Historical maps of the spread of Christianity are being prepared. Each map, from the apostolic missions to today's global distribution of churches, will be tied to its own date and source.
Journey through two thousand years of the events, people, ideas, and conflicts that shaped Christianity.
Follow the apostles and martyrs, the great councils, the split between East and West, the Reformation, and the missions that made it a global faith.
Meet every pope from Saint Peter to Leo XIV, and the antipopes who challenged them.
Every Bishop of Rome from Saint Peter to Leo XIV, grouped by papal era, with the antipopes who claimed the office. Dates before about 222 are traditional; numbering follows the common list based on the Annuario Pontificio.
A Journey Through the Ages
Christianity began as a Jewish movement around a crucified teacher from Galilee and became the faith of about a third of humanity.
Persecuted for three centuries, it was embraced by Rome, defined by councils, divided between East and West, and carried by monks and missionaries across Europe, Africa and Asia.
The Reformation divided Western Christendom. Revivals, revolutions and global missions followed, and in the twentieth century the centre of gravity of Christianity moved to the Global South.
Explore the eight periods below through selected events from the timeline. Population figures are scholarly estimates, not censuses.
200 BCE – 29
Judaism under Hasmonean, Herodian and Roman rule: messianic expectation, synagogues, the Septuagint and the diaspora that carried the first mission.
Judaism under Hasmonean, Herodian and Roman rule, with messianic hope, synagogues, the Septuagint and a wide diaspora, formed the world in which Christianity was born.
30 – 99
The ministry and crucifixion of Jesus, Pentecost, Paul's missions, the destruction of the Temple and the writing of the New Testament.
Population estimate: Johnson & Chung, 'Tracking Global Christianity's Statistical Centre of Gravity, AD 33–AD 2100', International Review of Mission 93 (2004)
From the ministry and crucifixion of Jesus to the death of the last apostles, the first Christians spread from Jerusalem across the Roman world and wrote the texts of the New Testament.
100 – 311
Apostolic Fathers and apologists, bishops and creeds, the formation of the canon and persecution culminating under Decius and Diocletian.
Population estimate: Johnson & Chung, 'Tracking Global Christianity's Statistical Centre of Gravity, AD 33–AD 2100', International Review of Mission 93 (2004)
In the age of the Apostolic Fathers and apologists, the church developed bishops, creeds and a canon of scripture while facing intermittent and sometimes severe persecution.
312 – 787
Constantine and the seven ecumenical councils: creeds, the Church Fathers, monasticism, the Chalcedonian split and the rise of Islam.
Population estimate: Johnson & Chung, 'Tracking Global Christianity's Statistical Centre of Gravity, AD 33–AD 2100', International Review of Mission 93 (2004)
From Constantine to the Second Council of Nicaea, Christianity became the religion of the empire, defined its doctrine in seven ecumenical councils, built monasticism and faced the rise of Islam.
788 – 1516
Missions to Slavs and Scandinavians, the 1054 schism, Gregorian reform, crusades, friars, scholasticism, Avignon and the Western Schism.
Population estimate: Johnson & Chung, 'Tracking Global Christianity's Statistical Centre of Gravity, AD 33–AD 2100', International Review of Mission 93 (2004)
The medieval centuries saw the conversion of northern and eastern Europe, the split between East and West, papal reform, crusades, cathedrals, universities and the crises of Avignon and the Great Schism.
1517 – 1647
Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and the Anabaptists, the English Reformation, Trent and the Jesuits, global Catholic missions and the wars of religion.
Population estimate: Johnson & Chung, 'Tracking Global Christianity's Statistical Centre of Gravity, AD 33–AD 2100', International Review of Mission 93 (2004)
Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and the radical reformers divided Western Christianity, while the Catholic Reformation, the Council of Trent and global missions renewed the Roman church amid wars of religion.
1648 – 1869
Pietism, the Great Awakenings and Methodism, revolution and secularisation, the Protestant missionary century and Vatican I.
Population estimate: Johnson & Chung, 'Tracking Global Christianity's Statistical Centre of Gravity, AD 33–AD 2100', International Review of Mission 93 (2004)
Between Westphalia and Vatican I, Pietism, Methodism and the Great Awakenings revived Protestantism, revolutions challenged the churches, and a great missionary movement carried Christianity worldwide.
1870 – present
World wars and communism, ecumenism, Pentecostal growth, Vatican II and the shift of Christianity to the Global South.
Population estimate: Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Status of Global Christianity 2026 (World Christian Database)
From Vatican I to the present, Christianity faced world wars, totalitarian persecution and secularization, while ecumenism, Vatican II, Pentecostalism and growth in the Global South reshaped the faith.
Luther publishes his German New Testament.
At this point in the timeline (1522), the Bishop of Rome was Pope Adrian VI (9 January 1522 – 14 September 1523).
Luther's German New Testament mattered because it shaped the text, canon or translation of the Bible and how Christians read it.
Pope Adrian VI
Pope
9 January 1522 – 14 September 1523
~81.3 million Christians · 18.04% of humanity
Interpolated estimate. Linear interpolation between 1500 and 1600 estimates from Johnson & Chung, 'Tracking Global Christianity's Statistical Centre of Gravity, AD 33–AD 2100', International Review of Mission 93 (2004).
Two thousand years of Christian history have shaped calendars, laws, languages, art, learning and ideas of the human person far beyond the churches themselves, for good and for ill.
The Bible, the Nicene Creed and centuries of theological debate shaped Western and Eastern thought about God, history, conscience and human dignity. Translating scripture into vernacular languages helped create written forms of languages from Gothic and Old Church Slavonic to hundreds of modern ones.
Monasteries preserved and copied ancient texts, cathedral schools grew into the first universities, and churches commissioned much of the architecture, painting, icon-making and music of the last two millennia, from Hagia Sophia to Bach's Passions.
Christian communities founded hospitals, orphanages and schools, and canon law influenced marriage, contract and legal procedure. Christian arguments were used both to defend slavery and to abolish it, and churches have been prominent on both sides of many social struggles.
Schisms, crusades, inquisitions, wars of religion, forced conversions, antisemitism and abuse in church institutions are also part of this history. Modern ecumenism, interreligious dialogue and public acts of repentance are attempts to face that legacy.
Once centred on the Mediterranean and then Europe, Christianity is now a majority faith in about 120 countries and territories. Most Christians live in Africa, Latin America and Asia, and Pentecostal, independent and non-Western churches are shaping its future.
The timeline is built from the project's own research report and its event and pope datasets. Source links are attached to every event and every pope. The datasets are a work in progress: linked articles are starting points for verification, not proof that every claim has been independently checked. Dates before about AD 222 in the papal list are traditional, and population figures are estimates that vary widely between scholars.
