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Furthermore, anti-Christian sentiment of the first century was not expressed by the Roman authorities alone, but also by the Jews. As Christianity was, at that time, a sect which was largely emerging from Judaism, [4] much of this sentiment was the result of anger from the well established Jewish faith towards a new and revolutionary faith.
No religious group is free from harassment in the contemporary world. Klaus Wetzel, an expert on religious persecution for the German Bundestag, the House of Lords, the US House of Representatives, the European Parliament, and the International Institute for Religious Freedom, explains that "In around a quarter of all countries in the world ...
Christianity has been intricately intertwined with the history and formation of Western society.Throughout its long history, the Church has been a major source of social services like schooling and medical care; an inspiration for art, culture and philosophy; and an influential player in politics and religion.
Studying religion as a coping mechanism has proved a difficult task for psychologists. Religion seems to be an integral part of some people's lives but not of others, so specialists cannot be certain whether religion is the variable to study or if there is something about religious people that makes them religious that is worth studying.
Bart D. Ehrman attributes the rapid spread of Christianity to five factors: (1) the promise of salvation and eternal life for everyone was an attractive alternative to Roman religions; (2) stories of miracles and healings purportedly showed that the one Christian God was more powerful than the many Roman gods; (3) Christianity began as a ...
[532] [533] It is the world's largest religion with roughly 2.4 billion followers constituting around 31.2% of the world's population. [ 469 ] [ 465 ] [ 534 ] In 2000, approximately one-quarter of all Christians worldwide were part of Pentecostalism and its associated movements. [ 535 ]
Taqwa is an Islamic term for being conscious and cognizant of God, of truth, of the rational reality, "piety, fear of God". [7] [8] It is often found in the Quran.Al-Muttaqin (Arabic: اَلْمُتَّقِينَ Al-Muttaqin) refers to those who practice taqwa, or in the words of Ibn Abbas, "believers who avoid Shirk with Allah and who work in His obedience."
Despite these differences, Christians generally agree that faith in Jesus lies at the core of the Christian tradition, and that such faith is required in order to be a Christian. Some of the definitions of faith in the history of Christian theology have followed the biblical formulation in Hebrews 11:1 : "Now faith is the assurance of things ...