History Summarized: Spread of Christianity

Summary

This script delves into the complex history of Christianity, from its Jewish roots and early persecutions under the Roman Empire to its evolution into a dominant world religion. It explores the influence of Greek philosophy, the pivotal role of Constantine, the schism between Catholic and Orthodox churches, and the Reformation's impact. The narrative highlights how Christianity's strength in unity and faith also led to internal conflicts and wars, emphasizing the importance of learning from its past to foster understanding and progress.

Takeaways

• 🌍 Winter in the northern hemisphere is a time for reflection on the holiday season and the history of Christmas traditions.
• 📚 The script challenges viewers to learn about the historical and theological foundations of Christianity, beyond common knowledge.
• 🔍 It explores the origins of Christianity in the 1st century AD, highlighting the Roman Empire's expansion and its religious inclusivity.
• 🏛 The Roman Empire's religious practices were deeply intertwined with politics, aiming to secure the 'pax deorum' or goodwill of the gods.
• ⚔ Early Christianity stood out by insisting on its distinct identity, which led to persecution but also strengthened its resolve.
• 📖 The development of Christian doctrine was influenced by both Jewish and Greek philosophical contexts, as seen in the four gospels of the New Testament.
• 🕊 The script discusses the theological debate over the nature of Jesus, leading to the Trinitarian doctrine and the Great Schism of 1054.
• 🛡️ The script touches on the political power of the Papacy and its role in shaping Christianity, including the establishment of the Papal States.
• 🗡️ It outlines the historical conflicts, such as the Crusades, that arose from religious differences and political ambitions.
• 📚 The Protestant Reformation is highlighted as a response to perceived corruption within the Church, leading to a diversification of Christian beliefs.
• 🕊️ The script concludes with a call for understanding and tolerance in the diversity of religious thought, drawing parallels to the teachings of Jesus.

Q & A

Why is it colder in the northern hemisphere during winter?

It's colder in the northern hemisphere during winter because the Earth's tilt causes that part of the planet to receive less direct sunlight, leading to colder temperatures.

What is the significance of the Gospel of John starting with 'In the beginning was the Word'?

The Gospel of John starts with 'In the beginning was the Word' to emphasize the divine nature of Jesus Christ, equating him with the divine reason or Logos in Greek philosophy, showing that he is both with God and God.

How did the Roman Empire's religious inclusivity affect its relationship with early Christianity?

The Roman Empire's religious inclusivity, which involved incorporating gods from conquered territories into their pantheon, was in stark contrast to early Christianity's insistence on remaining distinct and unique. This difference led to conflicts and persecutions of Christians by the Romans.

Why were Christians persecuted in the Roman Empire?

Christians were persecuted in the Roman Empire because their refusal to conform to Roman religious practices was seen as a threat to the pax deorum, the divine approval necessary for the empire's stability and success.

How did the concept of the afterlife contribute to the appeal of Christianity?

The concept of the afterlife in Christianity, where believers could achieve eternal life, was a significant appeal. It provided hope and motivation for believers to endure persecution and maintain their faith.

What was the role of Greek philosophy in the development of Christian theology?

Greek philosophy, particularly the ideas of Plato, played a crucial role in the development of Christian theology. Concepts like the Logos, or divine reason, were incorporated into Christian thought, influencing the understanding of Jesus as the incarnation of divine reason.

Why did the early church decide to include four gospels in the New Testament?

The early church included four gospels in the New Testament to appeal to different audiences and cultural contexts. Each gospel was written to address the concerns and beliefs of different groups, such as Jews, Romans, and Greeks.

What was the significance of the Edict of Milan in the history of Christianity?

The Edict of Milan, issued by Emperor Constantine in 313 CE, legalized Christianity within the Roman Empire. This was a significant turning point as it marked the end of state-sponsored persecution and allowed Christianity to spread more freely.

How did the split between the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches in 1054 affect Christianity?

The split between the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches in 1054, known as the Great Schism, led to a deep and lasting division in Christianity. It resulted in different theological interpretations, liturgical practices, and political allegiances that persist to this day.

What was the impact of the Protestant Reformation on Christianity and European society?

The Protestant Reformation, initiated by Martin Luther, led to a major split within Christianity, creating numerous Protestant denominations. It also sparked widespread religious conflicts and contributed to the development of religious tolerance and the Enlightenment in Europe.

Outlines

00:00

🌨 Winter and the Origins of Christianity

The paragraph humorously introduces the winter season and its association with Christmas, highlighting the disconnect between modern traditions and the historical origins of Christianity. It emphasizes the need to understand the religion's history, which is often overlooked or mythologized. The script then delves into the early development of Christian doctrine, influenced by political, historical, and philosophical contexts, particularly during the Roman Empire's expansion into the Levant. The Roman religion's inclusivity and the concept of 'pax deorum' are contrasted with the distinct identity of early Christianity, which faced persecution due to its refusal to conform to Roman religious practices.

05:02

📜 The Fusion of Greek and Jewish Influences in Early Christianity

This paragraph explores the early church's struggle to reconcile Greek and Jewish influences within Christianity. It discusses the geographical distribution of Paul's letters and the importance of Greek as a common language, leading to a dual identity within the religion. The paragraph explains how the New Testament's four gospels cater to different audiences, each with its unique approach to religious teaching. It also touches on the influence of Greek philosophy, particularly Plato's concept of 'Logos,' on Christian theology. The discussion then shifts to the Trinitarian debate, highlighting the theological and geographical divisions within the early Christian community.

10:06

🏰 The Political and Religious Transformation of Christianity in the Roman Empire

The paragraph examines the political and religious evolution of Christianity within the Roman Empire, starting with Constantine's dream and the Edict of Milan, which legalized Christianity. It outlines the transformation of Christianity into the state religion under Emperor Theodosius and the subsequent 'Roman makeover' of the faith. The script also touches on the potential co-opting of Christmas into existing Roman festivals and the division of the Roman Empire, which contributed to the growing split between the Eastern and Western churches. This section provides a historical context for the Great Schism of 1054 and the eventual rise of the Papal States.

15:07

🛡 The Crusades, the Reformation, and the Quest for Religious Uniformity

This paragraph discusses the Crusades, initiated by Pope Urban II as an attempt to reunite the Eastern and Western churches. It also covers the rise of the Borgias and the corruption within the Church, leading to Martin Luther's objections and the birth of Protestantism. The script describes the spread of Protestantism, facilitated by the printing press, and the ensuing religious wars that fractured Christianity. It reflects on the tension between the strength of belief and the flexibility of thought within Christianity, and how the eventual religious toleration in the 18th century allowed for the Enlightenment and a shift in focus from religious to more secular matters.

🕊 The Legacy and Lessons of Christianity's History

The final paragraph summarizes Christianity's historical journey, from its survival under Roman persecution to its cultural adaptations and doctrinal disputes. It acknowledges the religion's significant contributions to civilization, such as orphanages, schools, hospitals, and medical missions. The script encourages learning from Christianity's successes and failures to foster progress and emphasizes the importance of understanding and respecting diverse beliefs. It concludes with a humorous nod to the peculiarities of Christmas traditions and a reminder of the core teachings of Jesus about love and tolerance.

Keywords

💡Winter

Winter is a season characterized by cold weather, typically occurring in the northern hemisphere. In the video script, winter is mentioned to set the scene and contrast the cold earthly climate with the even colder reaches of space. It also serves as a lead-in to discussing the holiday season, which is a significant part of the video's theme.

💡Christmas

Christmas is a major holiday celebrated by Western cultures, often associated with gift-giving, decorating trees, and religious observances. The script discusses how modern Christmas traditions may not be original to the holiday's historical roots, highlighting the evolution of religious practices over time.

💡Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The video script delves into the historical and theological development of Christianity, emphasizing its origins, growth, and the influence of political and philosophical contexts on its doctrines.

💡Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was a vast ancient civilization that significantly impacted the development of Christianity. The script mentions the Roman Empire's expansion into the Levant and its relationship with Judaism, setting the stage for understanding how Christianity emerged and interacted with the dominant political and religious powers of the time.

💡Pax Deorum

Pax Deorum, or 'peace of the gods,' was a concept in Roman religion where maintaining the goodwill of the gods was crucial for the welfare of Rome. The script uses this term to illustrate how Roman religion was deeply intertwined with politics and the empire's stability, contrasting with the distinct identity of early Christianity.

💡Mystery Religions

Mystery religions were secret or semi-secret religious cults in the ancient world, often dedicated to specific gods. The script mentions these to highlight the religious diversity and tolerance in Rome, which contrasts with the persecution faced by Christians for their refusal to conform to Roman religious practices.

💡New Testament

The New Testament is the second part of the Christian Bible, focusing on the life of Jesus and the early Christian church. The script discusses the codification of the New Testament and the theological debates that shaped its content, showing how Christianity's beliefs were formed and standardized.

💡Trinity

The Trinity is a central doctrine in Christianity, describing God as three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—coexisting as one entity. The script touches on the controversy over whether to adopt a Trinitarian view or not, highlighting the theological divisions that existed within early Christianity.

💡Great Schism

The Great Schism of 1054 refers to the split between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The script uses this event to illustrate the deepening divide between the eastern and western branches of Christianity, which had significant implications for the religious landscape of Europe.

💡Crusades

The Crusades were a series of religious wars sanctioned by the Latin Church during the Middle Ages. The script mentions Pope Urban II's call for the Crusades as an attempt to reunite Christianity and regain lost territories, reflecting the political and religious tensions of the time.

💡Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a major movement within Christianity in the 16th century, initiated by figures like Martin Luther, which led to the creation of Protestant churches. The script discusses the Reformation as a response to perceived corruption within the Church and the desire for religious reform, leading to significant changes in European religious and political landscapes.

Highlights

Winter in the northern hemisphere is colder than the farthest reaches of space.

The importance of understanding the original Christmas traditions and their evolution.

The Gospel of John's unique opening emphasizing the 'Word' as God.

The contrast between the Gospels' different starting points and their theological implications.

The historical and theological depth of Christianity often glossed over or mythologized.

The 1st century AD as a critical period for the growth of early Christianity amidst Roman Empire expansion.

Roman religion's inclusivity and its impact on securing the pax deorum.

Christianity's insistence on remaining separate from Roman religious and political structures.

The persecution of Christians for not conforming to Roman religious practices.

The role of martyrdom in strengthening Christian faith and unity.

The New Testament's codification reflecting the struggle between Jewish and Hellenistic influences.

The significance of the four Gospels in appealing to different cultural groups.

The philosophical underpinnings of the Gospel of John influenced by Plato's concept of Logos.

The Trinitarian debate and its geographical split within Christianity.

The impact of Constantine's conversion and the Edict of Milan on Christianity's legal status.

The transformation of Christianity into the state religion of the Roman Empire under Theodosius.

The potential co-opting of Christmas into existing Roman festivals due to thematic similarities.

The Great Schism of 1054 as the definitive split between the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches.

The Crusades as an attempt to mend the schism and expand the influence of the Papacy.

Martin Luther's objections to the Church's practices, leading to the creation of Protestantism.

The spread of Protestantism facilitated by the printing press and shared discontent with the Church.

The religious wars following the Reformation and the eventual shift towards religious tolerance.

The Enlightenment as a result of the shift away from religious conflicts towards diverse intellectual pursuits.

The enduring strength and adaptability of Christianity despite internal conflicts and external pressures.

The importance of learning from Christianity's history to understand its impact and influence on civilization.

The peculiar origins of modern Christmas traditions, including Saint Nicholas and the gift-giving practices.

Transcripts

If you live in the northern hemisphere and have stepped outside as of late,

you've probably realized that it's colder than the farthest reaches of space. That's because it's winter.

Hopefully this isn't news to you, because if it is, you need to stop watching this immediately

and brush up on your Magic School Bus as fast as you possibly can.

Assuming we're all on the same page and know how seasons work,

you're probably enjoying the holiday season, and if you're a Westerner, odds are the biggest one for you is Christmas.

You've probably decorated a tree, hung up lights, unwrapped enough presents to furnish a Viking funeral,

or maybe just watched that one episode of Stranger Things on loop for three days straight.

The thing is, you probably already know that none of these were original Christmas traditions way back in the day,

and if we're really trying to go for authenticity here, we shouldn't be doing any of this in the winter at all.

But you know what, to just explain what Christianity is and how it got to where it is now,

I think we need to back up and start from the beginning.

Yes, The Beginning.

The Gospel of John starts with:

"In the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Now what's all this about the Word? What does that even mean?

While we're at it, how is the Word with God and also God?

Why do the other three gospels start completely differently?

Also, where does Jesus come into this, and wasn't he Jewish?

My point is that there's certainly a lot of questions that come up here,

and Christianity is rife with this kind of historical and theological intrigue.

Despite how widespread it is in our world,

it seems like the history of Christianity is almost universally glossed over or mythologized.

But the fact of the matter is there's solid and well documented history here,

and I think it would do us a world of good to be educated on it.

I won't talk about Jesus's life because you all know the highlights already. Instead,

I'm going to talk about how the development of Christian doctrine

is heavily influenced by its political, historical, and philosophical context.

We start in the 1st century AD. The time period containing the growth of early

Christianity is a fascinating time historically,

as the newly formed Roman Empire was having a grand old time expanding into the Levant.

The relationship between Romans and the history of Judaism is easily its own video

but for the time being let it suffice to say that they really, really did not get on all that well.

I will though explain that Roman religion was defined by inclusivity – shocker, right –

well, the Romans believed that they had to do what they could to secure

what's called the pax deorum – the goodwill of the gods –

and they were totally cool with doing whatever they needed to do to get it.

That's why their pantheon is full of gods,

and every time they conquered some new territory the top of their to-do list is either finding

a way to incorporate these new gods by adding them to the pantheon as is

or combining them with an existing Roman god.

Acquiring this pax deorum was absolutely essential to the welfare of Rome,

so religious life went hand in hand with politics.

It was similar to the Chinese concept of the Mandate of Heaven:

if they lost the divine double thumbs up, their empire would crumble, and nobody wanted that.

(Well, nobody Roman.)

It's not that the church and state weren't separated,

it's that the church was the state.

Now baby Christianity was very much the opposite,

in that instead of trying to blend into the Roman pantheon and the politics thereof,

Christianity insisted that it remained separate, distinct, and unique.

To put it simply, the premise of holding on to their unified identity above all else

is single-handedly the reason for Christianity's staggering success as well as the reason for nearly all of the problems

it would have throughout history and even today.

Now Rome was no slouch when it came to religious toleration, believe it or not.

Most Romans partook in what we call mystery religions — groups that met to practice quasi-secret rites

in order to worship particular gods – and there were tons of them.

Think of any pagan god. There was probably a mystery cult specifically for them.

And Rome was eventually more or less on board with it because the Romans knew that no matter

what a citizen did or which god a citizen worshipped the most in private,

when it came to them as a collective of citizens they were always on board with the full Roman pantheon

and were right there helping Rome keep its precious pax deorum.

Now here's the trick.

Christianity's desire to be separate and do their own religious thing apart from Roman state

helps explain why the Christians were so fiercely prosecuted.

If Christians didn't conform to the Roman religion,

or at least accept it in addition to their own personal devotion to Christ,

Rome saw itself as being robbed of pax deorum and as a result doomed to fail.

Most of us today will agree that persecuting a religion or its people simply for their beliefs is totally wrong,

but if you look at it through Rome's perspective, it does make sense why they saw Christianity as such a threat to their state.

From their perspective, just by holding on to their beliefs,

Christianity was disrespecting the very gods that let Rome maintain its empire at all.

So this led to a slew of persecutions throughout the next few centuries,

but no matter how hard Rome tried, Christianity didn't stop.

In fact, persecution probably made Christianity even stronger.

It's that whole martyr thing at the core of the religion. Think of it as

"If Jesus died for our sins, we need to hold fast to our belief in him, despite how badly we're being persecuted.

He suffered through it and so can we."

There are certainly a multitude of things about Christianity that were appealing,

and the afterlife is for sure on that list,

but Christianity may have struck where other religions failed because of its emphasis on overcoming challenges

through unity and the strength of faith in the face of open persecution.

All this was going on for a few hundred years;

the New Testament is slowly getting codified as Christianity tries to figure out exactly what it is.

The main conflict was between the influences of Judaism and Hellenism.

Jesus was Jewish and so are most of his early followers.

Christianity was originally very much an offshoot of Judaism, and that's no surprise

since there were a whole bunch of them running around at the time,

like those guys who made the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Anyway, it's kind of why the Hebrew Bible ended up becoming the Old Testament.

Christianity was, at least way back then, fundamentally Jewish,

and was building on a solid framework of Jewish beliefs.

The problem was that there was also a heavy push to be more Greek.

If you look at the places where Paul sends his letters about how great Jesus was,

you'll notice that more than half of them are Greek places,

and of course Greek was the common language of the eastern Mediterranean world thanks to our old friend Alexander the Great.

But that's another story entirely.

To solve this vexing problem about where to go and what to do,

the early church took the bold stance of "¿porque no los dos?" and made itself Greek and Jewish.

That's probably one reason why the final codified version of the New Testament has four gospels,

each written as to appeal to a somewhat different group of people.

The gospels are almost a choose-your-own-adventure of religious teaching.

Matthew spoke to the Jews by relating everything back to Hebrew scripture

and showing how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy and laws.

Mark spoke to the Romans by emphasizing Jesus's actions as a leader to appeal to their whole imperialistic thing.

Luke spoke to the Greeks by playing to their culture's desire to live a happy and erudite life,

and the gospel of John from earlier speaks to all audiences,

but takes a hard right turn into serious platonic philosophy

to show how Jesus was the divine reason itself incarnate.

In fact, in Christianity's first 500 years the vast majority of theology we see

is profoundly influenced by Greek philosophy, and specifically Plato,

and the importance he places on the Word – otherwise, you know, speech – Logos in the Greek – reason.

According to John, Jesus is the physical manifestation of this divine reason.

But to get back to one of our questions from the beginning,

how was the Word both God and with God?

That's where the second big conflict comes in. Is the church to be Trinitarian or not?

That is, are God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit the same thing,

or is Jesus just a prophet sent by a God who was not actually his father?

Here we see another geographical split.

While the fight between leaning towards Greek or Jewish influence was more or less east to west,

this Trinitarian split was more north to south.

It's all because of an early theologian by the name of Arius, whose advocacy of non-Trinitarian theology

inspired a Gothic Christian missionary named Ulfilas to spread non-Trinitarian Christianity all around the Germanic tribes.

Most of Southern Europe remained firmly Trinitarian.

Non-Trinitarian Christianity, however, was a home run in the north, and

brushing over a number of historical hiccups for the sake of time,

a decent number of people were converted from both Paganism and non-Trinitarianism

into Trinitarian Catholicism in a few centuries. Speaking of which, side note,

the word "catholic" comes from the Greek words meaning "universal".

With that, let's jump back in time to Rome.

While all these philosophical debates were going on,

Christianity was gaining ground within the Roman empire.

The first big example of this is Constantine, who was born a pagan but raised by a Christian mother.

Now Constantine wasn't born as the heir to the whole empire.

He had to earn that particular title by fighting one of Rome's very peculiar 4-way civil wars

which happened every now and again throughout the 3rd and 4th centuries.

The night before a battle with the ruler of one such fourth of the empire which contained Italy and North Africa,

Constantine had a dream in which he was instructed to paint the Christian Chi-Rho symbol,

the first two Greek letters of Christ, onto his army's shields,

so he did and they won and in 313 he delivered the edict of Milan

which legalized Christianity within the empire. So at this point paganism was still in charge

but Constantine effectively said that Christianity can contribute to securing the pax deorum too.

And this makes sense because, from Constantine's perspective, Christianity absolutely delivered pax deorum

by helping him win this battle and unite the empire.

The important distinction to note here is that this decree only indicated Rome's tolerance for Christianity.

It didn't become the official state religion until the emperor Theodosius made it so in 380 CE.

From this point on my historical command becomes foggier and events stop happening quite as fast

so the rest of this history will be in more of a vignette style.

Since Christianity was now the official religion of the empire, it needed a new Roman makeover, so it would fit.

This is the part where Christmas probably gets co-opted into one of at least two pre-existing Roman festivals.

The evidence isn't all there but the seasonal and thematic correspondences are hard to miss.

Since historians actually have no original evidence at all that Jesus was born on December 25th,

or any day for that matter, the Saturnalia and Sol Invictus festivals are our best bets for which ones got linked in.

Our friend Theodosius made the brilliant decision to split the empire between his two sons,

which had only been the cause of, oh, about, I don't know, like five civil wars in the past century.

[sigh]

It's not been a winning strategy so far by any stretch,

but since it didn't immediately blow up in everyone's face

I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

While the empire was getting irrevocably cleaved between east and west,

the church has slowly but surely been drifting farther apart along those same lines for centuries.

There really is no way to properly simplify this,

but I also don't want to get on too much of a tangent here.

Suffice to say that any ideology will tend to conform to the culture it inhabits with time.

In the case of Christianity the Roman west ended up taking it in a different direction than the predominantly Greek east.

Differences ultimately involved issues like how monks should cut their hair,

how to calculate when Easter should be celebrated and the more complex question of Jesus's nature.

Was it all divine or both human and divine?

That is, was it in Jesus's very nature to be able to sin?

On one side, the monophysites – Greek for "one nature" – they said no,

it's only divine, it was impossible for Jesus to sin.

The other side said that Jesus's nature was both human and divine, so he could sin, but didn't.

Debates like this were all the rage in the first millennium of Christianity

and most of them ended up with one brand of Christianity being deemed unorthodox

which means they were anathematized, expelled from the church,

and in effect condemned to burn in the eternal fires of hell.

Reminds me of middle school.

And remember, this is all just for having a different point of view than the central church did.

The church took maintaining a uniform orthodoxy very seriously, but I mean, hey, whatever floats your ark, man.

[bird chirping]

I thought that joke was hilarious.

The split between the eastern and western churches grew and grew and grew

until they were so separate that both sides stopped responding to the other's text messages entirely.

This mutually assured silent treatment is known as the Great Schism of 1054,

the point where the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches split up for good.

You know the saying, if you can't beat them, pretend like they don't exist.

When the split happened a young boy named Odo was 12 years old.

Fast forward 14 years and our little Odo became Pope Urban II.

Three years into his papacy he saw a golden opportunity to end this recently formed schism.

The Byzantine empire had lost a major battle along with a sizable portion of Anatolia.

It's important to note here that the church in the west

had formed what's called the Papal States in central Italy in 754,

which was really just a formal recognition of the political power

the pope had enjoyed in the region for over a century already.

What this means is that just like our old Roman government that saw church and state as one entity,

the papacy in the seventh odd century had become as much a political position as it was a religious one.

The pope was running the civic business in Rome for some time at this point in history

and it had also since picked up a nice little swath of territory.

If you ask me, I think it's actually really neat to see the Catholic Church emulating Rome in this way.

Back to the point.

Pope Urban saw a brilliant opportunity to help out the Byzantines and get their land back for them

in the hope that Byzantium would recognize the benefits of sticking with the pope and Catholicism

and that all that business of splitting off was just a phase.

Basically Urban wanted to do the Byzantines a solid favor

and have the Orthodox church repay it by running right back into the pope's loving arms.

This "favor" lasted for a few hundred years, and we today call it the Crusades.

You may recall that Dante's Inferno devotes several passages solely to bemoaning the state of the church.

– For those keeping score, that's so far a handful of popes and one major city

that Dante's blaming for the sorry state of the church.

– Well, tellingly, another two hundred years later we have the Borgias, the holiest of holy families.

(He said overly sarcastically.)

And given that little tangle of a family tree can be considered devout,

it is no surprise that at this point in history enough people are bothered by not just the Church's debauchery,

but the heavy politicking to do something drastic.

Cue Martin Luther.

Our pal Martin Luther's main objection to the church was the common practice of selling indulgences.

You can check out Red's series on Dante's Divine Comedy for more on this,

but the idea is that if you sinned, you can repay the church

to cut down on the amount of time your soul has to spend in purgatory before ascending to heaven.

Essentially, give the church money and your sins won't count.

Martin Luther thought this and a bunch of other stuff was way wrong,

but after he got no traction inside the church,

he set about creating his own offshoot branch of Christianity

that abstained from priestly hierarchies entirely and believed that everyone should read the Bible.

Since a lot of Europe was kind of thinking the same thing as Martin Luther,

and since the new invention of the printing press half a century before made large-scale communication a breeze,

protest-ant-ism — Protestantism as it was called, get it – spread rapidly through the north.

Soon enough you had entire communities, towns and cities rejecting hierarchies

and basking in their ability to all read the Bible together and come to their own conclusions.

This was all well and good until there were so many people coming up with their own interpretations

that each person believed was totally right

and that everyone else, especially Catholics, were obviously dead wrong,

and then you get fighting –

a lot of fighting.

Eventually small revolts here and there gave way to entire nations breaking away from the pope

and going on to do their own thing.

That means now proper armies are killing each other over religion.

Whoa, wait

Guys – aren't we all here because we love Jesus?

No?

You mean we have to make sure that our super-niche version of following and praising the same person as you

is the right one, and to prove it we'll literally kill you?

Or just kill you because we have political beef with you

and see this is a good enough time as any to take out our otherwise secular aggressions?

Yeah, seems legit.

In all seriousness, the absurdity we're seeing here is a byproduct of the very thing that let Christianity become

so powerful and widespread in the first place: the determination to hold to one's own beliefs

in the face of persecution and any external force that seeks to invalidate it.

See, it's an admirable concept and probably the reason it survived its early history,

but like anything rooted in stubbornness it leads to tension.

It was functionally a Christian civil war broke out

because all sides were so dead set on their own interpretation.

What you got was a collision between multiple immovable objects

and the end result was a lot of collateral damage.

It's also interesting to note that Christianity didn't inherit this trait from Judaism.

You see, an intrinsic part of the Jewish belief system was that the Torah was meant to be debated over.

It was almost its own form of worship for rabbis to just convene

and argue for hours at a time over the meaning of these texts.

I'll go into more detail when I cover Judaism in its own video,

but basically it was an accepted and fundamental part of the culture

to present individual interpretations of sacred texts and debate their respective merits

with the understanding that there was unlikely to be one right answer.

Now, to be fair, what Christianity did have was a system of ecumenical councils,

councils where bishops would gather to debate on matters of doctrine.

However at the end of each council the bishops would vote on which side would be adopted as the official belief.

So the proud tradition of debate lives on!

Sort of,

because at the end of the day Christianity is still pretty solidly rooted in that idea

that there's one interpretation of the texts, even if that one interpretation takes some discussion to get to.

That said, the verdict of the council was overturned now and again,

but this tradition of ecumenical councils nevertheless institutionalized the pursuit of one doctrine.

This is another iffy consequence of that same strength of belief

that carried Christianity through centuries of conflict, albeit sometimes self-induced.

It's the trade-off between strength and flexibility and Christianity is nothing if not strong.

Fortunately though, when you do get big huge multinational wars popping up over the issue,

eventually everyone gets it out of their system,

and by the turn of the 18th century

there was a huge outpouring of religious toleration from governments and between people,

because everyone just kind of got tired of killing each other over this.

Pretty much everyone walked away from the Reformation wars with the conclusion that

"Yeah, it was pretty terrible. I think I'm just gonna let those guys do their thing

and I'll go do my own thing in my own church. Good deal, good deal."

It's thanks to the fact that everyone calmed down and got on that whole diversity of thought bandwagon

that we ever got the Enlightenment in the following century at all,

which is almost universally accepted as being a very good thing.

People just stopped caring about everyone else's religion

and the public discourse and popular culture turned more to matters of politics, economics, sociology, science and philosophy,

which is why the Enlightenment was the intellectual powerhouse it was.

It's because of all this that we went back to the good old days,

you know, when wars were fought for sensible reasons

like politics

and territorial disputes and centuries-old grudges between two countries

that should probably just make up and kiss already.

You know, sensible reasons.

To recap our history.

Christianity survived the harshest possible circumstances under Roman persecution,

tailored their beliefs to appeal to multiple cultural demographics,

reconciled one doctrinal dispute but split the church over another

and capped it off with one big civil war of sorts.

After which everyone got along and lived happily ever after,

or maybe I just stopped caring after 1800, but who's keeping track?

Oh...

Hey, sophomore year high school European history class.

I totally remember you.

You're the one with the

wars

right?

Christianity had a hard time figuring itself out for one key reason.

Here's the thing.

You never see religions with belief systems as disparate as say, Judaism and Buddhism arguing with each other,

because, well, there's so little overlap between them to argue about in the first place.

It's compare and contrast instead of "I'm right, you're wrong".

When it's two competing sects of one religion, though, there are specific things to disagree on,

and you get much more pointed arguments, as we saw with Christianity, and as I touched on in Judaism,

though it's much less of a right-wrong binary there, but that's for its own reasons.

I like to think of it as an uncanny valley of religion.

It looks similar to ours, it acts similar to ours, but it's not.

It's somehow wrong.

And we want to fix those tiny little things so they can be right and be like us and we can all be happy together,

but they want to do the same thing to us because to them we're in the uncanny valley and we need to be fixed.

This is the fundamental unfortunate side effect of one of Christianity's greatest strengths,

for all the good it's done,

and please don't think I'm underselling the importance of the orphanages, schools, hospitals and medical missions

Christianity has consistently been a huge proponent of for centuries.

I think if we start from the platform that we all have a lot to learn about each other,

we can do way more good than if we just assume we already know everything about everything.

No one is completely right.

I think sometimes the only option is to agree to disagree on certain things and respect the other person's opinion.

It's not going to make everyone happy, because being disagreed with feels kinda ughh,

but being happy all the time is less important than being good to people.

Wasn't Jesus's big lesson all about occasionally turning the other cheek?

You know, love thy neighbor. Give a hoot, don't pollute. It's all right there in the gospels people, come on!

In summation,

Christianity has done a lot of amazing things for civilization in the past 2,000 years,

but to understand why and to make the most out of it

we need to learn how it succeeded and where it failed if we're to make progress now.

You know what they say about learning history,

right?

Well, what they usually say around this time of year is

"Oh, God, I need to learn three months worth of history or I'll fail this final"

which in its own way is a nice example of the whole doomed to repeating thing

But I digress

Anyway, now that all that is out of the way,

go and get back to playing with those gifts

you got from a fourth century saint with an affinity for women of the night

who dropped your presents down a shaft meant for fire.

Man, Christmas is weird.