In the early 21st century, about one-third of the world’s people claimed the Christian faith. Christians thus constituted the world’s largest religious community and embraced remarkable diversity, with churches in every nation. Christianity’s demographic and dynamic centre had shifted from its Western base to Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific region, where more than half the world’s Christians lived. This trend steadily accelerated as the church declined in Europe. The global extent of Christianity represented a new phenomenon in the history of religions. This was the fruit of mission. ... (93 of 126,827 words)
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Christ as Ruler, with the Apostles and Evangelists (represented by the beasts). The female figures are believed to be either Santa Pudenziana and Santa Práxedes or symbols of the Jewish and Gentile churches. Mosaic in the apse of Santa Pudenziana basilica, Rome, ad 401–417.
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Detail from Expulsion of Adam and Eve, fresco by Masaccio, c. 1427; in the Brancacci Chapel, Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence.
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Moses expounding the law, illuminated manuscript page from the Bury Bible, about 1130. In Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
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Greek Bible. Page from The Gospel According to Matthew, 6th century ad.
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Statue of Diocletian’s tetrarchy, red porphyry, c. ad 300, brought to Venice in 1258.
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Marble colossal head of Constantine the Great, part of the remains of a giant statue from the Basilica of Constantine, in the Roman Forum, c. ad 313.
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Apse of the church of St. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna, Italy, second half of the 6th century.
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World distribution of Christianity, c. 2000.
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Communion of the Apostles, panel by Justus of Ghent, c. 1473–74; in the Palazzo Ducale, Urbino, Italy.
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St. Augustine, fresco by Sandro Botticelli, 1480; in the Church of the Ognissanti, Florence.