c. 4 BCE
Birth of Jesus
Jesus is born in the reign of Herod the Great; the Dionysian era places the event a few years before its own year one.
Christianity
The Christianity timeline in the History of Worldviews.
Streams: All of Christianity Catholic Eastern Orthodox Oriental Orthodox Anglican Lutheran Reformed and Presbyterian Anabaptist Baptist Methodist and Wesleyan Restorationist Pentecostal and Charismatic Independent and Non-denominational
Apostolic
c. 30–33 CE
Crucifixion and Resurrection
Jesus is crucified in Jerusalem under Pontius Pilate, and his followers proclaim his resurrection; the founding proclamation of the church.
c. 34–64
Paul's Missionary Journeys
Paul of Tarsus carries the gospel through Asia Minor and Greece, founding the Gentile churches and writing the earliest Christian letters.
c. 49
Council of Jerusalem
The apostles and elders at Jerusalem decide that Gentile converts need not be circumcised or keep the whole law; the decision that makes a Gentile church possible.
64
Nero's Persecution
After the great fire of Rome, Nero executes Christians in the city; Tacitus records the scapegoating and the deaths.
70
Destruction of the Jerusalem Temple
Titus destroys Jerusalem and its Temple, ending the sacrificial cult and sealing the separation between the church and the synagogue.
c. 95
Revelation and Domitian's Persecution
The book of Revelation is written to churches under pressure in Asia Minor, in the years tradition associates with Domitian's persecution.
Patristic
c. 155
Martyrdom of Polycarp
Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna and a hearer of the apostles, is burned and stabbed rather than curse Christ; the church's earliest martyrdom account outside the New Testament preserves his death.
177
Persecution at Lyons
A mob and then the authorities destroy the church at Lyons in Gaul; the letter of the survivors, preserved by Eusebius, names the martyrs Blandina and Pothinus.
249–251
Decian Persecution
Decius orders every inhabitant of the empire to sacrifice before witnesses; the first empire-wide persecution, and the crisis of the lapsed that follows it.
303–311
Diocletian Persecution
Diocletian's edicts launch the Great Persecution: churches demolished, scriptures burned, clergy arrested, sacrifice demanded of all; the last and worst of the Roman persecutions.
313
Edict of Milan
Constantine and Licinius grant Christianity legal toleration and restore its confiscated property; the church steps from proscription to imperial favor.
325
First Council of Nicaea
Constantine convenes the first ecumenical council at Nicaea, which condemns Arius and confesses the Son as homoousios; of the same being as the Father; in the original Nicene Creed.
330
Founding of Constantinople
Constantine dedicates his new capital on the Bosporus; the New Rome becomes the seat of the eastern church and empire for a thousand years.
367
Athanasius' 39th Festal Letter
Athanasius of Alexandria's Easter letter lists the twenty-seven books of the New Testament; the earliest surviving list that matches the church's canon exactly.
381
First Council of Constantinople
The second ecumenical council completes the Nicene confession, expanding the article on the Holy Spirit; its creed is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed the church still recites.
431
Council of Ephesus
The third ecumenical council condemns Nestorius and confesses Mary as Theotokos, God-bearer; the Church of the East separates in the aftermath; the first lasting schism.
451
Council of Chalcedon
The fourth ecumenical council confesses Christ in two natures, without confusion or separation; the churches that refuse the definition become the Oriental Orthodox communion.
542
Jacob Baradaeus Rebuilds the Miaphysite Hierarchy
Jacob Baradaeus, consecrated bishop in secret, travels Syria and Egypt ordaining bishops and priests; the parallel hierarchy he builds preserves the non-Chalcedonian churches that become the Oriental Orthodox communion.
553
Second Council of Constantinople
The fifth ecumenical council condemns the Three Chapters in Justinian's bid to reconcile the Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian churches; the reconciliation fails.
680–681
Third Council of Constantinople
The sixth ecumenical council condemns Monothelitism and confesses two wills in Christ, vindicating Maximus the Confessor a generation after his death.
787
Second Council of Nicaea
The seventh ecumenical council restores the icons and defines the distinction the church still uses: veneration (proskynesis) for images, true worship (latreia) for God alone.
Medieval
1054
Great Schism
Legates of Leo IX lay a bull of excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia and Patriarch Cerularius answers in kind; the mutual anathemas formalize the rupture between Rome and Constantinople.
1095
Council of Clermont; First Crusade Called
Urban II preaches at Clermont and calls the armed pilgrimage to the Holy Land; the crusading movement begins.
1099
Fall of Jerusalem
The First Crusade storms Jerusalem after a five-week siege and massacres its inhabitants; the Latin Kingdom is established.
1204
Fourth Crusade Sacks Constantinople
Diverted crusaders storm and sack Constantinople, enthroning a Latin emperor and patriarch; the outrage hardens the schism of 1054 into permanence.
1215
Fourth Lateran Council
Innocent III's council defines transubstantiation, requires annual confession and Easter communion, and legislates for the medieval church at its most confident.
1273
Aquinas Completes the Summa Theologiae
Thomas Aquinas leaves the Summa unfinished at his death the following year; the work becomes the standard synthesis of Catholic theology.
1309–1377
Avignon Papacy
Seven popes reign from Avignon under French influence; Catherine of Siena's pleading and Petrarch's scorn frame the period the Italians called a Babylonian captivity.
1378–1417
Western Schism
Rival popes at Rome and Avignon; and after Pisa, a third; divide Latin obedience for a generation, until the Council of Constance restores a single see.
1415
Jan Hus Burned at Constance
The Council of Constance condemns Jan Hus and burns him despite his safe-conduct; the Hussite wars follow in Bohemia, a century before Luther.
1453
Fall of Constantinople
Mehmed II takes Constantinople after a fifty-three-day siege; the Byzantine Empire ends, and the Orthodox world passes under Ottoman rule.
Reformation
1517
Luther's Ninety-Five Theses
Martin Luther publishes his theses against indulgences at Wittenberg; the Reformation begins.
1521
Diet of Worms
Luther refuses to recant before Charles V at Worms and is outlawed by the Edict of Worms; Frederick of Saxony hides him in the Wartburg, where he translates the New Testament.
1525
First Adult Baptisms at Zürich
Conrad Grebel baptizes George Blaurock and others on profession of faith; the Anabaptist movement begins, and is persecuted by Catholic and Protestant alike.
1527
The Schleitheim Confession
Swiss Brethren gathered under Michael Sattler adopt the Schleitheim Confession, the first Anabaptist confession of faith; its seven articles define believers' baptism, the ban, separation from the world, and refusal of the sword and the oath.
1528
Balthasar Hubmaier Executed at Vienna
Balthasar Hubmaier, the Anabaptist movement's most learned theologian, is burned at the stake in Vienna and his wife drowned in the Danube; his writings on believers' baptism survive as the movement's theological foundation.
1534
Act of Supremacy; Jesuits Founded
England's Act of Supremacy makes Henry VIII head of the Church of England; the same year Ignatius of Loyola and his companions take their vows at Montmartre, founding the movement that becomes the Society of Jesus.
1534-1535
The Münster Rebellion
Radical Anabaptists seize Münster, proclaim the New Jerusalem, and institute polygamy and community of goods before the city falls and its leaders are tortured to death; the catastrophe discredits the movement's revolutionary wing and drives its survivors toward pacifism.
1536
Menno Simons Joins the Anabaptists
Menno Simons, a Dutch Catholic priest troubled by doubt about transubstantiation and grieved by the movement's violent fringe, is rebaptized and ordained; his leadership gathers the peaceful Dutch Anabaptists who come to bear his name as Mennonites.
1545–1563
Council of Trent
Across eighteen years and three convocations, Trent defines Catholic doctrine against the Reformation and reforms the clergy; the Tridentine settlement governs Catholic life for four centuries.
1559
Calvin's Institutes in Final Form; Geneva Academy Founded
The final edition of Calvin's Institutes gives the Reformed tradition its systematic statement, and the Geneva Academy begins training its ministers; Geneva becomes the school's city for Reformed churches across Europe.
1609
John Smyth Baptizes Believers at Amsterdam
John Smyth, an English Separatist exile, baptizes himself and his congregation on profession of faith at Amsterdam; the congregation he forms is the first Baptist church of the modern era.
1612
Thomas Helwys Founds the First Baptist Church in England
Thomas Helwys leads part of Smyth's congregation back to London and founds the first Baptist church on English soil at Spitalfields; his plea for universal religious liberty, addressed to James I, lands him in prison, where he dies.
1618–1648
Thirty Years' War
The last and deadliest of Europe's wars of religion devastates the German lands before exhaustion produces a settlement.
1632
The Dordrecht Confession
Dutch Mennonite congregations adopt the Dordrecht Confession of Faith; its eighteen articles become the standard confession for Mennonite and later Amish churches across Europe and North America.
1638
The First Baptist Church in America
Roger Williams, banished from Massachusetts Bay, gathers a church at Providence and is baptized by immersion; the congregation is the first Baptist church in America, and Williams's colony practices the soul liberty his writings defend.
1648
Peace of Westphalia
The treaties of Münster and Osnabrück end the war and settle the confessional map of the empire on the principle of cuius regio, eius religio, extended to the Reformed.
Modern
1693
The Amish Division
Jakob Ammann's demand for stricter discipline, including shunning of the excommunicated, divides the Swiss and Alsatian Mennonites; his followers become the Amish, named for him.
1729
The Holy Club at Oxford
John and Charles Wesley and their companions form the Oxford society their critics nickname the Holy Club; its methodical discipline of prayer, fasting, and works of mercy gives the Methodist movement its name and its pattern.
1738
Wesley's Aldersgate Experience
John Wesley, at a meeting in Aldersgate Street, feels his heart 'strangely warmed'; the Methodist revival within the Church of England follows.
1784
The Christmas Conference Founds the Methodist Episcopal Church
At the Lovely Lane chapel in Baltimore, American Methodists organize the Methodist Episcopal Church and elect Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury as superintendents; Methodism in America becomes a church of its own.
1792
William Carey and the Baptist Missionary Society
English Particular Baptists organize the Baptist Missionary Society at Kettering and send William Carey to India; the society begins the modern Protestant missionary movement, and Carey's Enquiry supplies its argument.
1801
The Cane Ridge Revival
The sacramental meeting at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, draws crowds estimated in the tens of thousands and extraordinary bodily exercises; the revival ignites the Restoration impulse on the frontier and Barton Stone's Christian movement within it.
1804
The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery
Barton Stone and his fellow ministers dissolve their presbytery and resolve to be known simply as Christians; the document is the founding charter of the Stone movement and of the Restoration plea for unity on the Bible alone.
1809
Thomas Campbell's Declaration and Address
Thomas Campbell publishes the Declaration and Address of the Christian Association of Washington, Pennsylvania; its proposition that the church is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one becomes the Restoration movement's founding text.
1814
The Triennial Convention Organizes American Baptists
American Baptists form the General Missionary Convention, meeting every three years, to support the Judsons' mission in Burma; national organization among Baptists begins with missions, not doctrine.
1823
Alexander Campbell Begins The Christian Baptist
Alexander Campbell launches his journal The Christian Baptist and with it the public campaign for restoring the ancient order of things; his debates and his paper carry the Campbell movement across the frontier.
1832
The Stone and Campbell Movements Unite
Stone's Christians and Campbell's Reformers unite at Lexington, Kentucky, with a handshake between Barton Stone and Raccoon John Smith; the united movement becomes the fastest-growing religious body on the American frontier.
1833
Oxford Movement Begins
Keble's sermon on National Apostasy opens the Oxford Movement; Newman, Pusey, and the Tracts for the Times press the Church of England toward its Catholic inheritance.
1844
The Methodist Episcopal Church Divides over Slavery
The General Conference's demand that Bishop James Andrew give up his enslaved household splits American Methodism into the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church, South; the division lasts until 1939.
1845
The Southern Baptist Convention Founded
Southern Baptist churches, refused mission appointments for slaveholders by the national boards, organize the Southern Baptist Convention at Augusta, Georgia; it becomes the largest Protestant denomination in the United States.
1849
The American Christian Missionary Society Organized
The movement holds its first national convention at Cincinnati and organizes the American Christian Missionary Society; the convention itself splits opinion, since many held that any body beyond the local congregation lacked scriptural warrant.
1859
Darwin's Origin of Species
On the Origin of Species proposes natural selection; the long argument between evolutionary science and Christian doctrine begins; the subject of this site's Science section.
1869–1870
First Vatican Council
Vatican I defines papal infallibility in Pastor Aeternus; the Old Catholic churches separate in refusal, and the council suspends unfinished as Rome falls to Italy.
Contemporary
1901
The Topeka Outpouring
At Charles Parham's Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Agnes Ozman speaks in tongues; Parham's teaching that tongues are the Bible evidence of Spirit baptism becomes the doctrinal seed of Pentecostalism, five years before Azusa Street.
1905
The Baptist World Alliance Founded
Baptist unions and conventions from around the world constitute the Baptist World Alliance at London, giving the global Baptist family a single fellowship while leaving every congregation autonomous.
1906
Azusa Street Revival
William Seymour's mission on Azusa Street in Los Angeles pours out speaking in tongues and interracial worship; global Pentecostalism traces its modern beginning here.
1906
Churches of Christ Listed Separately in the Census of Religious Bodies
The United States Census of Religious Bodies lists the Churches of Christ separately from the Disciples of Christ, giving federal recognition to the division that had grown over missionary societies and instrumental music; David Lipscomb answers the census for the Churches of Christ.
1910
Edinburgh Missionary Conference
The World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh gathers the Protestant missionary movement and, in retrospect, opens the modern ecumenical movement.
1914
The Assemblies of God Founded
Pentecostal ministers gather at Hot Springs, Arkansas, and organize the General Council of the Assemblies of God; the fellowship becomes the largest Pentecostal body in the world.
1920
Mennonite Central Committee Founded
North American Mennonites organize the Mennonite Central Committee to feed starving Mennonite colonists in Soviet Ukraine; it grows into the tradition's global relief, development, and peace agency.
1945
The United Pentecostal Church Formed
The Pentecostal Church, Incorporated and the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ merge to form the United Pentecostal Church, the largest body of the Oneness Pentecostal movement that began in the 1916 controversy over the Godhead and baptism in Jesus' name.
1948
World Council of Churches Founded
The World Council of Churches constitutes itself at Amsterdam under the theme 'Man's Disorder and God's Design', joining the historic churches in one fellowship; Rome observing from outside.
1960
The Charismatic Renewal Enters the Mainline Churches
Dennis Bennett, rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Van Nuys, tells his congregation of his own experience of speaking in tongues; the charismatic renewal inside the historic churches, Catholic renewal included after 1967, dates its public beginning here.
1962–1965
Second Vatican Council
John XXIII's council renews the Catholic Church for the modern world: the liturgy in the vernacular, religious liberty confessed, ecumenism embraced, and the church's posture toward Judaism reversed in Nostra Aetate.
1965
Addis Ababa Conference of Oriental Orthodox Churches
The heads of the Oriental Orthodox churches meet together at Addis Ababa for the first time in their modern history and resolve to act as one communion in ecumenical dialogue.
1968
Lambeth Conference on Contraception
The Lambeth Conference of 1968 accepts contraception within Christian marriage, against Rome's Humanae Vitae of the same year; the Anglican and Catholic positions on the question publicly diverge.
1968
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Restructures
The Disciples adopt a provisional design and restructure as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a denomination with general, regional, and congregational expressions; congregations that reject the restructure continue as independent Christian churches.
1968
The United Methodist Church Formed
The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren unite at Dallas to form the United Methodist Church, then the largest Protestant body in the United States; the same year its predecessor conferences abolish the racially segregated Central Jurisdiction.
1974
Lausanne Congress
The International Congress on World Evangelization at Lausanne, convened by Billy Graham and John Stott, consolidates global evangelicalism and issues the Lausanne Covenant.
1977
The Kansas City Charismatic Conference
Some fifty thousand charismatics from Catholic, Protestant, and Pentecostal churches worship together at Kansas City; the conference is the high-water mark of the charismatic renewal's ecumenical moment.
1994
The Toronto Blessing
A renewal meeting at the Toronto Airport Vineyard church draws visitors from around the world with its manifestations of laughter, weeping, and rest; the blessing spreads through charismatic networks and divides them over its phenomena.
1999
Joint Declaration on Justification
The Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church sign the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification at Augsburg, declaring a consensus on the article over which the Reformation divided.
2003
Gene Robinson Consecration
The Episcopal Church consecrates Gene Robinson, an openly gay partnered man, as bishop of New Hampshire; the Anglican Communion's crisis over sexuality deepens into realignment.
2022
Global Methodist Church Founded
The Global Methodist Church launches on May 1, 2022, receiving congregations leaving the United Methodist Church in the long dispute over doctrine and sexuality; the newest entry in the Methodist stream's long history.