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The University High School Band
The History and Theory of Music

Christianity

The Triumph of Christianity over Paganism by Gusave Doré (1899)

During the reign of Caesar Augustus and his successor Tiberius, in the Roman province of Judea (which had once been ancient Israel), a man lived who would affect the course of history arguably more than any other individual. His name was Jesus of Nazareth. After a few brief years teaching and purportedly performing miracles in Jerusalem and around the Judean countryside, Jesus was executed by crucifixion in 33 AD. According to a number of historical sources, however, his tomb was found empty three days after his death, and over the following several weeks, hundreds of people claimed to have seen him raised from the dead. His followers, who soon became known as Christians (from the Greek word χριστός, which means "anointed"), claimed that Jesus was actually God incarnate.

From its earliest days, the Christian Church was persecuted to varying degrees by both Jewish and Roman authorities, particularly under Nero (54-68), Trajan (98-117), and Diocletian (284-305). Despite this, it grew increasingly popular, especially among the urban poor.

Under the influence of Constantine, the Tertrarchy ended the persecution in 313 AD by issuing the Edict of Milan, which legalized Christianity. Constantine later became a Christian himself, receiving baptism shortly before his death in 337. The religion continued to grow, and in 380, Emperor Theodosius I would make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Over the next several centuries, Christianity became the dominant religion throughout Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. It became the vehicle for a unique fusion of Jewish, Greek, and Roman spiritual and intellectual traditions and assimilated into many different cultures that encountered it. The Christian faith remains to this day the world's largest religion with a substantial presence on every continent, and has shaped world culture more than perhaps any other force.