It seems to be a common theme, "Christians rising from the ashes of persecution," but I don't actually know of that having happened short of DIRECTLY after its advent, which was proceeded directly with being the official Roman religion.
212649
you never heard about the people in China Afghanistan south America that have been killed for their faith? kidnapping all over the world. this web site called idiots lemmings deluded. people in public office saying they can not have faith and be in office?
575651
The biggest problem facing the christian church as it expanded into northern and western Europe was paganism, which is basically about fertility - a pretty natural obsession of a substistence society.   The trick they used was to divide and conquer the religion itself.   \n\nSome things were, literally, demonised, made into the enemy.   The god of fertility, Pan, became Satan, which was an astute move since christianity was and is really antagonistic towards overly liberal shagging.   To this day Europeans and those they have influenced are still pretty hung up about sex as a result.   IMHO.\n\nBut complete opposition to the entire religion would not have worked.   So other things were not demonised, they were co-opted.   This was the trick with the festivals.   Christmas celebrated the passing of the winter solstice and promised that spring was not far off - fertility again - the evergreen tree is a symbol of life getting through the bad times.   So the church rebranded it as Jesus' birthday, and managed to keep the newly converted pagans onside.   Harvest festival too (god's abundent goodness etc).   As for Easter - spring? resurrection? eggs? bunnies?  need I say more?\n\nThe church hasn't much of an idea of when Jesus was born, but it doesn't really care - Christmas is convenient.   Easter is a bit easier, because Jesus' death was reported to be around the time of the Jewish Passover festival, so you can sort of place it around the time of the pagan bunny stuff - a natural fit.
424687
There is a lot of difference between claiming to be Christian and actually being one.  Many churches blessed the weapons of WWII Germans, while their brethren are doing the same thing here.
318894
I would say it began because of the rising wealth and importance of the merchant class.  Though still a definitively Christian period, there seems to be an increased interest in learning about secular things.  This could also have developed because of the absence of the papacy which at the time was in Avignon, France.
492840
Ok, not to sound cliche, but remember the musical Jesus Christ Superstar?  Remember in the title song Judas sings "Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication!..."  It's not like they could see his pic in the newspaper, or online.  It was dark, and even with a full moon there were lots of olive trees around, casting shade on whatever light may have been around, so they still wouldn't have seen him.  \n\nPlus, it's not like the Roman army got off days to go listen to Jesus.  Jesus and the Jews were a threat to Roman culture and power, and it was forbidden to be a soldier and a follower of Christ or Judaism.
517654
Hmm. I like your theory, and I think it makes sense--there's fuel here to feed the fire, where in Europe there's been very little. \n\nAlso, to sort of add on a bit...America doesn't quite have the enormous backlog of culture and heritage that European countries do. As a country mainly composed of immigrants, we've had to create our own heritage to fall back on, much of which is largely religious. Look at how deeply entrenched being Christian is alongside the concept of being American. And while the same argument could be made for Catholicism in Europe, they've also have a good five hundred years or so of dissent from the Catholic Church. We've only had a bit over two hundred years to establish a national identity, let alone rebel against it...\n\nThen again, we're also a country founded on rebellion.
294629
Funny.\n\nBefore the Enlightentment you got burned on the stake, imprisoned, tortured and mutilated for questioning the Christian faith. Ever heard about the Inquisition? That's right, you ignorant fools have no fucking clue what it was like, you have no idea how precious freedom from religion and freedom of speech is.
181972
1.) The Eastern Roman Empire, having Rome and Italy in it, necessarily had higher levels of corruption, and a lower percentage of citizens in the legions. \n2.) The Western Roman Empire, was effectively started by Constantine, who was the chief influence that caused the Roman Empire to take Christianity as its state religion.\n\nReligion played a huge role in both empires - in the East, successor states in the area generally did not survive unless they adopted Christianity (especially when powerful rulers such as Charlemagne specifically went around thumping pagans). In the West, the Roman empire became the Byzantine Empire (although it was never referred to as such by its denizens), and it's emperors often felt that they were the head of the Church. Byzantine Emperors went so far as to depose popes that got in their way (when they could).\n\nFor your questions:\n+ how did the differences in what happened bring them back together for the Crusades/How did the similarities:\n\nThe Byzantines and the European states worked together during the Crusades for differing reasons. As most of Europe was thoroughly Christianized, they ran into a paradox: Christian leaders weren't supposed to fight amongst one another, thus, they should be fighting infidels. This led to a lot of warriors going to Spain for the Reconquista, to the East to stomp Pagans, and to the Middle East for the Crusades. The Byzantines were desperately trying to reverse centuries of decline, especially after they lost large chunks of Anatolia (modern Turkey) to the Arabs.  Unfortunately, the differences in religion meant that after the Second Crusade (when the Byzantines had less apt rulers), the Europeans didn't care if they screwed their allies (a la the Sack of Constantinople in 1204) or left them to the wolves.\n\n+ why the Crusades were a turning point in history (consider the effects)\n\nFirst, the Crusades greatly broadened the horizons of the Europeans, giving them a new taste for foreign trade and travel. Second, the Crusades reversed the Arabs for quite a while - without the Crusades, Constantinople falls in the 1200's or 1300's to the Muslims instead of 1450. Third, the Crusades strengthened the Christian Church, setting up the events that would lead to Protestantism.\n\n+ how the effects of the Crusades can still be seen in our world today\n\nMany Muslims consider the Crusades proof that Christians are just interested in slaughtering them - they remember that the Crusaders were often merciless with the Muslims they fought (conveniently forgetting that the Muslims weren't all much better).\n\n+ the fate of the Western Roman Empire\n\nThe Western Roman Empire fell in the mid 5th century after Rome was sacked yet again by the Visigoths. The traditional date is September 4, 476 when Romulus Augustus, the Emperor of the Western Roman Empire was deposed by Odoacer, a Germanic chieftain.\n\n+ the fate of the Eastern Roman Empire\n\nThe Eastern Roman Empire fell on May 28th, 1453 when Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople. Emperor Constantine XI was killed in the final battle.\n\nHopefully, the terms and names given here are enough to spur extra research.
385622
Jesus called for the reformation of Judaism of the time. To him Judaism was being too heavily influenced by the Roman empire, and when he openly spoke out against it during passover (flipping the merchant's tables etc.), the roman empire saw him as a threat... Jesus ( during his time) was not necessarily viewed as the son of God... just a disrupter.
412383
Hi, there was a time span between the Ascension of the Lord into heaven and the Roman murdering of the Christians in the coliseum so these Christians may not have seen Jesus directly, but how powerful was their faith in the Teaching of the Apostles to have gone so willingly to their death, and don`t forget that the Apostles willingly gave their lives too for Jesus and still modern people doubt the reality of the living Christ.
428635
There is no documented number anywhere, nor would there be any way to collect it in the first place. There are millions, or even billions, of non-Christians who celebrate it.
150857
In 1408 a czech guy named Huss protested against the catholic church saying it had strayed from the letter of the law, ET is an allegory for the life of Christ (yeah, I'm not kidding). Maybe there could be a connection there? Good luck,
676109
Well, what a special story. You set Christianity back at least 50  years.  I can picture the Christians rolling their eyes back now. LMAO.
70509
The article is interesting, but it seems to have some flaws. It was too long and involved to read carefully, but I skimmed the points it was trying to make. One that jumped out at me was worshipping on Sunday. The article says we do that because the Pope said to. The fact is that the earliest church worshipped on Sunday. Paul says the day doesn't matter, as long as we worship.\n\nAnother problem is that the Bible tells us that once the antichrist comes to power, we only have 7 years left before the end. The catholic church has been around for far longer than 7 years!\n\nThere are more, but I'm a very slow typer, so I'll let it go at two.\n\nI have a big problem with some of the catholic beliefs, but I really don't think this article should be taken seriusly. When I have more time, I am going to look at it more closely, though.
260766
SALVATION? Saved from what? A place it took the church of Rome 500 years to identify from the ancient writings they chose to selectively canonized? Do you know there are pre dating myths and beliefs those stories were probably plagiarized from?\n Do a search on Mirtha...\nWithout the fear factor Christianity has no power.\nWithout faith no spirituality exists.\nStake yours on some Johnny come lately cult...I'll stay with the old ways.
537821
Yes, Eostra was the celebration of the Sun Goddess, the dawn, which explains why easter (rising 'sun/son'). When early Christians met many celebrators they adopted the festivals and gave the new Christians another reason to celebrate. Who'd want a religion that didn't think partying was okay (we didn't do that till the dark ages - and we're sorry about that)?\n\nIn Latin, rest is 'Sabbatum', the traditional rest day was Friday to Saturday. I think many Christians now celebrate Church on Sunday for no other reason that it is the last day of the 'work' week and therefore a day of rest. It may have also been started to marginalise Jewish people who wanted to rest on Day 6, quite likely, I think. Apologies.  We have a weekend now (two days) so that should keep most westerners happy.\n\nIt would be interesting to know if we had a seven day week before the Romans and if the seven Teutonic names were whittled down (or 'plumped' up) to coincide with the Judeo-Christian week. There's a whole PHD in that, I think. \n\nThe Calendar was imposed by Julius Caesar, hence the Roman names and probably some deference to conquered countries. I would suspect the seasons and names would have had Hebrew names in the Jewish culture. \n\nThe Bible only suggests we celebrate one festival, Communion, and the others are just extra fun. I don't mind when Jesus was born, I often don't get to celebrate my birthday on the day either, it's just nice to have it remembered. At least we don't have to put candles on His cake (maybe that's what the tree is for - oh Gawd I'm going to be surfing for information for hours now). \n\nI think you offered enough query to keep me up all night. Cheers. :)
280758
CONSTANTINE  (approximately 325 a.d.) \n\n(Not Yeshua. He started what was considered a jewish sect called the Followers Of The Way.)\n\n Constantine facilitated the move from Old Rome to New Rome (for economical & political reasons) which brought about what is called 'christianity'\n\n Constantine said he had a vision of a cross (an ancient symbol of worship of Tammuz..Nimrod reborn..according to his mother Semiramus who said an evergreen tree sprung up overnight.)  \n\n Constantine found a way to join the ancient pagans and sun worshippers to the followers of the way to create a larger army.  This spiritual adultry is what they call christianity.  \n\n It is a gray mix of (some, not all)of the followers of the way and pagan religious customs and traditions. Pagan idols were moved there and their names were changed to become "saints", christian (pagan) holidays were now christmas (winter solstace), eastor (fertility goddess), halloween (san heim), and Sunday worship (day of the unconquerable sun) instead of the Sabbath. \n\n The followers of the way that joined were told that they WOULD partake in the pagan holidays, but they could just tell themselves that winter solstace was really the messiah's birthday, that eastor (fertility goddess) was a celebration of the messiah rising from the dead, that SUNday was the day that the messiah left His tomb, etc.\n\n The followers of the way that refused to join in this spiritual adultry and abomination of the first commandment hid in caves to avoid being killed as "heretics" for refusing to stop keeping the real Sabbath and keeping the day of the Sun instead... Look up Sunday Blue Laws.\n\n COME OUT OF HER MY PEOPLE THAT YOU DO NOT BECOME PARTAKERS OF HER PLAGUES.....The Bride is making herself ready. She will remove every spot, wrinkle, and blemish to be ready for the bridegroom.\n\n   Yahweh bless you and keep you. \n   May His face shine upon you.