By the 13th century Church authorities had taken control of marriage, enforced celibacy on clergy and silenced Christian women. They had boosted their power by intruding into people’s private lives in unprecedented ways. ibid.
The Church disapproved of all sex even within marriage. But was anybody listening? ibid.
Everywhere the Church looked it found illicit sex. Sinners swimming in their own filth. ibid.
Protestants encouraged couples to enjoy sex within marriage. And even forced priests to marry. Catholic Europe was appalled. ibid.
But people began a fundamental questioning of the Church three centuries ago – the Age of Enlightenment. Diarmaid MacCulloch, Sex and the Church III: Christianity v The West
I’ll give this a name: I’ll call it Catholic feminism ... Women across the Catholic world claimed that Mary had appeared to them in visions. ibid.
The Cult of Mary confronted the Enlightenment rationalism that had brought such destruction to the Church. ibid.
Marriage ceased to be a purely Christian monopoly. ibid.
Reverend Bailey: ‘The genuine invert is often, so to speak, a by-product of the sin of a previous generation, and receives an affliction ... temptations unknown to the heterosexual.’ ibid.
The problem is an institutional one. ibid.
It was Paul and his followers who created much of the Christianity we know today ... Much of the dogma that surrounds Jesus was created by Paul. Dr Robert Beckford, The Hidden Story of Jesus, Channel 4 2007
The rise of Mithras almost exactly parallels the rise of Jesus ... A saviour God who offered his followers a life after death – did Christianity steal these ideals? ibid.
Christianity’s greatest ever lie – that the Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus on the Cross. This simple untruth laid the foundations for centuries of brutal and bloody anti-Semitism, ending with the Nazi-led holocaust of the Second World War. ibid.
Some of them are heroes while others are evil villains. Dr Robert Beckford, The Secrets of the Twelve Disciples, Channel 4 2008
Paul’s story dominates the New Testament. ibid.
Jude, Simon and James – the Bible is strangely silent about them. ibid.
James was a key figure in the history of the early Church. In fact, he took charge of the Church after Jesus’ death. ibid.
They took the story of the greatest disciple, the prince of apostles – Peter – and used him to give the head of the church in Rome his power to rule one billion Catholics. ibid.
Rome: the secrets of the early movement are closely guarded. ibid.
The entire story of Peter and Rome appears to be shrouded in confusion, mystery and vested interest. ibid.
Could the Church in India be older than the one in Rome? ibid.
Archbishop Menezez had authority from the Pope in Rome to force the Thomas Christians to join the Catholic Church by whatever means. He wanted to break the link to Thomas so he ordered the church’s archive to be destroyed. ibid.
For the last two thousand years Judas has been Christianity’s bad disciple. ibid.
The Bible tells us almost nothing about Judas as a person. ibid.
The man [Judas] singled out by the Church as the ultimate example of a bad disciple could in fact be quite the opposite. ibid.
The complete lack of any female disciples. ibid.
Christianity originated in devout Judaism, and yet for Jews Christianity has all things considered been a calamity. Howard Jacobson, Christianity s1e1: A History: Jesus the Jew, Channel 4 2009
How much is history and how much is belief wanting to be history? ibid.
And there for Jews is the nub of it: how could Jesus be the messiah if he fulfilled none of the Old Testament prophecies? ibid.
Jesus never once expressed the intention of starting a new religion. ibid.
For Judas read the Jews. ibid.
It was Paul who transformed Jesus the Jew into Jesus the Christ. ibid.
Paul’s version of Christianity won out. ibid.
Every religion finds itself in condemnation of another. ibid.
The problem with orchestrated Roman Christianity was that it was an alien force imposed on the people of Britain. Dr Robert Beckford, Christianity: A History s1e3: Dark Ages
To be a Christian king was to be part of a universal community that spread across Europe to Rome and beyond. So there were the added benefits of trade and also cultural exchange. To be a member of the Christian club brought enormous benefits. But even so there was still no such thing as a united church in Britain. ibid.
This early English church wasn’t small-minded but the epitome of diversity. ibid.
At Claremont the Pope commanded the knights of Europe to capture what he believed were rightfully Christian cities and kill any Muslims that stood in their way. Rageh Omaar, Christianity s1e4: A History: Crusades
What followed was the first major massacre of the Crusades. Hundreds perhaps thousands of Muslims were butchered here. From now on this kind of wholesale slaughter would be the calling card of Crusaders in many of the cities they conquered. ibid.
Most people will find it hard to believe that the Crusaders committed acts of cannibalism, but these acts were actually recorded by the Crusaders themselves. ibid.
But it was events in the twentieth century that transformed Saladin into a cult figure. The War against the Crusaders is now seen as Islam’s greatest victory against the West. ibid.
But yet in Europe I am struck by the opposite: by the absence of history and the knowledge of this chapter of Christian history. ibid.
There had already been attacks on power-crazed bishops, ignorant priests, and fake holy relics. Luther targeted a set of corrupt documents called Indulgences. In 1517 he made them the launch pad of his religious rebellion. Ann Widdecombe, Christianity: A History s1e5: Reformation
What Luther was unleashing was one of the greatest political and religious revolutions in history. ibid.
For me this is the triumph of the Reformation: the Luther Bible. With his own notes hand-written in the margin. ibid.
The Pope was the official head of the Church in England. And gave Henry the title Defender of the Faith for his loyal zeal. Yet it was this same Henry that eventually brought the Reformation to England. ibid.
It continued for five days. The River Seine ran red with blood and copy-cat attacks occurred throughout France ... The Reformation had led ordinary Christians to butcher one another. ibid.
Christianity needed a reformation, but I think the way it worked out in practice was the most appalling tragedy. ibid.
In a reversal of roles it’s now Africa and not Europe that is the powerhouse of world Christianity. Kwame Kwei-Armah, Christianity: A History s1e6: Dark Continents
By 2050 there will be more Christians in Latin America, Africa and Asia than Europe and America combined. ibid.
For more than 1,500 years Christians saw the Bible as the primary source of knowledge. But in the seventeenth century a new movement emerged that challenged the Christian view of the world. What we now call science emerged about 400 years through the work of a group of European thinkers who discovered new ways of interpreting the world. They no longer relied on the delivered word of God. The scientific revolution put individual curiosity, enquiry, reason, and experiment above religious dogma. And to my mind science is quite simply the biggest challenge that Christianity will ever have to face. Professor Colin Blakemore, Christianity: A History s1e7: God and the Scientists
The Vatican realised that Capurnicus’s speculations contradicted the Biblical view that the Earth is stationary. At the centre of the universe. But it was willing to tolerate his ideas for now. Capurnicus’s new theory soon pitted Christianity and science against itself. In the scientific revolution’s darkest hour. ibid.
Galileo Galilei was one of the most respected scientists. He helped the Vatican set up its first observatory in Rome and taught astronomy at the finest universities in the Catholic world. ibid.
Thinkers such as Isaac Newton and John Lock realised that the laws of the universe were there to be discovered not read about in the Bible. It was the Age of Enlightenment. Democracy, freedom and science replaced religion at the heart of society. For me the person who epitomises the Enlightenment is an American: Benjamin Franklin. ibid.
312 A.D. the Roman Emperor Constantine leads an army against a rival for the throne. At stake the future of the Roman empire ... Constantine adopts Christianity and begins to defeat the enemy. Rivals of Jesus
At the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. Constantine solidifies the Christian Church and makes it a single hierarchy with himself as leader. Constantine and his hand-picked Bishops will determine which gospels are considered sacred and which will be forbidden. Constantine makes Christianity legal. ibid.