Hansen/Curtis, 1/e, Ch



World History in Today's World: Snapshot of Christianity

This activity corresponds to the "World History in Today's World: Snapshot of Christianity" feature in your textbook. Once you have answered the Comprehension questions, submit your answers and move on to the subsequent questions included in the Analysis and Outside Sources sections. Each section is designed to build upon the one before it, taking you progressively deeper into the subject you are studying. After you have answered all of the questions, you will have the option of emailing your responses to your instructor.

Introduction

As you read in the "Snapshot of Christianity" feature in Chapter 7 of your textbook, Christianity is the world's largest religion, the center of which has shifted from the Mediterranean to Asia, Africa, and Latin America. This long process of expansion and movement began with a struggle for self-definition. During its youth in the Mediterranean world, Christianity worked to define itself institutionally and intellectually. To do so, early Christians sought to gain converts and organize believers, win the support of powerful people (such as the Roman emperor Constantine), and determine what constituted the official body of Scripture and scriptural interpretation. The latter process involved a long series of debates and choices about what to texts and ideas to include and exclude. Accepted texts became known as the cannon, and accepted ideas became doctrine. Excluded texts and ideas were labeled heretical and were often suppressed. The questions and links below will help you to learn more about how early Christianity established itself.

Comprehension

1. What are the largest denominational groupings within Christianity?

2. What percentage of Europeans identified themselves as Christian in 2000?

3. In 2000, where did most of the world's Christians live?

Analysis

1. Review "The Rise of Christianity, ca. 30–284 C.E." in Chapter 7 of your textbook. In what ways does Pentecostalism, the fastest-growing denomination in Africa, resemble early Christianity?

2. Review "Christianity in North Africa" in Chapter 7 of your textbook. What are the origins of the Copts of Egypt?

3. Review "Religious Changes of the Late Empire" in Chapter 7 of your textbook. Where do you think the center of the Eastern Orthodox Church is? What does the word "Orthodox" suggest about that church's view of itself in relation to other Christian churches?

Outside Sources

1. The four canonical gospels are those Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. However, several other gospels were produced during the decades after Jesus' death, gospels the early church chose to exclude from the New Testament. One of those is the Gospel of Thomas, which you can read at . How does this gospel portray Jesus and the teachings he offered?

Another non-canonical is the Gospel of Mary at

. What role does Mary play in her gospel?

2. An important debate in the early Christian Church was over the role that classical Greek philosophy should play in the understanding of Christina truth. Several theologians contributed to this debate, including Tertullian, who lived during the third century C.E. Read his discussion at . What is Tertullian's attitude toward classical learning and its relationship to Christianity?

3. The early church confronted a number of challenges to its doctrines from within the Christian community. One of those was Monatism. Learn more about this heresy at . Who was Monatus, and what were the basic principles of Monatism? How did the early church respond to them?

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