This concluding chapter demonstrates how one can get around the problems created by Jewish Christianity by approaching the question of the origins of Christianity and the Christianity\u2013Judaism division as a study in the production and dissemination of ancient social taxonomies. The central question from this perspective is neither the similarities and differences in culture nor even the social interaction among ancient Christians and Jews, but how early Jesus groups imagined themselves and their characteristic cultures in relation to Judeans and theirs. At what point did some Jesus groups begin to assert that Judeans and their distinguishing culture were, per se, \u201cother\u201d and to reify that difference by postulating a distinction between Christianism and Judaism? Whatever its various social consequences, how widespread was this taxonomy before its imperial adoption in the centuries after Constantine? Through an examination of a few exemplary cases, a significant distinction can be observed well into late antiquity between Jesus groups who made sense of their social experience with reference to such a notion of Christianism and those who did not; between those who came to differentiate a new \u201cus\u201d from the Judeans and the Nations alike, and those for whom Judeans and the Nations remained the primary division.<\/p>","DOI":"10.12987\/yale\/9780300180138.003.0007","type":"book-chapter","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,9,17]],"date-time":"2020-09-17T10:23:57Z","timestamp":1600338237000},"page":"144-184","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Beyond Jewish Christianity: Ancient Social Taxonomies and the Christianity-Judaism Divide"],"prefix":"10.12987","author":[{"given":"Matt","family":"Jackson-Mccabe","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"member":"5164","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,9,17]]},"container-title":["Jewish Christianity"],"original-title":["Beyond Jewish Christianity: Ancient Social Taxonomies and the Christianity-Judaism Divide"],"language":"en","deposited":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,28]],"date-time":"2022-07-28T10:35:31Z","timestamp":1659004531000},"score":14.524775,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/yale-scholarship-online\/book\/31544\/chapter\/264685971"}},"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,23]]},"ISBN":["9780300180138","9780300182378"],"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.12987\/yale\/9780300180138.003.0007","relation":{"is-identical-to":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.5040\/9780300288032.ch-006","asserted-by":"object"},{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.12987\/9780300182378-008","asserted-by":"object"}]},"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,23]]}},{"institution":[{"name":"Koninklijke Brill NV","acronym":["BRILL"]}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,6]],"date-time":"2025-03-06T23:19:09Z","timestamp":1741303149403,"version":"3.38.0"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Walter de Gruyter GmbH","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"DOI":"10.1163\/2211-2685_eco_o186","type":"dataset","created":{"date-parts":[[2014,10,29]],"date-time":"2014-10-29T15:38:13Z","timestamp":1414597093000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Orthodox Christianity"],"prefix":"10.1163","member":"374","container-title":["Encyclopedia of Christianity Online"],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,25]],"date-time":"2024-03-25T16:39:28Z","timestamp":1711384768000},"score":14.2472105,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/referenceworks.brill.com\/doi\/10.1163\/2211-2685_eco_O186"}},"issued":{"date-parts":[[null]]},"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1163\/2211-2685_eco_o186"},{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,30]],"date-time":"2026-01-30T07:07:43Z","timestamp":1769756863749,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Edinburgh University Press","isbn-type":[{"value":"9781399550079","type":"print"},{"value":"9781399550093","type":"electronic"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,30]]},"abstract":"
From roughly the tenth century to the start of the twentieth century, Europe was the demographic centre of World Christianity. Although Europe is still majority Christian today by church membership, the rates of Christian belief and practice vary widely by country and are generally higher in Eastern than in Western Europe. This chapter pairs an essay on contemporary trends in European Christianity with a number of maps, graphs, and charts illustrating the distribution of Christians across the content and within each geographical region. These analyses include trends over time as well as breakdowns by countries and provinces, percent growth rate, denominational tradition, and other demographic factors.<\/p>","DOI":"10.3366\/edinburgh\/9781399550079.003.0004","type":"book-chapter","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]],"date-time":"2026-01-29T16:53:05Z","timestamp":1769705585000},"page":"106-139","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Christianity in Europe"],"prefix":"10.3366","author":[{"given":"Luca","family":"Ferracci","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"member":"1931","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,22]]},"container-title":["Compact Atlas of Global Christianity"],"original-title":["Christianity in Europe"],"language":"en","deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]],"date-time":"2026-01-29T16:53:06Z","timestamp":1769705586000},"score":14.206027,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/edinburgh-scholarship-online\/book\/62217\/chapter\/550109108"}},"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,30]]},"ISBN":["9781399550079","9781399550093"],"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3366\/edinburgh\/9781399550079.003.0004","relation":{"is-identical-to":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.1515\/9781399550093-009","asserted-by":"subject"}]},"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,30]]}},{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,2]],"date-time":"2024-05-02T11:56:46Z","timestamp":1714651006562},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Palgrave Macmillan","isbn-type":[{"value":"9781137282156","type":"print"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"DOI":"10.1057\/9781137282156.0006","type":"book-chapter","created":{"date-parts":[[2013,8,16]],"date-time":"2013-08-16T10:22:32Z","timestamp":1376648552000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Indo-European Christianity"],"prefix":"10.1057","member":"297","container-title":["Militant Christianity"],"language":"en","deposited":{"date-parts":[[2013,8,16]],"date-time":"2013-08-16T10:22:34Z","timestamp":1376648554000},"score":14.178679,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/www.palgraveconnect.com\/doifinder\/10.1057\/9781137282156.0006"}},"issued":{"date-parts":[[null]]},"ISBN":["9781137282156"],"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1057\/9781137282156.0006"},{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,30]],"date-time":"2026-01-30T07:39:45Z","timestamp":1769758785048,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Edinburgh University Press","isbn-type":[{"value":"9781399550079","type":"print"},{"value":"9781399550093","type":"electronic"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,30]]},"abstract":"
Although many people associate Asian Christianities with missionary activities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the history of the faith on this continent in fact goes back to Jesus and the early apostles. Amidst a richness of religious diversity and pluralism, Asia\u2019s Christian population has grown from 2.3% in 1900 to 8.2% in 2020. This chapter pairs an essay on contemporary trends in Asian Christianity with a number of maps, graphs, and charts illustrating the distribution of Christians across the content and within each geographical region. These analyses include trends over time as well as breakdowns by countries and provinces, percent growth rate, denominational tradition, and other demographic factors.<\/p>","DOI":"10.3366\/edinburgh\/9781399550079.003.0003","type":"book-chapter","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]],"date-time":"2026-01-29T16:53:06Z","timestamp":1769705586000},"page":"66-103","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Christianity in Asia"],"prefix":"10.3366","author":[{"given":"Calida","family":"Chu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"member":"1931","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,22]]},"container-title":["Compact Atlas of Global Christianity"],"original-title":["Christianity in Asia"],"language":"en","deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]],"date-time":"2026-01-29T16:53:06Z","timestamp":1769705586000},"score":14.093446,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/edinburgh-scholarship-online\/book\/62217\/chapter\/550108809"}},"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,30]]},"ISBN":["9781399550079","9781399550093"],"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3366\/edinburgh\/9781399550079.003.0003","relation":{"is-identical-to":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.1515\/9781399550093-008","asserted-by":"subject"}]},"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,30]]}},{"institution":[{"name":"Koninklijke Brill NV","acronym":["BRILL"]}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,6]],"date-time":"2025-03-06T23:54:55Z","timestamp":1741305295293,"version":"3.38.0"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Walter de Gruyter GmbH","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"DOI":"10.1163\/2468-483x_smuo_com_000712","type":"dataset","created":{"date-parts":[[2016,6,6]],"date-time":"2016-06-06T14:20:31Z","timestamp":1465222831000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Christianity - Absoluteness of Christianity"],"prefix":"10.1163","member":"374","container-title":["Sacramentum Mundi Online"],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,26]],"date-time":"2024-03-26T04:42:48Z","timestamp":1711428168000},"score":14.091511,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/referenceworks.brill.com\/doi\/10.1163\/2468-483X_smuo_COM_000712"}},"issued":{"date-parts":[[null]]},"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1163\/2468-483x_smuo_com_000712"},{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,27]],"date-time":"2026-02-27T05:13:47Z","timestamp":1772169227257,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Yale University Press","isbn-type":[{"value":"9780300180138","type":"print"},{"value":"9780300182378","type":"electronic"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2020,6,23]]},"abstract":"
This chapter explores the development of an occlusionistic model of Jewish Christianity, and its relationship to the rise of critical New Testament scholarship, in the works of English Deist Thomas Morgan and German theologian Ferdinand Christian Baur. Morgan and Baur did not abandon John Toland's humanistic retelling of Christian myth so much as simply reconfigure the role of Jewish Christianity within it. The apostles no longer stood alongside Jesus as examples of an authoritative incarnation of transcendent Christianity in Jewish cultural forms. Now they represented the first occlusion of transcendent Christianity by those Jewish forms. The normative authority traditionally ascribed to the apostles and their purported writings, accordingly, was effectively reduced to the singular apostle Paul and his letters. The commingling of the latter with the former in the New Testament was explained in terms of a pervasive and multifaceted miscoloration of transcendent Christianity by its first, Jewish receptacle during the apostolic and postapostolic eras. Thus, Morgan and, more consequentially, Baur both called for a systematic and thoroughly critical study of the New Testament itself, precisely to distill from all its Jewish trappings the true, transcendent Christianity they assumed it concealed.<\/p>","DOI":"10.12987\/yale\/9780300180138.003.0003","type":"book-chapter","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,9,17]],"date-time":"2020-09-17T09:59:15Z","timestamp":1600336755000},"page":"37-76","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Jewish Christianity, Pauline Christianity, and the Critical Study of the New Testament: Thomas Morgan and F. C. 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The early North American colonies were marked by confessional diversity that only increased in the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries through immigration and colonial expansion. The late twentieth century likely marked the apex of Christianity\u2019s influence, however. From 1970 to 2020, the percentage of self-identified Christians dropped from 88% to 55% for Canadians and from 90% to 64% for United States citizens. This chapter pairs an essay on contemporary trends in North American Christianity with a number of maps, graphs, and charts illustrating the distribution of Christians across the content and within each geographical region. These analyses include trends over time as well as breakdowns by countries and provinces, percent growth rate, denominational tradition, and other demographic factors.<\/p>","DOI":"10.3366\/edinburgh\/9781399550079.003.0006","type":"book-chapter","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]],"date-time":"2026-01-29T16:53:09Z","timestamp":1769705589000},"page":"168-177","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Christianity in North America"],"prefix":"10.3366","author":[{"given":"Alex","family":"Mayfield","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"member":"1931","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,22]]},"container-title":["Compact Atlas of Global Christianity"],"original-title":["Christianity in North America"],"language":"en","deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]],"date-time":"2026-01-29T16:53:09Z","timestamp":1769705589000},"score":14.024307,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/edinburgh-scholarship-online\/book\/62217\/chapter\/550109567"}},"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,30]]},"ISBN":["9781399550079","9781399550093"],"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3366\/edinburgh\/9781399550079.003.0006","relation":{"is-identical-to":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.1515\/9781399550093-011","asserted-by":"subject"}]},"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,30]]}},{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,30]],"date-time":"2026-01-30T07:31:53Z","timestamp":1769758313851,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Edinburgh University Press","isbn-type":[{"value":"9781399550079","type":"print"},{"value":"9781399550093","type":"electronic"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,30]]},"abstract":"
Although Christianity is a late arrival to Oceania, with missionary activity beginning only in the late seventeenth century, it has today permeated island culture and society. Today, 65% of the region\u2019s total population is Christian, with Australia and New Zealand more secularised than the Pacific Islands. This chapter pairs an essay on contemporary trends in Oceanian Christianity with a number of maps, graphs, and charts illustrating the distribution of Christians across the content and within each geographical region. These analyses include trends over time as well as breakdowns by countries and provinces, percent growth rate, denominational tradition, and other demographic factors.<\/p>","DOI":"10.3366\/edinburgh\/9781399550079.003.0007","type":"book-chapter","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]],"date-time":"2026-01-29T16:53:08Z","timestamp":1769705588000},"page":"178-212","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Christianity in Oceania"],"prefix":"10.3366","author":[{"given":"SJ","family":"Francis X. Hezel","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"member":"1931","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,22]]},"container-title":["Compact Atlas of Global Christianity"],"original-title":["Christianity in Oceania"],"language":"en","deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]],"date-time":"2026-01-29T16:53:08Z","timestamp":1769705588000},"score":14.022141,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/edinburgh-scholarship-online\/book\/62217\/chapter\/550109644"}},"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,30]]},"ISBN":["9781399550079","9781399550093"],"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3366\/edinburgh\/9781399550079.003.0007","published":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,30]]}},{"institution":[{"name":"Koninklijke Brill NV","acronym":["BRILL"]}],"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,3,6]],"date-time":"2025-03-06T23:23:26Z","timestamp":1741303406067,"version":"3.38.0"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Walter de Gruyter GmbH","content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"DOI":"10.1163\/2211-2685_eco_a29","type":"dataset","created":{"date-parts":[[2014,10,29]],"date-time":"2014-10-29T15:38:13Z","timestamp":1414597093000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Absoluteness of Christianity"],"prefix":"10.1163","member":"374","container-title":["Encyclopedia of Christianity Online"],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2024,3,25]],"date-time":"2024-03-25T16:10:34Z","timestamp":1711383034000},"score":14.018261,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/referenceworks.brill.com\/doi\/10.1163\/2211-2685_eco_A29"}},"issued":{"date-parts":[[null]]},"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1163\/2211-2685_eco_a29"},{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,30]],"date-time":"2026-01-30T07:31:53Z","timestamp":1769758313844,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Edinburgh University Press","isbn-type":[{"value":"9781399550079","type":"print"},{"value":"9781399550093","type":"electronic"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,30]]},"abstract":"
Since 2021, Africa effectively has more Christians than any other continent on earth. It is also a microcosm of Global Christianity because of the richness of its religious and liturgical practises and its interreligious, ecumenical, and missionary character. This chapter pairs an essay on contemporary trends in African Christianity with a number of maps, graphs, and charts illustrating the distribution of Christians across the content and within each geographical region. These analyses include trends over time as well as breakdowns by countries and provinces, percent growth rate, denominational tradition, and other demographic factors.<\/p>","DOI":"10.3366\/edinburgh\/9781399550079.003.0002","type":"book-chapter","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]],"date-time":"2026-01-29T16:53:04Z","timestamp":1769705584000},"page":"26-63","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Christianity in Africa"],"prefix":"10.3366","author":[{"given":"SJ","family":"Jean Luc Enyegue","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]}],"member":"1931","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,22]]},"container-title":["Compact Atlas of Global Christianity"],"original-title":["Christianity in Africa"],"language":"en","deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]],"date-time":"2026-01-29T16:53:04Z","timestamp":1769705584000},"score":13.998897,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/edinburgh-scholarship-online\/book\/62217\/chapter\/550108492"}},"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,30]]},"ISBN":["9781399550079","9781399550093"],"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3366\/edinburgh\/9781399550079.003.0002","published":{"date-parts":[[2025,4,30]]}}],"items-per-page":20,"query":{"start-index":0,"search-terms":"Christianity"}}}