Originally Posted by
The Lawspeaker
It depends on what you see as Europe. In Rome - the first Christians would have been there around the year 70 to 100 AD. In what is now Greece and Asia Minor as well but they were a very small minority and remained that until Christianity became the state religion some 250 years later. But then we could argue that Christianity was still purely nominal as they hadn't even worked out all the nuts and bolts just yet - nor was the population Christianised in any conceivable way. That would take hundreds of years. Up North ? Maybe there first Christian appeared around 200 AD but he would have been a newcomer in a still pagan world and that would only begin to change between 350 and 600AD. No,Christianity in the North ? You're talking about the conversions of the German Lands ? Between 690 and 800 AD). Scandinavia ? A full two centuries later. Sweden ? Well.. given that some areas still used runes in the 19th century and didn't entirely leave their older beliefs behind them until much the same moment in history, you can wonder whether the conversions of the 12th and 13th centuries were anything more than half-hearted and the Baltic only being converted (by the sword- not by reason) during the 14th century. Note that in places such as Scandinavia (including Iceland), Ireland, Baltic and Russia, there is still much more space for what is now known as superstition, you cannot ignore the question that arises then and wonder whether Christianity and the pre-Christian ideas didn't fuse here and there.
The witchcraft trials of the 15th to 18th century also harken back at a much less rational, less Christian past (and let's not forget that the Catholic Church did a lot to stamp those out in the areas it controlled). So when was Europe fully Christianised ? (A drop of water does not make you a Christian overnight - it has to be internalised) - I'd say.. it depends on where you are: anything between the Early Middle Ages in parts of Southern Europe to perhaps even the Renaissance in much of Northern Europe.
In other words: actual Christianity - as with its ethics and its political and philosophical dogma's -has been with us for perhaps a 1000 to 500 years (yes,Charlemagne was little bit than a Pagan and so were the entire class of noblemen who had only converted because it served their, and the Church at the time, political goals): they may have been nominally Christian but in conduct they were just another pack of heathens. That only began to change because of the culture of feudalism and chivalry which came much later and which tamed the noble classes to an extent that the normal people could be tamed as well. Comes to say, sadly, that we have been ignoring many of His lessons for the last 200 years.
Let's not overestimate the level of Christian behaviour in our mediaeval ancestors - we're dealing with people here that still used crosses and inscribed badges as a talisman in much the same way as the heathens of old. For them, the Christianity was the rhythm of the year with its church festivals and its baptisms and local beliefs or superstitions (the same process can still be seen in newly converted areas such as Africa, Latin America and the Philippines) - they were nominally Christian but it would be fairer to say that they were on a path to Christianity even if the general conversion had taken place several hundred years prior: it wasn't internalised yet. Also because most people (barely 1 to 2 percent of the population) could neither read or write and thus could not study in the way the moderns study Scripture. They relied on much the same oral tradition as their heathen ancestors and Christian and Heathen themes would, particularly in the early centuries, have been mixed with the Heathen stuff getting a Christian veneer.
. Especially in the Balkans, they are a heritage of several pagan cultures.
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I just mean that it's insane how most people here have to always be hostile towards each other for stuff like this
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