1. The Early Church

2. Testing their faith, persecution became the lot of Jesus’ followers
The Early Church
Testing their faith, persecution became the lot of Jesus’ followers
By 380 CE, despite strong opposition, Christianity became the official religion of the vast Roman Empire

3. The earliest years of what became the mainstream of Christianity are described in the New Testament books that follow the gospel accounts of the life of Jesus

4. Evolving Organization & Theology
By the end of the first century CE, Christianity had a bureaucracy that carried on the rites of the Church and attempted to define mainstream Christianity, denigrating trends that it judged heretical

5. Early Monasticism
Alongside the development of doctrine and the consolidation of Church structure, another trend was developing
Some Christians were turning away from the world to live in solitary communion with God, as ascetics

6. Church Administration
Late 1st & early 2nd centuries
Some men and women had followed a charismatic Christian life, leaving home to preach, baptize, prophesy, and perhaps die as martyrs; others had moved toward an institutionalized patriarchal Church

7. Beginning of 2nd century CE
A consolidation of spiritual power had begun with the designation of specific people to serve as clergy & bishops (superintendents) to administer the Church affairs of each city or region

8. East–West Division
The eastern part of Christendom did not accept the absolute claims of the papacy
By the early Middle Ages, there were also doctrinal disagreements

9. Social Chaos & the Papacy
In the Western Church, centralization of power under the pope became a major unifying element in Europe of the Middle Ages