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• Introduction
• Early views
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• Historical and polemical writing
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• Literature and art of the “Dark Ages”
• Missions and monasticism
• The Photian schism
• The great East-West schism
• Papacy and empire
• Medieval thought
• Reformation
• Christianity from the 16th to the 21st century
• Roman Catholicism
• Eastern Orthodoxy
• Oriental Orthodoxy
• Lutheranism
• Anglicanism
• Presbyterian and Reformed churches
• Other Protestant churches
• The nature and functions of doctrine
• Scripture and tradition: the apostolic witness
• Evangelism: the first teaching about the God of Jesus Christ
• Catechesis: instructing candidates for baptism
• Liturgy: the school and feast of faith
• Ethics: obeying the truth
• Aversion of heresy: the establishment of orthodoxy
• Apologetics: defending the faith
• Restatement: respecting language and knowledge
• Inculturation: respecting places and peoples
• Dogma: the most authoritative teaching
• Consensus: patterns of agreement
• Theology: loving God with the mind
• Symbolics: creeds and confessions
• Development: the maturation of understanding
• Schism: division over substantial matters
• Controversy: fighting over the faith
• Ecumenism: speaking the truth in love
• Characteristic features of the Christian concept of God
• The specific concept of God as Father
• The belief in the oneness of the Father and the Son
• The revelatory character of God
• God as Creator, Sustainer, and Judge
• The view that God is not solitary
• Modern views of God
• Satan and the origin of evil
• Different interpretations of the person of Jesus
• The Christological controversies
• Messianic views
• The doctrine of the Virgin Mary and holy Wisdom
• Contradictory aspects of the Holy Spirit
• Conflict between order and charismatic freedom
• The operations of the Holy Spirit
• The basis for the doctrine of the Trinity
• Introduction of Neoplatonic themes
• Attempts to define the Trinity
• What it is to be human
• The human as a creature
• The human as the image of God
• Human redemption
• The problem of suffering
• The resurrection of the body
• Progressive human perfection
• The “new man”: The human being in the light of Christ
• The “reborn human”
• Human liberation
• Joy in human existence
• The charismatic believer
• Christian perfection
• Fellow humans as the present Christ
• Normative defenses in the early church
• Evolution of the episcopal office
• Authority and dissent
• Organization
• Church polity
• New liturgical forms and antiliturgical attitudes
• The sacraments
• Scriptural traditions
• Veneration of places, objects, and people
• Monasticism
• The saintly life
• Art and iconography
• Theology of icons
• Expectations of the kingdom of God in early Christianity
• Expectations of the kingdom of God in the medieval and Reformation periods
• Expectations of the kingdom of God in the post-Reformation period
• The role of imminent expectation in missions and emigrations
• Eschatological expectations and secularization
• Concepts of life after death
• Influence of Greek philosophy
• Emergence of official doctrine
• Aristotle and Aquinas
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• The design (or teleological) argument
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• The immortality of the soul
• Influence of logical positivism
• Evidentialist approach
• Early church
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• Western Catholic Christianity
• Protestant Christianity
• The dying to self
• The union with God
• The readjustment
• Christ-mysticism
• Trinitarian mysticism
• Negative mysticism: God and the Godhead
• Significance of Christian mysticism
• Characteristics of Christian myth and legend
• The ages of the world
• Messianic secrets and the mysteries of salvation
• The Magi and the Child of Wondrous Light
• Relics and saints
• The Middle Ages
• Renaissance magic and science
• Christian practice in the modern world
• Historical views
• Church, sect, and mystical movement
• The church and the Roman Empire
• The church and the Byzantine, or Eastern, Empire
• The church and Western states
• Separation of church and state
• The views of Eusebius of Caesarea
• The views of Augustine
• Later developments
• The problem of slavery and persecution
• Theological and humanitarian motivations
• Intellectualism versus anti-intellectualism
• Forms of Christian education
• Healing the sick
• Care for the sick
• Care for widows and orphans
• Property, poverty, and the poor
• Pastoral care
• Church and minorities
• The tendency to spiritualize and individualize marriage
• The tendency toward asceticism
• Love as the basis for Christian ethics
• Freedom and responsibility
• Biblical foundations
• First transition, to 500 ce
• Western mission
• Papal mission
• Eastern and Nestorian missions
• The rise of Islam
• Roman Catholic mission, 1500–1950
• Early Protestant missions
• Missions to Asia
• Missions to South East Asia and the Pacific
• Missions to Africa and South America
• Missionary associations
• Orthodox and nondenominational missions
• Fourth transition, from 1950
• Scripture translations
• The biblical perspective
• Early controversies
• The Schism of 1054
• The Reformation
• Ecumenism in the 17th and 18th centuries
• 19th-century efforts
• Ecumenism since the start of the 20th century
• Conflicting Christian attitudes
• Contemporary views

Christianity

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Christianity , major religion stemming from the life, teachings, and death of Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ, or the Anointed One of God) in the 1st century ce . It has become the largest of the world’s religions and, geographically, the most widely diffused of all faiths. It has a constituency of more than two billion believers. Its largest groups are the Roman Catholic Church , the Eastern Orthodox churches, and the Protestant churches. The Oriental Orthodox churches constitute one of the oldest branches of the tradition but had been out of contact with Western Christianity and Eastern Orthodoxy from the middle of the 5th century until the late 20th century because of a dispute over Christology (the doctrine of Jesus Christ’s nature and significance). Significant movements within the broader Christian world and sometimes transcending denominational boundaries are Pentecostalism , Charismatic Christianity, Evangelicalism, and fundamentalism . In addition, there are numerous independent churches throughout the world. See also Anglicanism ; Baptist ; Calvinism ; Congregationalism ; Evangelical church ; Lutheranism ; Oriental Orthodoxy; presbyterian ; Reformed and Presbyterian churches .

This article first considers the nature and development of the Christian religion, its ideas, and its institutions. This is followed by an examination of several intellectual manifestations of Christianity. Finally, the position of Christianity in the world, the relations among its divisions and denominations, its missionary outreach to other peoples, and its relations with other world religions are discussed. For supporting material on various topics, see angel and demon ; Bible ; biblical literature ; canon law ; creed ; Christology ; doctrine and dogma ; ecumenism ; eschatology ; exegesis ; faith ; grace ; heaven ; hell ; heresy ; Jesus Christ ; liturgical movement ; millennialism ; miracle ; monasticism ; monotheism ; New Testament ; Old Testament ; original sin ; papacy ; prayer ; priesthood ; purgatory ; sacrament ; salvation ; schism ; scripture ; theism ; theology ; and worship .

The church and its history

The essence and identity of christianity.

At its most basic, Christianity is the faith tradition that focuses on the figure of Jesus Christ . In this context , faith refers both to the believers’ act of trust and to the content of their faith. As a tradition , Christianity is more than a system of religious belief. It also has generated a culture , a set of ideas and ways of life, practices, and artifacts that have been handed down from generation to generation since Jesus first became the object of faith. Christianity is thus both a living tradition of faith and the culture that the faith leaves behind. The agent of Christianity is the church , the community of people who make up the body of believers.

To say that Christianity “focuses” on Jesus Christ is to say that somehow it brings together its beliefs and practices and other traditions in reference to a historical figure. Few Christians, however, would be content to keep this reference merely historical. Although their faith tradition is historical—i.e., they believe that transactions with the divine do not occur in the realm of timeless ideas but among ordinary humans through the ages—the vast majority of Christians focus their faith in Jesus Christ as someone who is also a present reality. They may include many other references in their tradition and thus may speak of “God” and “human nature” or of the “church” and the “world,” but they would not be called Christian if they did not bring their attentions first and last to Jesus Christ.

While there is something simple about this focus on Jesus as the central figure, there is also something very complicated. That complexity is revealed by the thousands of separate churches, sects, and denominations that make up the modern Christian tradition. To project these separate bodies against the background of their development in the nations of the world is to suggest the bewildering variety. To picture people expressing their adherence to that tradition in their prayer life and church-building, in their quiet worship or their strenuous efforts to change the world, is to suggest even more of the variety.

Given such complexity, it is natural that throughout Christian history both those in the tradition and those surrounding it have made attempts at simplification. Two ways to do this have been to concentrate on the “essence” of the faith, and thus on the ideas that are integral to it, or to be concerned with the “identity” of the tradition, and thus on the boundaries of its historical experience.

Modern scholars have located the focus of this faith tradition in the context of monotheistic religions. Christianity addresses the historical figure of Jesus Christ against the background of, and while seeking to remain faithful to, the experience of one God. It has consistently rejected polytheism and atheism .

A second element of the faith tradition of Christianity, with rare exceptions, is a plan of salvation or redemption. That is to say, the believers in the church picture themselves as in a plight from which they need rescue. For whatever reason , they have been distanced from God and need to be saved. Christianity is based on a particular experience or scheme directed to the act of saving—that is, of bringing or “buying back,” which is part of what redemption means, these creatures of God to their source in God. The agent of that redemption is Jesus Christ.

It is possible that through the centuries the vast majority of believers have not used the term essence to describe the central focus of their faith. The term is itself of Greek origin and thus represents only one part of the tradition, one element in the terms that have gone into making up Christianity. Essence refers to those qualities that give something its identity and are at the centre of what makes that thing different from everything else. To Greek philosophers it meant something intrinsic to and inherent in a thing or category of things, which gave it its character and thus separated it from everything of different character. Thus, Jesus Christ belongs to the essential character of Christianity and gives it a unique identity.

If most people are not concerned with defining the essence of Christianity, in practice they must come to terms with what the word essence implies. Whether they are engaged in being saved or redeemed on the one hand, or thinking and speaking about that redemption, its agent, and its meaning on the other, they are concentrating on the essence of their experience. Those who have concentrated from within the faith tradition have also helped to give it its identity. It is not possible to speak of the essence of a historical tradition without referring to how its ideal qualities have been discussed through the ages. Yet one can take up the separate subjects of essence and identity in sequence, being always aware of how they interrelate.

Essay on Christianity

Students are often asked to write an essay on Christianity in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

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100 Words Essay on Christianity

Introduction.

Christianity is a global religion that started over two thousand years ago in the Middle East. It’s based on the teachings of Jesus Christ. Over time, it has grown to have billions of followers worldwide.

Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of humanity. They follow the teachings in the Holy Bible, which is divided into two parts: the Old and New Testament.

Christians worship in churches, read the Bible, and participate in sacraments like baptism and communion. They celebrate holidays like Easter and Christmas.

Denominations

Christianity has many branches, including Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism. Each has unique beliefs and practices, but all follow Jesus Christ.

250 Words Essay on Christianity

Origins of christianity, theological beliefs.

Central to Christianity is the belief in Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection, which offers salvation and eternal life to believers. The Holy Trinity, comprising God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is another fundamental doctrine. The Bible, divided into the Old and New Testaments, serves as the authoritative text.

Denominations and Practices

Christianity encompasses diverse traditions, interpretations, and practices, leading to the formation of various denominations such as Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism. Despite differences, common practices include prayer, Bible study, and sacraments like baptism and the Eucharist.

Christianity’s Impact

Christianity has significantly influenced Western civilization, shaping its art, culture, philosophy, and law. It continues to play a vital role in societal issues, ethical debates, and global humanitarian efforts.

Contemporary Challenges

Today, Christianity faces challenges like secularization, religious pluralism, and ethical dilemmas posed by scientific advancements. However, it continues to adapt, demonstrating its resilience and relevance in the modern world.

500 Words Essay on Christianity

Introduction to christianity.

Christianity, one of the world’s major religions, traces its roots to the teachings of Jesus Christ in the 1st century AD. With over two billion followers, it’s a belief system that has profoundly influenced the course of human history and culture.

The Teachings of Jesus Christ

Christian denominations.

Christianity is not a monolithic religion but rather a complex tapestry of denominations, each with its unique interpretation of Christian doctrine. These include the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and the Protestant Churches. Despite their differences in liturgy, hierarchy, and theology, all Christian denominations share a common belief in Jesus Christ as the Messiah and the concept of salvation through faith.

The Bible: A Central Text

The Bible, comprising the Old and New Testaments, is the central text of Christianity. The Old Testament, also known as the Hebrew Bible, contains religious texts and stories shared with Judaism. The New Testament, on the other hand, records the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as well as the early Christian community’s experiences and teachings.

Christianity and Society

Contemporary christianity.

In the modern world, Christianity continues to evolve, grappling with issues such as gender equality, homosexuality, and the relationship between science and religion. It faces challenges from secularism and religious pluralism, yet remains a vital force in many societies. The future of Christianity will likely be shaped by how it responds to these challenges and adapts to the changing world.

In conclusion, Christianity, with its rich history and diverse interpretations, is a complex and multifaceted religion. Its teachings have influenced countless lives and continue to shape the world in profound ways. As we delve deeper into its doctrines and history, we uncover a fascinating narrative of faith, struggle, and transformation.

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Early Christianity

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Roots in Second Temple Judaism

Jews claimed an ancient tradition with law codes for daily life (the Laws of Moses ) and revelations from their god through Prophets. While recognizing various powers in the universe, Jews nevertheless differed from their neighbors by only offering worship (sacrifices) to their one god, Yahweh . After suffering several national defeats by the Assyrians in 722 BCE and the Babylonians in 587 BCE, their prophets claimed that God would eventually restore Israel to its former independence. In those 'final days' ( eschaton in Greek ), God would designate a descendant of David, an 'anointed one' ( Messiah in Hebrew, or Christos in Greek), who would lead the righteous against the enemies of Israel. God would then establish a new Eden, which came to be known as 'the kingdom of God.'

After a short-lived rebellion against Greek rule (the Maccabean Revolt , 167 BCE), Galilee and Judea were conquered by Rome (63 BCE). By the 1st century CE, many messiah figures rallied Jews to call upon God to help them overthrow the overlords. Most of these figures were killed by Rome for stirring up mobs against law and order. A sect of Jews known as Zealots convinced the nation to rebel against Rome in 66 CE, which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem and their temple (70 CE).

From all of the evidence, Jesus of Nazareth was an end-time preacher, or an apocalyptic prophet, proclaiming that the kingdom of God was imminent. He was crucified by Rome (between 26-36 CE), perhaps for stirring up crowds at the festival of Passover. Crucifixion was the Roman penalty for rebels and traitors; preaching a kingdom other than Rome was subversive. Shortly after his death , his disciples claimed that he had risen from the dead. Whatever this experience was, it motivated them to mission or to spread the 'good news' ('gospel') that the kingdom of God would arrive soon.

The followers of Jesus first took this message to the synagogue communities of Jews in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire . Many Jews did not believe that Jesus was the expected Messiah, but to the surprise of these apostles (messengers), Gentiles (pagans) wanted to join the movement. This unexpected occurrence raised questions of inclusion: should these pagans become Jews first, entailing circumcision, dietary laws, and Sabbath observance? At a meeting in Jerusalem (ca. 49 CE, The Apostolic Council), it was decided that pagans could join without becoming Jews. However, they had to observe some Jewish principles such as draining blood from meat, sexual morality, and the cessation of all idolatry (Acts 15). By the end of the 1st century, these Gentile-Christians dominated the Christianoi (“the followers of the Christ”).

Paul , a Pharisee, was the founder of many of these communities. He claimed that Jesus told him in a vision to be his “apostle to the Gentiles.” Jesus was now in heaven but would soon return. This concept was known as the parousia (or 'second appearance'), and rationalized the problem that the kingdom did not appear during Jesus' lifetime; what the prophets proclaimed would be fulfilled upon his return. At that time, current society (and its social conventions and class distinctions) would be transformed.

With the belief that Jesus was now in heaven, Christ became an object of worship. Paul claimed that Christ had been present at creation, and that “every knee show bow” before him (Phil. 2). In the fourth gospel of John , Christ was identified as the philosophical principle of the logos , or the rational principle of the universe that became flesh (the doctrine of the Incarnation). We have very little information on how early Christians worshipped Christ. Worship in the ancient world consisted of sacrifices. For Jews (and then Christians), this element was removed with the destruction of their Temple in 70 CE. At the same time, ex-pagan Christians ceased the traditional sacrifices of the native cults.

In the Acts of the Apostles, we have stories of Peter and John healing people “in the name of Jesus.” There was an initiation rite of baptism, hymns and prayers to Christ, and a meal known as the Last Supper, a memorial of Jesus' last teaching. Christians addressed Jesus as 'Lord,' which was also a Jewish title for god. Jews could acknowledge the exaltation of Jesus to heaven as a reward for a martyr's death, but placing Jesus on the same level as God created a barrier between Jews and Christians.

The Spread of Christianity

In Greco-Roman culture people claimed ethnic identity from ancestors; you were literally born into your customs and beliefs. Conversion (moving from one religious worldview to another) was not common as your religion was in the blood. Christianity taught that ancestry and bloodlines were no longer relevant. According to Paul, faith ( pistis , 'loyalty') in Christ was all that was needed for salvation. This new idea resulted in a religious movement no longer confined to a geographic area or an ethnic group. Christianity became a portable religion available to all.

The idea of salvation was another innovation. Jews had articulated salvation as the restoration of the nation of Israel. Pagans had no similar concept but some did have concerns about their existence in the afterlife. Paul wrote that Christ's death was a sacrifice that eliminated the punishment for the sin of Adam which was death (the doctrine of atonement). For this first generation of Christians, physical death was no longer a reality; they would be transformed into “spiritual bodies” when Christ returned (1 Cor. 15). As time passed and Christ did not return, Christians accepted the death of the body but were promised a reward in heaven.

Christianity shared some elements with the Mystery cults (such as Demeter and Dionysus ) that were popular in the Hellenistic period . These cults required initiation and offered secret information on both an improved life in this world as well as a smooth transition to a good afterlife. The Mysteries also utilized the concept of a dying and rising god.

Christianity did not spread overnight “like wildfire” as it was previously suggested. Initiates spent three years learning Christian teachings, followed by their baptism, which was usually held on what became the feast day of Easter . The initiate was naked as an indication of a rejection of their former life, submerged in the water, and then donned a new robe as the sign of being "reborn". Adult baptism was the norm until roughly the 4th and 5th centuries CE when infant baptism became the norm due to high infant mortality rates.

Hierarchy, Celibacy & Monasticism

Christianity did spread far and wide, with small communities as far away as Britain and sub-Saharan Africa . However, there was no central authority, such as the Vatican, to validate various beliefs and practices. Numerous and diverse groups existed throughout the Empire. Bishops communicated with each other and their letters demonstrate often rancorous debates.

Christians adopted the Greek system of political assemblies ( ecclesia in Greek, English 'church') and the Roman system of an overseer (bishop) of a section of a province (a diocese). In the 1st century CE, bishops were elected as administrative leaders. An innovation in the office of bishop occurred sometime between the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. Bishops now had the power to absolve sins through their possession by the Holy Spirit. Deacons were elected initially as helpers in distributing charity and eventually became priests.

The pagan worldview included the importance of fertility (of crops, herds, and people) for survival. Sexual intercourse was considered necessary, natural, and enjoyable for both gods and humans. The Church Fathers expressed a disdain for these attitudes toward the body, influenced by similar philosophical views known as asceticism. Church leaders advocated celibacy (no marriage) and chastity (no sexual relations) as requisites for bishops and other leadership positions.

Beyond the leadership, Christians were encouraged to marry, recognizing the biblical command “to be fruitful and multiply.” However, sexual intercourse was limited to the sole purpose of procreation. Intercourse, when a wife was barren, was a concession to lust, now deemed a sin and something that only sexually immoral pagans indulged in.

The height of Christian asceticism was achieved by Anthony in Egypt (251-356 CE) when he turned his back on society and went to live in a cave in the desert. Others followed and were known as the Desert Fathers. They eventually were housed together in monasteries and provided an additional level of clergy, and the educated among them copied and illustrated Christian manuscripts.

Persecution & Martyrdom

By tradition, the Emperor Nero (54-68 CE) was the first Roman official to persecute Christians. The Roman historian Tacitus (56-120 CE) claimed that Nero blamed the Christians for the Great Fire of Rome in 64 CE, although he was not a witness to the events. Nevertheless, the story has become embedded in the early history of Christianity. If Nero did indeed execute Christians, it was not official Roman policy at this time.

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The decision to persecute Christians most likely began during the reign of Domitian (83-96 CE). A depleted treasury motivated Domitian to take action in two areas: he enforced the collection of the Jewish Temple tax and mandated worship at the Imperial Temples. After the destruction of their Temple, Domitian's father, Vespasian (69-79 CE), had ordered the Jews to continue paying the Temple tax, now sending it to Rome as war reparations, but apparently, no one enforced this until the reign of Domitian. In seeking out tax evaders among Jews, his officials became aware of another group who worshipped the same god but were not Jews and thus not responsible for the tax.

The Imperial Cult began with the deification of Julius Caesar after his death (44 BCE). The common people claimed that Caesar was now “among the gods.” Octavian created Imperial temples that both honored Caesar and the imperial family. The Imperial Cult served as propaganda and brought in funds from the sale of priesthoods. Domitian insisted on being addressed as “Lord and God” and ordered everyone to participate in his cult. Jews had been granted exemption from traditional cults by Julius Caesar as a reward for his Jewish mercenaries. Christians, however, did not have this “get out of jail free card.”

Christians were charged with the crime of atheism. Their refusal to appease the gods by sacrificing to them was perceived as a threat to the prosperity of the Empire, which was equivalent to treason. Christians were executed in the arenas, often being mauled and eaten by lions. Lions and other wild animals were utilized in the venatio games by specially-trained animal hunters ( bestiarii ). It was convenient to utilize these animals as executioners for the state.

Christians borrowed the concept of martyrdom from Judaism, where anyone who died for their faith was immediately taken into the presence of God. Martyrdom, therefore, became very attractive for Christians and many stories were told of their bravery and conviction in the face of death. Such devotion served as propaganda for the faith.

Despite Christian tradition (and Hollywood), persecution was never the subject of Empire-wide edicts until the second half of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th centuries CE. Nor were there thousands of victims. In 300 years, we have records that indicate the sporadic nature of persecution which depended upon circumstances. Whenever there was a crisis (foreign invasion, famine, plague ) Christians became scapegoats for angering the gods. In between, Romans left Christians alone for the most part.

Orthodoxy & Heresy

The pagan world accepted the plurality of diverse approaches to the gods with an emphasis on correct rituals rather than any consensus on doctrine. The Church Fathers of the 2nd century CE developed an innovation with the concept of orthodoxy, or the idea that there was only one “correct belief.” This was matched by its polar opposite, heresy (Greek, airesis , or 'choice,' as in a choice of a particular philosophy ).

Under the umbrella term, ' Gnostics ,' some Christians offered a different view of both the universe and salvation in Christ (from the Greek, gnosis , 'knowledge'). For many Gnostics, all matter in the physical universe was evil, including the human body. Christ did not manifest in a body, and therefore, the crucifixion and resurrection were not important for salvation. Rather, Christ only appeared in human form (Docetism) to reveal that humans contained a divine spark of God that was trapped in the body. Jesus' teaching provided the key to liberate this spark and help it return to its source.

Adversos Literature : An Identity Separate from Judaism

A specific type of literature emerged in the 2nd century CE, directed against Jews and Judaism, which coincided with increased persecution of Christians. Christians claimed they should have the same exemption from state cults as the Jews because Christians were verus Israel , the “true Israel.” Christian interpretation of the Jewish Scriptures through allegory demonstrated that wherever God appeared in the Scriptures, it was actually Christ in a pre-existent form. Christians claimed the Scriptures as their own and a "new covenant" now replaced the old. The adversos literature contributed to a Christian identity now separate and distinct from Judaism in practice, but with an ancient tradition which would give them respect. These treatises were highly polemical, malicious, and full of standard rhetoric at the time against an opponent. Unfortunately, many of these arguments became the basis for the later charges against Jews in the Middle Ages and beyond.

The Conversion of Constantine

By 300 CE, Emperor Diocletian (284-305 CE) had organized the Roman Empire into East and West. When he died in 306 CE, various co-rulers vied to return to one-man rule. In the West, the battle was between Maxentius (306-312 CE) and Constantine I (306-337 CE). Constantine later told the story that the night before the battle (at the Milvian Bridge in Rome), he saw a sign in the sky (either chi and rho , the first two letters of Christ, or a cross) and heard a voice that commanded “in hoc signo vinces” (“in this sign conquer ”). Constantine claimed that he won the battle with the support of the Christian god.

In conjunction with the surviving ruler of the East, Licinius, The Edict of Milan was issued in 313 CE, granting Christianity the right to legally assemble without fear of arrest or persecution. Christianity now joined the hundreds of other pagan cults, although Constantine favored Christians through tax exemptions and funds for building churches.

A Christian EMPIRE

Constantine was interested in both unifying the Empire as well as the Church. He adopted the teachings of the Church Fathers as the core of Christian belief. However, a controversial teaching by a presbyter in Alexandria , Egypt, Arius, caused riots throughout the Empire. According to Arius, if God created everything in the universe, then Christ was a creature and thus subordinate to God. In 325 CE, Constantine invited bishops to attend a meeting in Nicaea to define the relationship between God and Christ. The result was the Nicene Creed, a list of tenets that all Christians were to avow. God and Christ were of the “same essence,” both participated in creation, and therefore monotheism was maintained; God was one, with three manifestations. With the Holy Spirit of God as the manifestation of divinity on earth, this doctrine became known as the Trinity . Christians who challenged these beliefs were deemed heretics, now equivalent to treason. Their non-conformity threatened the prosperity of the now Christian Emperor and Empire.

In 381 CE, Theodosius I issued an edict that banned all cults except Christianity. In the 390's CE he ordered the cessation of the Olympic Games , dedicated to the ancient gods, and the closure of pagan shrines and temples. Some of these buildings were destroyed, but others were transformed into Christian churches.

By the 4th century CE, Christians combined the Jewish concept of martyrdom with Greco-Roman concepts of patron gods/goddesses of towns and cities . Christian martyrs were now understood in a similar position as mediators in heaven. The practice of pilgrimage to their tombs became "the cult of the saints."

When Constantine moved the capital to Constantinople in 330 CE, this created a temporary void in leadership in the West. By the 5th century CE, the bishop of Rome absorbed secular leadership as well, now with the title of 'Pope.' In the Eastern Empire ( Byzantium ), the Emperor remained the head of the state as well as the head of the Church until the conquest of Constantinople (Istanbul) by the Turks in 1453 CE.

Why did Christianity succeed? The conversion of Constantine certainly provided practical reasons for pagans to adopt the new religion. However, while introducing innovations, Christianity nevertheless absorbed many shared elements from Greco-Roman culture, which undoubtedly helped to transform individuals from one worldview to another.

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• Pagels, E. The Gnostic Gospels. Vintage, 1989.
• Pagels, E. The Origin of Satan. Vintage, 1996.
• Price, S. Religions of the Ancient Greeks. Cambridge University Press, 1762.
• Sanders, E.P. Paul. Oxford University Press, 2001.
• Wilkens, R. The Christians as the Pagans Saw Them.

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Christianity Impact in Society Essay

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Introduction

Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the teachings, life, and the gospel that was revealed by Jesus. The beliefs in Christianity are of different types where everyone has his or her own faith placed on some teachings in the bible and other Christian-based materials. Although Christianity has a significant diversity of beliefs on controversial issues, most of the Christians share a common set of doctrines that they hold as essential to their faith and the Christian heritage of beliefs has been given titles including the good news of Jesus Christ, the way and mere Christianity. Christians believe that the Messiah, Jesus was the anointed ruler and savior of humanity and his coming was to fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament.

The core belief is that through the death and the resurrection of Jesus, sinful humans can be reconciled to God and they are therefore offered salvation and the promise of eternal life. Having theological disputes over the nature of Jesus, Christians generally believe that Jesus is God incarnate and the true God and man. Jesus having become fully human in all respects suffered the pain and the temptations of a mortal man and yet he did not sin and as God, he defeated death and rose to life again and his birth was very much different from a normal human birth as he was born through a virgin birth. ( Albright, 1957)

Christians believe that God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day and he appeared to his apostles giving them the commission to go preach the gospel and also baptize. The purpose of his death and resurrection is described in various doctrines of atonement and his suffering on the cross was to endure the shame and to show the love he had for the human race. The Christians believe that salvation is a gift by means of the unmerited grace, a gift from a loving heavenly father who sent his Son to be the savior.

They also believe that with faith you can be saved from sin and eternal death and Jesus’ crucifixion was an atoning sacrifice. The operation and the effects of grace are a necessity of the free will to cooperate with God and individuals are completely incapable of self-redemption and also God overcomes the unwilling heart as he has power over the human race and everything he created.

Religious symbols are been swept away from public schools and public places and the administrators are watching these to ensure that they are not taken in unknowingly but the government and the society encourage other minor religions which are not been seen as important in the society. Christianity seems to be receiving more discrimination than any other religion and they are forced to hold prayer stations and still have to explain to the government that they are not offending anyone.

But going through all these problems the Christians have tried to keep their faith from been swept away by other religions such as Islamic and Hinduism.

The negative impacts based on the Christianity includes: it is seen as a tool of exploitation in which every one has to follow all that is written in the bible and other Christian sources in order to be called a Christian; it is also seen as an illusion, a crutch, a source of guilt and pathologies meaning that saying you are a Christian is just but a burden and an obstacle to most of the people in the society who do not believe in such religion and therefore clashes occur between these two opposing groups; it is also seen as the principal enemy of the moral progress in the world- to some extend people hide their immoral acts as they claim to be Christians while when you compare what they do is completely a mess and can not be accepted in the traditional society were culture is taken as the guiding principal to all; man has taken the advantage of exploiting the nature with the claim that they are Christians and end up bring a lot of mess to the people who are innocent and have no reason to suffer that fate; people have gone to an extend of even wanting to be worshipped as the god something that could not be seen in the old times therefore they lack the respect of who they claim to worship and this brings a lot of contradictions in the society where the ancestors had much respect and lastly the paganism and other religions give man power to exploit the nature which is also accepted in the Christian bases having the claim that they are making it better but they are putting it in problems. (Johnson,1979)

The church has no positive influence on social change due to: Platonism- the spiritual sphere is the real world and matter is evil therefore the body is the prison of the soul and therefore religion at times is not concerned about social reform and humanism- which views the physical and the social needs of man as the only important and the institutional church has failed in the regeneration and therefore the social reformation is no longer in existence.

Christianity has both a social and historical impact on society. The greatest religious change in the history of mankind takes place with the philosophers and the historians who disregard the belief in Christianity and try to convince men to admit to having the most powerful moral behavior to be applied in all their lives and also people are abandoning the non-Christian base which is the source of the social development.

When the church is assimilated by culture then it has to share some of its practices to the culture and still, the culture takes some of the Christian values therefore it means that culture is not completely taken away from the society and it still acts as a guide to the people in their actions. Christianity positive impacts include the rise of modern science- it led to the invention of new techniques as the missionaries entered the country they invented things like the use of metals which was not in use in the traditional times as there was no technology on what to do with these metals to be useful but as the missionaries brought in Christianity they saw the need to do away with these traditional practices were mainly wood was used.

The rise in modern technology has been of great help as it has led to change in peoples’ lives where there is the use of money instead of barter exchange which was used in traditional society; there are industries for different manufacturing of items needful in the human life; the people have left most of the traditions like the circumcision in females and belief on the ancestors; and many other things that were practiced traditionally have been left out due to this Christianity.

The concepts conducive to scientific inquiry expressing based on the Christians include the positive attitudes toward the world where people can see the society in which they live as being of help in the activities they undertake and live peacefully with others; they are also aware of the order that is the cause and effects in the environment and it becomes helpful to them and also to the society as a whole; man is also viewed as a superintendent of nature whereby he or she can do what is expected without the supervision from anyone provided one is given the right precautions and it has led to the need to have a positive attitude towards progress, therefore, people can make their environment better as time goes on through making inventions of the things that exist around them and end up making things which did not exist before. ( Albright, 1957)

Christianity has led to the development of education- this has been of great help as when we compare the past time when people were not going to schools then it is much better now than that time as civilization has led to many people being able to communicate that is the children meet from different areas in the schools and through the training they get they are able to make communication easier, unlike a child who never went to school. Also, people are able to get knowledge in schools that when practiced in the society in which they live becomes more advanced in everything including the invention of new techniques, exploitation of the available resources, and development of the existing inventions.

In case of the education, people are able to go up to university level and gain a higher knowledge from what they had achieved in the base. Christianity has led to a much influence in arts meaning that people can use the knowledge in Christianity and improve their artworks as in the lives of many of the people in the bible did t work and even not so the missionaries invented the techniques for dealing with art and this has encouraged people very much in their daily activities as they practice them to achieve what they need. Christianity has brought about social change in that people are now able to live with others, not from the same tribe, clan, and nation without problems of conflicting in resources, and even they end up learning each other’s language.

This has also led to the intermarriages between different groups of people which were a problem before in the traditional era when culture ruled all groups of people. There is also a revolution in which people have left their practices and adopted new ones that can be helpful to them as the civilization is far beyond the old mode of living. This revolution leads to change in the living style of many people who had lived their cultural ways of life before. Christianity has led to many changes in society as a whole as people are able to get what they require in the shortest time possible keeping in mind that the infrastructure has been developed and people can move from one place to another. (Alexander, 2002)

Technology has also helped the people in making their society a better place than it was before through learning new ideas from the education they get or learning from others’ ideas who are better developed than them. It has led to a new sense of human life as they see their lives been equal in all ways as God created a man on His own image so the divisions that arise in the society can be solved if people are ready to keep peace and accept no one can live without making mistakes as we are human and our deeds are almost similar.

Christianity history is inseparable from the history of culture and society, the Christian beliefs, principles, and ideas have collared the thoughts and the feelings of man. The traditions and practices have left an incredible impress not only on the developments of the pure religion interest but virtually the total endeavor of man and the indirect and the unconscious influence in Christianity has exercised secular matters including the social, intellectual and the institutional affords that strike the proof of dynamic forces generated by faith. Christianity has brought changes to the customs of different people in society. (Borgmann, 2003)

In the traditional setting, the women were treated differently from men but with the emergence of Christianity they are now treated with love and care and also adorned in much the same manner as men in that they are able to occupy a place of honor within the family and in the socio-political life unlike in the old times were women were not given any honor but were seen just as people without great importance rather than undertaking the daily activities in the family but with Christianity then equality can be viewed in a way as women can be allowed to do things they were not allowed before.

But with all these positive impacts the Christian religion has suffered periods of persecution and critical divisions within its own ranks which has been due to the war and the strife and has assumed forms of astonishing variety and also confronted by revolutionary changes in human and social outlooks.

The idea of missionaries and others bringing religion to new areas was to allow people to read the bible and other important texts as before they entered these places people never knew the languages and therefore nothing could be communicated in any of those areas. In the dark ages, people faced a lot of problems even though they never knew this is because those times everybody relied on his or her own culture and to convince someone it was a hard task to them but the missionaries tried all that they could do as without proper communication then it meant nothing could succeed so the first had to learn the native language of the people they came across and then be able to pass their information as some people never allowed strangers in their areas.

Depending on the approach the missionaries were accepted in some societies but in others, it took time due to the depth they were in their traditions, so to mix the tradition with Christianity was a matter of strain to many of the missionaries. If the society had negative attitudes towards these missionaries then all the claims were placed on them like slavery which to some extends paved the way when the missionaries entered the country. As some came with good news then others took the advantage of mistreating the indigenous people to the extend of taking what they had and used them for their own gains leaving them to suffer. This led some of the tribes to defend the entry of the missionaries into their society as no one could convince them they had good news.

It was also seen as been intolerance in that what was preached to the people was against the beliefs and the traditions of the people therefore those who never accepted their teachings saw it has been teaching to do away with what they believed from the beginning and also leading to the change in the way of their living which was not easy to accept. It was seen to cause crusades where by as in the country there were many religions and all need their faith to be respected but there was the view that Christianity is blamed of holding crusades against other religions like the Muslims. This has led to the problem of fights in some areas where people have no belief in Christianity. (Borgmann, 2003)

Christianity has led to many divisions in society as in a family if a person is not a Christian then the feeling of been rejected appears and not even so but some people show it to what they call unbelievers. To reduce this problem the Christians have to take everyone has been important so that as they preach it to them it will be easier to be believed.

Christianity should not be viewed only in the negative part but also in the positive as some people think of it. Christianity as can be seen has played an important part in the lives of many people where the traditions have stopped to be more dominating in many societies with the same impact of allowing people to have the freedom to undertake some activities like intermarriage which was not accepted in the traditional settings. It has also opened many people to know their rights through going to schools and attaining knowledge which acts as a mirror to many of the tradition-bound people.

The negative effects of Christianity that have led people to feel that it not necessary are how the people who claim to be Christians behave, it is a bad attitude that when the leaders are accused of having committed bad acts like adultery, and when they go to preach they are against it. This becomes an obstacle to many people and they see their traditions been far well than Christianity and therefore it is better not to claim you are a Christian if your actions are against that claim. A Christian should show the right way to be followed by all in order to be useful in society and help others.

Albright (1957): From the stone age to Christianity: monotheism and historical process, 2 nd edition.

Alexander, T. Desmond; Brian S. Rosner, D.A. Carson, Graeme Goldsworty, (2002): New dictionary of biblical theology. Intervarsity Press.

Borgmann, Albert. (2003). Power failure: Christianity in the culture of technology, from long-standing commentators of the technological scene.

Johnson, P. (1979). A history of Christianity; New York.

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Reflections on christianity and freedom.

By: William Inboden

December 17, 2012

Yet as a theological principle, Christianity’s emphasis on the interior and eternal dimensions of freedom establishes a foundation for some of the exterior and temporal dimensions of freedom, including freedom of conscience and freedom from religious coercion. Thus Christ’s famous command to “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mark 12:17) was not just a directive that his followers obey the civic authorities, but also a declaration distinguishing between the areas of life that Caesar was competent to rule in, and those he was not. The interior freedom promised by Christianity had at least an exterior implication.

Any inquiry into the relationship between Christianity and religious freedom soon encounters a paradox of history. Christianity has been associated with some of the most notorious episodes of religious intolerance in history, yet Christianity is also associated with some of the greatest advances of religious freedom in history. Indeed, it is these former instances that are often cited as examples of the alleged hypocrisy of Christianity: the Spanish Inquisition, the burning of Servetus in Geneva, the social constraints of Puritanism, and so on. But the accompanying historical record of the Christian tradition’s role in the realization and advance of religious liberty bears another witness. Indeed, perhaps it is this implicit (and sometimes explicit) expectation that the Christian faith support religious freedom that accounts for the severe judgments incurred when it has not. One way to view the unfolding of church history is as an ongoing interaction between the biblical principles described at the outset and the human experience. This historical drama in turn has produced some consequential figures who, in drawing on the theological resources of the Christian tradition during times of great tumult, laid key foundation stones in the development of religious liberty as a political right. Three of them, discussed below, are Martin Luther, Roger Williams, and Charles Malik.

Luther’s appearance in 1521 before the Diet of Worms is regarded by Protestants as a landmark theological moment, but it was also a landmark moment for religious liberty as well. The words of his famous refusal to recant his teachings and writings are instructive: “Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason…my conscience is captive to the Word of God, I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.” While Luther’s primary concern was defending his theological convictions about salvation and ecclesial authority, the basis of his appeal was liberty of conscience – a precedent that countless other religious dissenters who followed would take as their lodestar. Luther soon applied this insight to his understanding of the very nature of religious faith. “Faith is a free work to which no one can be forced. It is a divine work in the spirit. Let alone then that outward force should compel or create it.” For Luther, his belief that Christian salvation began as a sovereign act of God led naturally to the conclusion that the State had no competence to interfere. To be sure, in practice Luther did not always honor the spirit or letter of these insights, but more important is the precedent he set for those who later did. Historian Roland Bainton has described religious liberty as one of the signature legacies of the Protestant Reformation. “The age of the Reformation prepared the way [for religious liberty] in the realm of fact by breaking the monopoly of a single confession, and in the realm of idea elaborated all of the salient concepts which in the West came into their own through the Enlightenment.”

One hundred years after Luther, a Cambridge graduate ordained as an Anglican minister named Roger Williams became disillusioned with what he believed to be the errors of Anglicanism and sought refuge in New England. Arriving in Boston in 1631, he soon began attracting many followers – and attracting the displeasure of the Puritan authorities – with his then-unusual views. He held that civil authorities had no authority in religious matters, and so could not require church attendance on the Sabbath or punish citizens for violating any of the first four commandments. For a Puritan society founded on the conviction that they had a national covenant with God, and that He would bless and provide for them only so long as the society stayed united and pure, such views were not only unsettling – they were seditious. After being rebuked by the Massachusetts Bay Colony authorities, Williams just became more radical. He soon began teaching that the King of England had no authority to grant the colony its charter in the first place, and charged the King with blasphemy for usurping the prerogatives of God. Not surprisingly, this upset the Puritan leaders even more; when they denounced Williams again, he responded by declaring all of their churches apostate. At their wits end, the Puritan authorities banished Williams from the province. He headed south in the dead of winter, depending on the care of Indians whom he had befriended previously, until he arrived in present-day Rhode Island and founded Providence. Williams by this time had come to embrace believer’s baptism, and in March of 1639, a man named Ezekiel Hollyman baptized Williams, who in turn baptized Hollyman and ten others to form the first Baptist church in America. From that point to his death, Williams was not a member of any particular church. As the eminent Puritan historian Edmund Morgan has described him, Williams was “a charming, sweet-tempered, winning man, courageous, selfless, God-intoxicated – and stubborn – the very soul of separation…[he] would separate not only from erroneous churches but also from everyone who would not denounce erroneous churches as confidently as he did…he could follow a belief to its conclusion with a passionate literalness that bordered on the ridiculous.” Eccentric and hyper-schismatic though he was, Williams’ distinction between civil and religious authority, his progressive relations with the Native Americans, and his resolute commitment to freedom of conscience all stand as admirable legacies.

If Roger Williams laid the groundwork for religious liberty to be realized in the eventual founding of the United States, three centuries later Charles Malik helped codify it as a right for the rest of the world. A Harvard philosophy professor, distinguished diplomat, and one of the main architects of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Malik made a particular priority of ensuring that the UDHR include a protection of religious freedom. Malik’s own background as a Lebanese Christian who grew up amidst the multiple faiths of his homeland, including Sunni and Shi’a Muslims, Druze, and Christians, gave him a particularly acute firsthand appreciation for the importance of religious toleration. Indispensable to this, Malik believed, was the right not only to believe and practice one’s faith, but also to change it. Any restrictions on the right to leave one’s religion and adopt another (or none at all for that matter) amounted to an unconscionable interposition of the State between the human person and the transcendent. Accordingly the final wording of Article 18 of the UDHR bears Malik’s distinct imprint: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion; this includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance.” As significant as the principle of religious liberty that Malik articulated was the foundation that he asserted. Human rights in general, and religious liberty in particular, he believed, were endowed in all human beings not by an abstract deity but by the “Lord of History” by which Malik meant the biblical God. He was clear that belief in this deity was not a prerequisite for having the right to religious liberty – thus his advocacy for the rights of all people – but in his mind this right had a transcendent grounding derived from the Christian faith.

Considered from the vantage point of history, the relationship between Christianity and religious freedom is not a mere set of abstraction ideational influences, but a demonstration of the role of individual Christians, attempting to be faithful to the implications of their faith in their own lives, yet with great consequence for the lives of others and for generations to come.

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Christianity and Hinduism Compare and Contrast

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Trump’s Christian Nationalist Vision for America

D onald Trump’s ambivalence on abortion is back in the news because of his recent flip-flopping on a November referendum in his home state of Florida. On August 29, Trump said he suggested he would vote for the referendum , which would expand abortion rights and overturn the state’s current six-week abortion ban. After intense blowback from anti-abortion activists, Trump walked back his support the next day.

While Trump’s about face on this referendum shows that the activist class still has some pull, it remains true that Trump has done something unimaginable in modern Republican politics. He has bullied the GOP into abandoning four decades of support for a national ban on abortion. Even more surprising, there’s no evidence that Trump’s renegotiation of the allegedly nonnegotiable has hurt him among the rank and file of the party.

This perplexing outcome is revelatory. Trump’s cavalier treatment of this supposedly sacred issue has exposed the Republican Party’s best kept secret: The connection between Republican voters and their leaders was never primarily about abortion. Rather, as Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) transformation of the party reveals, Trump’s bond with his supporters is forged from different material: namely, his militant mission to return power to white Christian America.

Trump instinctively understands this reality. In contrast to his vacillation on abortion, Trump’s rallies are filled with evocations of an idealized ethno-religious state that are articulate, energetic, and consistent. His nostalgic diatribes about reclaiming a lost white Christian past fueled his rise to presidential power, and he has continued this strategy in 2024.

One of Trump’s early re-election campaign stops was the annual meeting of the National Religious Broadcasters in Nashville on February 22, attended by leaders of the largest white evangelical communications outlets. In his rambling 75-minute speech to these Christian Right leaders, Trump spent a scant two minutes talking about abortion. He began strongly, stating, “From my first day in office, I took historic action to protect the unborn. Like nobody has ever done.” He also touted his attendance at the March pro-life rally in Washington, DC. But then he hailed his achievement of sending “this issue” (he notably did not utter the word “abortion” in the speech) back to the states since “everybody agrees that's where it should be”—a position that is a clear abandonment of a nationwide ban on abortion. While there was no applause for that line, the crowd remained with him.

The beating heart of the speech was the projection of a white Christian nationalist vision. Trump told the enthusiastic crowd—many of whom sported red hats emblazoned with the words “Make America Pray Again”—that he knew they were “under siege.” He declared that one of his first acts of his second term would be to set up a task force to root out “anti-Christian bias” and pledged to protect “pro-God context and content.” He received spontaneous applause for vows to promote school vouchers for private Christian schools and seal the United States’ southern border against “an illegal alien invasion by the world's most sadistic criminals and savage gangs.”

He openly mentioned his four criminal indictments but transformed them into a messianic narrative. Echoing the evangelical theology of substitutionary atonement, he claimed , “I’ve been very busy fighting and, you know, taking the, the bullets, taking the arrows. I'm taking 'em for you. And I'm so honored to take 'em. You have no idea. I'm being indicted for you.”  After he narrowly survived an assassination attempt in August, Trump mused that he was only alive because of divine intervention, making this messianic comparison quite literal.

Notably, his promises to the evangelical broadcasters extended beyond the realm of policy: “If I get in, you’re going to be using that power at a level that you’ve never used before.” He continued: “I really believe it’s the biggest thing missing from this country, the biggest thing missing. We have to bring back our religion. We have to bring back Christianity in this country.”

Trump’s deployment of the term “our religion”—one he regularly rolls out when addressing predominantly white evangelical audiences—is transparently an affirmation of an America of, by, and for white conservative Christians. This worldview, most frequently referred to as white Christian nationalism today, is an old one, predating the founding of our nation. It flows directly from the 500-year-old Christian Doctrine of Discovery—the idea that America was designated by God to be a promised land for European Christians—which justified the settler colonial project and lies at the ancient headwaters of our nation’s history.

Read More: The Roots of Christian Nationalism Go Back Further Than You Think

A 2024 study conducted by PRRI , where I serve as president and founder, explored just how strongly white Christian nationalism is connected to Trump’s contemporary allure. Building on research by political scientists Paul Djupe , Phil Gorski, Sam Perry , and Andrew Whitehead , PRRI developed five distinct agree/disagree questions to measure support for Christian nationalism:

• God has called Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of American society.
• The US government should declare America a Christian nation.
• Being Christian is an important part of being truly American.
• If the US moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore.
• US laws should be based on Christian values.

The PRRI survey, the largest ever conducted on this topic, finds that 3 in 10 Americans can be classified as Christian nationalism Adherents or Sympathizers (those who either fully or mostly agree with these five statements), while two thirds of Americans can be classified as Skeptics or Rejecters (those who either mostly or fully disagree with these five sentiments). So, by a margin of two to one, most Americans oppose this anti-democratic worldview.

But the minority of Americans who affirm these sentiments wield disproportionate power because their voices are amplified through Donald Trump's MAGA movement and its takeover of the Republican Party. Today, a majority of Republicans (55%)—and fully two thirds (66%) of white evangelicals, the religious base of the GOP—qualify as Christian nationalist Adherents or Sympathizers.

The survey also reveals how tightly Christian nationalism is correlated with support for Donald Trump, not just at the national level but at the state level. The proportion of Americans who qualify as Christian nationalism Adherents or Sympathizers differs considerably across states, but there is a distinct pattern. Residents of red states are nearly twice as likely as residents of blue states to be Christian nationalism Adherents or Sympathizers. And among white Americans, the positive correlation between a state’s average score on the Christian nationalism scale and the proportion of residents who cast votes for Trump in 2020 is a textbook example of a strong linear relationship. The more strongly white residents of a state support Christian nationalism, the more likely they were to have cast their votes for Trump in 2020.

Why should we be worried about this? There is, of course, the obvious answer that the overall vision of America as a promised land for European Christians is fundamentally anti-democratic. Beyond that, Christian nationalist beliefs are strongly linked to a range of other attitudes that are corrosive to democracy : white racial resentment and denials of the existence of systemic racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-immigrant sentiment, homophobia, and support for patriarchal gender roles. In other words, white Christian nationalism evokes a set of hierarchies that positions white, Christian, heterosexual men as the divinely ordained ruling class. This assertion of white Christian entitlement and chosen-ness is toxic to the values of pluralism and equality on which democracy depends.

Most ominously, Christian nationalists are more likely than other Americans to think about politics in apocalyptic terms and are about twice as likely as other Americans to believe political violence may be justified in our current circumstances. Nearly 4 in 10 Christian nationalism Adherents (38%) and one-third of Sympathizers (33%) agree that “Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence to save the country,” compared with only 17% of Christian nationalism Skeptics and 7% of Rejecters. And support for political violence among Christian nationalists is hardening. While there is no significant shift in support for political violence among Christian nationalism Adherents across the last year, among Sympathizers support for political violence is up 11 percentage points.

The worldview of white Christian nationalism raises the stakes of political contests exponentially, transposing political opponents into existential enemies. Politics are no longer understood to be honest disagreements between fellow citizens but rather apocalyptic battles over good and evil, literally fought by agents of God against agents of Satan. From these illiberal assumptions, it easily follows that political rivals should not just be defeated in fair electoral contests; they should be jailed, exiled, or even killed.

This racist ideology thankfully no longer rests comfortably in the psyches of most Americans. But it has, paradoxically, found a final refuge in the shambles of the party of Lincoln. More than any other discreet moment in the last half century, the 2024 election will present us with a choice that is much more than partisan.

We will have an opportunity to choose between a regressive fantasy of America as a white Christian nation and an aspirational vision of America as a pluralistic democracy. Until we find the will to finally reject the dangerous, authoritarian political theology that now controls one of our two political parties, it will continue to undermine the potential for a truly democratic American future.

Excerpt adapted from the paperback edition of The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and a Path to a Shared American Future by Robert P. Jones, published by Simon & Schuster on September 10, 2024. Copyright © 2024 by Robert P. Jones.

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