Christianity

Christianity arose in the 1st century AD in a Jewish setting in the Roman province of Palestine; at its centre is Jesus of Nazareth (Jesus Christ), “Christ” meaning “anointed”. Most scholars today regard Jesus as a historical figure: besides Christian sources (the Gospels) there are brief mentions by writers such as Josephus and the Roman historian Tacitus; the view that he is purely legendary (the “mythicist” view) has few supporters. According to Christian tradition Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem during the governorship of Pontius Pilate (c. AD 30–33) and his disciples, the apostles, spread the teaching; among them Paul later holds a special place. Christianity, at first persecuted, grew stronger after the Edict of Milan (313), by which Emperor Constantine and Licinius granted freedom of worship, and in 380 it became the state religion of the Roman Empire. Today Christians number close to a third of humanity (about 2.4 billion), making it the largest religion by number of adherents. In Central Asia Christianity spread from the 3rd–5th centuries through the Church of the East (Nestorians): a bishopric was set up in Merv in the early 4th century and a metropolitan see in the early 5th; Sogdiana (including Urgut) had churches and monasteries. After the Russian conquest of the region in the 19th century, Orthodox and later Catholic and Protestant communities appeared (the Tashkent and Turkestan eparchy was created in 1871). In the 1920s–1930s Soviet policy closed churches and repressed clergy; since independence Christian communities operate freely within the law.