Christianity
Christianity, one of the Abrahamic religions, has been around a long time; specifically, since the death of their lord and savior Jesus Christ at 32 C.E. since then it’s been on a conflicting path that has nearly destroyed the founding principles of the religion in some cases. It is a true wonder how they maintained their original state. Christianities story started as a sect of Judaism created by the person they thought was the messiah Jesus the sect gained popularity quickly because of there view of salvation for all. Another popularizing aspect of that which also led it to its eventual split with Judaism was the acceptance of non-Jews into the sect. This polarized it from other Jewish sects and allowed it to diverge from the tenants laid out in Judaism The driving force behind these changes was the apostle Paul, who was one of the earliest leaders of Christianity. Paul was a converted Pharisee who wrote letters to Christian churches that were to define and unify the beliefs of the widespread Christian church. Even with this, Christianity had trouble unifying there beliefs because they were persecuted by the Romans who ruled basically the entire area Christianity existed in during this period of persecution, and its really hard to spread information between groups if people are trying to find and kill you. This created small groups that were more dedicated to the beliefs rather than a central authority figure, because there was no authority figure on a higher level than them . these people were often rather dedicated to their faith. oftentimes in Rome being a practicing christian was a crime punishable by death. but oftentimes, they would give you the option of paying a fine to the local church and denouncing your faith and the soldiers would simply let you out, no questions asked. the alternative to that was getting eaten by lions in the coliseum. oftentimes people went with death by lions. This shows there dedication to the religion and how its core beliefs were manifested in there fervent belief in there afterlife. because you have to fervently believe your going somewhere better to allow yourself to be eaten by lions when you had a simple way out. This all changed when the roman emperor Constantine during an epiphany declared Christianity legal in all roman territories. This caused a massive expansion of Christianity throughout Rome.
This massive expansion led to confusion among the churches on various ideologies and how best to follow them. This caused a series of conflicts between the churches about various theological issues. This eventually led to the council of Nicaea, the first known gathering and organization of the churches. This led to churches growing larger such as the Catholics. This was the beginning of a very dark period for Christianity, as it got organized and got power it started conflicting with other religions such as Islam during the crusades, which were a series of wars from 1000-1400 between catholic knights and the middle east to “reclaim the holy land” from Islam and Judaism. This shows how the organization of religion caused corrupted the original tenants from Jesus who believed in peace and love to going to war for land that wasn't theirs and never was theirs. This was not done in the name of Jesus but rather the name of ambition and what would start the Christians iron rule over Europe. This is where we see this bureaucratization of Christianity come into play. Christianity, in its central tenants, is a religion of peace and love. one of the ten commandments is "thou shalt not kill". the ten commandments are one of the most central pieces of law in the christian world, yet here we have knights and soldiers defying it in the name of god. and why? why conquer this land?why not just leave everybody alone? because they got to ambitious. you don't conquer for religious reasons in a religion of peace, you conquer because the other guys have something that you want which we can see in how the war was started. originally it started as defense of the byzantine empire from the Turks, but the byzantine empire doesn't include all of the middle east. thanks to pope urban the 2nd it evolved into something darker thanks to his fiery oratory he himself incited people to get what he wanted which was another christian state. and the people listened because, as the bureaucracy evolved the pope had been placed in a position of power and the people listened to him rather than to the core tenants of the religion. this shows how the system can be corrupted by organization and bureaucracy.
Modern Christianity has significantly changed from the dark period of the christian empire. due to the protestant reformation the church was again split into small disorganized sects that didn't hold much sway and are very informal. today Christianity is commonly practiced with a lot less extremism. we haven't gotten in a holy war in awhile. this is entirely because of the re-disorganization of the christian church caused by the protestant reformation with this breaking up of the church. these separate churches even when belonging to a separate denomination were usually identified as the pastor being the head of a loosely organized group. this allowed Christianity to get back to the core values because it wasn't clouded by a bureaucracy that was directing it in the directions it wanted to go.
This massive expansion led to confusion among the churches on various ideologies and how best to follow them. This caused a series of conflicts between the churches about various theological issues. This eventually led to the council of Nicaea, the first known gathering and organization of the churches. This led to churches growing larger such as the Catholics. This was the beginning of a very dark period for Christianity, as it got organized and got power it started conflicting with other religions such as Islam during the crusades, which were a series of wars from 1000-1400 between catholic knights and the middle east to “reclaim the holy land” from Islam and Judaism. This shows how the organization of religion caused corrupted the original tenants from Jesus who believed in peace and love to going to war for land that wasn't theirs and never was theirs. This was not done in the name of Jesus but rather the name of ambition and what would start the Christians iron rule over Europe. This is where we see this bureaucratization of Christianity come into play. Christianity, in its central tenants, is a religion of peace and love. one of the ten commandments is "thou shalt not kill". the ten commandments are one of the most central pieces of law in the christian world, yet here we have knights and soldiers defying it in the name of god. and why? why conquer this land?why not just leave everybody alone? because they got to ambitious. you don't conquer for religious reasons in a religion of peace, you conquer because the other guys have something that you want which we can see in how the war was started. originally it started as defense of the byzantine empire from the Turks, but the byzantine empire doesn't include all of the middle east. thanks to pope urban the 2nd it evolved into something darker thanks to his fiery oratory he himself incited people to get what he wanted which was another christian state. and the people listened because, as the bureaucracy evolved the pope had been placed in a position of power and the people listened to him rather than to the core tenants of the religion. this shows how the system can be corrupted by organization and bureaucracy.
Modern Christianity has significantly changed from the dark period of the christian empire. due to the protestant reformation the church was again split into small disorganized sects that didn't hold much sway and are very informal. today Christianity is commonly practiced with a lot less extremism. we haven't gotten in a holy war in awhile. this is entirely because of the re-disorganization of the christian church caused by the protestant reformation with this breaking up of the church. these separate churches even when belonging to a separate denomination were usually identified as the pastor being the head of a loosely organized group. this allowed Christianity to get back to the core values because it wasn't clouded by a bureaucracy that was directing it in the directions it wanted to go.