Download Development of the Christian Church

ALL SAINTS’ COLLEGE
Ewing Avenue, Bull Creek, Western Australia
YR.8 CRAVE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE
CHRISTIAN CHURCH
19/5/03
The life and teaching of Jesus Christ led those who believed He was the son of God to
form themselves into groups known as Christians. At first it was very dangerous to be
a Christian. At the time Christians lived in the Roman Empire and the Romans
believed that their leader, called Caesar, was in fact a God himself. The
Romans persecuted Christians who refused to accept that Caesar was a God.
This all changed in 313CE when the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to
Christianity. Constantine declared Christianity to be the official religion of the
Roman Empire and the influence of the Christian religion increased rapidly. By this time there
were many Christians.
The first 1000 years of the Christian Church were shaped by various people who influenced
the way Christianity was understood. By the tenth century CE there were two main centres of
power; The Western Catholic Church which was based with the Pope in Rome, Italy; and the
Eastern Orthodox Church based with the Patriarch of the Church of Constantinople, Turkey.
With any large group there is likely to be different opinions within the group. These two great
centres of Christian power finally fell out with one another over how to interpret their shared
Christian faith. One of the things they disagreed upon was when key festivals such as
Christmas and Easter should fall within the Christian calendar.
The great Schism (meaning tear in Greek) split the Christian Church apart in 1054CE.
The Eastern Orthodox Church has remained relatively unchanged to this day since the ‘Great
Schism’ occurred.
The Western Catholic Church had its own problems a few centuries later. In
1517CE the Reformation split the Western Church. The Catholic Church had
become greedy and hungry for power. Many priests were ignoring the real
teaching of Christ and acting like hypocrites, preaching one thing whilst
doing another. People in Europe were starting to get fed up with the situation.
Two figures in particular were pivotal in the changes made within the
Western Christian Church; Martin Luther and John Calvin. They both spoke
out against the Catholic Church, they criticised it for ignoring the teaching of
Jesus as laid out in the scriptures. They wanted reform (change) and were
willing to protest until it came, hence the title ‘Protestant Reformation’.
Soon a number of Protestant Christian Churches emerged. They differed from the Catholic
understanding of Christianity as they focussed upon what the scriptures had to say, rather than
what the Pope or the Catholic priests taught.
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Essentially there are three branches to Christianity; the Eastern Orthodox Churches, the
Catholic Church, and the various Protestant Churches. We call these groups denominations.
After the Protestant Reformation a number of new Christian churches emerged. For example
the Anglican Church was formed in the Sixteenth Century CE when England’s King Henry
VIII wanted to have his marriage annulled (declared to have never happened). Henry wanted
to be free to marry another woman who could provide him with a son and heir. The Pope
refused to allow this so Henry rejected the authority of the Pope and declared himself the head
of the Church of England, otherwise known as the Anglican Church. Here is a list of some
other Protestant Churches:
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Lutheran
Presbyterian
Methodist
Baptist
Quaker
People often get confused thinking that being a Catholic or a Baptist is different to being a
Christian. This is wrong. Each different Church, stemming from the three major
denominations (groups); are all Christian. They all believe in the same God, and they all share
the same essential Christian beliefs; such as that Jesus Christ is God in the form of man who
died on the cross to save mankind from the punishment for sinning.
TASK 1) Take each sentence beneath and place it into the correct box on the next page
charting the historical development of the Christian Church:
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Protestant Churches
313CE Constantine declares Christianity as the official religion of the Roman
Empire
Catholic Church based in the West
Birth of Jesus
Eastern Orthodox Church remains relatively unchanged to the present day
Western Catholic Church
1517CE Protestant Reformation
Orthodox Church based in the East
1054CE Great Schism
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TASK 2) Using examples explain the difference between a religion and a denomination
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TASK 3) Describe the events surrounding Christianity’s acceptance as the official
religion of the Roman Empire
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TASK 4) What is the Protestant Reformation? Explain what triggered it
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TASK 5) How did the Anglican Church come into being?
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