BOB ABERNETHY: And now, spurred on by millennial fervor, our picks of the top 10 religion stories of the last 1,000 years. You'll notice a heavy emphasis on Christianity and Europe; it was that kind of millennium. You may also find our list arbitrary and wrong. Let us know. But for now, in chronological order, here goes.For the first 1,000 years of its existence, Christianity was basically one faith, although there were always disputes about belief and style. But in 1054, the Great Schism split the faith into two distinct branches: Eastern Orthodoxy, headed by the ecumenical patriarch in Constantinople, now Istanbul; and Roman Catholicism, headed by the pope in Rome.
The Crusades worsened the relationship between East and West. In 1095, Eastern Orthodox leaders appealed to the pope for help fighting Muslim forces that had invaded the Holy Land. Briefly, it seemed the two churches might unite against the common threat. But the western crusaders built their own castles and attacked not only Muslims, but Eastern Christians as well, looting Constantinople. Muslims finally drove out the last crusaders in 1299.
In the great spread of Islam of the 13th century, Muslims controlled much of India. Hinduism survived there, but Buddhism became virtually extinct in India, the land where it originated. Muslim power was consolidated in the Middle East and in parts of Europe. The extensive Islamic empire of the Ottomans captured Constantinople in 1453 and turned the historic Hagia Sophia Church into a mosque.In 1455, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press and published the Bible. Religious teachings and other ideas could now be produced for mass distribution.
By the early 1500s, the Vatican had commissioned Michelangelo to paint the famous Sistine Chapel ceiling -- one sign of how the Church helped develop art, music, and culture. Religious patronage also created the first universities, among them Paris, Oxford, and Cambridge, revolutionizing intellectual life.
The first of two major Christian missionary movements began in the 16th century. The early European explorers helped take mostly Catholic missionaries around the world. By the 18th and 19th centuries, Protestant revival movements began another missionary effort, bringing the Christian faith and culture to Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
The 19th century brought major challenges to religious ideas, from Charles Darwin, with his theory of the evolution of species; philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who called Christianity the one great curse of humankind; psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who called religion an illusion; and from Karl Marx, whose materialistic worldview inspired communist revolution around the world.
