Church history
Pivotal events and figures — the Council of Nicaea, the Reformation, the Crusades, the Great Schism — that shaped Christianity.
13 topics
Arius
Arius's teachings stirred such controversy that they led to the first ecumenical council in Christian history, the Council of Nicaea, held in 325 AD. Arius, …
Babylonian Exile
The Babylonian Exile began with three deportations across nineteen years. In 605 BC, after Nebuchadnezzar defeated Egypt at the Battle of Carchemish, he marc…
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church claims possession of one of the most storied relics of Judeo-Christian tradition: the Ark of the Covenant. According t…
Saint Charbel
Saint Charbel's body was found to be incorrupt decades after his death, drawing thousands of pilgrims annually to his tomb in Annaya, Lebanon. This phenomeno…
Second Temple Judaism
The discovery of The Dead Sea Scrolls in the 20th century uncovered an aspect of Jewish history: during the Second Temple period, there were multiple Jewish …
The Council of Nicaea
The Council of Nicaea was convened to settle theological disputes and to unify the Roman Empire under a single Christian doctrine. In 325 AD, Roman Emperor C…
The Crusades
The crusading movement did not end with the fall of Acre in 1291 but continued as papally sanctioned campaigns into the 18th century, targeting not only Musl…
The Dead Sea Scrolls
In 1947, a young Bedouin shepherd named Muhammad edh-Dhib was tending his flock near the cliffs of the Judean Desert. While searching for a lost goat, he fou…
The Didache
The Didache, one of the earliest Christian texts, was nearly included in the New Testament but was left out. Composed in the late first or early second centu…
The Great Schism
The Great Schism, the monumental division between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, arose partly from a disagreement over a single w…
The Inquisition
The Spanish Inquisition was not officially abolished until 1834, long after it had become largely inactive. The institution had already lost much of its infl…
The Papacy
The papacy was once so politically powerful that popes could excommunicate emperors and kings, effectively removing them from power. Belief in the pope as th…
The Reformation
The Reformation was a religious movement that accelerated the development of modern nation-states. During the 16th century, Europe's political landscape shif…