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How did Christianity become the most popular religion on Earth.
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00:01Christianity, the most practiced religion on earth, began with the life of Jesus Christ,
00:08a Jew who lived in the Roman province of Judea.
00:12His resurrection and divinity are matters of faith, but his existence and death by crucifixion
00:18around 30 AD are widely accepted as historical fact.
00:26Christianity's early spread is credited to a small group of loyal followers – the
00:31Apostles.
00:32They are joined, around 36 AD, by Paul, who has a vision of Christ while travelling to
00:39Damascus.
00:40Paul makes it his life's mission to spread the gospel, or good news, of Christ's death
00:47and resurrection.
00:48He is extremely successful, winning Christian converts around the Mediterranean and as far
00:56west as Italy.
01:00According to tradition, the Apostle Mark establishes a church in Alexandria, around 42 AD, the origin
01:09of today's Coptic Orthodox Church.
01:12Also according to tradition, in 52 AD, Thomas the Apostle arrives in India, and establishes
01:21several small Christian communities.
01:24Most historians dispute this, due to lack of evidence.
01:29Early missionaries such as Paul successfully spread Christianity across the Roman Empire,
01:35in the first century AD.
01:38Christian communities are documented from North Africa to Italy.
01:44By 100 AD, the four gospels that make up the Bible's New Testament are complete.
01:51They form the foundation of Christianity to the present day.
01:57Christianity continues to spread in the Roman Empire and among its neighbours.
02:04Around 301, Armenian king Tiridates III converts to Christianity and proclaims it the state religion,
02:14making Armenia the world's oldest Christian country.
02:20Christians face persecution across the Roman Empire, where it is emperors who are considered divine.
02:28But in 312, according to Christian chroniclers, Roman Emperor Constantine experiences a Christian
02:35vision just before the Battle of Milvian Bridge.
02:40The following year, he passes the Edict of Milan, legalising Christianity across the Roman Empire.
02:49In 325, he convenes the Council of Nicaea, the first of many formal church gatherings aimed
02:57at resolving theological disputes.
02:59An estimated 300 bishops attend the Council, evidence of Christianity's early growth and organisation.
03:08The Council establishes the Nicene Creed, a statement of Christian faith still used today.
03:17Nevertheless, Christianity is fragmented, and numerous sects and doctrines flourish.
03:24Most disputes centre on the precise nature of Christ, and his relationship to God and the Trinity.
03:42Around 3.30, Christianity spreads south into Africa.
03:47King Ezana declares Christianity the official religion of Aksum, in the Horn of Africa.
03:54This is the origin of today's Ethiopian church, one of the oldest in the world.
04:01In 380, Emperor Theodosius passes the first Roman law to define Orthodox Christian belief.
04:10Christianity is on its way to becoming the state religion of the Roman Empire.
04:15Across its territory, Christians attack old temples, destroying some and turning others
04:23into churches.
04:25Later emperors outlaw worship of the old gods, and persecute their followers, who become known
04:31as pagans – a derogatory term for those who are backward and inferior.
04:38The so-called barbarian tribes that overrun much of the Western Roman Empire – Visigoths, Ostrogoths,
04:47and Vandals – also convert to Christianity, even if initially they adopt the heretical beliefs
04:55of Arianism.
04:58Around 4.05, St. Jerome completes a new Latin translation of the Bible, which becomes known
05:06as the Vulgate.
05:08It will become the official Bible text of the Catholic Church, and remains the basis of the
05:14Catholic Bible to this day.
05:18Over the next two centuries, missionaries, at great personal risk, strive to convert pagan
05:25communities and their rulers.
05:29The conversion of an influential ruler proves a crucial strategy, often leading to the conversion
05:35of entire realms.
05:38Christianity spreads throughout Western Europe, even as the Western Roman Empire falls.
05:46Around 4.32, St. Patrick travels to Ireland to begin the conversion of the Irish.
05:55In 508, Clovis, king of the Franks, converts, completing the conversion of Gaul.
06:03In 563, Columba travels from Ireland to Western Scotland, establishing a monastery on the island
06:11of Iona, one of the oldest in Western Europe.
06:16In 589, Visigoth king Reccared renounces Arianism, and converts his entire kingdom to Catholicism.
06:27In 597, Pope Gregory sends St. Augustine to Britain.
06:33He converts King Æthelbert of Kent, beginning the conversion of the English.
06:47In 635, Allophen becomes the first known Christian missionary to reach China.
06:57Emperor Tai Tsung of the Tang dynasty issues an edict allowing Christianity to spread.
07:04Missionaries build churches, and translate Christian texts into Chinese.
07:10Christian theology mixes with existing traditions, adopting Taoist and Buddhist terminology.
07:21Meanwhile, Arab forces, proclaiming the new faith of Islam, conquer much of the Middle
07:27East and East and North Africa, and seize control of Christianity's most holy sites in Jerusalem.
07:37By 720, Muslim conquests extend as far as the Iberian Peninsula.
07:45However, most Islamic rulers tolerate Christianity in their lands, and though treated as second-class
07:52subjects, Christian communities endure.
07:57Medieval Europe has by now splintered into many kingdoms.
08:03Frankish King Charlemagne extends his rule across Francia, Bavaria, Saxony and northern Spain.
08:10Wherever he conquers, he converts new subjects to Christianity, often at the point of a sword.
08:21In 800, he is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope, the first in an imperial line that
08:28lasts a thousand years.
08:32Christianity continues to spread north and east, with the help of more royal conversions.
08:38In 965, King Harold Bluetooth of Denmark, followed by Duke Mieszko and Poland's leading nobility.
08:49Vladimir the Great, Grand Prince of Kyiv, regarded as the founder of Christianity in Ukraine and
08:56Russia.
08:58King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway, who sends missionaries to Iceland and Greenland.
09:06King Stephen of Hungary, and King Olaf Örtkönön of Sweden, whose attempt to convert pagans meets
09:17fierce resistance.
09:20In 1054, tensions between the Greek Eastern Church, headed by the Patriarch in Constantinople, and the
09:29Latin Western Church, ruled by the Pope in Rome, lead to a split known as the Great Schism.
09:37The result is the formation of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.
09:45The Eastern Roman Empire is hard-pressed by the Seljuk Turks.
09:52And so, in 1095, Hope Urban II calls for a crusade to aid the Byzantine Empire and reclaim
10:00the Holy Land for Christians.
10:03He promises forgiveness of sins to those who take part, and Catholic Christians sign up in
10:10droves.
10:13The success of the First Crusade leads to the establishment of several Christian states in
10:19the Levant.
10:21But within 200 years, all have fallen to Muslim neighbours.
10:28Christian rulers have more success in Iberia, rolling back the Muslim conquests of the 8th
10:34century.
10:37In Northern Europe, there are crusades against pagans in the Baltic and Finland.
10:47Meanwhile, Christianity continues to gain influence in the East.
10:53Papal legate John of Montecorvino crosses Armenia, Persia, and India to reach China, where in 1294
11:02he becomes the first bishop of what will become Beijing.
11:08In 1386, Grand Duke Jogaila, the last pagan ruler of Lithuania, is baptised and begins converting
11:18his subjects.
11:22In 1453, the Ottoman Turks capture Constantinople, the centre of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
11:32Constantinople had been considered the new Rome.
11:36With its fall, the Russian Orthodox Church claims Moscow as the third Rome, with a duty
11:43to protect all Orthodox Christians.
11:56The Age of Discovery, marked by great pioneering maritime voyages, will see Western European
12:04powers carry Christianity to many far-off lands.
12:08In 1482, a Portuguese caravel reaches the Kingdom of Congo.
12:16Nine years later, its ruler, Zinga Okwu, converts to Christianity, along with many of his nobles.
12:25The king later abandons his Catholic faith, but Christianity remains Congo's state religion.
12:33In 1492, Catholic monarchs defeat the last remaining Islamic rulers in Spain, in the Emirate of Granada.
12:42The Christian reconquest of Iberia, the Reconquista, is complete.
12:48That same year, Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas.
12:54It is a moment of profound significance for the spread of Christianity.
13:00Further transatlantic voyages by Europeans will pave the way for colonisation and conversion
13:06of this new world.
13:10In 1493, Pope Alexander VI issues a papal bull, granting Spain the right to claim newly discovered
13:18lands in South America.
13:21The bull urges that the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread,
13:28and that barbarous nations be overthrown and brought to the faith itself.
13:35The following year, in the Treaty of Tordesilas, Spain and Portugal agree to divide the new world
13:42between them.
13:44Drawing a line on the map, Spain will get everything to the west, Portugal everything to the east.
13:52And wherever Spanish and Portuguese expeditions tread, Christian missionaries follow.
14:00Across what becomes New Spain, the Spanish impose Roman Catholicism, with the forced conversion
14:08of indigenous peoples, and attempts to eradicate native religions.
14:15The same process occurs further south in Peru, and the Portuguese colonies in Brazil.
14:25This era also marks the dawn of the transatlantic slave trade, as Europeans transport enslaved
14:32Africans to the Americas as forced labour.
14:37Christianity spreads in West Africa as a by-product of the slave trade, and by the 16th century,
14:46Portuguese missionaries have established Christian communities along the coast.
14:54Meanwhile, in Europe, there is another major fracture of the Christian religion.
15:01In 1517, German priest Martin Luther launches a scathing attack on what he considers to be
15:08the corrupt practices of the Roman Catholic Church.
15:13His actions trigger the Protestant Reformation.
15:17Protestant demands for church reform spread rapidly, aided by Gutenberg's new printing press.
15:25They are taken up by several European rulers, for a mix of political and spiritual motives.
15:34Protestantism takes hold in Northern Europe.
15:38In 1534, English King Henry VIII breaks with Rome and makes himself head of the Church of England.
15:48From its birth, Protestantism is divided amongst a bewildering number of sects and movements.
15:55From Calvinists and Lutherans, to Baptists, Anabaptists, Moravian Brethren, Anglicans and Presbyterians.
16:06Yet Catholicism remains the dominant branch of Christianity.
16:09It will now travel to Southeast Asia, alongside Portuguese and Spanish commercial interests.
16:19Missionary Francis Xavier journeys across Asia as a representative of the Portuguese Empire.
16:25He lands in Goa in 1542, sails to Portuguese outposts in Indonesia in 1545, and reaches Japan in 1549,
16:39where Christianity gains many followers.
16:44In 1565, the Philippines becomes a Spanish colony, and a hub for European trade.
16:51Catholic missionaries ensure Christianity is soon the dominant religion.
16:57In the early 1600s, Protestants from England and the Netherlands established colonies along
17:04the North American coast.
17:07Many are Puritans, seeking religious freedom and the opportunity to build perfect Christian
17:14communities.
17:16Missionary John Elliott contacts native tribes in Massachusetts, and by 1663 he prints a Bible
17:24in their native language.
17:26But attempts at conversion have limited success.
17:31In the centuries ahead, it is the spread of European settlers that carries Christianity across
17:38the North American continent.
17:40By the end of the 18th century, Europeans have successfully embedded Christianity across the Americas.
17:50In both Britain and the future United States, this century sees several waves of religious revival,
17:58known as the Great Awakenings.
18:01These lead to the birth of the modern evangelical movement, with its emphasis on scripture
18:07and personal salvation.
18:19In the high age of European imperialism, Christianity travels to the remaining corners of the globe,
18:27alongside European settlers and missionaries.
18:32In 1788, Christianity arrives in Australia, alongside the first British penal colony.
18:41The London Missionary Society sends its first missionaries to eastern Polynesia in 1797.
18:49Missionary work is largely responsible for Christianity's spread across the islands of the South Pacific.
18:56Christianity then reaches New Zealand, where missionary Samuel Marsden preaches the first Christian
19:02sermon in 1814.
19:06Christian missionaries spread their faith across India, among them the Baptist minister William
19:12Carey.
19:13Known as the father of modern missions, he translates the Bible into seven Indian languages.
19:20But Christian missionaries are resented by many Hindus and Muslims.
19:25This anger contributes to the Great Indian Uprising against British rule in 1857.
19:33This is the age of heroic missionaries.
19:36Men and women who embark on long and dangerous journeys to save souls in far-off lands.
19:44Scottish missionary David Livingstone is perhaps the most famous, the first European to reach
19:50many parts of Central Africa, and to discover and name Victoria Falls.
19:57There are others – Adoniram and Anne Judson, who spend nearly 40 years as missionaries in
20:04Burma, and Mary Slessor in Nigeria, who learns the local language to preach Christianity.
20:15In 1884, American Presbyterians arrive in Korea, bringing both Western medicine and Christianity.
20:24The new religion takes off.
20:26Today, nearly a third of South Koreans are Christian.
20:32In the 1880s, European nations begin the Scramble for Africa, a colonial carve-up of the last independent
20:41African states.
20:43By 1914, they have claimed 90% of the continent, bringing Christianity with them.
20:53China had so far proved largely resistant to Christianity, with only around 100,000 converts by the start
21:01of the 20th century.
21:03There had even been a violent backlash against the spread of Christianity, the Boxer Rebellion,
21:10with thousands of Chinese Christians killed.
21:14But extensive missionary work after 1900 leads to the construction of thousands of churches,
21:21and around 4 million Chinese converts by 1945.
21:27In the 20th century, the rise of communism proves a major threat to Christianity and other
21:33religions.
21:35Communist governments in the Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe dismantle the church,
21:40and suppress worship.
21:43But Christianity proves the more resilient doctrine.
21:46When those governments fall, Christian churches re-emerge with popular support.
21:53Even in communist China, there are today many millions of Christians, despite tight state regulation.
22:04For nearly 2,000 years, the impact of countless missionaries and colonizers has helped to spread
22:11the Christian religion across the globe.
22:15Today, there are 2.3 billion Christians, nearly a third of the world's population, living and
22:23worshipping in almost every country on earth.
22:27For those of the Christian faith, another faith, or none.
22:32It has, incontrovertibly, been the most astonishing historical journey.
22:40If you have enjoyed this journey through the history of Christianity, then we highly recommend
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23:06in modern Egypt.
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