The History of Christianity, Part 2

In part one, we traced Christianity from its Jewish roots through the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. But the story was just getting started. What followed changed the world forever. From a German monk nailing his grievances to a church door, to a king who allowed his heart and personal desires to override his devotion to Rome, to pilgrims crossing an ocean in search of freedom: the second chapter of Christianity is bold, messy, and deeply human.

Luther to the New World: How the Break From Rome Changed Christianity

PROTESTANTS

Martin Luther hammers his 95 theses to the door, Artist: Ferdinand Pauwels (1830-1904)

The Protestant movement was one of politics, the invention of the printing press, and a

man named Martin Luther. Luther was a Catholic monk who protested the Church's practice of indulgences—a payment to the institution for the atonement of sin. He believed that forgiveness for sins happened through faith alone. In 1517, Luther wrote his dissent, the 95 theses, and nailed it to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany. Luther was excommunicated by the Catholic Church by 1520.

Since the time of Constantine, the Church and the rulers of the Roman Empire became enmeshed. By the time of Martin Luther, the emperor of Rome was considered ordained by God, and heresy was a crime not just of faith but of the state. Needless to say, Luther was considered a heretic and wanted for arrest. The German prince Frederick III protected Luther in protest of his arrest. Protestantism at the time was used by some to express their defiance of imperial power, and rulers all over Europe who wanted independence from the Holy Roman Empire converted.

The printing press was invented in 1439, making the distribution of Luther's writings to the common person faster. Luther translated the Bible into German, which helped Germans to read the Bible for themselves and not rely on the Catholic Church to interpret the Latin version for them. Luther said, "Let the man who would hear God speak read Holy Scripture." Luther's simple desire to reform the church led to a revolution that changed the world and the way it practiced religion forever.

ANGLICANS

England's separation from the Catholic Church began when Henry VIII wanted to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon, and marry Anne Boleyn. The Pope, Clement VII, would not grant an annulment, but Henry VIII did it anyway and was excommunicated from the church. Henry VIII then created laws to separate his kingdom from the religious authority of Rome. This was the beginning of what is now known as the Church of England.

In 1534, Henry VIII formed the "Act of Supremacy," making the King or Queen of England the head of the country's Church. Henry VIII remained a devout Catholic, though he allowed for some reforms. When his successor, Mary Tudor was crowned, she returned England to Catholicism and executed over 300 protestants, earning her the title "Bloody Mary." When her sister, Elizabeth I, took control, she converted England fully to Anglicanism—a middle ground between Catholicism and Protestantism.

The King or Queen of England was to be the head of the Church of England and appoint all bishops, and the Archbishop of Canterbury and York are similar to the Pope. But while England was no longer beholden to Rome, the style of religious government and power remained similar. The Anglican Communion is the third-largest Christian organization in the world. It reaches beyond the shores of England to multiple places once under British rule, including Australia, Canada, the U.S., and many countries in Africa and the West Indies. In the U.S., Anglicans are called Episcopalians.

PILGRIMS, PURITANS AND QUAKERS

Though Elizabeth I moved the Church of England closer to Protestantism, some Christians wanted to do away with the institution altogether. These groups felt the Church of England was corrupt and sought to separate. These separatists wanted to begin a new church in a new land where they could be free to practice a purer form of Protestantism.

Pilgrims were separatists, and in 1620, they boarded the Mayflower to seek religious freedom in America. Yet, although we often think of the first settlers as being Pilgrims, there were only 44 of them.

The Puritans—a much larger group of Protestants from England—came to America ten years later. And they did not want to separate from the Church of England as much as they wanted to improve upon it. Puritans fled England because they were persecuted by King Charles I, who punished dissent by death or jail. Puritans took root around Boston, where they created a theocratic network that they used to exert control over the region's growing population.

Quakers began in England in 1652 under the leadership of George Fox. Quakers were Protestants that differed from Puritans in that they believed that each person contained the "Light of Christ." Approximately 10,000 Quakers in England were jailed for their beliefs. While some Quakers went to the colonies earlier, thousands of Quakers went to America looking for religious freedom in 1685. The non-conformity of the Quakers made the Puritans uncomfortable, and Quakers were also persecuted and executed in the colonies. Indeed, Virginia enacted anti-Quaker laws, making such executions legal.

EVANGELICALS

In the 1700s, there was a new religious movement in Britain and the U.S colonies called The Great Awakening. Unlike the Puritan style of religious intellectualism, Evangelicalism was a more emotional form of worship. The leaders of The Great Awakening preached to the masses in large outdoor settings, hoping to convert as many people as possible.

Religious revival in USA 1839, watercolor from 1839 Second Great Awakening, Artist: J. Maze Burbank

Presbyterians in Pennsylvania were the first to start this trend. They created the Log College—which is modern-day Princeton University—to train clergymen and spread their evangelistic efforts throughout the colonies and into the South. From Britain came George Whitfield and John Wesley, who first tried to reform the Church of England, but failed and came to the U.S. The Evangelical style of preaching was described as including dramatic gestures, "sometimes weeping openly or thundering out threats of hellfire-and-brimstone" to turn the sermon "into a gripping theatrical performance."

The "egalitarian" style of these revivals changed the typical "hierarchical" style in which religion had previously been practiced. This attitude gave slaves and the working-class Black community a leg up. While evangelical leaders did not oppose slavery, they did not discriminate against who could be saved, giving working-class whites and people of color access to religion in a way they had not previously. For generations, many leaders of the Black community were born out of churches inspired by the evangelical movement.

BAPTISTS

What differentiated Baptists and Anabaptists from the rest of the Protestant movement was that they believed you must willfully follow Christ, and only adults can do so, and only adults can be baptized. The Church of England, still holding to Catholic tradition, allows for infant baptisms to this day. Baptists also believe the ritual must be a total immersion of a person's body in water.

The first American Baptist church was founded by Roger Williams. Williams was born in approximately 1603 in London, England, and traveled to the United States as a Puritan. His beliefs came into conflict with the Puritan majority on the separation of church and state. Williams did not believe the government had the right to rule over anyone's spiritual beliefs. He thought that "forced worship offended God," and also believed land should not be taken from Native Americans without compensation.

Williams was tried for his ideas before the Massachusetts court and sentenced to banishment. He founded the colony of Providence in Rhode Island under the idea of freedom of religion. He converted from Puritan to Baptist and built the first Baptist Church of America in Providence in 1638. Williams spent the rest of his life trying to influence religious liberty in politics. During the Second Great Awakening, the Baptist church spread to the South. Today, Baptists are better known as Southern Baptists and are currently the largest evangelical Protestant denomination.

NONDENOMINATIONAL AND MEGACHURCHES

The nondenominational movement arose out of the Second Great Awakening, which spurred on the creation of the Church of Christ. Again, a group of Christians sought to reform Christianity to its original principles and away from the traditions established over time by different religious movements. The Church of Christ leaders wanted to bring their congregations back to the basics of how Christ defined the church in the New Testament. Today, there are over two million Church of Christ members, with locations in every state and several other countries.

The term "nondenominational" can also be used as a more generic term for Christianity. Not being tied to any one denomination allows for churches to pop up wherever they may and be ruled and directed based on the person who established it. Some of the largest churches in America are nondenominational. Indeed, some of the most famous megachurches fall under this umbrella: Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California; Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas; and T.D. Jake's Potter's House in Dallas, Texas. Many of these types of churches preach what is called the Prosperity Gospel— teaching that faith, positive confession, and financial giving will result in material wealth, physical health, and overall success as signs of God’s favor.

A Love Story Between God and Humanity: The Enduring Heart of Christianity

What unites believers of every denomination, every century, and every corner of the earth is not a building, a tradition, or a title but our Savior: Jesus Christ. The Catholic Church, rooted in the tradition of the Apostles, has walked faithfully through every chapter of this story, offering the sacraments, Scripture, and community as a path to encounter the living God. And across every branch of Christianity, that same hunger for Him endures. The story of Christianity is ultimately a love story between God and humanity, and it is far from over.