Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The spread of Christianity, from antiquity until today, on an animated map

openculture.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 146 posts

Re: The spread of Christianity, from antiquity until today, on an animated map

#91

Post by krapp »

pstuart wrote: post #71
whall6 wrote: post #4

What blew me away was the proliferation of the Church of the East. I never knew Christianity had that much of a foothold in Asia. I wonder if geographically it appears more significant due to that region’s sparse population?

Way back when I heard someone state that the reason Christianity spread so wildly was because it was foundational to proselytize and convert non-Christians to the faith. That makes complete sense to me. It's not like it was this passive meme that spread because people who encountered it loved it so much they wanted to join.

The reason Christianity spread so wildly is that Emperor Constantine found it more politically useful for Christians to die in his military than the lions den, so he put the military might of the Roman empire behind it. If not for Rome and the imperial powers that followed, Christianity would probably have died out like all of the other weird Jewish apocalypse cults of the day. We might all rather be Mithrainists or something.

Re: The spread of Christianity, from antiquity until today, on an animated map

#92

Post by lanfeust6 »

pstuart wrote: post #71
whall6 wrote: post #4

What blew me away was the proliferation of the Church of the East. I never knew Christianity had that much of a foothold in Asia. I wonder if geographically it appears more significant due to that region’s sparse population?

Way back when I heard someone state that the reason Christianity spread so wildly was because it was foundational to proselytize and convert non-Christians to the faith. That makes complete sense to me. It's not like it was this passive meme that spread because people who encountered it loved it so much they wanted to join.

That is one important aspect, but there are several to my mind

- Life in the bronze age was very rough, and quality of life in cities was basically inhumane. Women were highly represented among earliest converts, as Christianity comparatively was rather progressive and demanded baseline respect for them. Also, pagan religions of the time, despite cultural significance, didn't promise much of a payoff for plebeians for all their toil. Conversion was easy after Paul pushed the case that they shouldn't have to convert to Judaism, with all that would entail.

- Especially in the early days, this was very much a pacifist religion, in addition to having an apocalyptic fixation. To Rome, "Render therefore unto Cesar the things which are Cesar's" is a handy sentiment for the populace to have. They fought and won several uprisings just from the Jews who wanted their independence (and expected their forthcoming Savior would literally help deliver this), and the vast empire was beginning it's slow decline. Killing Christians and making martyrs out of them didn't make much sense in the long-run.

- There is a magic sauce in universalizing, it extends the shared culture within territories and makes it easier to convince people to wage war for you. Prior, the motivators were mainly tribal/blood connections, and money.

The Jews for their part were content with what they had, Christianity didn't provide much value-added, especially for the "zealots" who were ready to die for freedom. The "Love-thy-neighbor" sentiment is sort of similar to parts of Leviticus, but the cranked up pacifism and relaxed outlook over some rules was a departure. I think the "afterlife" bit was a lot more persuasive for gentiles. Then of course the rituals and conception in the collective consciousness evolved over time, from influences like Augustine and others.

By the time there was a true Christendom, powers that be dropped the (absolute) significance of pacifism, as that was no longer as useful as it was.

Re: The spread of Christianity, from antiquity until today, on an animated map

#94

Post by lanfeust6 »

cynicalpeace wrote: post #80

The low point of Christianity after the council of Nicaea was the "Dark Ages" (early middle ages) and the high point is circa 2000. The exact opposite of what we tend to think.

In terms of sheer numbers, or percentage of population?

Re: The spread of Christianity, from antiquity until today, on an animated map

#95

Post by matusp »

I find it interesting how slow the spread really was after the initial burst. I am used to think about Christianity as a global religion. But before 16th century it was a pretty regional thing and its position seemed pretty precarious in handful of moments.

Re: The spread of Christianity, from antiquity until today, on an animated map

#96

Post by ImJamal »

boston_clone wrote: post #89
dismalaf wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's because your education is western-centric and Islamic invasions took over the east. Eastern Christians have been subjected to genocide at the hands of Muslims for 1300 years. Edit - really, someone is asking for a citation that the Islamic conquests happened? Next should ask for a citation that the sky is blue... This is basic world history, like the discovery of the new world, Alexander the Great's conquest…

How can “genocide” apply to a voluntary religious group? And even if it could, the linked wikipedia article doesn’t seem to support your claim, either. Do you have anything else we could review?

Genocide, as defined by the UN, includes religious groups.

https://www.un.org/en/genocide-prevention/definition

Re: The spread of Christianity, from antiquity until today, on an animated map

#97

Post by gausswho »

acedia000 wrote: post #87
gausswho wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Critical thinking, by some boundaries of how you define it, was a threat to power that led to the many schisms the video demonstrates. Suppression of it I find to be endemic in monotheistic organized religions. As an outsider to Christianity, it's always seemed odd to me the fluid boundaries of what you can critique and what you can't while remaining faithful. Most Christians would argue you cannot reason your way to…

This is largely ignoring the fact that Manichaeism was uniformly and severely persecuted under virtually every empire (and respective theology, or lack thereof) it came into contact with, which the Wikipedia article portrays pretty thoroughly. Also, this is pretty ignorant of the fact that one of the most significant theological and philosophical movements of recent western history was the Reformation, which was spec…

I agree Manichaeism was persecuted, and not only for reasons I purport to be it hewing closer to reason. Fair play.

Also a valid argument about the Reformation. Although, by that point Christianity (via the Catholic variant) was so dominant in Europe that I daresay that it was suffering from centuries of too-big-to-fail and was ripe for disruption. Almost an IBM meeting its PC-clone moment. Which is not to dismiss that it was a profound effect upon world history. Rather that the Reformation was the backswing against a great degree of intellectual intolerance from Rome. That the Reformation succeeded doesn't negate the fundamental anti-reasoning bend of the Church at that time.

Re: The spread of Christianity, from antiquity until today, on an animated map

#99

Post by pyuser583 »

vattoli_porinju wrote: post #58
Guestmodinfo wrote: post #3

It is not fully correct because St Thomas, who was one of the twelve disciples landed in India and martyred here in India and that's why we have A large autonomous branch, known as the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (or Indian Orthodox Church), tracing its roots to St. Thomas the Apostle and has its headquarters in Kottayam, Kerala. We in India just call it Syrian Orthodox church. That part is not shown in the vide…

What you mentioned about the denomination is not exactly accurate. The st thomas christians or syrian christians or malankara nasranis in kerala or the malabar region, were part of church of east that follows east syriac liturgy. The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (or Indian Orthodox Church) that follows west syriac liturgy is a new church started out of a court case in the 19th century. So, in short, it's like: wa…

Why were hey called Jacobites? I associate the name with the Free Church of Scotland.

Re: The spread of Christianity, from antiquity until today, on an animated map

#100

Post by whatgoodisaroad »

dismalaf wrote: post #44
whall6 wrote: post #4

What blew me away was the proliferation of the Church of the East. I never knew Christianity had that much of a foothold in Asia. I wonder if geographically it appears more significant due to that region’s sparse population?

No, it's because your education is western-centric and Islamic invasions took over the east. Eastern Christians have been subjected to genocide at the hands of Muslims for 1300 years. Edit - really, someone is asking for a citation that the Islamic conquests happened? Next should ask for a citation that the sky is blue... This is basic world history, like the discovery of the new world, Alexander the Great's conquest…

the linked article describes military campaigns between state armies, not genocide
Post reply on HN