Transcript Period 3 - Worlds of Christendom - CH 10

The World of Christendom
Religion and Its Impact in Third-Wave
Civilizations
Christianity Today
• Global Christianity Today – 60% of the world’s
Christians lived in Africa, Asia, or Latin
America – Europe and North America largely
outnumbered in relation to global Christianity
The Spread in the 6th and 7th Centuries
• 6th and 7th Centuries –Christianity enjoyed an
Afro-Eurasian reach – Arabia, Egypt, North
Africa, Ethiopia, Nubia, Syria, Armenia, Persia,
India, China, and Europe
• over the next thousand years, however,
Christianity witnessed drastic changes.
• Why? What would be the leading factor in its global
decline?
• Spread of Islam throughout Asia and Africa, left
Christianity to spread in Western Europe
Christianity’s Role
• Christianity was to western Eurasia, as Chinese
Civilization and Buddhism did to East Asia, and
Islam did to the Middle East and beyond
Orthodox V Catholicism
• Shape divide in the Christian world with the Byzantine
Empire (Byzantium) – evolved a form of Christianity –
Eastern Orthodox
• Western or Latin Christianity occupied what we call
Western Europe today
• Fall of Western Roman Empire – collapse in 476 CE –
weakening features = roads fell into disrepair, cities
decayed, long-distance trade vanished.
• Rise of Roman Catholic faith in the west relied on the
Pope – had political independence - Eastern Orthodox
church did not
• Western Church rural, Byzantium = Constantinople
Hagia Sophia
Asian Christianity:
• - Arabia – Christianity didn’t last
• - Muslim forces took control of Jerusalem in 638 – the
Dome of the Rock (687-691) – location sacred. To the Jews
– the stone in which Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son
Isaac to God, site of first two Jewish temples. To Christians,
place where Jesus spread his teachings
• - Syria and Persia, majority of people voluntarily turned to
Islam
• -Other regions, Armenia, Syria, Jerusalem = Christians pay
jizya
• - Depended on the local Muslim rulers if Christians could
continue to practice or not.
Dome of the Rock
Nestorian Christianity
• - Nestorian Christian communities – Syria, Iraq,
Persia = Church of the East – survived the assault
of Islam – abandoned their art and religious
paintings – didn’t want to offend Muslims
• - Nestorian Church took root in China under the
Tang Dynasty – “Chinese-afying Christianity” =
using Buddhist and Daoist concepts to translate
the Christian message – book – Jesus Sutras, God
= “cool wind,” Sin = “bad karma”
• - Mid ninth century, China turned against all
religions of foreign origin…why?
Mongols and China
• -Mongol conquest of China led to a brief
opportunity for Christianity – Mongols were
tolerant of Nestorian Christians. Mongols
appreciated Christians because they could eat
meat and drink.
• Mongol rule ended in 1368 – with the rise of
the Confucian Ming Dynasty suppressed all
other religions
Egypt =
• Christianity was the dominant religion by the time of
Muslim conquest around 640 – Egyptians continued to
speak Coptic and practice their religion as dhimmis
under tolerant Muslim rulers
• - By the 13th century relations changed – with threats
from the Crusaders and the Mongols, Muslim rulers
questioned anyone of Christian faith
• - Mid 14th Century – anti-Christian pogroms,
destruction of churches – most rural Egyptians
converted to Islam as a result – Arabic replaced Coptic.
Some Christians remained, 10%
Nubia=
• in the 5th and 6th Centuries = introduced by
Egyptian traders and missionaries – parts of the
Bible were translated into Nubian language.
Cathedral in the Nubian City of Faras. Kings
served as priests, Christian Bishops held state
offices.
• -Nubian armies defeated Arab invasions twice
• -Nubian Christianity faced difficulties as Islamized
tribes pushed into Nubia. By 1500 Nubian
Christianity had largely disappeared
Ethiopia
• – Axum rulers adopted Christianity in the 4th century.
Ethiopia became a Christian inland = protected by the
Red Sea and its Mountainous geography – distant from
Islamic trade centers – Ethiopia not conducive to the
spread of Islam
• -Ethiopian Queen – Sheba – visited Solomon – has his
child, connect blood line to Jesus – gives legitimacy to
the ruler of Ethiopia – descendent of Jesus
• -12th Century – linked 12 underground churches to
create a New Jerusalem, since Jerusalem lay under the
control of the Muslims
12 Underground Churches