Christianity in Europe

Christianity is the largest religion in Europe.[2] Christianity has been practiced in Europe since the first century, and a number of the Pauline Epistles were addressed to Christians living in Greece, as well as other parts of the Roman Empire.

Christianity in Europe
by percentage of country population[1]
Christianity in Europe (2010)
  95–100%
  90–95%
  80–90%
  70–80%
  60–70%
  50–60%
  30–40%
  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Estonia
  20–30%
  10–20%
  5–10%
  2–4%
  < 1%
Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, in Spain

According to a 2010 study by the Pew Research Center, 76.2% of the European population identified themselves as Christians,[3] Europe constitute in absolute terms the world's largest Christian population.[4]

As of 2010 Catholics were the largest Christian group in Europe, accounting for more than 48% of European Christians.[3] The second-largest Christian group in Europe were the Orthodox, who made up 32% of European Christians.[3] About 19% of European Christians were part of the Protestant tradition.[3] Russia is the largest Christian country in Europe by population, followed by Germany and Italy.[3]

Since at least the legalization of Christianity by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the 4th century, Europe has been an important centre of Christian culture, even though the religion was inherited from the Middle East and important Christian communities have thrived outside Europe such as Oriental Orthodoxy and the Church of the East since the time of Christ. Christian culture has been an important force in Western civilization, influencing the course of philosophy, art, and science.[5][6]

Europe has a rich Christian culture, especially as numerous saints, martyrs and popes were European themselves. All of the Roman Catholic popes from 741 to 2013 were from Europe.[7] Europe brought together many of the Christian holy sites and heritage and religious centers.[8]

History
Main article: Christendom

Early history
See also: Early centers of Christianity
Patron saints of Europe.
St. Peter's Basilica

Historians believe that St. Paul wrote his first epistle to the Christians of Thessaloniki (Thessalonians) around AD 52.[9] His Epistle to the Galatians was perhaps written even earlier, between AD 48 and 50.[10] Other epistles written by Paul were directed to Christians living in Greece (1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Philemon, Philippians, 2 Thessalonians) and Rome (Romans) between the 50s and 70s of the first century.

Saint Basil's Cathedral in Moscow

The Record of Saint Dorotheus Bishop of Tyre is that the Church at Tyre sent Saint Aristobulus (of the seventy) to Britain as bishop in AD 37. The Church seems to have been begun by him around the Bristol Channel area and 150 years later we have names of bishops recorded. By AD 550 there are recorded 120 bishops spread throughout the British Isles.

Armenia was the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its state religion in AD 301. The oldest state-built church in the world, Etchmiadzin Cathedral, was built between AD 301–303. It is the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The Roman Empire officially adopted Christianity in AD 380. During the Early Middle Ages, most of Europe underwent Christianization, a process essentially complete with the Baltic Christianization in the 15th century. The emergence of the notion of "Europe" or the "Western World" is intimately connected with the idea of "Christendom", especially since Christianity in the Middle East was marginalized by the rise of Islam from the 7th century, a constellation that led to the Crusades, which although unsuccessful militarily were an important step in the emergence of a religious identity of Europe. At all times, traditions of folk religion existed largely independent from official denominations or dogmatic theology.

From the Middle Ages onwards, as the centralized Roman power waned in southern and central Europe, the dominance of the Catholic Church was the only consistent force in Western Europe.[5]

Movements in art and philosophy, such as the Humanist movement of the Renaissance and the Scholastic movement of the High Middle Ages, were motivated by a drive to connect Catholicism with Greek thought imported by Christian pilgrims.[11][12][13]

East–West Schism and Protestant Reformation
Canterbury Cathedral is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury of the Protestant Church of England

The East–West Schism of the 11th century and the Protestant Reformation of the 16th tore "Christendom" into hostile factions. Following the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, atheism and agnosticism became widespread in Western Europe. 19th-century Orientalism contributed to a certain popularity of Buddhism, and the 20th century brought increasing syncretism, New Age and various new religious movements divorcing spirituality from inherited traditions for many Europeans. The latest history brought increased secularisation, and religious pluralism.[14]

Cultural influences
Further information: Christian culture, Role of the Christian Church in civilization, and Protestant culture
St Mark's Basilica in Venice, a mixture of Italian and Byzantine features

Western culture, throughout most of its history, has been nearly equivalent to Christian culture, and many of the population of the Western hemisphere could broadly be described as cultural Christians. The notion of "Europe" and the "Western World" has been intimately connected with the concept of "Christianity and Christendom" many even attribute Christianity for being the link that created a unified European identity.[15]

Though Western culture contained several polytheistic religions during its early years under the Greek and Roman empires, as the centralized Roman power waned, the dominance of the Catholic Church was the only consistent force in Europe.[5] Until the Age of Enlightenment,[16] Christian culture guided the course of philosophy, literature, art, music and science.[5][17] Christian disciplines of the respective arts have subsequently developed into Christian philosophy, Christian art, Christian music, Christian literature etc.

Christianity had a significant impact on education and science and medicine as the church created the bases of the Western system of education,[18] and was the sponsor of founding universities in the Western world as the university is generally regarded as an institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian setting.[19][20] Many clerics throughout history have made significant contributions to science and Jesuits in particular have made numerous significant contributions to the development of science.[21][22][23] The Civilizing influence of Christianity (in Europe) includes social welfare,[24] founding hospitals,[25] economics[26][27] politics,[28] architecture,[29] literature[30] and family life.[31]

Although the Protestant reformation was a religious movement, it also had a strong impact on all other aspects of European life: marriage and family, education, the humanities and sciences, the political and social order, the economy, and the arts.[32]

Denominations

Distribution of Christians in Europe by denomination[33]

  Catholicism (46.3%)
  Eastern Orthodoxy (35.4%)
  Protestant (17.8%)
  Other (0.5%)

See also

References
  1. Pew Forum, Religious Composition by Country, 2010-2050
  2. "Europe". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 15 January 2016. Most Europeans adhere to one of three broad divisions of Christianity: Roman Catholicism in the west and southwest, Protestantism in the north, and Eastern Orthodoxy in the east and southeast
  3. Christianity in Europe, including the Asian part of Russia, excluding the European part of Turkey
  4. "The Global Religious Landscape" (PDF). Pewforum.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 January 2017. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
  5. Koch, Carl (1994). The Catholic Church: Journey, Wisdom, and Mission. Early Middle Ages: St. Mary's Press. ISBN 978-0-88489-298-4.
  6. Dawson, Christopher; Glenn Olsen (1961). Crisis in Western Education (reprint ed.). ISBN 978-0-8132-1683-6.
  7. "After Benedict: who will be the next Pope?". Speroforum.com. 12 February 2013. Retrieved 2013-03-12.
  8. Quoted in Robin Lane Fox, The Unauthorized Version, 1992:235.
  9. Johannes Schade (2006), The Encyclopedia of World Religions, Foreign Media Booksll, ISBN 978-1-60136-000-7
  10. Howard Clark Kee, Franklin W. Young (1957), Understanding the New Testament, Prentice Hall, ISBN 978-0-13-948266-3
  11. Koch, Carl (1994). The Catholic Church: Journey, Wisdom, and Mission. High Middle Ages: St. Mary's Press. ISBN 9780884892984.
  12. Koch, Carl (1994). The Catholic Church: Journey, Wisdom, and Mission. Renaissance: St. Mary's Press. ISBN 9780884892984.
  13. Dawson, Christopher; Glenn Olsen (1961). Crisis in Western Education (reprint ed.). p. 25. ISBN 9780813216836.
  14. Henkel, Reinhard and Hans Knippenberg "The Changing Religious Landscape of Europe" edited by Knippenberg published by Het Spinhuis, Amsterdam 2005 ISBN 90-5589-248-3, pages 7-9
  15. Dawson, Christopher; Glenn Olsen (1961). Crisis in Western Education (reprint ed.). p. 108. ISBN 9780813216836.
  16. Koch, Carl (1994). The Catholic Church: Journey, Wisdom, and Mission. The Age of Enlightenment: St. Mary's Press. ISBN 978-0-88489-298-4.
  17. Dawson, Christopher; Olsen, Glenn (1961). Crisis in Western Education (reprint ed.). ISBN 978-0-8132-1683-6.
  18. Encyclopædia Britannica Forms of Christian education
  19. Rüegg, Walter: "Foreword. The University as a European Institution", in: A History of the University in Europe. Vol. 1: Universities in the Middle Ages, Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-521-36105-2, pp. XIX–XX
  20. Verger, Jacques (1999). Culture, enseignement et société en Occident aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles (in French) (1st ed.). Presses universitaires de Rennes in Rennes. ISBN 286847344X. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
  21. Susan Elizabeth Hough, Richter's Scale: Measure of an Earthquake, Measure of a Man, Princeton University Press, 2007, ISBN 0691128073, p. 68.
  22. Woods 2005, p. 109.
  23. Encyclopædia Britannica Jesuit
  24. Encyclopædia Britannica Church and social welfare
  25. Encyclopædia Britannica Care for the sick
  26. Encyclopædia Britannica Property, poverty, and the poor,
  27. Weber, Max (1905). The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
  28. Encyclopædia Britannica Church and state
  29. Sir Banister Fletcher, History of Architecture on the Comparative Method.
  30. Buringh, Eltjo; van Zanden, Jan Luiten: "Charting the 'Rise of the West': Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, A Long-Term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries", The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 69, No. 2 (2009), pp. 409–445 (416, table 1)
  31. Encyclopædia Britannica The tendency to spiritualize and individualize marriage
  32. Karl Heussi, Kompendium der Kirchengeschichte, 11. Auflage (1956), Tübingen (Germany), pp. 317-319, 325-326
  33. Regional Distribution of Christians Pew Research Center
  34. Predominant Religions
  35. Summary of Religious Bodies in Albania Archived 2013-05-30 at the Wayback Machine (Source: World Christian Encyclopedia, 2001, Oxford University Press. Vol 1: p. 51)

Notes
  1. As the denomination surpass Lutheranism in its country, since the early 2010s
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