Spread of Christianity

Paul Preaching

30

Paul was definitely a big reason that Christianity spread. He would preach to the people, even after Jesus's death. He preached in some of the most important cities. This was a key thing, because Paul decided to start preaching to people who were not Jews, something that Jesus did not do. This meant that more people would hear about the word of God.

Edict of Toleration

311

This Edict ended the persecution of Christians. This happened about a year before Constantine became the first Christian ruler in Rome. This was a big stepping stone for the religion since people could now practice their religion and spread the word of Christ without having to worry about being killed or maimed by animals.

The Conversion of Constantine

313

Constantine was preparing to enter a battle for control of Rome. His mother had a vision before the battle that was taken as a good sign for them. He won and began changing things for the better. The first law designed to benefit Christians was the Edict of Milan, along with other laws.

Official Roman Religion

323

When Christianity became the official religion of Rome, things started going nicely. People would no longer be prosecuted for being followers of Christ. This would allow people to spread the word without any consequence and make sure that tons of people could now learn about God.

The Council of Nicea

325

This was orchestrated by Constantine himself. This proposed that Jesus is of "a different essence" than God. They ultimately lost, but it is said that this paved the way for other topics of the sorts.

The Conversion of Augustine of Hippo

386

Augustine was searching for a way to help him past his sins (mainly lust). This path lead him to Christianity. He continued his pursuit for knowledge and he was able to produce works such as that of "The City of God". His works were based off of his own struggle with sin and had made a huge impact on the spread of Christianity.

Jerome’s Completion of the Translation of the Scriptures into Latin

405

Of course a new translation would help spread Christianity. This would allow for more people to be able to read the scriptures. This translation became the standard for Romans for many years.

The East/West Schism

1054

Both of the sides were separated because of many reasons, a big one being religion. There was a severance between Constantinople and Rome. Another Christian church was born that was away and out of union with the Catholic church.The long term effects still remain to this day.

Publication of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica

1274

Thomas wrote this over a period of years. Unfortunately he died before he could complete the book. What he had written was released for the Christian public to read. The book was very useful for instruction and is still used to this day.

The Invention of the Gutenberg Press

1440

It was not technically invented for Christianity reasons, but it did aid in the spread. Books were very scarce and hard to come by, considering how long it took to make them before this invention. Because of this new machine, books and pamphlets were able to be made much quicker and on a much higher bulk. Scripture that could only be heard, could now be printed out for the public to read. This made it so more people had access to Christian works.