RELG 205 Lecture : History of the Christian Church October 1.docx
Document Summary
Islam: most early converts were christians going to islam, military conquest originally. Didn"t make it impossible to be jewish or christian, but made it more difficult: mohammad, religious conversion. Social: nicer, have more fun, will give you something, widow/orphan benefit to becoming a christian. Economic: tax, encourages them to convert over time make it a cost, inconvenient and limiting enough to stop them from doing what they were doing. Societal: big factor in muslim conversions, to & from (go to something, stopping what you were before) Like rome: initially friendly to christians. Fortunes of christians wax and wane: read out and try to convert, use friendly language, from, china. Went underground before the jesuits found it: christianity, starts in western asia, expands to the mediterranean, as far as india. Moves so rapidly: quickly became the majority religion. Islam erases christianity from north africa and near east: remains minority religion in egypt, syria, rome (latin west)
