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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.
Map of the Roman Empire with the distribution of Christian congregations of the first three centuries AD. The growth of Early Christianity from its obscure origin c. AD 40, with fewer than 1,000 followers, to being the majority religion of the entire Roman Empire by AD 400, has been examined through a wide variety of historiographical approaches.
In Europe, the Roman Catholic Church strongly opposed liberalism and culture wars launched in Germany, Italy, Belgium and France. It strongly emphasized personal piety. In Europe there was a general move away from religious observance and belief in Christian teachings and a move towards secularism. In Protestantism, pietistic revivals were common.
The gradual rise of Germanic Christianity was, at times, voluntary, particularly among groups associated with the Roman Empire. From the 6th century, Germanic tribes were converted (or re-converted from Arianism) by missionaries of the Catholic Church. [4] [5] Many Goths converted to Christianity as individuals outside the Roman Empire.
What made Christianity incompatible with much of paganism did not make it incompatible with Judaism. [122] During the imperial period, many Jews left Palestine for places like Alexandria , Rome , North Africa and the Mediterranean region , due to persecution, politics, and expulsion, because of internal conflicts in Jewish society, and for ...
Christianity had a more subtle effect, reaching far beyond the converted population to potential modernizers. The introduction of European medicine was especially important, as well as the introduction of European political practices and ideals such as religious liberty, mass education, mass printing, newspapers, voluntary organizations ...
Iconoclasm as a movement began within the Eastern Christian Byzantine church in the early 8th century, following a series of heavy military reverses against the Muslims. There was a Christian movement in the eighth and ninth centuries against the worship of imagery, caused by worry that the art might be idolatrous. [4]
The era of politically absolutist states followed the breakdown of Christian universalism in Europe. [437] Abuses from absolutist Catholic kings gave rise to a virulent anti-religious sentiment that emerged in the 1680s as an aspect of the Age of Enlightenment. Critique of Christianity grew among the more extreme Protestant reformers.