buddhism "faith
To ask the how and when of Christianity is a lot like looking back at a twisting tunnel. From within the tunnel, you would discover that there were too many sub-tunnels to state clearly just how the whole structure started.
Yet there have been some educated hypotheses over the past few years; one hypothesis stated that the very first Church was established in Jerusalem. The establishing of the Church in Jerusalem was more of self-preservation. Without any form of collectivity, a belief system (and also economic interests) was bound to be erased as history imperceptibly drives forward in empty, homogeneous time.
The first Church
It was believed that the first Church was first established in Jerusalem before 70 AD. Because by the time 70 AD arrived, the brutes of the Roman Empire crushed the small Church. But did the first crushing kill Christianity? Absolutely not. In fact, we can say that because the first Church was harassed by power, it paved the way for the spread of the belief system. After Jerusalem, Palestine was the next place that old Christianity established itself.
Through trade and traveling disciples mission to share the word about the new faith, Christianity crossed territorial borders and spread like wildfire throughout the continents. It was during the era of imperial conquest and domination that the religion was single-handily used to colonize many countries in what was believed to be the Far East. East was just China; the West was not America but Mother Europe with the strongest bulwarks; France, Germany, etc.
When did Christianity become accepted?
Christianity was by no means accepted immediately when it began. Like all other religions, it suffered rejection and even persecution in the hands of people who had other beliefs and faiths. But with perseverance, this small Judaic remnant of an ideology reached out from its humble beginnings in Jerusalem. By 600 AD, Christianity's mission of bringing a message of peace to the land finally spread well into neighboring areas (except in areas that were already strongholds of the Islamic faith).
Near the Black Sear, Christianity was able to establish well in Constantinople, Edessa, Antioch and Damascus. Near the Mediterranean basin, Cyrene and Alexandria were also Christianized. In between the Mediterranean and the North Atlantic Ocean, Granada in Spain and Rome in Italy were Christianized as well. When Constantine the Great became a Christian leader, Christianity began showing signs of a lasting religious system. By winning both leaders and warriors, a religion assured itself of survival.
It was during this time that the ascetic and monastic began to emerge as an extreme expression of faith in Christianity. Such expression of faith was by no means peculiar to Christianity; we find similar practices in Hindu sects and sub-groups as well as in humanist belief systems such as Buddhism and Daoism. To an extent, the monastic life was perceived as a unitary means of achieving spiritual enlightenment.
Diana Diaz is a contributing writer to The Fellowship Page. A Christian faith based website dedicated to sharing the Word of God, through Inspirational Daily Devotionals, Prayers, Christian Worship Music, and product reviews.
