Religion

Recently I posted a copy of my review session on European history. Upon reflection, I think that next time I teach it i will add a section on religion. I keep finding myself having to explain this anyways, and I think it would make it clearer if I broke it down into key points.

Religion is very much a key part of European history and culture (and by extension Canadian history and culture). This is a picture that I took in Rome in 2008, looking down the street towards the entrance to Vatican City and St. Peter's Basilica. 

My simple outline would go something like this:

Religion: what you need to know...
1) Judaism, Christianity (year 0), and Islam (year 610) are related
2) Christianity became known as Catholicism (Pope in Rome)
People who disagreed in 1500's called Reformers
King Henry of England started the "Church of England" (Anglican)
Many people thought he didn't go far enough (Puritans)

This was a difficult time because religion was supposed to be part of your nationality (ie. a Spanish person was Catholic and an English person was Anglican). This led to conflict and persecution of minority groups.

3) Today, there are many different Christian churches in two categories:
Traditional Mainline Churches (like Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, etc.)
Reformed Evangelical Churches (like Mennonite, Baptist, Methodist, etc.)

Also, all churches that are not Catholic are sometimes referred to as "Protestant".