This article is relatively long, do not have the patience to read it directly to the last paragraph, knock on the blackboard to see dry goods.
Previous Article about the Tearing Apart of American Society (What is the real source of the social crisis in the United States?) It took some ink to write about Christianity, and as a result, a few old irons read it and said, since religion is so important, just write a special article about Christianity.
Today's Christianity looks quite dizzying, they are all crossed, they all recognize Jesus as the big brother, how can there be so many sects, and these foreigners dare not talk about religious topics, for fear of being cut by saying a wrong word.
It is not enough to be cut down, but it is true that there are many sects in Christianity. Not only Christianity, but also every religion in the world is lined with mountains. Buddhism is also divided into Pure Land Buddhism, Dharma Sect, Huayan Sect, Zen Buddhism, Islam is divided into Sunni and Shia, and the Christianity mentioned today is also divided into Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity and Protestantism because of the two divisions.
In the final analysis, religion is also a kind of power, and it is inevitable that there will be struggles in power. It is just that religions are vying for the legitimacy of faith and the right to interpret doctrines, and different interpretations of different people will produce differences, and where there are differences, there will be divisions, and where there are divisions, there will be mountains, which is inevitable.
For today's Chinese, it is also necessary to know a little religious knowledge. China is the most secular country in the world (there is no one), Chinese's feelings for religion are far less than in other parts of the world, and naturally can't understand why religion's influence on these countries and regions is so great, and if you don't understand this, you naturally can't understand their way of thinking, living habits, and dealing with them will naturally be much more difficult.
Christianity is extremely important to the Western world today. We must admit that the main values and discourse rights in today's world are still Western. The social foundation of the Western world is two pillars: one of which is the Greco-Roman tradition, which lays the common memory of the history, culture and social customs of Westerners, and the other is Christianity, which undertakes the common spiritual beliefs and value pursuits of all Westerners.
The number I opened is based on the serial "Greco-Roman history" as the main line to show people the mainstream system of Western history, so Christianity cannot get around it. But to write Christianity until the late Roman Empire, there is still a long time, so now a special single article is also a stone throwing question, you old iron to see.
First, the origin
When it comes to Christianity today, people subconsciously assume that it is synonymous with the West.
But this representative of the West, whose origins are in the East, was gradually developed under the influence of Judaism.
Judaism is probably one of the oldest surviving religions in the world. The concept of "God" comes from Judaism, where the Jews call God "Jehovah." The Jews, led by their leader Moses, walked out of Egypt and made a covenant with God at Mount Sinai. The Jews choose to mix with God, and God chooses the Jews as His only people, and the Jews are allowed to enter heaven for eternal life, and the actual suffering is the test given by God, so don't be discouraged, live, follow God, and live in the next life 666, probably this is what it means.
If you read the history of the Jews, you will find that they have experienced hardships like the Chinese nation. The Jews originally lived in the area of present-day Palestine and Syria, except for the period from King David to King Solomon, the Jewish people had a few days of peace, and for the next few thousand years, the Jews were pressed to the ground and rubbed. Egypt, Persia, Rome, and the kingdoms of medieval Europe all plagued the Jews, and the Modern Nazi Holocaust is well known. The long suffering caused the Jews to be particularly religious because it was simple: the reality was too bad! If hope and comfort are not found on the spiritual level, it will be difficult for anyone to survive. Relying on the expectation of God, the Jews found a glimmer of light in the spiritual world that enabled them to grit their teeth and persevere.
As Judaism matured, it gradually developed the later Jewish classic: Tanakh. This canon has another name: the Old Testament of the Bible.
There are many stories in the Old Testament that we are familiar with: such as the Great Flood, the Messiah, and the Book of Exodus, and we have come into contact with Western games, operas, and film and television dramas. In this way, Judaism developed in the Middle East.
Then the Romans came.
You are no longer familiar with world history, nor are you unaware of the Roman Empire. Rome is a country founded on the military, and the history of Rome's development is a history of conquest. When the Roman Empire grew, Palestine was annexed and became a province of the Roman Empire, and Judaism was brought to the rest of the empire by the Romans. The concepts of God, the Gospels, angels, and Satan spread to Europe, and together with the myths of Zeus, Athena, and Poseidon, which prevailed in Europe at that time, became part of many religions in the Roman Empire.
At that time, Rome was very tolerant of religion, he conquered a place, he incorporated the local religion into his own religious system, and for this reason, he built a special place in Rome to worship the gods and goddesses of different religions, which was the famous pantheon. This place is still well preserved and is a must-see place to visit Rome.
This set of beliefs, along with other diverse religions, was not very popular in Rome. On the contrary, because Judaism was very exclusive and the doctrine was very strict, which led to the incompatibility with the mainstream of Rome, this set of Jewish beliefs was not very popular in Rome for a long time.
It wasn't until 4 BC that a boy was born in a village in Palestine called Bethlehem.
This boy is Jesus Christ.
It is not certain whether Jesus Christ was Jewish or not, but the place where Jesus was born was the "land of dragons" in Judaism: the Middle East. Little Jesus is very familiar with this set of Judaism. When he grew up, he found that the teachings of Judaism were too harsh and exclusive, so he revised the teachings of Judaism and began to preach in the Roman Empire according to this revised set of teachings.
This is what Christianity originally looked like.
And that also moves the cheese of Judaism.
As mentioned above, Judaism itself has many limitations. For example, only Jews are eligible to be redeemed, others are not eligible to be God's chosen people, not qualified to go to heaven, but Jesus Christ does not care about this, no matter what race and color you are, as long as you convert, you are all children of God, as long as you worship God with all your heart, you can go to heaven after death. The God of Judaism is a grumpy old man who does not smile and act arbitrarily, and when you read Jewish scriptures, such as Tanakh, you have a feeling of "accompanying the king like a companion of the tiger", and God wants believers to kill their only son to express their loyalty. But Jesus modified these settings to transform God into a kind-eyed, understanding, faithful elder figure, greatly alleviating the fear in the believer's heart.
That is to say, from the very beginning, Jesus Christ's religious theories were based on Judaism and reformed. Reformed Christian doctrine is friendly and gentler to believers, which in turn creates contradictions with Judaism. Because in the eyes of Judaism, your doctrine has copied me, the threshold for entering the religion is still low, and you are still openly grabbing business on my turf, is this not a cottage and dumping, can you bear it?
Judaism went directly to the Romans, and naturally a lot of bad things about Christianity were spoken in the middle. The Romans, out of the need for the security of their rule, sided with Judaism and declared Christianity an illegitimate cult, thus making Jesus Christ and his disciples wanted by the Empire.
The next thing we all know is that Jesus Christ was betrayed by the disciple Judas and crucified by the Romans. Major western art galleries and museums have a large number of works of art based on this story, such as "The Last Supper".
Second, di si counterattack
After Jesus' death, many of his disciples continued to preach and were also persecuted by the Roman government, such as St. Peter, the eldest disciple of Jesus, who was crucified under the famous Roman tyrant Nero for spreading Christianity, and the "St. Peter's Church", the stronghold of today's Vatican Pope, is named after this saint.
Leaders are treated this way, not to mention the inferior little brother. The treatment of Christians in Rome at that time was the same as that of slaves and prisoners of war. We all know that there was a famous Colosseum in Rome, where gladiators were defeated and captured soldiers or imperial slaves, and there was a time when Christians were caught and thrown into the Colosseum to fight with wild beasts, using blood and life to win the perverted hobbies of Roman citizens. The Christian holy city of Jerusalem was also conquered by the Roman Emperor Trajan, after which all Christians were either persecuted or expelled.
This is the situation that Christianity faced when it first started, and how miserable it was.
The turnaround occurred in 313 AD.
The Roman Empire is very interesting, the heyday of the period is too brilliant, the peak period turned the Mediterranean into its own small bathtub, "across Europe, Asia and Africa, dominate the Mediterranean" is not in vain. But Rome fell faster, falling like a free fall, without a transition in between. The ups and downs caused Rome to suffer a huge impact on all aspects of politics, economy, and military aspects, and the consequence was the dispersion of people's hearts. The brilliance in the eyes of the Romans in the past and the blocks in their chests disappeared without a trace with the decline of the empire, and how much people miss the glory of that year, how disappointed they are in the current Rome.
Once people lose hope in reality, they shrink inwardly and seek comfort in the spiritual world.
Christianity couldn't be more appropriate.
Today, people feel that Christians are everywhere, that this is a religion where the powerful gather. But Christianity is essentially a religion that serves the weak, and it does not preach enterprising, entry into the world, and does not encourage people to struggle hard, but advocates the worship of God and the pursuit of eternal life in the next life. This is very much in line with the needs of vulnerable groups. When the Roman Empire was no longer powerful and the common people were bullied every day, Christianity was able to give the depressed ordinary people a moment of peace.
It was against this background that, beginning with the "crisis of the third century" of the Roman Empire, Christianity expanded as rapidly as if it were hanging on, and the number of believers doubled and rose. By the end of the third century, the number of Christians in the Roman Empire had exceeded 70% of the total population of the entire empire, and at this time it did not matter whether it was a cult or not, the Roman Emperor could not stop the rise of Christianity, but if you wanted to continue to suppress, the emperor's seat could not sit steadily.
So in 313 AD, the Roman emperor at the time, called Constantine the Great," issued the Edict of Milan, officially recognizing the legitimacy of Christianity. At this time, the expansion of Christianity is justified, and the momentum is even more unstoppable.
80 years later, in 393 AD, the roman emperor Theodosius I went a step further, abolishing the other religions in Rome and recognizing Christianity as the only state religion in Rome, a bit like our country's "deposing a hundred families and exalting Confucianism".
At this point, Christianity has gone from cult and legalization to solipsism, perfect counterattack.
In the process of the gradual rise of Christianity, the disciples and disciples of Jesus recorded the words and deeds of Jesus from mission to martyrdom, as well as the stories of Jesus' disciples continuing to preach, and compiled them into a book, forming a complete set of scriptures, including the four gospels, a book of Revelation, and some other epistles, which is the origin of the new covenant of the Bible. The New Testament was formalized in 327 A.D., at a national congress of Christianity, and because Christianity was born out of Judaism and left Judaism, the story of Christianity is not round, so Christianity has incorporated the Old Testament into its own theoretical system, which is why today's Bible contains two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Third, the first split
After 600 years, in 1054 AD, the first great schism in history occurred.
This also starts with the above-mentioned Constantine.
At that time, the Roman Empire was too big, and the ruling technology was far from keeping up, during the "Crisis of the Third Century" there were civil wars every day, there were barbarians on the border who came to fight the autumn wind, the emperor had limited energy, and under the anxiety, there was an emperor named Diocletian, who issued a strange order: divide the empire into east and west halves, and then appoint an emperor in charge of big and small affairs in each east and west. Later, it was not too addictive, and under the two decent emperors, a "deputy emperor" was installed, so that the situation of "four emperors co-ruling" in Roman history was formed.
The empire is divided into two, and the emperor can also be divided into heads and vices, which is enough brain hole. We Chinese we knew at a glance that this must not be reliable, and sure enough, it was not long before the Roman Empire was in chaos. Then came the rise of constantine the Great, reuniting the empire. But the territory is unified, and the problem of the empire being too large and difficult to govern has not been solved, and new problems have been raised:
People's hearts are scattered, and the team is not good.
Since the empire divided the east and the west, the Roman Empire has gradually formed a situation in which the two groups of the east and the west are independent, and the common people also feel that the east and west parts are very good. Moreover, at that time, the western part of Rome was in war for many years, the economy was withering, and the east was rich in resources, it had always been very rich, and there was no scourge of war, so in the time of Constantine the Great, the gap between the east and the west was too large, so Constantine the Great built a new capital city in the east that was no less than that of Rome and moved over.
The new capital is the famous Constantinople, today's Istanbul, Turkey.
Constantine the Great moved the capital, he set up a set of bureaucratic, administrative and religious teams in Rome and Constantinople, on the surface, the two sets of teams each managed a stall, and equivalent to each set of backup systems, in case one of the sets of teams collapsed, the other set can be immediately made up. However, if you have a little experience in palace fight dramas, you will know that this is definitely not a long-term solution, and contradictions will inevitably arise after a long time. The essence of Constantine the Great's relocation of the capital was that the Roman Empire abandoned the west and concentrated on the east, then the importance of the east must have exceeded that of the west, and it was inevitable that the west would be marginalized. Because after all, the emperor is in the east, then this set of people working in front of the emperor is obviously more powerful and influential.
So the two sides began to fight openly and secretly, and the most fierce fight was the church.
The administrative set is still good to say, because the administrative power is linked to the imperial power, where the emperor is, where the power is greater, it is natural. But religion is theocracy, and it has little to do with secular power, mainly depending on the influence on the spiritual level of people, so the Church of Rome has always been very unconvinced by Constantine's gang. In the eyes of the Church of Rome, Christianity had acquired legitimacy in the west from the beginning, and Milan and Rome were much more qualified than Constantinople, and naturally more authoritative. You Constantinople bunch of descendants rode on the head of Lao Tzu by going in and out of the leader's side, it is simply unreasonable!
But in the eyes of Constantinople, your old guys have long been angry, and it is over to retire with peace of mind, less blind BB!
That's the rhythm of the war.
So, for the next few hundred years, the east and west sides quarreled. Especially when the Western Roman Empire was conquered by the Vandals in 476, Constantinople even felt that the religious purity of the western branch was polluted by barbarians, and it was even less qualified to point fingers at the east, so it did not pay attention to the west. Of course, the west side could not bear it, so in the next 600 years, the two sides became more and more angry, and anything could be fought.
The gang has been arguing over differences for hundreds of years, and atheists will seem bizarre. For example, the two sides will argue about going to church, whether to stand or sit? Should I use Latin or Greek when chanting? When praying, draw a cross on the chest, from left to right or from right to left? Should I use my palm or three fingers? Should there be a basin of water at the entrance of the church? When baptizing a child, should I immerse the child in water or wash it with water?
At first glance, you will think, just for these trivial things? But in the Minds of Christians, these involve respect for God, and the rules are not in order. The focus of the competition between the two churches is the right to interpret the Bible, and to grasp the right to interpret the Bible is to grasp the right to speak, in the spiritual world of the church, this is the supreme authority, hidden behind these liturgical protocols, is the competition for interests, which means great wealth and interests.
You say not?
So the two sides quarreled for hundreds of years, and when they were fierce, they were eager to take a knife and hack each other to death. Finally, in 1054 AD, the two sides tore their faces. The churches of Rome and Constantinople both issued announcements declaring that the other was illegal Christianity and was not recognizing the legitimate rights of the other's church, which was the first division of Christianity.
After the split of Christianity, the western part is Catholic, because the base camp is in Rome, also called Roman Catholicism. The Eastern branch is the Orthodox Church, which means "Eastern Orthodox Church", in order to show its sense of superiority.
Due to the split, the churches on both sides elected the boss, the Catholic side is known as the "Pope", called "Pope" in English, while the Orthodox boss is called "Patriarch" and "Patriarch" in English. The two big men each led a bunch of little brothers, and they have been afraid of each other for thousands of years, and until now they have not completely bridged the differences, and the relationship between the two sides has just eased in recent decades.
The Orthodox Church in the east became the state religion of the Eastern Roman Empire (i.e., the Byzantine Empire) until 1453, when it was destroyed by Muhammad II of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, Constantinople was renamed Istanbul, the Orthodox churches in the city were converted into mosques, and the Orthodox Church was forced to relocate. At that time, the last emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire had a niece, Princess Sophia, who escaped the Pursuit of the Turks and fled all the way to present-day Moscow, where he married Ivan III, the Grand Duke of Moscow at the time, which saved a trace of incense in the Eastern Roman Empire, and the religious power of the Orthodox Church also moved to Moscow.
This is why today's Russia is so adamant that it is the successor to the orthodoxy of the Roman Empire, and why later Russia called itself the "Third Rome", the Emperor Zibi Caesar (the Tsar is caesar's Russian transliteration, called Tsar in Russian), and it is also the reason why the religious atmosphere in Today's Russia is so strong. Because the base camp of the Orthodox Church is located in Moscow, which is the holy place in the hearts of all Orthodox Christians, everything stems from the history of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Orthodox Church.
Having just said that Christianity was divided into two branches, the eastern one is now orthodoxy inherited by the Russians, so what happened to the western one?
Fourth, the peak of the Middle Ages
The Western Roman Empire was broken by the Germans in 476 AD, and the city of Rome fell, but the Christianity in the west became more prosperous. The reason is that the Germans also converted to Christianity and were more religious.
The reason for this is very simple: the Romans called the Germans Barbarians, which is not a good word, mainly because there is no culture. In the past, these barbarians felt nothing in the Black Forest, but now it is good, turning over the serfs and singing, the weakness of no culture is revealed. It's like you let an illiterate person go to a champion to be in charge, nothing else, the family of the champion is more cultured than you, you old and rude to say a sentence they can say ten sentences, you want to promote an idea he cites the scriptures to kick you back, you say two sentences, he scolds people without dirty words to you to scare back, where do you go, the old lady of the family, the little man is either secretly laughing or sneering, how should this be?
The taste of being looked down upon was uncomfortable, and the Germans had suffered enough of it. And that's when religion can give them a hand. Because religion is forced to be high, the professional point is that it can provide people with spiritual transcendence, and in layman's terms, once the rough person puts on the cloak of religion, the dick can become tall in the blink of an eye, at least it looks like that.
Using religion to make up for cultural shortcomings is the same all over the world, and there is a similar phenomenon in China. After the rise of the Xianbei people after the Wuhu Chaos, in order not to appear inferior in the face of the strong Central Plains culture (Murong Fu cried and fainted in the toilet), the Xianbei people spent a lot of effort to support Buddhism. Today, the Yungang Grottoes in Datong, Shanxi, and the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, Henan, were all created by the Xianbei people. After all, the threshold for supporting religion is not high, so why is it difficult to build a temple and kowtow to the gods?
So the Germans strongly supported Christianity, and Christianity became more and more powerful in Western Europe.
In this process, two things cannot be left unattended.
The first involved a man named Charlemagne. Charlemagne was a descendant of the Franks, a branch of the Germanics, the ancestors of today's France. Charlemagne was famous in the history of Western Europe, and his Carolingian dynasty was the predecessor of the Holy Roman Empire. It doesn't matter if you don't know this uncle, you must have played the poker card, the red peach K in it, the prototype is Charlemagne, which shows the status of this person in Europe.
In Rome on Christmas Day 800 AD, Pope Leo III put a crown on Charlemagne's head in the church and officially proclaimed Charlemagne "Emperor of the Romans". From then on, Charlemagne could serve as the heir to the Roman Empire and legitimately rule over the kingdoms and tribes of Western Europe.
Is it familiar?
By the way, this is the origin of the "coronation ceremony" that everyone often sees in movies and TV series. Charlemagne's coronation was the first in European history, and from then on, all the emperors of Europe had to complete the coronation ceremony under the auspices of the pope to officially sit on the throne, otherwise it was illegal. That is to say, any monarch who wants to be emperor, without the support of the pope, is certainly not a play. The supremacy of the clerical power over the imperial power in this way is unimaginable in China.
This coronation system continued until the Napoleonic era before it was officially abolished.
This incident fully reflects the side of theocracy and ecclesiastical cooperation, but if there is only cooperation and no conflict, it is not enough to show how powerful the theocracy is.
This brings us to the second thing: Road To Canossa.
In 1076, the holy Roman Emperor heinrich IV (also known in some texts as Henry IV), the grandson of the aforementioned Charlemagne, fell out with the Pope. The reason for the reversal of face was that the bishops of various parts of Europe at that time were appointed by the local king, which was a huge power that made the Pope Gregory VII of Rome at that time blush, and catching up with this Gregory VII was the most powerful since the pope's office had been held so far, so he issued a series of edicts announcing that all the bishops in the future suburbs would be accepted to Rome.
This moved the cheese of the kings.
Thus the inevitable result was that Heinrich IV and Gregory VII did something earth-shattering in 1075:
Excommunication was pronounced against Heinrich IV.
What is excommunication?
Expulsion.
The European monarchs of the time were Christian and unanimously declared themselves to be believers. But the question is, whether you are a believer or not is not up to you, but the Pope has the final say, if the Pope does not recognize you as a Believer, it is useless for you to prostrate your head on the cross 80,000 times a day, saying that you are not you are not, and you are not holding back.
Excommunication is the expulsion of the Pope from your religion, and once the status is gone, you are not eligible to be emperor again. Because the emperor's family even brushes the toilet is Christian, you are expelled from the church as a pagan. On what basis does a pagan lead me? This is equivalent to a provincial or municipal leader being expelled from the party by the central authorities, so how can he become this leader?
Sure enough, after Gregory VII announced his excommunication, Heinrich IV immediately rebelled and fled, even the servants who led his horses. Pagans, Grandpa does not serve!
Just so willful!
In desperation, in January 1077, Heinrich IV, alone, crossed the Alps from Germany to the Castle of Canossa in Italy, where Gregory VII was on vacation. In January, when the Mediterranean Sea was fierce and snowy, Gregory VII was blowing and singing inside the castle, and Heinrich IV stood barefoot outside the castle for three days and three nights, without even stuttering. Three days later, Gregory VII felt that the turtle son was almost cleaned up (not to die, otherwise things would be too bad), so he opened the city gate and slowly paced to heinrich IV, holding Heinrich's head with one hand, and slowly swallowing a sentence "I forgive you, child."
In a word, Heinrich IV restored his canon, then the treatment of the king, and both the servants and grooms returned.
If you think about the scene at that time, one was creeping on the ground, losing his soul, and the other was condescending and proud.
Immediate results, gods and Buddhas kill.
Fifth, the second split
At this point, everyone can fully imagine how much power the church has. Many people are naïve to do that the church is to govern people's spiritual world on behalf of God, and the staff of the church should be a group of people who believe in purity, self-discipline and self-love. Unfortunately, the church's control over people's beliefs is essentially a power, and since it is power, it cannot escape corruption.
And since the church represents God, and speaking is God's instruction, you, as a common man, have only a part to listen and are not qualified to question. This allows the power of the church to expand indefinitely without oversight. And if a power is not supervised, then what happens next, everyone understands:
Absolute power leads to absolute corruption.
Therefore, when the power of the church in the Middle Ages swelled to such a point, the church was no longer a pure land, and it was as shocking as corruption. Most of the most inhuman things in medieval Europe were done by church people. And the most infuriating thing is the indulgence.
The indulgence is simply the lower limit of human shamelessness.
In the English-speaking world, "sin" is expressed in two ways: called Sin and Guilty, respectively. We don't make a strict distinction between Chinese translations, but in fact, the meanings of the two are not the same: Guilty refers to criminal offenses, felonies, and no matter what era or region this crime is committed, it should go to jail and kill the head. But Sin is not a felony, it is the kind of small sin that is disgraceful to say but not to be shot, such as peeking at a girl taking a bath, exchanging ears in exams, defecating on the ground, etc., this sin will not make you severely punished, but will make your conscience tormented, and when you pray for repentance, you will ask God for forgiveness.
We know that people who are not sages can be blameless, and that people live all their lives, and there are always a few unsavory little dirty things in their hearts. Indulgence is the use of the uneasiness of people's consciences to squeeze out the wealth of believers.
For example, the second dog was lying on the bed and about to swallow his breath, and the priest of the church was praying while scaring the two dogs: I heard that you snatched Shufen's lollipop 50 years ago, and you stole the jade flower to take a bath 30 years ago. You have to stay in Purgatory for 800 years. Do you think two dogs can do it? In medieval Europe, these ordinary people, in addition to eating and and sleeping, the only goal of life is to go to heaven, and now you say that I can't go, isn't that equivalent to a lifetime of vain? The second dog looks like he is going to ascend to the bliss, you come to such a show, this still does not let people die?
That's what you want.
Just when the two dogs were about to die and did not dare to die, the priest took out eight indulgence coupons from his ass pocket: each one can offset 100 years, 1 million a piece, how much to buy, immediate effect, tong shu no deception.
Is there any other choice for the second dog?
The Church of Western Europe was the wealth of the heavens extracted in this way, and today all the countries of Europe have magnificent cathedrals, one raced against the other. The above-mentioned St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, its scale, the exquisite carved beams and paintings inside, and the luxurious decoration have been taught by people who have been there. Think about whether this was in the 16th century, or during the Ming Dynasty in China, the process was built for 120 years, how much did it cost in between? Where does the money come from?
As for other famous churches in Europe, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, the Cathedral of Cologne in Germany, and the Main Church in Milan, they were all built by squeezing the blood and sweat of believers in a different pattern, and today you see how magnificent the church is, and how fiercely it was squeezed against the believers.
This bottomless approach of the church will certainly be opposed, and the first and most famous one is a German missionary named Martin. Luther.
By the way, now that you see this name, it will definitely be reminiscent of the famous American black civil rights movement leader: Martin. Luther. gold. Many Chinese, who do not know the history of Europe and the United States, often confuse these two people. However, although the two men lived in a time difference of 300 years, they were indeed related by religious factors. Martin. Luther. Kim's original name was Michael. King, whose father was a devout Christian, was a native of Germany, the reformer Martin. Luther admired him so much that he took his son from Michael. Kim changed to Martin. Luther. King, who grew up to be a pastor of the Baptist, is Chinese more familiar with his lecture I Have A Dream and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
Back to the point. On 31 October 1517, Martin. At the door of a local church in Württemberg, Germany, Luther posted an eloquent article called "95 Theses" and scolded the church for selling indulgences and a bunch of other broken things, which opened the curtain on europe's famous "Reformation". Western European Christianity thus split into another branch: Protestantism.
This Reformation caused an uproar on the European continent, and before the Catholic Church in Western Europe was so corrupt that people dared to speak out, now some people are shaking their arms and shouting, and the people who are responding are pouring out like a sea of people. It was just in time for the rise of capitalist forces in Europe, which was amassing strength for the first industrial revolution. The Enlightenment has begun, the spiritual world of people is no longer as scarce as in the Middle Ages, the spirit of reason and science has begun to rise, the power of society has begun to strengthen, gradually overpowering and replacing the power of religion, and the emergence of Protestantism is in line with the trend of social development at that time.
Not only in continental Europe, but also in England, the Reformation blossomed, but it was a little bit of dog blood. At that time, the King of England was the mercurial Henry VIII, because of the divorce and the Pope of Rome, which coincided with Martin. Luther's Reformation, Henry VIII, in a fit of rage, simply announced his separation from the Church of Rome and became the religious leader of England, which was equivalent to England also engaged in the Reformation, and the Pope was fired. This is a wonderful thing to say, and the historical significance is extremely important, and it will be said in the opening paragraph later.
In short, after the Reformation, on the European continent and in England, Protestantism expanded on the European continent at an unimaginably fast speed. Subsequently, there were also different hills within Protestantism, such as Calvinism in Switzerland, Lutheranism in Germany, Huguenotism in France, Anglican Church, Scottish Puritans, etc., and there were also differences between them, and the Puritan spirit of the Founding Period of the United States mentioned in the previous article can also be traced back to the origins here.
But in any case, Protestantism, as a branch of Christianity, was officially separated from the Catholic body, becoming the third force of Christianity and becoming the most influential branch in the Christian world today, because Protestant countries are generally more powerful.
This was the second great schism in Christianity.
At this point, the history of Christianity is basically finished, ten thousand words have been written, and I have just said a rough idea, as to where the differences between the various branches are, and what are the differences within the branches, it is too lengthy to be pulled apart, and it will be slowly added later.
Sixth, knock on the blackboard
Finally, knock on a small blackboard, it doesn't matter if you can't remember these stories, summarize a few key points, know which are pits, and how to hide from them:
1. The distinction between the upper and lower parts of the Bible must be noted. Christians and Jews, don't look at them all believing in God, holding a Holy Bible in their hands, the difference is great. The Old Testament and the New Testament are Christian scriptures, and as long as they are Christians, they will accept it regardless of sect. But Judaism recognizes only the Old Testament, because the Old Testament is originally the scripture of Judaism, and the New Testament is a book that records the words and deeds of Jesus Christ. If you meet a Christian, you can be assured and bold to talk to him about all the Biblical stories you know, but if you meet a Jew, you can talk about Moses, you can talk about Jehovah, talk about Job, but it is best not to mention Jesus and his disciples.
2. The Pope is only the head of the Catholic Church. For many reasons, today Chinese think of Christianity and think of the Pope, who is the common leader of Christians. Many people whose relatives and friends are Christians, will definitely go to the Vatican when they go to Rome, and when they get there, they want to bring some gifts to these christians. After reading today's content, you should know, don't buy blindly, it will be troublesome. Before you pull out your wallet, you'd better pull out your phone and ask which christian denomination they believe in, if they're Catholics, you can buy it, if it's Protestant, you can save the money, if you're Orthodox, you're going to Moscow to buy it. Of course, the safest thing is to go to Jerusalem and buy it.
3. Rapid identification method for different Christians. Today the three branches of Christianity (Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant) are clearly distributed. It can be roughly divided into English-speaking countries, the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are all Protestant countries, and other regions, including Germany and Northern European countries (the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland), are also mostly Protestant. In eastern Europe, including Greece, which believes in Orthodox Christianity, these countries basically speak Slavic, and if you encounter a man named Ski, Vic, and Nov, and a woman called Maria and Sofia, you can judge that they are Orthodox Christians. Elsewhere in Europe, a large piece of southern Europe, like Italy, Spain, Portugal are Catholic countries, outside Europe, South America, Africa, the former French, Spanish colonies are all Catholic countries, they have been colonies since the age of great navigation, it is not surprising to follow the old Catholic faith. So if you meet a person today who speaks Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, you can basically tell that he is Catholic (if he is not obviously Muslim).
In the picture below, the red is Orthodox, the blue is Catholic, the purple is Protestant, and the green is Islam.
4. Christianity is sacred in the hearts of Westerners, before modern times, more than 80% of Western literature and art works are based on Christianity as the subject of creation, if you want to deeply understand the West and do not have time to study the literature, history and philosophy of the West, it is a good choice to start from the art, painting and sculpture of religious themes. Today' major cities in the West have large churches, you start from the church, from the scale of architecture, decoration style, facility display, etc., can quickly understand the history and culture of the city and even the country, and these places are almost all tourist punch cards, anyway, when everyone goes, always have to do raiders, take some time to study, play more painfully.
Still have to remind you that religion is too complicated, but also very sacred, if you are not careful, it is indeed easy to run into trouble, everyone is still careful, not completely sure, can not talk about it, or find other topics to talk about.
It's not like nothing else to talk about.