History of Religion on Europe Research Assignment Paper

History of Religion on Europe
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History of Religion on Europe
Today religion in Europe has a significant impact on the art, law, philosophy and culture. The largest religion in the region is Christianity although some countries in southeastern Europe have a Muslim majority. There also exists other religions which have been practiced since medieval times, for instance, the worship of Zeus and other minor religions. Christianity has been practiced in Europe since the beginning of the first century, and historians have traced it back to Christians living in Greece and the Roman Empire. A recently concluded research suggests that 78.6% of Europeans consider themselves Christians. In 2010 Catholicism was the largest Christian religious group with more than 48% of the European Christians. The second largest group which is the Orthodox Church accounted for 32% of the Christians. Russia is the country with the largest number of Christian followership followed by Germany and Italy (Haseldine, 2010). The history of religion in Europe was complex until Christianity firmly established itself a process that was until recently ongoing. Before the religion started spreading each community had its indigenous religion which had been accumulated over the years maybe through successful invasions. When a region was invaded the invaders came with their religion, and it was often adopted by the locals. Apart from invasions from the various warring European communities, incursions also arrived from the Middle East (Brown, 2016). When Alexander the great conquered Egypt some of the Jews who were in Egypt moved and settled in Greece. In 63BCE Judea became a major city for the Roman Empire and s the empire grew the Jewish people settled all over Europe, but because Judaism was a religion that was more concentrated on a matriarchal lineage, it remained close to the Jewish population.
Since the origin of Christianity can be traced to Jud...