• The form of Christianity based in Constantinople became ever
more Greek in character and ever more integrally entwined with
the culture called “Byzantine.” This form continued after the fall
of Constantinople in 1453 in the Orthodox Christianity of the
Russian Empire.• The form of Christianity based in the old capital city of Rome had
to negotiate its existence in the face of the collapse of the empire. A
fusion of disparate elements was required to shape “Christendom,”
a civilization that lasted for more than 700 years: the emergence of
the papacy, the development of religious orders in harmony with
the papacy, and the nurturing of a new Holy Roman Empire in the
Frankish kingdom.The Reformation and Beyond
• This clear historical narrative would continue for the following
centuries and reveal even more vividly Christianity’s adaptive
capacities.
• The Reformation of the 16th century divided Christianity even
more decisively than the split between Catholicism and Orthodoxy
in 1054. The fragmentation of reform into many Protestant
denominations would have as a corollary the conformation of
diverse forms of Protestant Christianity to diverse national cultures.• A perhaps unexpected effect of the challenge put to Catholicism by
Protestant reformers was the Counter-Reformation, which involved
simultaneously a reaffirmation (even a hardening) of doctrinal and
ecclesiastical positions and a thoroughgoing moral and educational
reform of religious orders and local clergy.• The religious crisis caused by the Reformation in the 16th
century also had the unanticipated result of generating enormous
energy in every form of Christianity in Europe. Christian kings
sent missionaries to accompany explorers in the 15th and 16th
centuries, and the discovery of new lands and peoples generated