict of Milan legalises Christianity.
- 325 CE Council of Nicaea condemns Arianism and affirms that the Son is of the same substance as the Father.
- 380 CE Christianity becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire.
- 397, 419 CE Councils of Carthage list the New Testament canon as it now stands.
- 431, 451 CE Ephesus and Chalcedon; the Church of the East and the Oriental Orthodox churches separate.
- 1054 CE The Great Schism divides Rome and Constantinople over papal authority and the filioque clause.
- 1095–1291 The Crusades.
- 1378–1417 Western Schism; two and then three rival popes.
- 1517 CE Luther and the Reformation.
- 1545–63 Council of Trent; the Catholic Counter-Reformation.
- 1618–48 Thirty Years War; perhaps eight million dead in a war with religion at its core.
- 1906 Azusa Street revival; Pentecostalism begins its extraordinary global expansion.
- 1962–65 Second Vatican Council — vernacular liturgy, religious liberty, and a formal repudiation of the charge of Jewish collective guilt for the crucifixion.
- 1980s–present The centre of gravity shifts decisively to the global South. There are now more Christians in Africa than in Europe.
- 2002–present Sustained public reckoning with clerical sexual abuse across multiple denominations and countries.
Sources
Not yet checked against named sources. This entry is the house's reading; until it is checked, treat each claim as unverified. Correct it, with a source.