Christianity Timeline

The presence of Christianity in Africa began in the middle of the 1st century in Egypt, and by the end of the 2nd century it had spread to the region around Carthage, marking the faith's early expansion beyond the Levant.

Image source: Christianity in Africa

King Tiridates III made Christianity the state religion in Armenia in the early 4th century, making Armenia the first officially Christian state. The faith had penetrated the country from at least the third century, and possibly earlier.

Image source: Arsacid dynasty of Armenia

Between the 9th and 14th centuries, the Church of the East represented the world's largest Christian denomination by geographical extent, with dioceses stretching from the Mediterranean to India, Central Asia, and Tang China. It saw final expansion under the Mongol Empire in the 13th and 14th centuries.

Image source: Church of the East

The discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492 brought about a new wave of missionary activity. Following the Age of Discovery (15th–17th century), Christianity expanded globally via missionary work, evangelism, immigration, and trade.

Image source: Christopher Columbus

Since 1900, Christianity has spread rapidly in the Global South and Third World countries, primarily due to conversion. From 1960 to 2000, reported Evangelical Protestants grew three times the world's population rate, and twice that of Islam.

Image source: Christianity

With around 2.3 billion adherents according to a 2020 Pew Research Center estimation, split into Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox branches, Christianity is the world's largest religion, comprising 28.8% of the world population. By 2020, 120 countries had Christian majorities, and by 2050 the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion, with Africa home to 1.1 billion Christians.

Image source: Christianity

In the 2nd century, Christianity was criticized by Jews on various grounds, such as that the prophecies of the Hebrew Bible could not have been fulfilled by Jesus given his unsuccessful life. By the 3rd century, criticism had mounted further.

Image source: Criticism of Christianity

Church Fathers recorded accusations that Christians were responsible for droughts, famines, and plagues. Nevertheless, before the mid-3rd century, persecutions were often reactive, sporadic and local rather than systematic.

Image source: Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire

In the 7th century, Muslims conquered Syria (including Jerusalem), North Africa, and Spain, converting some Christian populations to Islam and placing the rest under a separate legal status.

Image source: Early Muslim conquests

Beginning around 1184, following the crusade against Cathar heresy, various institutions broadly referred to as the Inquisition were established with the aim of suppressing heresy and securing doctrinal unity through conversion and prosecution.

Image source: Inquisition

In the thirteenth century, a new emphasis on Jesus' suffering, exemplified by the Franciscans' preaching, turned worshippers' attention towards Jews, on whom Christians placed blame for Jesus' death. Growing antipathy led to the expulsion of Jews from England in 1290, the first of many such expulsions in Europe.

Image source: Franciscans

By the 12th century, the Mishneh Torah of Rabbi Moses Maimonides criticized Christianity on the grounds of idol worship, since Christians attributed divinity to Jesus, who had a physical body.

Image source: Mishneh Torah

In the 19th century, Nietzsche began to write a series of polemics on the 'unnatural' teachings of Christianity, challenging its moral foundations and influencing later critics.

Image source: Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche

Postchristianity is a term for the decline of Christianity, particularly in Europe, Canada, Australia, and to a minor degree the Southern Cone, in the 20th and 21st centuries, considered in terms of postmodernism.

Image source: Postchristianity

In the 20th century, philosopher Bertrand Russell expressed his criticism of Christianity in Why I Am Not a Christian, formulating his rejection of Christian doctrine. Chesterton also wrote in the early twentieth century defending the benefits of Christianity.

Image source: Why I Am Not a Christian

In 2017, Open Doors estimated approximately 260 million Christians are subjected annually to high, very high, or extreme persecution, with North Korea considered the most hazardous nation. A 2019 UK FCO report found persecution is highest in the Middle East, North Africa, India, China, North Korea, and Latin America.

Image source: Persecution of Christians

The Church of the East and Oriental Orthodoxy both split from the wider church over differences in Christology during the 5th century, creating enduring divisions within Eastern Christianity.

In the early 8th century, iconoclasm became a divisive issue when it was sponsored by the Byzantine emperors, sparking fierce debate over religious images within Eastern Christianity.

Image source: Byzantine Iconoclasm

The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church separated in the East–West Schism of 1054, following internal conflict between the 7th and 13th centuries. This created the enduring distinction between Eastern and Western Christianity.

Image source: East–West Schism

From 1095 under the pontificate of Urban II, the First Crusade was launched, beginning an era of crusading that would shape relations between Christendom, Islam, and Byzantium.

Image source: First Crusade

From the 11th to 13th centuries, Latin Christendom rose to the central role of the Western world, shaping medieval European society, politics, and culture.

Image source: Western Christianity

The Second Council of Lyon (1274) and the Council of Florence (1439) attempted to reunite the churches, but in both cases the Eastern Orthodox refused to implement the decisions, and the two principal churches remain in schism to the present day.

Within Italy, Poland, Lithuania, Transylvania, Hungary, Romania, and the United Kingdom, Unitarian Churches emerged from the Reformed tradition in the 16th century; the Unitarian Church of Transylvania is an example of such a denomination.

Image source: Unitarianism

The Assyrian Church of the East, with an unbroken patriarchate established in the 17th century, claims continuity from the Church of the East—in parallel to the Catholic patriarchate established in the 16th century that evolved into the Chaldean Catholic Church.

Image source: Assyrian Church of the East

In the 18th century, Methodism grew out of Anglican minister John Wesley's evangelical revival movement, becoming one of the major Protestant denominations.

Image source: Methodism

Nondenominational Christianity first arose in the 18th century through the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement, with followers organizing themselves as 'Christians' and 'Disciples of Christ', often adhering to evangelical Christianity. Some churches connect to early 19th-century camp meetings in the Midwest and upstate New York.

Image source: Non-denominational Christianity

The Ancient Church of the East distinguished itself from the Assyrian Church of the East in 1964, adding another branch to the lineage descending from the historic Church of the East.

Image source: Ancient Church of the East

The 15th-century Renaissance brought about a renewed interest in ancient and classical learning, setting intellectual foundations that would later fuel the Reformation.

Image source: Renaissance

During the Reformation, Martin Luther posted the Ninety-five Theses in 1517 against the sale of indulgences, igniting the Protestant Reformation and challenging Catholic authority.

Image source: Ninety-five Theses

In 1521 the Edict of Worms condemned and excommunicated Luther and his followers, officially banning citizens of the Holy Roman Empire from defending or propagating his ideas, resulting in the schism of Western Christendom into several branches.

Image source: Diet of Worms

The Reformation in England began in 1534, when King Henry VIII had himself declared head of the Church of England, establishing Anglicanism as a distinct branch of Christianity.

Image source: English Reformation

Beginning in 1536, the monasteries throughout England, Wales and Ireland were dissolved under Henry VIII, redistributing vast church properties and reshaping religious life in the British Isles.

Image source: Dissolution of the monasteries

During the following centuries, competition between Catholicism and Protestantism became deeply entangled with political struggles among European states, fueling conflicts across the continent.

Image source: European wars of religion

The World Evangelical Alliance was founded in 1846 in London, representing an early form of greater cooperation between Christian groups that foreshadowed modern ecumenism.

Image source: World Evangelical Alliance

Congregationalist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches united in 1925 to form the United Church of Canada, an example of institutional union in Christian ecumenism.

Image source: United Church of Canada

The Church of South India was formed in 1947 by the union of Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Congregationalist, and Presbyterian churches, a landmark in ecumenical unity.

Image source: Church of South India

The Justice, Peace and Creation Commission of the World Council of Churches was founded in 1948 by Protestant and Orthodox churches, advancing ecumenical cooperation worldwide.

Image source: World Council of Churches

Steps towards reconciliation on a global level were taken in 1965 by the Catholic and Orthodox churches, mutually revoking the excommunications that marked their Great Schism in 1054.

Image source: Catholic–Eastern Orthodox relations

The Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999 to address conflicts at the root of the Protestant Reformation. In 2006, the World Methodist Council adopted the declaration.

Image source: Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification