Christianity

Main article: Religion in the world

The Number of Christians in the World

2019:33% of the world's population profess Christianity

Most studies note that for 2019, 33% of the world's population professes some form of Christianity:

• Europe 558 824 000 man;

• Latin America 542 670 000;

• Africa 474 836 000;

• Asia 354 254 000;

• North America 231 032 000;

• Oceania 23,975,000.

2013: Forecast of the change in the number of Christians by regions of the world

Change in the number of Christians in 1970-2020 (2013 forecast)

Dogma

Borrowing through Judaism the Egyptian notion of God as an invisible spirit that fills the world

In 1900 BC, the oldest temple of the Egyptian god Amon in Thebes - Ipet-day, modern Karnak, remained the main place of the cult of Amon as a cosmic deity of air and wind, filling the entire visible world, giving the breath of life to everything living, i.e. ubiquitous.

In many texts, Amon is called "the great soul," "the secret soul," "the great living soul that is over all gods." Like air and wind, the soul is invisible. Hence the idea of ​ ​ Amon as a spirit that revives and gives life.

Much later, this Egyptian representation penetrated the Jewish religion, and then into Christianity and Islam. Chapter one of the Bible book of Genesis begins:

1. "At first God created heaven and earth.

2. The earth was invisible and empty, and dark over the abyss, and the spirit of God was hurtling over the water. "

It is not difficult to see that these two concise verses contain in compressed form some basic provisions of Egyptian cosmogonies.

Birth of Christ

The Egyptian concept of "double parenthood," which the pharaohs used to strengthen their power (see Luxor), penetrated mythology and early Christianity. She is present in one of the Coptic apocrypha (the story of the carpenter Joseph). In complete contradiction with the canonical gospels, Christ speaks of his two fathers - the "beloved father Joseph" "the father of the flesh," and the "good father in heaven."

The same concept is reflected in the Coptic novel of Alexander the Great by Pseudo-Callisthenes (2nd-3rd centuries), which explicitly states: "King Alexander, son of the god Amun and Olympiad..." (І, 21). The Olympiad was the historic, earthly mother of the Macedonian conqueror. G. Maspero, of course, is right, arguing that all this is an echo of the Egyptians' ideas about the birth of the pharaoh, embodied in images and inscriptions on the walls of temples.

Brothers of Christ

There is no unity among Catholics and Orthodox Christians on the question of how to interpret the line of the Gospel about the "brothers" of Jesus.

The Orthodox tradition is dominated by the opinion of Eusebius that Jacob, Josiah, Judah and Simon are the children of Joseph from the first marriage, not mentioned in Scripture.

There are several hypotheses about the degree of their kinship with Christ in flesh:

• According to Origen, Clement of Alexandria, St. Epiphany of Cyprus Jesus' brothers were the children of Joseph the Betrothal from his first marriage.

• Christ's brothers were children of Mary, a relative of the Blessed Virgin or Joseph, and were cousins or second cousins to Christ.

• According to the hypothesis of Renan and A.P. Lebedev, Cleopa was the brother of Joseph the Betrothed and therefore their wives (Mother of God and Mary Cleopova) were called sisters. Jacob the Righteous and his brother Judah were the children of Joseph from his first marriage, and Jacob the Lesser, Josiah, Simon, and the "sisters" of Jesus were the children of Cleopa and Mary.

In the Catholic Church, Jerome Stridon's judgment prevailed that all four were cousins of Jesus, probably children of Mary Cleopova, sister of the Virgin Mary (see in. 19:25) and thus as nephews of Our Lady were Christ's cousins in the flesh.

Childhood of Christ

The famous English Egyptologist F. Griffis owns the translation of the manuscript, first published by him under the title "Tales of the High Priests of Memphis." There are two narratives in "Tales":

• in the first, related to the ІІ century. BC e., tells about the eldest son of Ramesses ІІ Satni-Haemuas, the high priest of the god Pt, and his extraordinary adventures;
• in the second, relating to 46-47 AD. e., - about the son of Satni-Haemuas, Sa-Osiris (translated this name means "son of Osiris").

We are interested in the second narrative. At the very beginning, it is reported that Satni-Haemuas and his wife Mehit-Ushet, after many years of childlessness, had a boy. In accordance with the prophetic dream, he was called Sa-Osiris. In conclusion, the tale says that this boy was none other than the famous sorcerer and magician who died one and a half thousand years ago, again sent to live on earth by the king of the dead, the god Osiris.

Little Sa-Osiris grew quickly and was courageous. Given to school, he fabulously quickly surpassed the scribe teacher in his knowledge. Then little Sa-Osiris began to cast spells along with scribes from the "house of life" at the temple of the god Pt, and everyone who heard him was amazed at his wisdom. Then his father began to bring him to the festivities to Pharaoh, where Sa-Osiris competed in knowledge with the sorcerers of Pharaoh and defeated them.

It is interesting to give a parallel from the Gospel of Luke (chap. 2, 46-47): twelve-year-old Christ, who came with his parents to Jerusalem and was lost in the city "three days later found sitting in the temple in the middle of the teachers, listening to them and asking them; all those listening to him marveled at reason and answers. " In the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas, the same plot is developed in more detail.

Ascesis

• Pillars

Demons (demons)

The Afterlife Court

Christians borrowed the idea of ​ ​ an afterlife judgment from the religious concepts of ancient Egypt. For more information on this, see the Afterlife Court.

Borrowing an Egyptian Tale of a Fair Afterlife for the Poor in the Parable of Lazarus in the Gospel of Luke

Main article: Afterlife Court

Churches

Orthodoxy

• Russian Orthodox Church (ROC)
• Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU)

Catholicism

• Catholicism in Russia

• Centralized Religious Organization Catholic Order of Franciscans in Russia

Holidays

• Christmas-tide

Christmas

2025: Movement in some Western countries against crowding out the Christmas holiday

In the first half of the 2020s, Western countries saw a consistent displacement of Christian meanings from public space. Bans on nativity scenes, the replacement of Merry Christmas with impersonal formulas, the cancellation of fairs under the threat of terrorist attacks and increased protection of temples have become the new norm, not the exception.

In a Politico Europe story in December 2025, the Christmas season in Europe was declared a new front for culture wars. According to the publication, the far-right parties "privatized" and stole the holiday, "turned it into the flag of Christian civilization" and put themselves on the last line of defense against the hostile secular left camp.

In the disgrace of the media were the Prime Minister of Italy George Meloni, the French "National Association," the Spanish Vox and the German "Alternative for Germany." In addition, they were blamed for the support of US President Trump, who "returned" the phrase Merry Christmas ("Merry Christmas").

What are the left and right arguing about?

It didn't start with the "far right," but with years of multiplying restrictions. Merry Christmas's congratulatory words, directly referring to the Christian origins of the holiday, were gradually replaced in official and corporate speech with a neutral "fun holidays" so as not to offend anyone's religious feelings.

The Christmas tree has ceased to be called Christmas tree, turning it into a "holiday tree," and the word Christmas itself has become impossible to use - only Xmas.

In schools and city halls, religious elements were cleaned from the holiday, leaving impersonal "winter events."

At the same time, Politico talks very selectively about what is happening.

Europeans are consistently taught to self-censor - to be afraid of each of their words and actions. They have to worry about whether it is possible to put a nativity scene and whether it is worth replacing jewelry with angels with safe snowflakes and asterisks.

Christianity in Europe and North America at this time does not just lose cultural influence - it finds itself in the position of being justified. Any attempt to protect a traditional holiday is immediately branded as "politicisation of faith," "radicalism" or "far-right revenge." As a result, the Christmas cycle itself - which united societies for centuries - turns into the subject of ideological struggle and self-censorship.

Against this background, the Russian context with a fundamentally different approach looks especially contrasting.

As many observers note, the conversation about the "revival of Christianity" ceased to be exclusively theological and acquired a civilizational dimension.

History

2024: Hologram of Jesus with AI for confession appears in church in Switzerland

At the end of November 2024, it became known that the Church of St. Peter in Lucerne (Switzerland) uses an AI-based hologram of Jesus to accept confession from parishioners. The hologram was installed as part of the Deus in Machina art project. Although this installation is temporary, the ministers of St. Peter's Church note that such chatbots will one day be able to take on part of the duties of pastors. Read more here.

1st century: Map of the spread of Christianity by the apostles

A prototype of monasticism in the temples of Egypt before the advent of Christianity

In Ptolemaic times, a category of people constantly living in churches appears in Egypt, but in fact not priests: these are something like hermits who made a lifelong vow to obey the priests of the temple and carry out their assignments in gratitude for patronage and protection. It is possible that these hermits were, as it were, the forerunners of Christian monasticism, which appeared in Egypt earlier than in other countries that converted to Christianity, but not earlier than Ptolemaic ^[1].

Notes