The Pros And Cons Of Western Christianity

Western Europe went through a lot changes through the 8th and 14th century it was the rise of the medieval culture.The Church started to gain power as Christianity started to gain popularity throughout all over Western Europe. Christianity had a lot of influence on the development of Romanesque and Gothic culture, as they took a lot of the ideas from Christianity and implemented it into theirs. As Western Europe went through all these different events the religious and political aspects started to change as well. The Church started to gain a lot of power as death was spreading all over Europe, people started to worry where their soul would go after their death. In the beginning of medieval Europe the aristocrats had a lot of the power while

The twentieth century was a time of great flux and anxiety in Europe as the supremacy of Christianity in Europe was being challenged by the fronts of biblical criticism, and evolution. According to Rev, Andrew Greeley, a social sciences professor at the University of Chicago, belief in God has increased in Russia and Hungary and decreased in Britain, the Netherlands, western Germany and France. Atheism thrives in eastern Germany, Russia, The Czech Republic and France. Interestingly though, most European countries report denominational affiliation.

The portrayal of Jesus Christ primarily originated as being a white man, beginning as an important component of the colonization process in the Americas to purposely establish the European and Caucasian

The positive influence of Christianity is far reaching especially in the rich history and culture of Western Civilization despite a long standing ignorance or adamant denial of its contributions. The Bible itself is responsible for much of the language, literature, and fine arts we enjoy today as its artists and composers were heavily influenced by its writings. Paul Maier, in writing the forward to the book How Christianity Changed the World by Alvin J. Schmidt, says this about the profound impact Christianity has had on the development of Western Civilization:

Christianity is one of the most influential religions on both ancient and modern Western society, with the religion based on the teachings of the prophet Jesus Christ who lived approximately between the years of 5 BC and 33 AD. It is claimed that Christ was the son of God whose spirit was embodied and sent to Earth as a human being to bring peace and prosperity to the less fortunate, and absolve the world of its sin. Jesus preached a doctrine of a supreme monotheistic god who ruled over the universe, as well as ethics and morals especially centred on the concept of faith and forgiveness. If one was to live their life in accordance to the Will of God and the teachings of Christ found in the written word of the Holy Bible, one would be absolved of their sin and ascend to the spiritual realm of God, known as Heaven, after their physical death.

Christianity began its succession into the most dominant worldwide religion after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days build another made without hands.” Upon Jesus’ death and resurrection, he completed this task setting forth the development of Christianity. Since Jesus left no formal authoritative power, organization, or agreed upon scriptures, a wide variety of sects gained popularity in the development of Christianity. Most of these sects were later deemed as heretic, one of the most notable being Gnosticism. Gnosticism was a dualist religion believing the material world evil and the invisible spirit realm good. This belief obligated Gnosticism to follow Docetic interpretations. Docetism is the belief that Jesus was never truly man but rather a divine from the spirit world. All forms of Christianity, however, believe Jesus is son of God sent as humanity’s savior from damnation. Docetism, along with other aspects of Gnosticism, drove other Christians condemn Gnosticism as heresy. Gnosticism, however, is more comparable to Canonical Christians than realized. Specifically, the distinction between Docetism and strict Canonical belief is not only insignificant but also justifiable due to Canonical contradictions surrounding Jesus’ existence.

Opie, this goes a lot deeper than your admiration or disdain for me or conservative Christians. I could care less if you find despicable what general Bible based Christianity has always taught on the subject. You couldn't shame me into abandoning the teachings of the Bible especially on the subject of sexual immortally, any sexual immortally especially sodomy if you slit your wrists in protest and died outside of my front door.

Christianity and the Roman Empire shared an important bond. Christianity offered the Roman Empire joy, hope, a shift in their world view, and a monotheistic God. Rome offered Christianity a more efficient way of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The single most important aspect of European empires, beginning just prior to the fall of Rome, is the spread of Christianity to all areas of the continent in as little as a few hundred years. Many theologians state that Christianities spread is the indirect influence of God and the adoration of people to one true faith. Though it is true that Christianity has brought about people that even atheists could call saints, it is unquestionable that Christianity was so monumental because it united larger groups of people and its spread is contributed to adherence to local customs and its lack of new ideas in comparison to other religions of the day.

In the follow-up interviews participants were asked what makes it difficult to be a Christian today. Below is a list of some of the reasons shared by participants.

Although Christians share in common a core set of beliefs that unite and uplift, there are trends in the religion that are proving divisive and even destructive. Evangelism is one trend that is polarizing, as it isolates Christians who have different beliefs about the role of Christianity in politics and modern social life. There are few trends in Christianity that are universally accepted, which is why nearly all trends can be considered divisive rather than unitary in nature. Ironically, many of the trends that are by definition unitary have the potential to create division because of the great schism emerging between evangelicals and others. One such trend is known as creation-centered Christianity or, more simply, creation-centered spirituality. Creation-centered spirituality is open-minded and liberal when compared with evangelical Christianity. Rather than espouse a literalist interpretation of scripture, creation-centered Christianity embraces multiple perspectives and points of view. Creation-centered Christianity values scripture as the Word of God without endeavoring to judge or police the masses. As Wade (1991) puts it, "a creation-centered Christianity sees God as the God of blessing, the God who only wants the best for humanity, rather than seeing God as a policeman in the sky, ready to hit you over the head with His truncheon or night stick when you step out of line."

Christianity was born and flourished in an empire where the common language was Latin and Greek. Two important people like Paul and Constantine further influenced and were a major part of the development of Christianity. The history of the Jews leading up to the time of Jesus had a major impact on the development of Christianity. “When Christianity was clearly identified as a distant religion, the new religion was considered by its members to be the fulfillment of Judaism rather than a new religion.” “Since Jesus was a Jew and preached to the Jews, Christianity was closely linked to Judaism.” The development of Christianity was due to several historical, political, and social circumstances.

The six watershed events that led to Christendom’s decline and the secularization of the West are as follows:

Moving on to the cultural issues, Christianity mainly in particular faces the problem of having certain holidays such as Christmas and Easter being secularized in the UK. These holidays which are held by Christians in the UK are now pagan holidays for all faiths by introducing figures such as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny respectively. As of today Christians are campaigning for Christmas and other religious holidays to be celebrated for what it really is according to BBC News (2012). When looking at Islamic festivals however, there are so little in comparison. Twice a year they have Eid. The social issue is that generally children have to attend school and people go to work as they are not considered public holidays. PRC (2014) states

On the surface, it may seem difficult to explain the gospel to someone from a particularistic culture, but it is not. Jesus expresses universalism in His love for us. It does not matter who we are, what our family background is, where we are from, what our occupation, or how much