Editing Christendom (section)

===Rise of Christendom===
{{See also|Early Christianity|Hellenistic Judaism|State church of the Roman Empire}}
[[File:T and O map Guntherus Ziner 1472.jpg|thumb|This [[T-and-O map]], which abstracts the then known world to a cross inscribed within an orb, remakes geography in the service of Christian iconography. More detailed versions place [[Jerusalem in Christianity|Jerusalem]] at the center of the world.]]

Early Christianity spread in the Greek/Roman world and beyond as a 1st-century [[Judaism|Jewish]] sect,<ref>{{bibleref|Acts|3:1}}; {{bibleref|Acts|5:27–42}}; {{bibleref|Acts|21:18–26}}; {{bibleref|Acts|24:5}}; {{bibleref|Acts|24:14}}; {{bibleref|Acts|28:22}}; {{bibleref|Romans|1:16}}; Tacitus, ''Annales'' xv 44; Josephus ''Antiquities'' xviii 3; Mortimer Chambers, ''The Western Experience Volume II'' chapter 5; ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion'' page 158{{failed verification|date=January 2018}}.</ref> which historians refer to as [[Jewish Christianity]]. It may be divided into two distinct phases: the [[Apostolic Age|apostolic period]], when the first apostles were alive and organizing the Church, and the [[post-apostolic period]], when an early [[Historical episcopate|episcopal structure]] developed, whereby bishoprics were governed by [[bishops]] (overseers).

The post-apostolic period concerns the time roughly after the death of the apostles when bishops emerged as overseers of urban Christian populations. The earliest recorded use of the terms ''Christianity'' (Greek {{lang|grc|Χριστιανισμός}}) and ''[[Four Marks of the Church#Catholic|catholic]]'' (Greek {{lang|grc|καθολικός}}), dates to this period, the [[Christianity in the 2nd century|2nd century]], attributed to [[Ignatius of Antioch]] ''c.'' 107.<ref>Walter Bauer, ''Greek-English Lexicon''; [[Ignatius of Antioch]] [http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-magnesians-roberts.html Letter to the Magnesians] 10, Letter to the Romans ([http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-01/anf01–19.htm#P1838_311890 Roberts-Donaldson tr.], [http://earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-romans-lightfoot.html Lightfoot tr.], [http://www.ccel.org/l/lake/fathers/ignatius-romans.htm Greek text]). However, an [http://earlychristianwritings.com/text/ignatius-romans-roberts.html edition] presented on some websites, one that otherwise corresponds exactly with the Roberts-Donaldson translation, renders this passage to the interpolated inauthentic longer recension of Ignatius's letters, which does not contain the word "Christianity."</ref> Early Christendom would close at the end of [[Persecution of early Christians by the Romans|imperial persecution of Christians]] after the ascension of [[Constantine the Great]] and the [[Edict of Milan]] in AD&nbsp;313 and the [[First Council of Nicaea]] in 325.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Schaff | first1 = Philip | author-link1 = Philip Schaff | orig-year = 1858–1890 | title = History of the Christian Church | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Y6fBpjjN64sC | volume = 2: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A.D. 100–325 | publisher = Christian Classics Ethereal Library | date = 1998 |isbn=978-1-61025-041-2 | access-date = 13 October 2019 | quote = The ante-Nicene age&nbsp;... is the natural transition from the Apostolic age to the Nicene age.}}</ref>

According to [[Malcolm Muggeridge]] (1980), Christ founded Christianity, but Constantine founded Christendom.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1981/0218/021801.html |title=Impish defense of Christianity; The End of Christendom, by Malcolm Muggeridge |author=Robert Peel |work=[[The Christian Science Monitor]] |date=18 February 1981 |access-date=28 January 2018}}</ref> Canadian theology professor [[Douglas John Hall]] dates the 'inauguration of Christendom' to the 4th century, with Constantine playing the primary role (so much so that he equates Christendom with "Constantinianism") and Theodosius I ([[Edict of Thessalonica]], 380) and [[Justinian I]]{{efn|In 529, Justinian closed the [[Platonic Academy#Neoplatonic Academy|Neoplatonic Academy]] of [[Athens]], a last bulwark of pagan philosophy, made rigorous efforts to exterminate [[Arianism]] and [[Montanism]], personally campaigned against [[Monophysitism]], and made [[Chalcedonian Christianity]] the Byzantine state religion.<ref>Encarta-encyclopedie Winkler Prins (1993–2002) s.v. "Justinianus I". Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum.</ref>}} secondary roles.<ref name="1–9Hall">Hall (2002), p. 1–9.</ref>