Hello, everyone!
Last time, we talked about the second most popular religion in the world, Islam. Now, we're going to talk about the most popular religion in the world, if all groups are combined into one religion, Christianity.
I don't even think I need to explain what Christianity is. It's so popular, fiction references it constantly, whether it's Christmas, referencing the Holy Trinity, or even quoting directly from the Bible (and that's not even including the genre of Christian media, such as Veggietales).
So let's talk about the religion that represents nearly a third of the world, Christianity.
This is Chapter 10, by the way.
The Beginning of Chapter 10
Did you know that 60% of Christians come from Asia, Africa, or Latin America? I know; it's surprising how a religion that originated in Europe is mostly practiced in, well, not Europe. It shows the success in the spread of Christianity, rivaling even Islam. Though, I do hope most of that conversion was through personal choice and not through violent means...
Sometimes, "Christianity" is a bit too much of a broad term, because there are so many different types of Christianity. There's Eastern Orthodox, Catholicism, Protestantism, Anglicanism... there's a lot. And later on, we'll see how they sometimes don't get along very well.
Christian Contraction in Asia and Africa
In Asia and Africa, Christianity had to compete with other religions, most notably Islam.
In the Middle East, Islam stayed the dominant religion. While Christianity and Judaism were sometimes allowed to be practiced there, but they sometimes had to pay a tax. Occasionally, however, they faced violence, such as destroyed churches and having their crops burned. Religious freedom tended to vary depending on the ruler.
As for China, sometimes they allowed Christianity, and sometimes they didn't. Now, to my knowledge, Christianity can be practiced in China.
In Egypt, Christianity used to be the dominant religion until the Muslim conquest. However, today, roughly 10% of Egyptians identify as Christians, showing that it's very difficult to eradicate a religion from an area.
Byzantine Christendom: Building on the Roman Past
How did Christianity become the dominant religion? That would be mainly because of the Roman Emperor, Constantine.
However, by spreading Christianity throughout Rome, he ended up splitting the religion into two: Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism. This is because Rome was also split into Western Rome and the Byzantine Empire.
Eastern Orthodox and Catholicism did not get along well. They disagreed on several things, from where the Holy Spirit came from to even the importance of faith. This is most likely why the split is still here today.
By the way, did you know that Russia converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity in 988? It's still a major part of Russia to this day.
Western Christendom: Rebuilding in the Wake of Roman Collapse
So Western Rome fell. Whether you believe it was due to invaders, Christianity, or Rome getting too lazy, Rome is now a distant memory that no longer exists. That led to the Dark Ages of Western Europe, a dangerous time of no central government.
Feudalism was born because people needed protection from invaders. They would give the landowners certain materials, and they would get protection in return. Contrary to popular belief, serfs had rights, and in some cases, it was better to be a serf than an independent, free citizen.
And then there were the Crusades, the religious wars of the era. I remember my high school history teacher teaching about the First and the Third Crusade, because, in his opinion, those were the most important and interesting ones. The Third Crusade in particular was of interest, and he even taught the legends behind the Christian kings teaming up to take back the Holy Land.
Interestingly, he argued that the Crusades are still happening today. Whether he's right or what events he's talking about is up to you.
The West in Comparative Perspective
Just like some U.S. presidents, nobody expected Europe to be the winner of so much of late world history. Even in the 1500's, they just started colonizing the New World and catching up to China and the Islamic World.
So what happened? They learned from other cultures.
Europe went back to Greek texts and learned how to think critically about the world around them. They learned medical knowledge and math from the Islamic world. They even copied some of China's technology, such as paper.
In the end, Europe became dominant in the world. It's descendant, the United States of America, is now a global superpower that rivals China. So it's worth it to learn about the past and to learn about other cultures, because they may have some useful knowledge that people could learn from.
It's interesting how the book jumped from "the spread of Christianity" to "how Europe became so successful" so smoothly. However, I wish they talked a bit more about the dark side of Europe and colonialism, but that's probably for a later chapter.
Until next time!
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