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Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth . It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.4 billion followers representing one-third of the global population . Its adherents, known as Christians , are estimated to make up a majority of the population in 157 countries and territories , and believe that Jesus is the Son of God , whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Hebrew Bible (called the Old Testament in Christianity) and chronicled in the New Testament .
Christianity began as a Second Temple Judaic sect in the 1st century Hellenistic Judaism in the Roman province of Judea . Jesus' apostles and their followers spread around the Levant , Europe , Anatolia , Mesopotamia , the South Caucasus , Ancient Carthage , Egypt , and Ethiopia , despite significant initial persecution . It soon attracted gentile God-fearers , which led to a departure from Jewish customs, and, after the Fall of Jerusalem, AD 70 which ended the Temple -based Judaism , Christianity slowly separated from Judaism .
Emperor Constantine the Great decriminalized Christianity in the Roman Empire by the Edict of Milan (313), later convening the Council of Nicaea (325) where Early Christianity was consolidated into what would become the State church of the Roman Empire (380). The early history of Christianity's united church before major schisms is sometimes referred to as the "Great Church " (though divergent sects existed at the same time, including Gnostics , Marcionites , and Jewish Christians ). The Church of the East split after the Council of Ephesus (431) and Oriental Orthodoxy split after the Council of Chalcedon (451) over differences in Christology , while the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church separated in the East–West Schism (1054), mostly over the authority of the bishop of Rome . Protestantism split in numerous denominations from the Catholic Church in the Reformation era (16th century) over theological and ecclesiological disputes, most predominantly on the issue of justification and the primacy of the bishop of Rome . Christianity played a prominent role in the development of Western civilization , particularly in Europe from late antiquity and the Middle Ages . Following the Age of Discovery (15th–17th century), Christianity was spread into the Americas , Oceania , sub-Saharan Africa , and the rest of the world via missionary work and European colonialism especially during the period of new imperialism . (Full article... )
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Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII , Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I . He helped build the case for the annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon , which was one of the causes of the separation of the English Church from union with the Holy See . Along with Thomas Cromwell , he supported the principle of royal supremacy , in which the king was considered sovereign over the Church within his realm.
During Cranmer's tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury, he was responsible for establishing the first doctrinal and liturgical structures of the reformed
Church of England . Under Henry's rule, Cranmer did not make many radical changes in the Church, due to power struggles between religious conservatives and reformers. He published the first officially authorised
vernacular service, the
Exhortation and Litany . (
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The following are images from various Christianity-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 5 Representation of the Trinity in the form of the mercy seat (epitaph from 1549) (from Trinity )
Image 7 The Adoration of the Trinity by Albrecht Dürer (1511): from top to bottom: Holy Spirit (dove), God the Father and the crucified Christ (from Trinity )
Image 12 A Greek fresco of Athanasius of Alexandria, the chief architect of the Nicene Creed, formulated at Nicaea. (from Trinity )
Image 14 Father, The Holy Spirit, and Christ Crucified, depicted in a Welsh manuscript. c. 1390–1400 (from Trinity )
Image 19 God the Father (top), and the Holy Spirit (represented by a dove) depicted above Jesus. Painting by Francesco Albani (d. 1660) (from Trinity )
Image 28 A compact diagram of the Trinity, known as the "Shield of Trinity ". The Shield is not generally intended to be a schematic diagram of the structure of God, but it presents a series of statements about the correlation between the persons of the Trinity. (from Trinity )
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Robert Plunkett SJ (1752 – January 15, 1815) was an English Catholic priest and Jesuit missionary to the United States who became the first president of Georgetown College . Born in England, he was educated at the Colleges of St Omer and Bruges , as well as at the English College at Douai . There, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1769, but left four years later, just before learning of the papal order suppressing the Society . Therefore, he was ordained a secular priest at the English College, and became the chaplain to a monastery of English Benedictine nuns in exile in Brussels .
Plunkett petitioned to be sent to the United States as a
missionary in 1789. Shortly after his arrival in 1790, Bishop
John Carroll persuaded him to become
the president of the newly established Georgetown College. Plunkett oversaw construction of the college's first building, the appointment of the first professor, and admission of the first student,
William Gaston . However, he was more interested in pastoral work than education, and resigned the office two years later. Plunkett spent the remainder of his life ministering in rural
Maryland , though continued to remain involved in the college's affairs. (
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A rendering of the Last Supper made from salt, Wieliczka salt mine, Poland
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Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming close to him to hear him. The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man welcomes sinners, and eats with them.” He told them this parable. “Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn’t leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it? When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing. When he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ I tell you that even so there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance. Or what woman, if she had ten drachma coins, if she lost one drachma coin, wouldn’t light a lamp, sweep the house, and seek diligently until she found it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the drachma which I had lost.’ Even so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner repenting.” He said, “A certain man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ He divided his livelihood between them. Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living. When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need. He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He wanted to fill his belly with the husks that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’ “He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe, and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let us eat, and celebrate; for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’ They began to celebrate. “Now his elder son was in the field. As he came near to the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the servants to him, and asked what was going on. He said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and healthy.’ But he was angry, and would not go in. Therefore his father came out, and begged him. But he answered his father, ‘Behold, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed a commandment of yours, but you never gave me a goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this, your son, came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’ “He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’”
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