Abrahamic religions

=== Christianity ===
{{Main |History of Christianity}}
[[File:Gutenberg Bible, Lenox Copy, New York Public Library, 2009. Pic 01.jpg |thumb |Christianity is based on the teachings of the [[Bible]]]]
[[File:Bible.malmesbury.arp.jpg |thumb |250px |A Bible handwritten in [[Latin]], on display in [[Malmesbury Abbey]], Wiltshire, England. This Bible was transcribed in Belgium in 1407 for reading aloud in a monastery.]]

[[Christianity]] traces back their origin to the 1st century as a sect within Judaism initially led by [[Jesus]]. His followers viewed him as the [[Messiah]], as in the [[Confession of Peter]]; after his [[Crucifixion of Jesus|crucifixion]] and death they came to view him as [[Incarnation|God incarnate]],<ref>Pavlac, Brian A (2010). ''A Concise Survey of Western Civilization: Supremacies and Diversities''. Chapter 6.</ref> who was [[Resurrection of Jesus|resurrected]] and will [[Second Coming|return]] at the end of time to [[Last Judgment|judge the living and the dead]] and create an eternal [[Kingdom of God]].

In the 1st century AD, under the [[Apostles]] of [[Jesus|Jesus of Nazareth]];{{sfn |Bremer |2015 |p=19-20}}[[Christianity]] spread widely after it was adopted by the [[Roman Empire]] as a state religion in the 4th century AD. [[Paul the Apostle]] interpreted the role of Abraham differently than the Jews of his time.<ref>Howard, James M. "Paul, Monotheism and the People of God: The Significance of Abraham Traditions for Early Judaism and Christianity." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 49.1 (2006): 516.</ref> While for the Jews, Abraham was considered a loyal monotheist in a polytheistic environment, Paul celebrates Abraham as a man who found faith in God before adhering to [[Religious law|religious]] law. In contrast to Judaism, adherence to religious law becomes associated with idolatry.<ref>Howard, James M. "Paul, Monotheism and the People of God: The Significance of Abraham Traditions for Early Judaism and Christianity." Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 49.1 (2006): 517.</ref>

While Christians fashioned their religion around [[Jesus|Jesus of Nazareth]], the [[Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)|siege of Jerusalem]] (70 CE), forced Jews to reconcile their belief-system with the destruction of the [[Second Temple]] and associated rituals.<ref>Cohen, Charles L. The Abrahamic religions: a very short introduction. Oxford University Press, USA, 2020. p. 41</ref> At this time, both Judaism and Christianity had to systematize their scriptures and beliefs, resulting in competing theologies both claiming Abrahamic heritage.<ref>Cohen, Charles L. The Abrahamic religions: a very short introduction. Oxford University Press, USA, 2020. p. 41-57</ref> Christians could hardly dismiss the Hebrew scriptures as Jesus himself refers to them according to Christian reports, and parallels between Jesus and the Biblical stories of ''creation'' and ''redemption'' starting with Abraham in the ''Book of Genesis''.<ref>Burrell, David B., et al., eds. Creation and the God of Abraham. Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 41</ref> The distant God asserted by Jesus according to the Christians, created a form of dualism between Creator and creation and the doctrine of ''[[Creatio ex nihilo]]'', which later heavily influenced Jewish and Islamic theology.<ref>Burrell, David B., et al., eds. Creation and the God of Abraham. Cambridge University Press, 2010. p. 25-39</ref> By that, Christians established their own identity, distinct from both Greeks and Jews, as those who venerate the deity of Jesus.<ref>Cohen, Charles L. The Abrahamic religions: a very short introduction. Oxford University Press, USA, 2020. p. 40</ref>

After several periods of alternating [[Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire|persecution]] and relative peace ''vis-à-vis'' the Roman authorities under different administrations, Christianity became the [[state church of the Roman Empire]] in 380, but has been [[Early centers of Christianity|split into various churches from its beginning]]. An attempt was made by the [[Byzantine Empire]] to unify [[Christendom]], but this formally failed with the [[East–West Schism]] of 1054. In the 16th century, the birth and growth of [[Protestantism]] during the [[Reformation]] further split Christianity into many [[List of Christian denominations|denominations]].