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For the last thousand years, Europe has been dominated by
Christianity. Pre-Christian religions (see Finno-Ugric
religions, Ancient Baltic religion, Old Norse religion,
slaves (Religion) and Celts (Religion) hardly exist any
longer than as a people or possibly in isolated groups (such
as the Finno-Ugric marriages of the Russian Federation).
Today, Europe is characterized by far-reaching
secularisation, and in many countries religion plays an
inferior role. In addition to Christianity, Judaism and
Islam have been important religious factors. A single people
in Europe are Buddhist, namely the Calmuckers of the Russian
Federation.
Historical overview
During the first four centuries AD Christianity spread
rapidly in the Mediterranean world and in the 390s became
the official religion of the Roman Empire. Christianity had
already become a state religion in Armenia and Georgia. In
the Roman Empire, the cult of the ancient Greek and Roman
gods disappeared. The Celtic and Germanic peoples north of
the Roman national border soon became subject to Christian
mission, especially since the death of Fr. King Klodvig in
496. As a leading country in the Europe listed by
Countryaah, France became the center of Christianity's further
expansion, which reached the North through the Ansgar in the
800s. The Carolingian kingdom became a Christian empire,
which dominated most of Western Europe. It was consolidated
in the subsequent German-Roman Empire. Throughout the Middle
Ages, Latin Western Europe constituted a religious and
cultural entity with the Pope as unifying leader.
A corresponding Christian expansion took place from
Byzantium and was directed specifically to the Slavic
peoples, who then dominated Eastern Europe. When the great
prince Vladimir was baptized in Kiev in 988, the foundation
of a Christian empire was laid in the east, and when
Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453 it was Moscow who
assumed the role of "the third Rome".
During the Middle Ages, the Nordic peoples and Finns, the
slaves on the Baltic Sea coast and the Baltic peoples were
Christianized. The Sami transitioned to Christianity only
after the Reformation, partly under duress.
The success of Christian expansion was hampered by
internal divisions. Eastern (Greek) and Western (Latin)
Christianity developed in different directions because Rome
and Constantinople came into schism with each other in 1054.
Various attempts at unification failed, and out of the
schism emerged the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Church.
The Reformation was yet another split of Christian
Europe. The Baltic Sea countries, like much of Germany,
adopted the Reformation in its Lutheran form, while
Switzerland, the Netherlands and Scotland were largely
reformed. Many other European countries have significant
Protestant minorities, e.g. France, Slovakia and Hungary.
The Thirty Years War and Westphalian Peace consolidated the
division of Western Europe into a Catholic and a Protestant.
Despite internal strife, England came to preserve an
episcopal state church, where a vaguely reformed theology
was united with medieval traditions. The Scottish
colonization of Northern Ireland in the 17th century created
the opposition between Catholics and Protestants that still
exists.
With religious freedom came an increasing pluralism in
the area of religion. Various revivals and sectarian
movements established themselves as free societies,
especially from the 19th century. This contributed to the
marginalization of religion (see below).
While the Christian Europe was created, the Jews retained
their integrity and contributed in many ways to cultural
development. The Jewish diaspora in the Roman Empire spread
to new areas. By the end of the Middle Ages, Jews in Europe
had their main focus in Eastern Europe and Spain, but there
were other important centers, including in Germany. When the
Sephardic Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, they formed
minorities in other countries. The Jews have often been a
culture-bearing layer in European cities. The Christian ban
on interest rates during the Middle Ages led to the banking
system being largely placed in the hands of the Jews. This,
as well as others characteristic of the Jews - their own
languages, ie. Hebrew, Yiddish and Ladino, as well as
endogamy and specific customs - made the Jews a constant
object of harassment by the surrounding community, which
also led to the pogroms in Russia and finally to the ghastly
extermination of Nazi times. After World War II, a large
part of Europe's Jews emigrated to Israel.
Islam has reached Europe in several ways. The first time
was when the Moors conquered Spain in the 7th century and
established an empire which, although continually
diminished, but which disappeared only with the fall of
Granada in 1492. By the conquest of Constantinople in 1453,
the Turks gained a foothold in Europe, and large parts of
the Balkan peninsula were under Turkish rule. right down to
the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. During the
turnaround part of the Orthodox population converted to
Islam, which today is majority religion in Albania and
largest community in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while there is
a Muslim minority in Bulgaria. Due to large migrations after
the First World War, Muslim Turks in Greece were forced into
Turkey, while Christian Greeks in Turkey similarly had to
move to Greece. The French colonization of North Africa and
its settlement after World War II has led to an extensive
immigration of Muslims to France. Muslim immigrants and
guest workers are found in many European countries.
One phenomenon that was specific to the 20th century was
the systematic attempts made in Communist countries to
prevent or prohibit the practice of religion. This went the
longest in Albania, where all religion was banned. However,
these attempts, which led to many atrocities and a great
destruction of churches and monasteries, proved not to be
effective, and Christianity in these areas seems to have
gained a stronger position than in many parts of Western
Europe.
Current position
The religious unity that existed in many European states
and which could also be enacted (compare cujus region, ejus
religio) has during the 20th century been replaced by an
increasing pluralism by immigrants and refugees.
Secularisation has also broken many of the traditional
patterns, and it is hardly meaningful anymore to talk about
"Catholic" or "Protestant" countries. Church and state are
now often separated, but the state church system has been
preserved in the Nordic countries, in the United Kingdom and
Greece. The relationship between church and state can be
regulated in different ways, through concordance or other
agreements.
From the time of the Enlightenment, the demand for
religious freedom has become ever stronger, and religion has
come to be seen by many as a concern of the people group,
family or individual rather than the state.
Religion has in many cases served as a political identity
factor (Ireland, Poland, Greece). Its identity-making
ability in Europe is underlined by the fact that so much of
the European cultural heritage is characterized by Christian
history (art, architecture, music, literature, etc.).
However, not least during the era of bourgeoisie, this
legacy has increasingly been dissolved from its religious
substrate and come to be perceived as part of the general
secular education. Dante, Rafael and Bach are perceived as
cultural rather than religious greats.
Secularisation is often perceived as something typical of
Europe, but has similarities in other continents with
Western culture. It has its roots in the European
Renaissance and Enlightenment and was borne from the very
beginning of the political purpose of freeing people from
religious coercion. During the 19th and 20th centuries, it
has been noted that there is a decrease in religious
activity throughout Europe, most noticeable in the Nordic
countries, at least in countries such as Greece and Poland.
Secularisation is linked to urbanization and the emergence
of a working class with little church support. One can also
notice a marginalization of religion; it has disappeared
more and more from social life but lives on in
congregations, associations or families. New revival
movements have quickly reinforced this tendency by drawing a
sharp boundary between "repent" and others.
Among the characteristic of Europe is the large number of
religious thinkers and poets who have been strikingly
independent of established churches and communities: Jakob
Böhme, Emanuel Swedenborg, William Blake and others. The
fact that these odd people had a great literary and cultural
influence testifies to the fact that religious creativity in
Europe has often taken different paths than that of the big
churches.
Europe's forthcoming integration places great demands on
the churches to show openness and overcome the centuries of
division, problems that are noticeable, among other things.
in Eastern Europe. Growing Islam is likely to change
Europe's religious map in the future.
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