Как христианство стало крупнейшей религией на Земле

0:01 Christianity, the most widespread religion on Earth,

0:04 begins with the life of Jesus Christ, who lived in the Roman province of Judea.

0:12 His resurrection and divinity are articles of faith,

0:16 but his existence and death by crucifixion around

0:20 30 CE are widely accepted as historical fact.

0:26 The early spread of Christianity is attributed

0:28 to a small group of faithful followers, the apostles.

0:33 They are joined around 36 by Paul,

0:36 who has a vision of Christ on his way to Damascus.

0:41 Paul makes it his life's mission to spread the gospel,

0:45 the "good news," of Christ's death and resurrection.

0:49 He is extremely successful,

0:52 converting people throughout the Mediterranean and as far west as Italy.

1:00 Around 42 CE, Apostle Mark is said to have founded a church in Alexandria,

1:07 the forerunner of today's Coptic Orthodox Church.

1:13 Also, in 52 CE, Apostle Thomas is said to have

1:17 arrived in India and founded several small Christian communities there.

1:23 Most historians doubt this due to a lack of evidence.

1:29 Early missionaries such as Paul successfully spread Christianity

1:33 throughout the Roman world by the first century CE.

1:39 Communities are recorded from North Africa to Italy.

1:45 By 100 CE, the four Gospels that make

1:47 up the New Testament of the Bible were completed.

1:51 They remain the foundation of Christianity to this day.

1:57 Christianity continued to spread within

2:00 the Roman Empire and among its neighbors.

2:05 Around 301 CE, the Armenian King Tiridates III

2:09 adopted Christianity and declared it the state religion,

2:14 making Armenia the oldest Christian state in the world.

2:20 Christians were persecuted throughout the Roman Empire,

2:23 where the emperor himself was revered as a deity.

2:28 But in 312 CE, according to Christian chroniclers,

2:32 Emperor Constantine saw the sign of the cross

2:36 in the sky before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.

2:40 The following year, he issued the Edict of Milan,

2:44 legalizing Christianity throughout the Roman Empire.

2:50 In 325, he convened the Council of Nicaea, the first of many formal church

2:56 meetings designed to resolve theological disputes.

3:00 About 300 bishops attended the council,

3:04 a testament to the early growth and organization of Christianity.

3:09 The council approved the Nicene Creed,

3:11 a confession of faith that is used by Christians to this day.

3:17 However, Christianity remains fragmented,

3:20 with numerous sects and teachings continuing to exist.

3:27 Much of the debate centers on the exact nature

3:34 of Christ and His relationship to God and the Trinity.

3:42 Around 330, Christianity spread south into Africa.

3:47 King Ezana declared Christianity the official religion

3:50 of the Kingdom of Axum in the Horn of Africa.

3:54 This is how the modern Ethiopian Church,

3:57 one of the oldest in the world, was born.

4:01 In 380, Emperor Theodosius issued the first Roman law

4:06 formally defining the norms of the orthodox Christian faith.

4:11 Christianity was finally established as the state religion of the Roman Empire.

4:17 Throughout its territory, Christians attack old pagan temples,

4:22 destroying some and converting others into churches.

4:25 Later emperors outlaw the worship

4:27 of the ancient gods and persecute their followers,

4:31 calling them pagans, a derogatory term for "backward" and "inferior.

4:40 The so-called "barbarian" tribes that ravage much

4:43 of the Western Roman Empire- the Visigoths,

4:47 Ostrogoths, and Vandals- also accept Christianity,

4:52 although they initially profess the heresy of Arianism.

4:58 Around 405, Saint Jerome completes a new

5:03 Latin translation of the Bible, called the Vulgate.

5:08 It becomes the official biblical text of the Catholic Church

5:12 and is still the basis of the Catholic Bible today.

5:18 Over the next two centuries,

5:20 missionaries- sometimes at great personal risk- seek

5:23 to convert pagan communities and their rulers to Christianity.

5:29 The conversion of an influential ruler becomes a key strategy,

5:34 often leading to the Christianization of entire states.

5:38 Christianity continues to spread throughout Western Europe even

5:42 after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

5:46 Around 432, St.

5:48 Patrick travels to Ireland, beginning the conversion of the Irish.

5:55 In 508, the Frankish king Clovis is baptized,

6:01 completing the Christianization of Gaul.

6:04 In 563, the monk Columba arrives from Ireland to western

6:09 Scotland and founds a monastery on the island of Iona,

6:13 one of the oldest in Western Europe.

6:16 In 589, the Visigothic king Reccared renounces

6:22 Arianism and converts his entire kingdom to Catholicism.

6:27 In 597, Pope Gregory the Great sends Saint Augustine to Britain.

6:33 He converts the king of Kent, Ethelbert,

6:38 to Christianity, beginning the Christianization of the English.

6:49 In 635, Alopen becomes the first known Christian missionary to reach China.

6:57 Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty issues

7:01 an edict permitting the spread of Christianity.

7:05 Missionaries build churches and translate Christian texts into Chinese.

7:10 Christian theology mixes with local traditions,

7:16 adopting Taoist and Buddhist terminology.

7:21 Meanwhile, Arab armies, proclaiming a new faith, Islam,

7:26 conquer much of the Middle East and North Africa…

7:30 …and establish control over the holiest sites for Christians in Jerusalem.

7:39 By 720, Muslim conquests reach the Iberian Peninsula.

7:45 However, most Islamic rulers tolerate Christianity in their lands.

7:50 And although Christians are considered second-class subjects,

7:55 their communities continue to exist.

7:58 By this time, medieval Europe is fragmented into many kingdoms.

8:03 The Frankish king Charlemagne expands his power across Francia,

8:08 Bavaria, Saxony, and northern Spain.

8:12 Wherever he conquers, he converts his new subjects to Christianity,

8:18 often by force of arms.

8:22 In 800, the Pope crowns him as "Emperor of the Romans,"

8:26 the first in a dynasty that lasts a thousand years.

8:32 Christianity continues to spread north and east

8:36 through new royal conversions: In 965, King Harald Bluetooth of Denmark;

8:44 then Prince Mieszko I and the Polish nobility; Vladimir the Great,

8:50 Grand Prince of Kiev, considered the baptizer of Ukraine and Russia;

8:56 More than a century earlier, Saints Cyril and Methodius created the first Slavic

9:03 alphabet and began translating the main liturgical texts.

9:07 King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway,

9:11 who sent missionaries to Iceland and Greenland; King Stephen of Hungary;

9:19 and King Olaf Skötkonung of Sweden,

9:22 whose attempt to convert the pagans meets with fierce resistance.

9:28 In 1054, tensions between the Greek Eastern Church,

9:34 led by the Patriarch in Constantinople,

9:37 and the Latin Western Church, under the Pope in Rome,

9:42 lead to a schism- the Great Schism.

9:46 Thus, the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches are finally formed.

9:54 The Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire

9:57 comes under strong pressure from the Seljuks.

10:01 In 1095, Pope Urban II calls for a Crusade

10:08 to help Byzantium and reclaim the Holy Land for Christians.

10:13 He promises absolution to all participants,

10:16 and Catholics sign up in the thousands.

10:22 The success of the First Crusade leads

10:24 to the creation of several Christian states in the Levant,

10:30 but less than two hundred years later,

10:33 they will all fall to their Muslim neighbors.

10:37 Christian rulers achieve greater success in the Iberian Peninsula,

10:41 gradually reclaiming the conquests of the 8th century from the Muslims.

10:47 In northern Europe, crusades are waged against

10:52 the pagans in the Baltics and Finland.

10:57 Meanwhile, Christianity continues to gain ground in the east.

11:01 The papal legate John of Montecorvino crosses Armenia,

11:06 Persia, and India and reaches China,

11:09 where in 1294 he becomes the first bishop of the future Beijing.

11:19 In 1386, Grand Duke Jagiello, the last pagan ruler of Lithuania,

11:25 accepts baptism and begins to convert his subjects.

11:33 In 1453, the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople,

11:36 the center of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

11:40 Constantinople was considered the "New Rome." After its fall,

11:46 the Russian Orthodox Church The Age of Discovery,

12:09 marked by daring maritime expeditions,

12:11 will be the period in which Western European

12:15 powers will bring Christianity to the most remote lands.

12:21 In 1482, a Portuguese caravel reaches the Kingdom of Kongo.

12:25 Nine years later, its ruler Nzinga a Nkuvu,

12:28 along with many nobles, accepts Christianity.

12:33 Later, the king will renounce the Catholic faith,

12:36 but Christianity will remain the state religion of Kongo.

12:43 In 1492, the Catholic monarchs of Spain defeat

12:48 the last Muslim rulers- the Emirate of Granada falls,

12:54 and the Reconquista is completed.

12:57 In the same year, Christopher Columbus reaches the shores of America.

13:03 This event becomes key to the further spread of Christianity:

13:09 subsequent transatlantic voyages of Europeans will pave the way

13:13 for the colonization and conversion of the inhabitants of the "New World".

13:20 In 1493, Pope Alexander VI issues a bull, transferring to Spain the right to lay

13:26 claim to the discovered lands in South America.

13:29 The document states that "the greatest importance in our time

13:33 is the exaltation of the Catholic faith and the Christian religion,

13:37 and its strengthening and dissemination for the sake of the salvation of souls

13:42 and for the sake of humility and conversion

13:44 to this faith of barbarian peoples." A year later,

13:47 the Treaty of Tordesillas divides the "New World" between Spain and Portugal:

13:53 everything to the west of the imaginary line goes to Spain,

13:59 to the east to Portugal.

14:01 Wherever the foot of the Spanish and Portuguese expeditions sets foot,

14:05 there follow Christian missionaries.

14:09 On the territory of the future "New Spain",

14:12 the Spaniards impose Roman Catholicism,

14:14 forcibly converting the indigenous peoples

14:18 and trying to eradicate their traditional beliefs.

14:25 The same thing happens further south, in Peru, and also in Portuguese Brazil.

14:34 The Age of Discovery also marks the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade:

14:39 Europeans transport enslaved Africans to America for forced labor.

14:46 Christianity spreads to West Africa as a byproduct of the slave trade,

14:52 and by the 16th century Portuguese missionaries

14:56 are establishing stable Christian communities along the coast.

15:04 Meanwhile, a new major schism within Christianity is brewing in Europe.

15:11 In 1517, the German monk Martin Luther sharply criticizes what

15:15 he sees as the corrupt practices of the Roman Catholic Church,

15:23 launching the Protestant Reformation.

15:26 Protestant demands for reform spread rapidly,

15:30 aided by Gutenberg's printing press,

15:35 and are taken up by European rulers for political and spiritual reasons.

15:42 Protestantism takes root in northern Europe.

15:49 In 1534, Henry VIII of England breaks with Rome

15:53 and declares himself head of the Church of England.

15:58 From the outset, Protestantism fragments into a variety of denominations:

16:05 Calvinists, Lutherans, Baptists, Anabaptists,

16:09 Moravians, Anglicans, and Presbyterians.

16:15 Nevertheless, Catholicism remains the largest branch of Christianity.

16:20 It spreads to Southeast Asia along

16:23 with Portuguese and Spanish trading expansion.

16:28 The missionary Francis Xavier travels across Asia: in 1542 he lands in Goa,

16:39 in 1545 he visits Portuguese outposts in Indonesia,

16:44 and in 1549 he arrives in Japan, where Christianity finds many followers.

16:54 In 1565, the Philippines becomes a Spanish

16:57 colony and an important hub for European trade;

17:00 Catholic missionaries soon make Christianity

17:03 the dominant religion of the archipelago.

17:06 In the early 17th century,

17:08 Protestants from England and the Netherlands establish

17:11 colonies along the coast of North America.

17:16 Many are Puritans seeking religious freedom

17:20 and the opportunity to establish model Christian communities.

17:25 Missionary John Elliot makes contact with the native tribes

17:28 of Massachusetts and publishes a Bible in their language by 1663,

17:33 but his efforts to convert have limited success.

17:40 In the centuries that follow, it is the growing European population

17:44 that spreads Christianity across the continent.

17:49 By the end of the 18th century,

17:54 Europeans have firmly established Christianity throughout the Americas.

17:59 In both Britain and the future United States,

18:02 the century is marked by several waves of religious revival,

18:06 known as Great Awakenings.

18:10 They give rise to the modern evangelical movement,

18:13 which emphasizes Scripture and personal salvation.

18:20 A century earlier, a church schism had broken out in Russia.

18:24 At the Great Moscow Council of 1666–1667,

18:29 Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich supported the reform,

18:33 opponents were anathematized, and Patriarch Nikon was condemned and defrocked,

18:39 not because of the reforms,

18:41 but for his misdeeds—unauthorized abandonment of the patriarchal see

18:44 and the desire to place church authority above the tsar’s.

18:49 The Old Believers were declared state criminals—exiles,

18:53 imprisonments, and burnings “in log cabins” began.

18:57 The monks of the Solovetsky Monastery rebelled

19:00 and held the line for eight years.

19:04 In 1682, Avvakum was executed in Pustozersk—his

19:08 “Life” was spread throughout the country.

19:11 The Old Believers went underground—into the forests, to the Don,

19:15 to Pomorie, Siberia, the Urals, the Kama region, and abroad.

19:21 Various agreements arose: the Popovtsy, the Beguntsy, the Beguns, the Masons.

19:27 Later, Peter I tightened taxes and assigned

19:31 the Old Believers to special "schismatic" classes.

19:35 By the 19th century, persecution had weakened, but restrictions remained.

19:39 Only in 1905 did the Decree of Nicholas II grant rights to the Old Believers:

19:47 they would emerge from hiding,

19:49 begin to build churches and openly conduct services.

20:00 During the heyday of European imperialism, Christianity,

20:04 along with settlers and missionaries, reached the last corners of the globe.

20:11 In 1788, Christianity came to Australia

20:14 along with the first British penal colony.

20:18 In 1797, the London Missionary Society

20:23 sent the first preachers to Eastern Polynesia.

20:27 It was missionary activity that became the main driver

20:31 of the spread of Christianity across the islands of the South Pacific.

20:36 Then Christianity reached New Zealand, where in 1814,

20:41 missionary Samuel Marsden delivered the first Christian sermon.

20:47 Christian missionaries spread the faith throughout India- among them,

20:52 Baptist pastor William Carey.

20:54 He is called the "father of modern missionary work":

20:58 he translates the Bible into seven Indian languages.

21:01 However, many Hindus and Muslims view missionaries with hostility.

21:06 This discontent becomes one of the reasons

21:10 for the Great Indian Rebellion against British rule in 1857.

21:16 The time of the "heroic missionaries" began- men and women who

21:21 made long and dangerous journeys to "save souls" in distant lands.

21:26 The Scottish missionary David Livingstone is perhaps the most famous:

21:30 he is the first European to reach many parts

21:34 of Central Africa and discovers a waterfall that he named Victoria.

21:39 There were others: Adoniram and Ann Judson,

21:42 who lived for almost forty years as missionaries in Burma...

21:47 ...and Mary Slessor in Nigeria,

21:50 who learned the local language Efik to preach Christianity.

21:55 In 1884, American Presbyterians arrived in Korea,

22:01 bringing Western medicine and Christianity at the same time.

22:05 The new religion quickly took root:

22:07 today almost a third of the population of South Korea are Christians.

22:12 In the 1880s, European powers began the “Scramble for Africa,”

22:18 the colonial redivision of the last independent African states.

22:24 By 1914, they had occupied 90 percent of the continent,

22:31 bringing Christianity with them.

22:33 China remained largely impervious to Christianity for a long time,

22:39 with only about 100,000 converts by the early 20th century.

22:44 The spread of Christianity also provoked a bloody backlash,

22:48 with the Boxer Rebellion, in which thousands of Chinese Christians died.

22:55 But large-scale missionary work after 1900 led

22:58 to the construction of thousands of churches

23:01 and an increase in the number of Christians to about 4 million by 1945.

23:08 In the 20th century, the rise of communism became a serious

23:12 threat to Christianity and other religions.

23:14 Communist governments in the Soviet Union and Central

23:18 and Eastern Europe destroy church structures and suppress worship.

23:24 But Christianity proves to be a more resilient doctrine:

23:27 after the fall of these regimes, churches are reborn and gather flocks again.

23:34 Even in communist China today,

23:36 there are millions of Christians, despite strict state control.

23:45 For almost two thousand years,

23:46 the efforts of countless missionaries and colonizers

23:50 have helped spread Christianity throughout the world.

23:56 Today, there are an estimated 2.3 billion Christians- almost a third

24:02 of the world's population- living and praying in almost every country.

24:08 For Christians, people of other faiths, or people without religion,

24:12 this has certainly been and remains a truly amazing historical journey.

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24:48 Special thanks to John Vladimirov, Sergey Reznik, Viktor Umanets, Iosif Bozhich.