History of Christianity

 History of Christianity:

The history of Christianity refers to the Christian religion, its followers and the Church with its various denominations, from the century to the present. Christianity was founded in the first century in the Eastern region of the Middle East by Jesus Christ of Nazareth (Matthew 16:18) Jesus of Nazareth as prophesied in the Old Testament (Micah 5: 2-5) to be the Christ or the elect of God. The fathers of Christianity including those who had been disciples of Jesus, such as Peter, Matthew, James, and John, as well as others who never knew him, but were influenced by the accounts of his teaching, such as the evangelists Mark and Luke, or they describe that they had spiritual revelations of their divine nature, such as Paul of Tarsus, who actively encouraged the founding of Christian communities or "churches."

           The spread of Christianity initially took place from Jerusalem through the Middle East, to places such as Syria, Assyria, Mesopotamia, Phenicia, Asia Minor, Jordan, and Egypt. In the 4th century it was successively adopted as the state religion by Armenia in 301, Georgia in 319, [1] [2] [3] [4] the Aksumite Empire in 325, and then the Roman Empire. in 380. It became common throughout Europe in the Middle Ages and spread throughout the world during the Age of European Exploration, from the Renaissance onwards to becoming the largest religion in the world. [5] Throughout its history, Christianity has withstood persecutions, schisms, and theological disputes that have resulted in many different churches. The main branches of Christianity are the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Church and the Protestant Church.

Early Christianity (c.33-325)

Main articles: Ministry of Jesus, Canonical Gospels, Intertestamental, and Early Church

During its early years, Christianity went from being a Jewish Christianity to a religion spread throughout the Greco-Roman world and beyond.

Early Christianity can be divided into two distinct phases: the apostolic period, when the first apostles were alive and leading the Church, and the post-apostolic period when an incipient episcopal structure developed, and the persecution was periodically more intense. . The persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire ended in 313 under the reign of Constantine I the Great, who in 325 convened the First Council of Nicaea, the beginning of the period of the first seven ecumenical councils.

Apostolic Church

Main article: Apostolic period

The Apostolic Church was the community led by the apostles, and to some extent, by the "Brothers of Jesus" [6] In his "Great Commission", the risen Jesus ordered that his teachings be spread throughout the world. . While the historical reliability of the Acts of the Apostles is questioned by its critics, what is clear is that these Acts of the Apostles are the largest primary source of information for this period. The Acts give a history of the Church from this commission in Acts 1: 3-11 for the spread of religion among the Gentiles [7] and in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Basin by Paul and others.

The early Christians were essentially all ethnically Jewish or Jewish proselytes. In other words, Jesus preached to the Jewish people and called the first disciples. [8] However, the Great Commission is specifically aimed at "all nations," and a difficulty soon arose as to the issue of Gentile (non-Jewish) converts as to whether they should "be Jewish." to circumcision and adherence to the dietary law), as part of becoming a Christian. Circumcision in particular was considered repulsive to the Greeks and Hellenists. [9] ); even Jewish women paid for it with their lives

“Thus, they brought two women who had circumcised their children to court. After walking them around the city in public with their babies hanging from their breasts, they threw them down the wall. [10] [11] »

While supporters of circumcision were presented as Judaizing Peter's actions, in the conversion of Cornelius the Centurion, [7] seemed to indicate that the laws of circumcision and food were not applicable to Gentiles, and this was agreed to in Council of Jerusalem.

The doctrines of the apostles led the early church to conflict with some Jewish religious authorities. This fact led to his expulsion from the synagogues, according to a theory of the Council of Jamnia. Facts records the martyrdom of Christian leaders, Stephen and James the Greater Thus, Christianity acquired a different identity from rabbinic Judaism, but this distinction was not recognized at the same time by the Roman Empire. The name "Christian" (Χριστιανός) was first applied to the disciples of Antans order women, [124] but some restrict the official positions a woman may hold. For example, some ordain women for the army or hospital chaplaincy, but forbid them to serve in congregation roles. More than a third of all seminary students (and in some seminars nearly half) are women [125] [126]

Protestant denominations that refuse to ordain women often do so on the basis of New Testament scriptures which they interpret as a prohibition on church women from fulfilling roles that require ordination. [127] Among other precepts, the First Epistle to Timothy is cited [127]

“I do not allow them to teach and thus dominate their husbands, but they must be silent. »

Anglican Church

Katharine Jefferts Schori, first woman elected bishop by the United States Episcopal Church, in 2006

In 1917, the Church of England licensed women as lay readers, called Bishop's Messengers, many of whom were in charge of churches, but did not go so far as to ordain them.

Within Anglicanism, most provinces ordain women as deacons and priests. [128]

The first three women priests ordained in the Anglican Communion were in the Anglican Diocese of Hong Kong and Macao: Li Tim-Oi in 1944 and Jane Hwang and Joyce Bennett in 1971.

A number of Anglican provinces have also ordained women as bishops. [128] [129] However, as of 2010, only four of the provinces have done so: the Episcopal Church in the United States and the Anglican Churches of Australia, Canada and New Zealand [130] Cuba, one of the extra-provincial Anglican Churches. , has done the same.

In 1989, Barbara Harris was the first woman ordained a bishop in the Anglican Communion of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.

In 1990, Penny Jamieson was ordained bishop in New Zealand for the Diocese of Dunedin.

In 1993, Victoria Matthews was elected suffragan bishop of the diocese of Toronto, Canada on November 19, consecrated in February 1994. [131]

In 2007, Nerva Cot Aguilera was ordained a bishop in the Episcopal Church of Cuba.

In 2008, Kay Goldsworthy was ordained auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Perth. [132]

In 2012, Ellinah Wamukoya was elected Bishop of the Diocese of Swaziland in the Anglican Church of South Africa [133]

The Church of Ireland has allowed the ordination of women as bishops since 1990, but none has yet succeeded. [134] The Scottish Episcopal Church has also allowed the ordination of women as bishops since 2003, but none has yet been ordained a priest. [135]

In England, the issue of the ordination of women as bishops has been controversial and debated since 2010. [136] The issue was rejected by the Church of Wales in 2008. [137]

On June 18, 2006, the Episcopal Church in the United States was the first Anglican province to appoint a woman, Katharine Jefferts Schori, as her Primate (the highest possible position in an Anglican province), named the Bishop President "in the United States. [130]

With the ordination, on October 16, 2010, of Margaret Lee in the Diocese of Peoria based in Quincy, Illinois, women have been ordained as priests in the 110 dioceses of the Episcopal Church in the United States. [138]

Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses consider qualified public baptism to be the priestly ordination after which he or she is immediately considered an ordained minister. In 1941, the Vermont Supreme Court recognized the validity of the ordination of a female Jehovah's Witness minister. [139] Most of the witnesses who actively preach door-to-door are women. [140] Women are commonly appointed full-time ministers, either to evangelize as pioneers, as missionaries, or to serve in the structure of their delegations. [141]

However, deacons and ministerial servants must be male, and only a baptized adult male can perform the baptism of a Jehovah's Witness, his funeral, or wedding. [142] Within the congregation, a female Witness minister can only lead prayer and teaching when there is a special need, and they should do so with their heads covered. 

Liberal Catholicism

Of all the churches in the liberal Catholic movement, only the original church, the Liberal Catholic Church under Bishop Graham Wale, does not ordain women. The position held by the Liberal Catholic Church is that the Church, even if it wanted to ordain women, does not have the authority to do so and that it is not possible for a woman to be ordained even if she goes through the ceremony. The reasoning behind this is that the female body is not effective in channeling the masculine energies of Christ, and therefore cannot dictate the Sacraments. Since Christ is the true minister of the sacraments, the priest