HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY

1. INTRODUCTION.
   Christianity is that religion which is centered in the person and work of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Hebrew-Christian Scriptures. In the Christian religion the object of ultimate significance and supreme importance is a living person, Jesus Christ. Christianity is not primarily an institutional organization (the Christian Church), nor a special set of acts (ritual or the liturgy), nor a particular set of doctrines or concepts (Christian creed or theology). Christianity as a religion in the wider sense of that word has such institutions, rites and theology, but in the narrow meaning of the word "religion" Christianity is first of all faith and trust in Jesus Christ as a living person. This is the significance of the earliest Christian confession, "Jesus is Lord" (Rom. 10:9; I Cor. 12:3). The confession that Jesus Christ is God and Savior is the lowest common denominator of all ecumenical Christian statements of faith, both ancient and modern. Both the Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed, for example, are no more than expanded form of this earliest confession, particularly in their second articles.

2. ITS HISTORY.
   Christianity has been the major religion of the Western World. Its history has shown its division into three main groups: the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the many communions known as Protestant, that repudiated the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. The history of Christianity is divisible into the following periods:
   1. The Apostolic Age (to A.D. 100).
      From the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the apostolic witness to him, especially the Apostle Paul, up to the separation of the Christian church from the Jewish people.

   2. Ancient Church Period (A.D. 100-313).
      In this period up to the Edict of Milan (A.D. 313),that was decreed during the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine (A.D. c.274/280-337), the church strengthened itself in the Roman Empire, in spite of persecution.
      In this period the church struggled against pagan religions, especially Gnosticism.
      This was the Age of Apostolic Fathers and the Christian Apologists.
      The Christological heresies of
      Ebionism,
      Adoptionism and
      Docetism were combated.
      The important theologians of this period were
      Irenaeus,
      Origen, and
      Tertullian.

   3. Early Church Period (A.D. 313-590).
      From Constantine, who decreed with the Edict of Milan (A.D. 313) full legal toleration for the Christian religion in the Roman Empire, up to when Gregory I (A.D. 540-604) became Pope (A.D. 590), the Church gained supremacy in the Empire and formulated its creeds.
      The theological problems of the Trinity and of the Person of Christ were dealt with,
      and the following Ecumenical Councils were held to determine the church's doctrine:
      Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325), which formulated the Nicene Creed;
      First Council of Constantinople (A.D. 381);
      Council of Ephesus (A.D. 431);
      Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451);
      Second Council of Constantinople (A.D. 553).

      Monasticism developed and
      the heresies of
      Arianism,
      Apollinariamism
      Nestorianism,
      Monophysitism,
      Manichaeism, and
      Pelagianism were combated.
      The important theologians of this period were
      Athanasius,
      The Cappadocian Fathers, and
      Augustine.

   4. The Dark Ages (A.D. 590-1073).
      This period may be divided into the two following periods.
      
      1. Missions to the Barbarians (A.D. 590-800).
         From A.D. 271 to A.D. 540 the Barbarians invaded the Roman Empire.
         From Gregory I (A.D. 540-604) to Charlemagne (A.D. 751-814), England and the Germanic peoples were Christianized.
         During this period the Third Council of Constantinople (A.D. 680) and Second Council of Nicaea (A.D. 787) were held.
         Christian Monasticism was founded by Benedict of Nursia (A.D. c.480-547) and spread throughout Western Europe during this period.
         During latter part of this period (A.D. 632-732) Egypt, North Africa, and Spain were lost to the Moslems.

      2. Carolingian Renaissance (A.D. 800-1073).
         During this period from the crowning of Charlemagne as emperor (25 Dec A.D. 800) until Hildebrand (A.D. 1023-1085) became Pope Gregory VII (A.D. 1073), the power of the papacy grew, the Roman Empire was revived, and the Fourth Council of Constantinople (A.D. 869) was held.
         In A.D. 1054 the Eastern and the Western branches of the Church separated over the "Filoque" clause of the Nicene Creed.

   5. The Medieval Period (A.D. 1073-1500).
      This period may be divided into the two following periods:
      
      1. From Pope Gregory VII (A.D. 1073) to Pope Boniface VIII (A.D. 1294).
         Popes at the zenith of their power in Europe;
         the four Lateran Councils, A.D. 1123, A.D. 1139, A.D. 1179, and
         the two Lyon Councils, A.D. 1245, A.D. 1274, were held.
         The seven Crusades were conducted to win back the Holy Land, A.D. 1096-1270.
         Scholasticism arose with
         John Scotus Erigena,
         Anselm,
         Thomas Aquinas, and
         Duns Scotus.
         A major problem of this period concerned the status of universals.
         In A.D. 1232 the Inquisition was started.

      2. From Pope Boniface VIII (A.D. 1294) to the posting of Luther's 95 theses (A.D. 1517).
         The following councils were held:
         Council of Vienna, A.D. 1311,
         Council of Constance, A.D. 1414-18,
         Council of Basel, A.D. 1431,
         Fifth Lateran Council, A.D. 1512-17.
         The pre-reformers, Wycliffe in England and Huss in Bohemia, were active.
         The important philosopher-theologian of this period was the Nominalist, William of Ockham.
         The Renaissance began with the Italian Renaissance (from A.D. 1300 to 1500) and prepared the way for the Modern Period and the Reformation.

   6. The Modern Period (1500 to the present).
      This period may be divided into the following periods:
      
      1. The European Renaissance (1500-1536).
         The Italian Renaissance spread throughout Europe, especially to northern Europe, and prepared the way for the Reformation.
         The last and most effective forerunner of the Reformation was Desiderius Erasmus of Rotherdam (1467-1536).

      2. The Reformation period (1517-1648).
         From the posting of Luther's 95 theses on October 31, 1517, to the Peace of Westphalia, on October 27, 1648, which ended the Thirty Years War, the Western branch of Christianity was divided into the Roman Catholic and Protestant branches. This resulted from the work of the three reformers,
         Martin Luther,
         Huldreich Zwingli, and
         John Calvin.
         The English Church also separated from Roman Catholicism in 1531.
         In Scotland John Knox consolidated the Reformation in Scotland.
         Puritanism attempted to purify the English Church.
         The Roman Catholics held the Council of Trent (1545-1563) to define their Church over against the Protestants.
         The Jesuit Order (Societas Jesu, S.J.) was started by Ignatius Loyala (1534).

      3. The developments from 1648 to the present.
         
         1. Developments among the Roman Catholic.
            In this period the Jesuit movement grew in strength and influence; The Vatican Council of 1869-70 recognized Thomism as the official philosophic viewpoint of the Roman Catholic Church and promulgated the doctrine of papal infallibility. The Second Vatican Council in 1962-65 attempted to renew and bring up to date all facets of the faith and life of the Roman Church.

         2. Developments among the Protestants.
            
            1. The English Act of Toleration in 1689 allowed religious dissent from the state religion in England.
            2. Many Protestant groups emigrated from England to colonies in America.
            3. After the American Revolution (1791) the constitution of the United States of America (First Amendment) prohibited the formation of a state church in the United States of America.
            4. Revival movements have occurred at various times in this period of a renewal of faith and life:
               1. Pietism reacted to the deadness of the church and to the rationalism of the Enlighenment in 17th century;
               2. Quakerism reacted to the sacramentalism in the English church;
               3. John Wesley began an Evangelical Awakening in England in the 18th century;
               4. the First Great Awakening occurred in the 18th century;
               5. the Second Great Awakening occurred at the beginning of 19th century;
               6. Charles Finney and the Blanchards preserved the effects of the Second Awakening.
               7. the Fulton Street or Layman Revival began in 1858;
               8. Dwight L. Moody conducted revival and evangelistic meetings from 1875 to 1899;
               9. the Holiness revival began after the American Civil War in 1875;
               10. the Pentecostal revival occurred at the beginning of 20th century;
               11. the charismatic renewal movement occurred during the 1960's and 70's.
            5. The missionary movement in the 18th and 19th centuries was a spin off from this revivalism.
            6. In the early 19th century, there devoloped an interpretation of biblical history that was called dispensationalism.
            7. The rise of Protestant Liberalism in Germany during the late 19th and in the United States duing the early 20th century culminated in the split between the liberals (the Modernist) and evangelicals ( Fundamentalism) in the 1920's and 30's. In England, an attempted synthesis of the gospel and modern knowledge resulted in movement called "Liberal Evangelicalism".
            8. The First World War brought the collapse of liberalism in Europe and the rise of Neo-orthodoxy of Karl Barth and Emil Brunner. The Great Depression of 1930's similarly brought the re-evaluation of liberalism in America and rise of the reconstructed liberalism or neo-orthodoxy of the Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich.
            9. During the Second World War in 1942, the evangelicals organized themselves into the National Association of Evangelicals. In 1947 the evangelist and Bible teacher Dr. Charles Fuller started a graduate school of theology in Pasadena, California, named Fuller Theological Seminary. Out of the Youth for Christ movement which held rallies during the Second World War, the evangelist Billy Graham began his ministry. He began to hold city-wide evangelistic crusades in 1949 with the Los Angeles Crusade, which vaulted him onto the national stage. In the following year he launched the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association to win converts through radio and television. Dr. Carl Henry, one of founding professors at Fuller Seminary, left the seminary in 1955 and began in 1956 the monthly periodical, Christianity Today. These new evangelicals, as Harold J. Ockenga called them in 1947, distinguished themselves from the older fundamentalism.
            10. In the late 1950s, their began a movement within the historic churches which was often called in its early stages "neo-Pentecostalism" but in more recent years has been called the "charismatic renewal" and the "charismatic movement". The charismatic movement has affected almost every historic church and has spread to many churches and countries outside of the United States.