Christianity: a timeline and family tree

Pentecost in Jerusalem

After the death of Jesus, his followers proclaim that he has risen from the dead. The Book of Acts describes the apostles preaching in Jerusalem at the Jewish feast of Pentecost, and Christians date the beginning of the church to that day.

The BibleChurch History in Plain LanguagePeter the Apostle

The Council of Jerusalem

Apostles and elders meet in Jerusalem to decide whether Gentile (non-Jewish) believers must keep the Law of Moses, including circumcision. They decide that Gentiles do not need to be circumcised (Acts 15).

The BiblePaul the ApostlePeter the Apostle

Paul’s journeys and letters

The apostle Paul travels around the eastern Mediterranean founding churches and writes letters to them, such as Romans, Corinthians and Galatians. These letters are among the oldest writings in the New Testament.

The BiblePaul the Apostle

Persecution under Nero

After a great fire in Rome, the emperor Nero blames the Christians of the city and has many put to death. The Roman historian Tacitus records the event. Early Christian tradition holds that the apostles Peter and Paul were martyred in Rome in these years.

The Annals of Imperial RomeTacitusPeter the ApostlePaul the Apostle

Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem

Roman armies under Titus capture Jerusalem and destroy the Temple during the Jewish revolt. Josephus, a Jewish historian who was present, describes the war.

The Jewish WarFlavius Josephus

The Apostolic Fathers

Church leaders of the generation after the apostles write letters and handbooks: Clement of Rome writes to Corinth, Ignatius of Antioch writes seven letters on his way to martyrdom in Rome, and the Didache gives early instructions on baptism, prayer and the Lord’s Supper.

Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic FathersIgnatius of Antioch

Martyrdom of Polycarp

Polycarp, the elderly bishop of Smyrna, is put to death for refusing to offer incense to the emperor. The account of his death is one of the earliest Christian martyr stories outside the New Testament.

Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers

Justin Martyr’s First Apology

Justin, a philosopher who became a Christian, writes to the emperor Antoninus Pius to defend Christians against false charges. His First Apology includes the earliest full description of Christian Sunday worship. He is executed in Rome around 165.

Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic FathersThe First ApologyJustin Martyr

Irenaeus writes Against Heresies

Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon in Gaul, writes against the Gnostic teachers of his day. He appeals to the teaching handed down in churches founded by the apostles and to the four Gospels.

Against HeresiesIrenaeus of Lyon

Perpetua and Felicity

Perpetua, a young mother, and Felicity, an enslaved woman, are put to death with other new Christians in the amphitheatre at Carthage in North Africa. Perpetua’s prison diary, preserved in the Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, is among the earliest writings by a Christian woman.

The Passion of Perpetua and FelicityPerpetua and Felicity

Origen of Alexandria

Origen, the most learned Christian scholar of his age, sets out the faith as a system in On First Principles, compiles the Hexapla comparing versions of the Old Testament, and moves from Alexandria to Caesarea around 231. About 248 he answers the pagan philosopher Celsus; he is tortured in the persecution under Decius.

On First Principles (De Principiis)Against Celsus (Contra Celsum)Origen

Empire-wide persecutions

The emperor Decius orders everyone to sacrifice to the Roman gods in 250, and Diocletian begins the Great Persecution in 303. Some Christians are killed, and some give in; the church later debates how to receive back those who lapsed.

The History of the ChurchEusebius of Caesarea

Antony and the desert monks

Antony of Egypt gives away his possessions and goes to live as a hermit in the desert. Athanasius later writes his Life, which makes Antony a model for the monastic movement.

Early Christian LivesAthanasius of Alexandria

Armenia becomes a Christian kingdom

By tradition in 301, King Tiridates III of Armenia is baptized by Gregory the Illuminator, and Armenia becomes the first kingdom to adopt Christianity as its official faith.

Family tree: Armenian Apostolic Church

The Edict of Milan

The emperors Constantine and Licinius agree to tolerate Christianity and return church property. Eusebius of Caesarea, who lived through the persecutions, writes the first full history of the church.

The History of the ChurchConstantine the GreatEusebius of Caesarea

First Council of Nicaea

Constantine calls bishops to Nicaea to settle a dispute over the teaching of Arius, a priest who taught that the Son was created. The council affirms that the Son is “of one substance” with the Father and issues the first form of the Nicene Creed. It is counted as the first ecumenical (general) council.

The Early Christian CreedsOn the Incarnation of the WordConstantine the GreatAthanasius of AlexandriaEusebius of Caesarea

The New Testament list

In a letter for Easter, Athanasius of Alexandria lists the twenty-seven books of the New Testament that churches use today. Councils in North Africa approve the same list a few decades later.

The BibleAthanasius of Alexandria

Martin of Tours

Martin, a former Roman soldier remembered for sharing his cloak with a beggar, founds one of the first monasteries in Gaul and becomes bishop of Tours in 371. Sulpicius Severus writes his Life.

Life of St. MartinMartin of Tours

Christianity becomes the state religion

The emperor Theodosius I declares the faith of the Nicene Creed the official religion of the Roman Empire.

First Council of Constantinople

The second ecumenical council confirms the faith of Nicaea and expands the creed, affirming that the Holy Spirit is “worshipped and glorified” with the Father and the Son. The Cappadocian Fathers, Basil the Great and the two Gregories, had shaped this teaching.

The Early Christian CreedsOn the Making of ManBasil the GreatGregory of Nyssa

Augustine’s Confessions and City of God

Augustine, bishop of Hippo in North Africa, writes the Confessions, the story of his conversion told as a prayer, and later the City of God after the sack of Rome in 410. His writings shape Western theology for centuries.

ConfessionsCity of GodHomilies on the Gospel of JohnAugustine of Hippo

John Chrysostom in Constantinople

John, a famous preacher from Antioch later nicknamed Chrysostom (“golden mouth”), becomes archbishop of Constantinople. His sermons and the liturgy that bears his name are still used in Orthodox churches.

Homilies on the StatuesJohn Chrysostom

Council of Ephesus

The third ecumenical council rejects the teaching of Nestorius and affirms that Mary may be called Theotokos, “God-bearer,” because her son is one person who is truly God. The Church of the East, in the Persian Empire, does not accept the council and develops separately.

The Early Christian CreedsFamily tree: Church of the East

Patrick in Ireland

Patrick, a Briton once carried off to Ireland as a slave, returns as a missionary bishop. His Confession and Letter are the earliest writings from the Irish church.

St. Patrick's WritingsSaint Patrick

Council of Chalcedon

The fourth ecumenical council teaches that Christ is one person “in two natures,” fully God and fully human, drawing on a letter (the Tome) of Pope Leo I. Many Christians in Egypt, Syria and Armenia do not accept the council; their churches become the Oriental Orthodox family.

The Early Christian CreedsFamily tree: Oriental Orthodox churches

The end of the Western Roman Empire

The last emperor in the West is removed from power. In the West, bishops and monasteries keep learning alive, while the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire continues from Constantinople. In Italy the Christian philosopher Boethius writes The Consolation of Philosophy in prison (c. 524).

The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000The Consolation of PhilosophyBoethius

Benedict and Monte Cassino

Benedict of Nursia founds the monastery of Monte Cassino in Italy. His Rule, built around prayer, work and study, becomes the standard guide for monks in the Latin West.

The Rule of St BenedictBenedict of Nursia

Hagia Sophia dedicated

The emperor Justinian dedicates the great church of Hagia Sophia (“Holy Wisdom”) in Constantinople. It is the largest church in the Christian world for nearly a thousand years.

Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval EmpireThe New Roman Empire: A History of ByzantiumJustinian I

Gregory the Great sends missionaries to England

Gregory I becomes bishop of Rome in 590. In 597 the monks he sent, led by Augustine of Canterbury, arrive in Kent. Bede later tells the story in his history of the English church.

Ecclesiastical History of the English PeopleGregory the GreatBede

Christianity reaches China

A missionary of the Church of the East named Alopen arrives at the Tang court in Chang’an (modern Xi’an). A stone monument set up there in 781 records the mission.

Family tree: Church of the East

Synod of Whitby

Church leaders in Northumbria decide to follow the Roman way of dating Easter rather than the Irish custom. At nearby Whitby Abbey the cowherd Cædmon composes the earliest known English Christian poem, and other Old English religious poems such as The Dream of the Rood follow.

Ecclesiastical History of the English PeopleCædmon's HymnThe Dream of the RoodBedeCædmon

The icon controversy

Byzantine emperors order icons (holy images) removed from churches. The Second Council of Nicaea in 787, the seventh ecumenical council, affirms that icons may be honored. The dispute ends in 843, a day Orthodox churches still keep as the Triumph of Orthodoxy.

Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval EmpireAn Exact Exposition of the Orthodox FaithJohn of Damascus

Charlemagne crowned emperor

Pope Leo III crowns the Frankish king Charlemagne emperor in Rome on Christmas Day. Charlemagne supports schools, copying of manuscripts and church reform across his empire.

Two Lives of CharlemagneCharlemagneEinhardNotker the Stammerer

Cyril and Methodius go to the Slavs

Two brothers from Thessalonica begin a mission to Great Moravia. They create an alphabet for the Slavic language and translate Scripture and the liturgy into it.

Cyril and Methodius

The baptism of Kievan Rus’

Prince Vladimir of Kiev is baptized and brings Byzantine Christianity to his people. This is the starting point of the Orthodox churches of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia.

Family tree: Eastern Orthodox Church

The Great Schism

Envoys of the pope and the patriarch of Constantinople exchange excommunications. The deeper disagreements concern the authority of the pope and the word filioque (“and the Son”) added to the creed in the West. The break between Catholic and Orthodox churches hardens in the centuries after.

Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval EmpireThe New Roman Empire: A History of ByzantiumFamily tree: Roman Catholic Church

The First Crusade

Pope Urban II calls on Western knights to aid the Byzantine Empire and take Jerusalem. Crusaders capture the city in 1099. The Byzantine princess Anna Komnene describes the crusaders’ arrival in her history, and the Syrian Muslim nobleman Usama ibn Munqidh later writes about life alongside the crusader states.

The AlexiadMemoirs of Usama ibn MunqidhAnna KomneneUsama ibn Munqidh

Anselm and faith seeking understanding

Anselm, a monk of Bec and later archbishop of Canterbury, writes the Proslogion and Why God Became Man, using careful reasoning to explain Christian belief.

ProslogionAnselm of Canterbury

Bernard and the Cistercians

Bernard founds the abbey of Clairvaux, and the Cistercian order of monks, devoted to a strict keeping of Benedict’s Rule, spreads across Europe. Bernard is also a famous preacher and writer. In Germany the Benedictine abbess Hildegard of Bingen writes on her visions, music and medicine.

Sermons on the Song of SongsBernard of ClairvauxHildegard of Bingen

Thomas Becket killed at Canterbury

Archbishop Thomas Becket is killed in his cathedral after a long quarrel with King Henry II over the rights of the church. His shrine becomes the goal of pilgrims like those in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

St. Thomas Becket and the Canterbury MiraclesThe Canterbury TalesThomas BecketGeoffrey Chaucer

Valdes and the Waldensians

Valdes, a merchant of Lyon, gives away his wealth and begins preaching in the language of the people. His followers, the Waldensians, are condemned but survive in the Alps and later join the Reformed churches.

Family tree: Waldensians

Crusaders sack Constantinople

Knights of the Fourth Crusade capture and plunder Constantinople, a Christian city. The event deepens the divide between Eastern and Western Christians.

Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade and the Conquest of ConstantinopleGeoffrey de Villehardouin

Francis, Dominic and the friars

Pope Innocent III approves the way of life of Francis of Assisi and his brothers, who live in poverty and preach. Dominic founds the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) in 1216. Bonaventure later leads the Franciscans.

Early Franciscan SourcesThe Golden Legend: Popular SaintsThe Journey of the Mind into GodFrancis of AssisiBonaventure

Thomas Aquinas writes the Summa

Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican friar and teacher at the University of Paris, writes the Summa Theologica, joining Christian teaching with the philosophy of Aristotle. It becomes a standard text of Catholic theology.

Summa TheologicaDe RegnoThomas Aquinas

Dante’s Divine Comedy

Dante Alighieri writes his poem of a journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise, a summary in verse of the medieval Christian picture of the world.

The Divine ComedyDe Monarchia (with R. W. Church's essay on Dante)Dante Alighieri

The Western Schism

After the popes return to Rome from Avignon, rival claimants to the papacy are elected, and for a time three men claim the office. The Council of Constance ends the division in 1417. Catherine of Siena had urged the pope’s return to Rome.

Catherine of Siena

Wycliffe and the English Bible

John Wycliffe, an Oxford teacher, criticizes the wealth and power of the clergy. His followers produce the first complete Bible in English, translated from Latin.

John Wycliffe

Jan Hus burned at Constance

The Czech preacher Jan Hus, influenced by Wycliffe, is condemned by the Council of Constance and burned. His followers in Bohemia later form the Unity of the Brethren (1457), the ancestor of the Moravian Church.

Jan HusFamily tree: Moravian Church (Unity of the Brethren)

The Imitation of Christ

In the Netherlands, followers of the Devotio Moderna (Modern Devotion) seek a simple, practical inner life of prayer. The Imitation of Christ, traditionally credited to Thomas à Kempis, becomes one of the most widely read Christian books.

The Imitation of ChristThomas à KempisFamily tree: Roman Catholic Church

The trial of Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc is tried by a church court and executed. A later inquiry overturns the verdict in 1456, and she is declared a saint in 1920.

The Trial of Joan of ArcSaint JoanJoan of Arc

The fall of Constantinople

Ottoman forces under Sultan Mehmed II capture Constantinople, ending the Byzantine Empire. Hagia Sophia becomes a mosque. The Orthodox Church continues under Ottoman rule, and Moscow later becomes a leading Orthodox center.

The Fall of Constantinople, 1453: Eyewitness AccountsThe Fall of Constantinople, 1453

The Gutenberg Bible

Johannes Gutenberg prints a Latin Bible with movable metal type at Mainz. Printing will soon spread Bibles, sermons and pamphlets across Europe.

Johannes Gutenberg

Erasmus publishes the Greek New Testament

The humanist scholar Erasmus publishes the first printed Greek New Testament, with a new Latin translation. Reformers such as Luther and Tyndale use it for their own translations.

On Free Will (De Libero Arbitrio)Desiderius Erasmus

Luther’s Ninety-five Theses

On 31 October 1517 Martin Luther, a monk and professor at Wittenberg, sends his Ninety-five Theses against the sale of indulgences. The debate that follows begins the Protestant Reformation.

Selected Sermons and Reformation TreatisesMartin LutherFamily tree: Lutheran churches

The Leipzig Disputation

Luther and Andreas Karlstadt debate Johann Eck at Leipzig. Luther argues that popes and councils can err.

The Leipzig DisputationMartin LutherJohann EckAndreas Karlstadt

The Diet of Worms and Luther’s German Bible

Luther refuses to take back his writings before the emperor Charles V at Worms. While in hiding at the Wartburg castle, he translates the New Testament into German; it is published in 1522.

Selected Sermons and Reformation TreatisesMartin Luther

Zwingli’s reform in Zurich

Huldrych Zwingli, a priest in Zurich, wins the city council’s support for reform at a public disputation. This is a starting point of the Reformed tradition.

Huldrych ZwingliFamily tree: Reformed churches

Erasmus and Luther on free will

Erasmus writes On Free Will, and Luther replies with The Bondage of the Will. The debate shows the gap between Catholic humanists and the Protestant reformers.

On Free Will (De Libero Arbitrio)The Bondage of the Will (De Servo Arbitrio)Desiderius ErasmusMartin Luther

The first Anabaptists

On 21 January 1525, a group of Zwingli’s former students in Zurich baptize one another as adults, believing baptism should follow a personal confession of faith. Opponents call them Anabaptists (“re-baptizers”). Their Schleitheim Confession follows in 1527.

Martyrs Mirror: SelectionsFamily tree: Anabaptists

Tyndale’s English New Testament

William Tyndale’s English New Testament, translated from Greek, is printed at Worms and smuggled into England. Tyndale is executed near Brussels in 1536; much of his wording later passes into the King James Version.

William Tyndale

The Augsburg Confession

Lutheran princes present a statement of their faith, written mainly by Philip Melanchthon, to the emperor at Augsburg. It remains the chief confession of Lutheran churches.

The Augsburg ConfessionPhilip MelanchthonFamily tree: Lutheran churches

Henry VIII and the Church of England

After the pope refuses to annul his marriage, Henry VIII has Parliament name the king Supreme Head of the Church in England. Thomas More refuses to accept this and is executed in 1535.

UtopiaHenry VIIIThomas MoreFamily tree: Anglican churches

Calvin in Geneva

John Calvin publishes the first edition of his Institutes of the Christian Religion in 1536 and leads the church in Geneva. His final Latin edition appears in 1559. Geneva becomes a center for Reformed churches across Europe.

Institutes of the Christian ReligionSelected SermonsJohn CalvinFamily tree: Reformed churches

Menno Simons joins the Anabaptists

Menno Simons, a Dutch priest, leaves the Catholic Church and becomes a leader of the peaceful Anabaptists of the Netherlands and northern Germany, who come to be called Mennonites.

Martyrs Mirror: SelectionsMenno SimonsFamily tree: Mennonites

The Society of Jesus

Pope Paul III approves the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), founded by Ignatius of Loyola. Jesuits become known for their schools and for missions in Asia and the Americas.

Ignatius of LoyolaFamily tree: Roman Catholic Church

The Council of Trent

The Catholic Church meets at Trent in northern Italy to answer the Protestant reformers and reform its own life. The council defines Catholic teaching on Scripture and tradition, justification and the sacraments, and calls for seminaries to train priests.

Family tree: Roman Catholic Church

The Book of Common Prayer

Archbishop Thomas Cranmer prepares the first Book of Common Prayer, putting the worship of the Church of England into English. A revised edition of 1662 is still used today.

The Book of Common Prayer (1662): SelectionsThomas CranmerFamily tree: Anglican churches

Latimer and Ridley burned at Oxford; the Peace of Augsburg

Under Queen Mary I, the Protestant bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley are burned at Oxford. In Germany the Peace of Augsburg lets each prince choose whether his lands will be Lutheran or Catholic.

Selected SermonsFoxe's Book of MartyrsHugh LatimerThomas Cranmer

The Elizabethan Settlement

Elizabeth I restores a Protestant Church of England with a revised Prayer Book. The Thirty-Nine Articles (final form 1571) set out its teaching, Richard Hooker later defends its laws and worship, and Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene tells a Protestant allegory of holiness.

Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (Preface and Book I)Speech to the Troops at TilburyThe Faerie Queene, Book IElizabeth IEdmund SpenserRichard HookerFamily tree: Anglican churches

The Scottish Reformation

The Scottish Parliament adopts a Reformed confession of faith prepared by John Knox and others. The Church of Scotland is governed by elders and assemblies rather than bishops, the pattern called Presbyterian.

John KnoxFamily tree: Presbyterian churches

Teresa of Ávila’s reform

Teresa of Ávila founds a small convent of Carmelite nuns devoted to prayer and simplicity. With John of the Cross she reforms the Carmelite order, and her writings become classics of prayer.

The Life of St. Teresa of JesusThe Dark Night of the SoulTeresa of ÁvilaJohn of the CrossFamily tree: Roman Catholic Church

The Heidelberg Catechism

A catechism in question-and-answer form is written for the Palatinate in Germany. It becomes one of the most widely used teaching documents of the Reformed churches.

The Heidelberg CatechismFamily tree: Reformed churches

The first Baptist church

English Separatists in Amsterdam led by John Smyth and Thomas Helwys begin baptizing believers only. Helwys returns to found the first Baptist church in England in 1612.

Family tree: Baptists

The King James Version

Scholars appointed under James I complete a new English translation of the Bible. The King James (Authorized) Version shapes English-speaking churches and literature for centuries.

The BiblePsalm 23

The Synod of Dort

A Reformed synod in the Dutch Republic answers the followers of Jacobus Arminius, who had questioned Calvinist teaching on predestination. The debate between Calvinist and Arminian views continues among Protestants.

Family tree: Reformed churches

Pilgrims and Puritans in New England

Separatist Pilgrims sign the Mayflower Compact before landing at Plymouth in 1620. Ten years later John Winthrop leads Puritans to Massachusetts Bay, describing their colony as “a city upon a hill.”

The Mayflower CompactA Model of Christian CharityJohn WinthropFamily tree: Congregationalists

Poets of the English church

John Donne, dean of St Paul’s in London, preaches and writes religious poems. George Herbert, a country parson, writes the poems of The Temple, published in 1633 after his death.

Sermons and Devotions upon Emergent OccasionsHoly Sonnet X: "Death, be not proud"The CollarThe Lives of Richard Hooker, George Herbert and Robert SandersonJohn DonneGeorge HerbertIzaak WaltonFamily tree: Anglican churches

The Westminster Confession; the end of the religious wars

An assembly at Westminster writes a confession and catechisms that become the standards of Presbyterian churches. In the same years John Milton argues for a free press in Areopagitica (1644), and in 1648 the Peace of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years’ War.

AreopagiticaThe Westminster Shorter CatechismJohn MiltonFamily tree: Presbyterian churches

George Fox and the Quakers

George Fox gathers followers in the north of England who seek the “inward light” of Christ and worship in silence without clergy. They call themselves the Religious Society of Friends. William Penn, a Quaker, founds Pennsylvania in 1681.

The Journal of John WoolmanThe Journal of George FoxNo Cross, No CrownJohn WoolmanGeorge FoxWilliam PennFamily tree: Quakers (Religious Society of Friends)

Pascal’s Pensées

The French mathematician Blaise Pascal leaves notes for a defense of Christianity, published after his death as the Pensées.

PenseesBlaise Pascal

Paradise Lost and The Pilgrim’s Progress

John Milton publishes Paradise Lost. John Bunyan, a Baptist preacher, is imprisoned for preaching without a license and writes The Pilgrim’s Progress, published in 1678.

Paradise LostGrace Abounding to the Chief of SinnersThe Pilgrim's ProgressJohn MiltonJohn BunyanFamily tree: Baptists

German Pietism

Philipp Jakob Spener’s Pia Desideria calls Lutherans to Bible study in small groups and a warmer personal faith. Pietism influences the Moravians and, through them, John Wesley.

Family tree: Pietism

The Practice of the Presence of God

The conversations and letters of Brother Lawrence, a lay brother who worked in a Paris monastery kitchen, are published after his death.

The Practice of the Presence of GodBrother Lawrence

The Amish

Jakob Ammann leads a group that separates from the Swiss Brethren over church discipline. His followers, the Amish, later settle in Pennsylvania.

Wisconsin v. YoderFamily tree: Amish

Isaac Watts’s hymns

Isaac Watts, an English Congregationalist minister, publishes Hymns and Spiritual Songs. His hymns, such as When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, help change church singing in English from metrical psalms to new hymns.

Hymns and Spiritual SongsIsaac WattsFamily tree: Congregationalists

The Moravian renewal at Herrnhut

Refugees descended from the old Unity of the Brethren settle on Count Zinzendorf’s estate at Herrnhut in Saxony. After a renewal in 1727 they begin sending missionaries around the world.

Family tree: Moravian Church (Unity of the Brethren)

John Wesley and the Methodists

On 24 May 1738 John Wesley, an Anglican priest, feels his “heart strangely warmed” at a meeting in Aldersgate Street, London. He and his brother Charles organize Methodist societies inside the Church of England.

Sermons on Several Occasions and Primitive PhysickJohn WesleyGeorge WhitefieldCharles WesleyFamily tree: Methodists

The Great Awakening

Revivals spread through the American colonies and Britain. Jonathan Edwards preaches “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” in 1741, and George Whitefield preaches to huge outdoor crowds on both sides of the Atlantic.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and A Faithful NarrativeSelected SermonsJonathan EdwardsGeorge Whitefield

Bach’s Passions and Handel’s Messiah

Johann Sebastian Bach, a Lutheran church musician in Leipzig, composes the St John and St Matthew Passions in the 1720s. Handel’s oratorio Messiah, with words from Scripture, is first performed in Dublin in 1742.

Johann Sebastian BachGeorge Frideric Handel

John Newton and the Olney Hymns

John Newton, a former slave-ship captain who became an Anglican clergyman, publishes the Olney Hymns with the poet William Cowper. The collection includes Amazing Grace. Newton later writes against the slave trade.

Olney HymnsJohn NewtonFamily tree: Anglican churches

The Methodist Episcopal Church

After American independence, Methodist preachers meet in Baltimore at the Christmas Conference and organize the Methodist Episcopal Church, with Francis Asbury as a leader.

Family tree: Methodists

Religious freedom in America

Virginia passes Jefferson’s Statute for Religious Freedom in 1786, and the First Amendment (1791) forbids Congress to establish a religion. The American Episcopal Church organizes in 1789.

The Virginia Statute for Religious FreedomThomas JeffersonFamily tree: Episcopal Church (United States)

Richard Allen, Absalom Jones and the Black church

Richard Allen and Absalom Jones found the Free African Society in Philadelphia in 1787. Jones becomes the first Black Episcopal priest, and Allen founds Bethel Church, which becomes the mother church of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in 1816.

Early Black Church Sermons and AddressesA Narrative of the Proceedings of the Black People During the Late Awful Calamity in PhiladelphiaThe Life, Experience, and Gospel Labours of the Rt. Rev. Richard AllenAbsalom JonesRichard AllenFamily tree: African Methodist Episcopal churches

William Carey and the modern missions movement

William Carey, an English Baptist shoemaker and pastor, helps found the Baptist Missionary Society and sails for India in 1793. Many new mission societies follow; the Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone later travels across Africa for the London Missionary Society.

An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the HeathensDavid LivingstoneWilliam CareyFamily tree: Baptists

The Second Great Awakening

A great camp meeting at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, in 1801 begins a wave of American revivals. Charles Finney becomes the best-known revival preacher; Methodists and Baptists grow rapidly.

Lectures on Revivals of ReligionCharles Finney

Christians against the slave trade

William Wilberforce, an evangelical member of Parliament, leads the campaign that ends Britain’s slave trade in 1807; slavery is abolished in most of the British Empire in 1833. Quakers such as John Woolman had spoken out earlier.

The Journal of John WoolmanWilliam WilberforceJohn WoolmanJohn Newton

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Joseph Smith organizes a church in New York State in 1830, teaching that the church founded by Jesus had been lost and was being restored. Its members follow the Book of Mormon along with the Bible. It does not accept the creeds of Nicaea and Chalcedon.

Family tree: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Stone-Campbell movement

Followers of Barton Stone and of Thomas and Alexander Campbell, who wanted to restore the simple pattern of the New Testament church, unite in 1832. Their movement gives rise to the Churches of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Family tree: Stone-Campbell (Restoration) churches

The Oxford Movement

Anglican clergy at Oxford, among them John Keble and John Henry Newman, call the Church of England back to its ancient and Catholic roots. Newman becomes a Catholic in 1845 and later a cardinal.

Apologia Pro Vita SuaJohn Henry NewmanFamily tree: Anglican churches

Frederick Douglass’s Narrative

The formerly enslaved Frederick Douglass, a licensed preacher in the AME Zion Church, publishes his Narrative and contrasts the Christianity of Christ with the religion of slaveholders. In 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe, daughter of the preacher Lyman Beecher, publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Narrative of the Life and What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?Uncle Tom's CabinFrederick DouglassHarriet Beecher StoweHarriet TubmanFamily tree: African Methodist Episcopal churches

Charles Spurgeon in London

Charles Spurgeon becomes pastor of a Baptist church in London at age nineteen. His printed sermons sell around the world.

Selected SermonsCharles SpurgeonFamily tree: Baptists

The Seventh-day Adventist Church

Some who had followed William Miller’s predictions of Christ’s return organize the Seventh-day Adventist Church at Battle Creek, Michigan. They keep Saturday as the Sabbath.

Family tree: Seventh-day Adventists

The Salvation Army

William and Catherine Booth, former Methodists, begin a mission in the East End of London. It takes the name Salvation Army in 1878 and becomes known for its work among the poor.

In Darkest England and the Way OutWilliam and Catherine BoothFamily tree: The Salvation Army

The First Vatican Council

The Catholic Church defines that the pope is kept from error when he formally defines a teaching on faith or morals. Some Catholics in Germany, Switzerland and Austria who reject this form the Old Catholic churches.

Family tree: Old Catholic churches

Dwight L. Moody’s campaigns

The Chicago evangelist Dwight L. Moody leads preaching campaigns in Britain and America and founds schools, including what became the Moody Bible Institute.

Selected SermonsDwight L. Moody

The Bible Student movement

Charles Taze Russell leads a Bible study group in Pennsylvania and begins publishing Zion’s Watch Tower in 1879. A branch of this movement takes the name Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1931. Like the Latter-day Saints, it does not accept the doctrine of the Trinity.

Family tree: Jehovah’s Witnesses

Abraham Kuyper and the Free University

Abraham Kuyper, a Dutch Reformed pastor, journalist and later prime minister, founds the Free University of Amsterdam, teaching that Christ claims every sphere of life.

Abraham KuyperFamily tree: Reformed churches

Rerum Novarum

Pope Leo XIII’s letter on capital and labor defends private property and the rights of workers. It begins modern Catholic social teaching.

Rerum NovarumPope Leo XIII

Thérèse of Lisieux

Thérèse, a young Carmelite nun in France, dies at twenty-four. Her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, describes her “little way” of doing small things with great love and is read around the world. She is declared a saint in 1925.

The Story of a SoulThérèse of LisieuxFamily tree: Roman Catholic Church

The beginnings of Pentecostalism

At Charles Parham’s Bible school in Topeka, Kansas, students report speaking in tongues on 1 January 1901. In 1906 the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles, led by the Black preacher William J. Seymour, draws visitors from around the world.

William J. SeymourFamily tree: Pentecostal churches

William J. Seymour at Azusa Street

William J. Seymour, an African American preacher, leads the meetings at 312 Azusa Street in Los Angeles, where people of many races worship together. Visitors carry the Pentecostal movement around the world.

William J. SeymourFamily tree: Pentecostal churches

Chesterton, Lewis and Tolkien

G. K. Chesterton publishes Orthodoxy in 1908 and becomes a Catholic in 1922. C. S. Lewis, an Anglican, gives the wartime radio talks later published as Mere Christianity. His friend J. R. R. Tolkien, a Catholic, writes The Lord of the Rings.

OrthodoxyMere ChristianityThe Screwtape LettersThe Lion, the Witch and the WardrobeThe Lord of the RingsG. K. ChestertonC. S. LewisJ. R. R. Tolkien

The Edinburgh Missionary Conference

Protestant mission leaders from many churches meet in Edinburgh. The conference is often taken as the start of the modern ecumenical movement, which seeks cooperation and unity among churches.

The Assemblies of God

Pentecostal ministers meet at Hot Springs, Arkansas, and form the Assemblies of God, which grows into one of the largest Pentecostal bodies in the world.

Family tree: Assemblies of God

The Confessing Church in Germany

German Protestants who refuse Nazi control of the church issue the Barmen Declaration in 1934. Dietrich Bonhoeffer teaches in the Confessing Church; he is arrested and executed in April 1945. In the Netherlands, Corrie ten Boom’s family hides Jews from the Nazis.

The Cost of DiscipleshipLetters and Papers from PrisonBonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, SpyThe Hiding PlaceDietrich BonhoefferCorrie ten BoomFamily tree: Lutheran churches

The World Council of Churches

Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches form the World Council of Churches at Amsterdam to work together. The Catholic Church is not a member but later works alongside it.

Missionaries in Ecuador

Five American missionaries are killed while trying to contact the Waorani people of Ecuador. Elisabeth Elliot, the widow of one of them, later lives among the Waorani and tells the story in Through Gates of Splendor.

Through Gates of SplendorElisabeth Elliot

The charismatic renewal

Pentecostal-style worship spreads into older churches: an Episcopal parish in California in 1960, and Catholic students at Duquesne University in 1967.

Family tree: Charismatic renewal

The Second Vatican Council

Catholic bishops from around the world meet in Rome. The council allows the Mass in local languages, encourages Bible reading and dialogue with other Christians, and declares the right to religious freedom.

Dignitatis HumanaeWe Hold These TruthsJohn Courtney MurrayFamily tree: Roman Catholic Church

Letter from Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister, writes from jail to fellow clergymen explaining the civil rights movement’s nonviolent protest, appealing to Scripture and to Augustine and Aquinas.

Sermons and Letter from Birmingham JailI Have a DreamMartin Luther King Jr.Family tree: Baptists

The excommunications of 1054 lifted

On 7 December 1965 Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople lift the mutual excommunications of 1054. The two churches remain separate but begin a formal dialogue.

Family tree: Eastern Orthodox Church

John Paul II

Karol Wojtyła of Poland becomes Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian pope in over four centuries. He travels widely and writes encyclicals such as Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason).

Centesimus AnnusFides et RatioEvangelium VitaeJohn Paul IIFamily tree: Roman Catholic Church

Lutherans and Catholics on justification

On 31 October 1999 the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church sign a Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, stating a shared basic understanding of the question that divided them in the Reformation.

Family tree: Lutheran churches

Benedict XVI on faith and reason

Pope Benedict XVI gives a lecture at the University of Regensburg on faith, reason and the Greek roots of Christian thought.

Regensburg LecturePope Benedict XVIFamily tree: Roman Catholic Church