History

The history of Christianity begins in first-century Galilee. At that time, the Jews of the Holy Land were living under Roman occupation.

Christians believe that the man we know as Jesus was born in a village near Jerusalem called Bethlehem.

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The basics

The life and death of Jesus Christ, formation of the early church and the split into Eastern and Western Christianity.

Jewish history

Christianity shares its origins, its first holy book and hence its early history with Judaism. Read about the history of the Jewish people and the heroes of the Old Testament.

Jesus

Jesus is believed by Christians to be the Christ - the Son of God.

The Miracles of Jesus

What would first-century Jews have thought when they saw a man heal cripples and still storms? A book extract tells the background to the miracles of Jesus.

Mary

Mary was the mother of Jesus. Christians believe she was made pregnant miraculously by God while she was still a virgin.

King Herod

Herod ruled Judea from 37 BC. The Bible says he initiated a murder of all the infants in Bethlehem in an attempt to get rid of the baby Jesus.

The disciples

Jesus's twelve companions were instrumental in spreading his teachings and the Christian religion after his death.

Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene travelled with Jesus as one of his followers. She was was present at the two most important moments in the story of Jesus: the crucifixion and the resurrection. Was she really a prostitute, as the early Church claimed?

Who killed Jesus?

No trial or execution in history has had such a momentous outcome as that of Jesus in Roman-occupied Jerusalem, 2000 years ago. But was it an execution or a judicial murder; and who was responsible?

The Passion of Christ

The Passion of Christ is the story of Jesus Christ's arrest, trial, suffering and finally his execution by crucifixion. But it is only an episode in a longer story that includes the Resurrection.

Paul

Saint Paul is undoubtedly one of the most important figures in the history of the Western world. Famously converted on the road to Damascus, he travelled tens of thousands of miles around the Mediterranean spreading the word of Jesus.

The Great Schism (from BBC Radio 4)

In 1054, in the culmination of an argument over a single word in the Nicene Creed, the Roman and Constantinople churches excommunicated each other. What were the reasons behind the split and why did it take until December 1965 for the excommunications to be formally revoked?

The Spanish Inquisition (from BBC Radio 4)

Once Rome's religion changed to Christianity under Constantine, it developed brutal means of dealing with heretics. In the Middle Ages an Office of Inquisition was set up and in 1478 the Spanish Inquisition began.

Witchcraft trials (from BBC Radio 4)

In 1486 an anti-witchcraft book called Malleus Maleficarum was published. In the period of the Reformation and after, over a hundred thousand men and women in Europe met their deaths after being convicted of witchcraft.

The Diet of Worms (from BBC Radio 4)

In 1521 Martin Luther, heretic and founder of the Protestant Reformation, came to Germany to explain his attacks on the Catholic Church to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.

Divine Right of Kings (from BBC Radio 4)

The idea that a monarch could heal with his touch flowed from the idea that a king was sacred, appointed by God and above the judgement of earthly powers. It was a powerful idea in British culture during the 17th century.

Pilgrim Fathers (from BBC Radio 4)

In 1620 a group of English religious exiles made new lives in the New World. They celebrated their first harvest in company with the American Indians who had helped them to survive.

The Missionaries

The missionary legacy was born of men and women driven by faith, power, or fame, divides between cultural enrichment and colonial exploitation. Edward Stourton presents an audio journey in the footsteps of the missionaries.

Atlantic slave trade and abolition

Author Richard Reddie writes about the Atlantic slave trade, how the Bible was used by Christians on both sides of the issue and the abolitionists who sought to bring it to an end.

UK's spiritual history

Browse our huge archive of audio and gallery of photographs chronicling Britain's journey from ancient spirituality through the arrival of Christianity to modern-day multifaith society.

Christianity in the UK

The rise of Christianity from a persecuted sect to the dominant religion of the UK is a remarkable story of guts, politics and Providence.

The Oxford Movement (from BBC Radio 4)

The Oxford Movement argued that the Church of England was a holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. They sought to assert the Catholic nature of their Church.

The Welsh Revival

Roy Jenkins tells the story of how a hundred thousand people in Wales made a new commitment to Jesus Christ in a single year a century ago.