history of christianity?

Question

help..i'm writting an essay that counts 75% of my grade. I was asked to write it about christianity..i need a summarized but accurate and slighty elaborated version of the history of christianity and its major beliefs and importance.
any help is greatly appreciated..
thnx-jane

Answer 1

Check the wikipedia link for starters http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity You have over 2000 years of history to look at - how long is this essay suppose to be???

Good luck!!!

Answer 2

Well, you need to read some of the Bible, especially about Jesus, who said Peter would build a Church on what they did.

You need to read the letters from Paul (Corinthians, Romans, Thessolonians).

THEN, you need to read about Constantine, who basically turned their loose church into the modern day Roman Catholic Church.

Constaintine helped form the Bible we all read, purging some texts (such as the 2nd and 3rd Romans, leaving only One Romans).

You need to look at the Biblical Last Supper and also learn the HEbrew "Passover" or Pesach tradition. This means reading a little of Exodus or watching the movie The Ten Commandements with Chuck Heston.

Then you need to look at how the traiditions of the Roman Catholic Communion came, with wafers and in some instances just the Priest drinking wine, instead of "breaking bread" as JEsus did and passing the wine glass.

The EUCARIST or Communioin, is a heavy part of the conflicts within Christinanity, along with Baptism, so also read where John the Bapstist Baptized JEsus.

Might be work a look to touch on the alienation of Muhammad in 7 AD when he approached Christians and Jews to help him spread Islam.

Then look at the splintering of the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches

The Spanish inquistions and Crusades of the 10th Centuray.

Then Look at the Reformist Movement.

Wycliffe, Calvin, Henry VIII and finally Luther

The Catholics were largely opposed to the common man reading the Bible, hence all bibles were written in LAtin, a dead language and all liturgies (masses, sermons) delievered in Latin.

The Pope has final say over biblical interpretations.

Different Popes made some fatal mistakes.

#1 Not granting King Henry VIII an annulment or divorce. Henry wanted a male heir and his wifes all gave him girls.

Since the Pope in Rome would not let him marry somone else who might give him a son, he broke with Rome and started his own Religion, the Church of England, which today is the Anglican Church.

Basically it was a Catholic Church that allowed Priests to marry and men to get divorced. It also did the liturgy and read the Bible in the King's English, not Latin.

As rule Switched England went back to Catholic, then embrassed both Catholic and Church of England and finally King James made it Just the Church of England and laws were passed forcing the King or Queen to be a member of that church.

King James had the first seriously NEW bible made since Constantine, but 10 years later he had chapters purged from that book that mostly dealt with sourcery, soothsayers, etcs.

This might be because of too many Witch burnings or because the King had an Astrologer!

In Germany about 100 years later Martin Luther, a good CAtholic Priest, was outraged when he found out another nearby church was letting the rich sin in exchange for cash payments of money up front!

Land Barron to Priest: My wife is old and ugly and doesn't give me much sex, I'd like to keep a mistress, here's $2,000 does God forgive me?

Priest: You are forgiven.

This bothered Luther to no end.

He zapped off a letter to the Pope, and all of a sudden other PRiests and Cardinals were, literally, calling for his head. One said Luther should be BURNED AT THE STAKE.

Luther was tried and convicted of Heresy, excommunicated from the Church

HOWEVER, Princes, Barons and other nobles saw that Luther was developing a followoing of Catholics who also didn't like the fact rich people were buying their way out of sin.

They saw this as an opportunity to have a scapegoat challenge the Authority of Rome, which made Kings bow and Kiss the ring of the Pope and make Kings pay taxes to Rome.

They kept luther alive and from him and Calvin in France and England came the Protestant movement, which in only 200 years broke the back or Rome, which owned EVERY country from parts of the Middle East all the way up to Scandinavia, except for a few pockets like Greece and Russian which had their own non Roman Catholic religions.

Germany, Sweden and other Countries became offically Lutheran by the 1700s. England was sort of Prootestant by the late 1600s but had problems with ultra radical Puritans and Anabaptists, who ask to go to America where they founded the Baptist movements, the Presbyterian Movements, the Methodists Movements, the Congregationalist Movements.

Then came the Modern ages of the 1800s and never religions such as the Seventh Day Adventists, Mormons, Christian Scientists and near the end of the century the Pentacostals formed.

http://www.issues-mag.com/july4/religion.phtml

http://www.issues-mag.com/jan5/catholic.phtml

http://www.issues-mag.com/sept5/religion6.phtml

http://www.issues-mag.com/nov5/religion7.phtml

Answer 3

Christian followers have little to no understand-how of the historic backgrounds of their faith. as an occasion, what share on your adventure are accustomed to the 1st Council of Nicea, in 325AD? That became the factor in historic previous the place the region of Easter, Christmas and different Christian holidays have been desperate by ability of vote and ratified by ability of a council - now, if such events -have been- authentic, then why could they require votes so as to place? Even moreso, it wasn't till this council that the divine status of Jesus became codified; if Jesus and God have been an identical being, or if Jesus became a mortal guy. those are rather super themes to be desperate by ability of vote casting, rather in the event that they're to be seen so infallable as to be taken for actuality. If Christians have been to have any actual understand-how of their faith, they does no longer stay in denial of such issues. the only undertaking that has led to Christianity to stay to tell the story till at present and age, is that it has continuously been perpetrated by ability of political events as a source from which to rally help for his or her own ideology. that's the reason the character of Jesus as provided interior the bible states ethical ideals that are at finished odds with those shared by ability of followers this cutting-edge day.

Answer 4

Christianity began after the death of Jesus. Jesus was a Jewish teacher who tried to teach people that they should worship God only and that they shouldn't worship other gods. So he started hetting really popular he even ahd 12 disciples to help him preach to the people. So the Romans feared he would overthrow them since he was so popular so they held a trial and stuff, and he was found guilty and he was crucified. And then the people who worshipped him made christianity after him.

Answer 5

You shouldn't base your report solely from the answers you get here. You need to compile information from different sources that you can list on your report as points of reference. Go here and look at some of these sites:

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=history+of+the+bible&fr=yfp-t-500&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8

Answer 6

Jesus came to save us fromn our sins . he is the son of God and God at the same time he loves every one of us. he came as the massiah to forefill the promises of God to the Jews. you must read the bible or at least 2 gospels. I sugest Luke and John

Answer 7

Read the Bible. Yet, the Bible is extremely long, read the New Testament Gospels, they will tell you nearly all you need to know. (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John)

Answer 8

Accuracy and Christianity are not neccessarily intertwined, but here goes;
John the Baptist preaches against the leaders of Judaism in and around Judea approx 5BC. Gets arrested and imprisoned, where he is later beheaded at the request of the Judean kings stepdaughter, Salome. Upon his death Simon Magus is supposed to take control, but is in Alexandria, so Jesus usurps him, and leads a group of Johns followers, to finish Johns work; ie. the re-establishmnet of Kabbalist Judaism, rather than the corrupted Judaism of the day. After 4 years of preaching against the Jewish leaders, he enters Jerusalem to confront the Pharisees & Sadducees, with a large number of followers. Unfortunately the ancient Jewish texts predict the coming of a Messiah who will raise an army, and some of Jesus' disciples (most notably Simon) think they should take up weapons, Peter & Paul want to usurp Jesus, Judas Iscariot senses that things are getting out of control, and Jesus can no longer maintain stability. He feels that if the followers do become an army, the Romans will crush the Jews by force. Mary, Jesus' wife believes Jesus should get the hell out of it, and go abroad with their children (3 daiughters). Judas allows the Jewish authorities to take Jesus when he is away from the crowds, hence preventing any fighting. The Jews ask the Roman leader of Judea to kill Jesus, however Pontius Pilate refuses (he doesn't see yet another selfproclaimed Jewish Messiah as any threat to Rome), stating that as Jesus is Jewish he should be tried by the Jewish king Herod (who is reticent to kill Jesus, having killed John the Baptist already). Herod implores Pilate to grant the execution, and for no better reason than he can't be bothered with all this, it interferes with his luxurious lifestyle, having to do work, he does. Jesus is crucified, though not before Jesus' followers are given the chance to free him, they decline because Jesus did not stand up to the Romans as the ancient texts said he would. (Crucifiction is the standard Roman punishment for none Romans, who stir up trouble.) 3 days after his burial, Mary visits the tomb and finds it empty, Jesus has risen from the dead.(Ancient Egyptians and Kabbalists believe that a man should fast in a cave without food or water for 3 days, then be taken by a religious preacher into a room with a banquet laid on, to discuss the dreams and thoughts that occured to the person during this time - like Native American & Aboriginal Dreamworld experiences, many believe this is what is meant by Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, and the 3 day resurrection of Jesus MAY be a case of this, too.)
Jesus' disciples have gone into hiding, and there is a power struggle going on (particularly between Mary, Peter & Paul), yet come together to meet their newly risen lord, and one of the two Thomases actually doubts the resurrection, becoming famous as Doubting Thomas, Judas is also absent, having committed suicide whilst racked with guilt.
The disciples then split up and head off in different directions to spread Jesus' word throughout the Roman Empire. It should be pointed out that the Romans were very tolerant of others religions, possibly because only Roman Citizens were counted as enlightened, the others within their empire were seen as second class people, and were free to follow whatever weird and whacky religions they chose, including Ra worship, Isis worship, Judaism & this new cult of Christianity.
In the 4th century the different factions of Christianity were stirring up trouble with each other; a case of Peter says this, Paul says that, Thomas says the other; and this is causing trouble for the Romans, so Emperor Constantine calls together the best Christian minds and they decidse, by vote, what should go into the Bible (Latin for Book). They choose the gospels of Matthew, Mark, John (the Blessed) & Thomas, and this becomes the first Bible. Constantine did not convert to Christianity, as is clear from the records of his death and funeral, and was in the Roman Empires capital, which was called Byzantium (it was not Rome at that time).
Around the sixth century, the Bible underwent an overhaul, with St Thomas' Gospel being ditched as it mentioned Jesus' marriage to Mary, and the church was trying to make women second class citizens, the RC church still does not allow the ordination of women though many Protestant churches now do. A brand new gospel is Written called John and is inserted.Ironically, the Roman Catholic church once made a woman Pope, because they didn't know she was a woman!
The Roman Catholic church is founded on the teachings of St Peter, supposedly because Jesus said that Peter was 'the rock upon which my church will be founded', this being the same Peter who denounced Jesus thrice before the cockerel crowed (the phrase 'with friends like that, who needs enemies' springs to mind).
Christianity spread through the Roman Empire, but hardly beyond it. Scotland, unconquered by the Romans has never been Catholic. When the Roman Empire fell, there came the 'Great Schism' where the church split in 2, the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox Catholics.
In the 12th century, the RC church fought the Islamists of Saladdin during the Crusades. In the 13th century the Pope turned his attention to eradicating the none RC sects, starting with the Cathars (known as the Albigensian Crusades), then the Bulgars, then under the infamous 'Spanish Inquisition' (which all Monty Python fans know, are never expected) the Knights Templar. St Francis Xavier was canonised for killing monks!
Many countries fell out of favour with the Papacy, and Protestantism has grown, with it's many factions and cults; Methodist, Anglican. Presbytarian, Mormon, Branch Davidians etc.
The Roman Catholic church has also diversified from the Dominicans into the Franciscans, Benedictines, Jesuits and Opus Dei. The Orthodox Catholics, too; Ukrainean, Polish, Greek and Russian branches.
Generally, all these different Christians believe that Jesus' teachings are the foundation of faith, even if it is only Peters view point of those teachings.
Moses' Ten Commandments still stand, the Sermon on the Mount talks of the afterArmageddon promises, tolerance is a virtue, sex out of marriage is sinful, the Christian Beattitudes guide their behaviour, the Cardinal Sins tell them what to avoid.
The importance is that wherever Christianity has gone, death followed. The history of the Incas & Aztecs in South America, slavery in Africa, antiChristian crusades by the Popes in Europe, Salem witchtrials in Massacheussets, war in Iraq. Jesus = Death, despite his own teaching of tolerance.

Hope this helps with the chronology and skeleton of the faith, and I've given you all the necessary buzzwords to 'google', Re-read the Bible in this light and it may make more sense.

1 of the previous answers says the Romans killed Jesus because they saw him as a threat, yet Jesus famously stated 'Render unto Caesar that which is Caesars' ie pay your taxes to Rome, pray to God. Jesus was never a threat to Rome, only to the Jewish leaders such as Caiaphus (High Priest) and Herod (King of Judea), because Jesus was a fundamentalist Jew who felt the hierarchy of his religion was corrupt, and had lost their way.

Answer 9

I think this link probably gets you there more than others:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Christianity