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The Rise of Christianity

⏱️ 1-2 hours 📊 Beginner 📚 Learning

About This Idea

Understand how Christianity spread and influenced laws, culture, and politics. From a small Jewish sect to the dominant religion of Europe, Christianity's rise transformed the Roman Empire and shaped Western civilization's values, art, law, and government.

#christianity#roman-empire#religion#history

How to Get Started

ORIGINS (30 minutes)
  1. Jesus of Nazareth: Jewish teacher, 1st century CE, Roman-controlled Judea
  2. Core teachings: Love God and neighbor, forgiveness, salvation, kingdom of God
  3. Crucifixion: Executed by Romans ~30 CE
  4. Early followers: Small group of Jews believed Jesus was Messiah, resurrected
  5. Paul of Tarsus: Spread Christianity to non-Jews (Gentiles), wrote letters (epistles)
SPREAD (1 hour)
  1. Why it spread: Message of hope and equality, appeal to poor and slaves, organized communities, martyrs inspired others
  2. Persecution: Romans persecuted Christians (refused to worship emperor), drove underground
  3. Constantine: Roman Emperor, converted 312 CE, Edict of Milan 313 CE (religious tolerance)
  4. Council of Nicaea: 325 CE, established core beliefs (Nicene Creed)
  5. State religion: 380 CE under Theodosius, Christianity became official Roman religion
  6. Impact: Pagan temples closed, Christian church gained power and wealth
MODERN INFLUENCE
  1. How Christianity shaped Western law, art, architecture, holidays, calendar
  2. Church's role in preserving knowledge during Middle Ages
  3. Influence on concepts of charity, human dignity, separation of church and state
  4. Discuss: How did Christianity transform from persecuted to powerful?

What You'll Need

Recommended Resources

🛠️ Tools & Apps

  • World History Encyclopedia 🔗
    Early Christianity resources

📚 Tutorials & Learning

  • Crash Course: Christianity 🔗
    Overview
  • r/AskHistorians 🔗
    Expert answers

👥 Communities

  • r/AcademicBiblical 🔗
    Scholarly discussion
  • r/AskHistorians 🔗
    Historical questions

Progress Milestones

Track your progress with these key achievements:

1
30 minutes
Understand early Christianity
2
1 hour
Learn why and how it spread
3
2 hours
Analyze impact on Western civilization

Common Challenges & Solutions

Every beginner faces obstacles. Here's how to overcome them:

⚠️ Hard to separate religious belief from historical analysis
Solution: Focus on historical events and their consequences: how Christianity spread, why Romans persecuted then adopted it, what changed when it became official. You can study historical impact without taking position on religious truth.

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