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The Christian traditions

How the churches divided, migrated and multiplied — from the apostolic communities to the present.

Divisions are described by what happened, not by who was right. Where the parties gave different accounts of a split, that is part of the record rather than something to settle here.

Descent

Timeline

  1. 30 AD–33 AD Founding

    The first communities Jerusalem

    Followers of Jesus form a distinct movement within Judaism, meeting in homes and synagogues.

  2. 35 AD–60 AD Migration

    The mission to the Gentiles Antioch and Asia Minor

    The movement spreads beyond Jewish communities. The Jerusalem council settles that Gentile converts need not keep the whole law.

  3. 64 AD–313 AD Persecution

    Imperial persecutions Roman empire

    Intermittent rather than constant, worst under Decius and Diocletian, and ended by the Edict of Milan.

  4. 70 AD Division

    Destruction of the Temple Jerusalem

    The end of the temple sharply separated the church from the synagogue and shifted Christianity's centre out of Judea.

  5. 325 AD Council

    Council of Nicaea Nicaea

    Called by Constantine, it affirmed the Son as of one substance with the Father against Arius, and produced the first form of the Nicene Creed.

  6. 381 AD Council

    Council of Constantinople Constantinople

    Completed the creed's article on the Holy Spirit; the form still recited today.

  7. 431 AD Division

    Council of Ephesus Ephesus

    Condemned Nestorius over how Christ's natures should be spoken of. The Church of the East did not accept it and went its own way.

  8. 451 AD Division

    Council of Chalcedon Chalcedon

    Defined Christ as one person in two natures. The Coptic, Syriac and Armenian churches rejected the formula, becoming the Oriental Orthodox.

  9. 600 AD–1300 AD Migration

    Christianity along the Silk Road Persia, India, China

    The Church of the East planted communities as far as Xi'an, where a stele of 781 records its presence, and in Kerala where they survive.

  10. 1054 AD Division

    The Great Schism Rome and Constantinople

    Mutual excommunications formalised centuries of estrangement over papal authority and the filioque clause. Each side has given a different account of it ever since.

  11. 1517 AD Reform

    The Reformation begins Wittenberg

    Luther's objections to indulgences opened a wider argument about authority, scripture and justification that divided western Christendom.

  12. 1525 AD Reform

    The Radical Reformation Zurich

    Anabaptists rejected infant baptism and state churches, and were persecuted by every established party.

  13. 1534 AD–1559 AD Reform

    The English Reformation England

    England separated from Rome under Henry VIII, then took a reformed doctrinal settlement under Edward VI and Elizabeth I while keeping bishops and liturgy.

  14. 1545 AD–1563 AD Council

    Council of Trent Trent

    Rome's answer to the Reformation: it defined justification, the sacraments and the canon, and reformed clerical discipline.

  15. 1607 AD–1750 AD Migration

    Migration to the Americas North America

    Puritans, Quakers, Catholics and Anabaptists carried their divisions across the Atlantic, where the absence of an established church let them multiply.

  16. 1730 AD–1840 AD Revival

    The Great Awakenings Britain and North America

    Waves of revival preaching produced the Methodist movement and, later, the Baptist and Restorationist expansion in America.

  17. 1792 AD–1910 AD Migration

    The modern missionary movement Africa, Asia, Oceania

    European and American missions planted churches across the global south, which is where most Christians now live.

  18. 1869 AD–1870 AD Council

    First Vatican Council Rome

    Defined papal infallibility when the pope teaches ex cathedra, hardening the difference with the eastern and Protestant churches.

  19. 1906 AD–1909 AD Revival

    The Azusa Street revival Los Angeles

    A racially mixed revival in a disused mission, from which Pentecostalism spread worldwide within a generation.

  20. 1948 AD–2026 AD Rapprochement

    Ecumenical dialogue Worldwide

    The World Council of Churches, the lifting of the 1054 anathemas, and the 1999 Joint Declaration on Justification narrowed some divisions without ending them.

  21. 1962 AD–1965 AD Council

    Second Vatican Council Rome

    Reformed Catholic liturgy and opened formal dialogue with other churches, ending the mutual excommunications of 1054 by a joint declaration in 1965.

  22. 1970 AD–2026 AD Migration

    The centre of gravity shifts Africa, Asia, Latin America

    Most Christians now live outside Europe and North America, and the fastest-growing churches are Pentecostal and independent.