Crook/Single God, 3. History of Christianity

Christianity has been the largest religion in the world for over 1500 years, currently accounting for 31.5% of the global population, or 2.2 billion people, compared with 1.6 billion Muslims, and 14 million Jews. This chapter attempts to explain how a movement of fourth century Christ-followers scattered around the Mediterranean went on to become the largest of all religions in the world. First, we must establish how these groups of Christ-followers become Christianity, and from there we can discuss how the twists and turns of history, politics, geography, and piety combined to establish the wealth, power, unprecedented and unpredictable global presence of Christianity.