how did christianity affect the medieval society as a whole?
450945
Medieval European society was largely dominated by Christianity, mainly starting through the monasteries.  The monasteries served as a repository and place of learning, and as missionaries to the barbarian tribes.  They were also critical to early development of the economy, serving as a form of bank and focal point for the development of towns, and as safe places for merchants and travelers to stay on their journeys.\n\nLater on the Church was well integrated into the feudal system that controlled society for close to a thousand years.  Almost all of the art, and most of the architecture, was religious in nature.  The development of the university grew out of the seminary system.\n\nThe Church also supported the civil government by approving of various Kings and leaders.  The civil government in turn promised to protect the Church.\n\nBasically there is no part of medieval society that wasn't significantly affected by christianity.
767170
Islam is a religion that has far more relevance for certain people than Christianity, which has often been used as a tool of oppression. Mostly it was spread by the byzantine then Ottoman empire as was behind much learning and technological advances. \nThe Middle Ages are not refered to as the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages were the period after the fall of Rome to the 11th century and are so called because we don't know much about what happened due to a lack of written evidence.
744705
In the beginning it was coz they were no match for them and coz they worshipped "pagan deities".\nBut christianity kinda adopted some of it's practices.Constantine used christianity for political reasons.So "some christians" that didn't like Constantine's influence in christianity were killed and called heretics,apostates!
73500
Agree with the above, except I believe it was so successful because the Kings of Europe wanted to throw off the control of the Church, so they encouraged the religious reformation to their political and economic advantage.  If they had not, it probably wouldn't have been successful.
389153
De Jaucourt, Denis Diderot... loads of others -- they wrote the world's first Encyclopedia during the Englightenment period (rather than having exactly the same philosophy).  They were supported by Catherine The Great and Frederick the Great among others.\n\nAround the year 1000 there was the Third crusade and the Schism.  Eastern Orthodox Christianity broke with Rome and the Pope, leaving two super religions -- Islam and Roman Christianity.... and so it remained until the 1500s, when there was a second schism -- the Protestant Reformation.\n\nThere was throughout, a feeling of confidence that the Eastern Orthodox Church was a temporary schism, and there was no particular ill-feeling or bad-blood.  The easterners were a small minor group in comparison.  Despite the Crusades and wars between Moslems and Roman Christians, they were united in hatred and suppression of the Jews, and most of the time the two co-existed.\n\nThe biggest event was the Protestant Reformation, this was earth-shattering, and caused a lot of bloodshed and ill-feeling that remains to this day.  The Puritan Pilgrim Fathers that sailed to North America is a perfect example of religious intolerance and persecution that resulted in the catacombs, priest holdes, Huguenots and ripped through mainland European Politics like nothing before or since.\n\nSome believe that THE PROTESTANT V CATHOLIC situation WAS SO BAD that the RESULT WAS to avoid it all and get involved in the SCIENCES and new Philosophies - "The Best of All Possible Worlds" in the age of Reason/ the Enlightenment/ the beginnings of the Scientific Age and The Industrial Revolution/ British Empire of the 1700s.\n\nThis is also the period in which you seem to have an interest -- the Constitution of the United States of America.  \n\nI can assert with some confidence that there would be no Eastern Orthodox Christianity nor Islam involved in this, despite it being based on the Declaration of Arbroath -- a letter to the Pope -- the United States' Constitution is firmly a PROTESTANT form of Christianity, affected to a certain extent (but not as big as you might have thought) by the modern ideas of the Philosophes from France -- religious tolerance, morality over all, reason over all and so forth!\n\nHope this help!
332391
For much of the Middle Ages, Islamic culture was the only culture that promoted learning, science etc. They preserved a lot of older European texts which otherwise we would not have today.
337744
It didn't really contribute to the Middle Ages, they were more of a force in the Renassaince. In the Middle Ages however, Venetian ships sailed most of the Crusaders over to the middle east, so that's a major contribution. In the Renaissance, the Venetian navy was as powerful as the ever threatining Ottoman Empire's navy and probably saved Europe from full scale invasion several times.
218780
The center of Christianity has changed once again.  It started out that the Middle East, especially around Jerusalem, was where Christianity thrived.  That moved to Europe very quickly.  It slowly moved more and more west, from Rome to England and Spain, which brought it to America.  However, now we see more Christians in Africa than in Europe or America.  Is it making a comeback in the U.S.?  I don't know.  In some ways, I suppose.  I don't think Christianity will ever defeat humanism in the West again, though.
815923
It isn't needed.  Religion is a means to control the masses- how do you think the Christian Church became so powerful?
429956
Yes and no. Depends on which part of the church body. The Crusades took place because the Roman Catholic Church translated the Bible into Latin, locked it up behind gates and said, "Thus and thus is what God says." From this we got inquisitions, crusades, indulgences and the like.\n\nWhen the reformation translated the Bible into German and English, the average person could stand up to the evil popery and say "No!" for the Bible says thus and thus. Then the killing and fleecing soon stopped.
555289
not sure. but my guess is how society changes in respect to it's opinions on politics- as in more or less liberal/conservative. or how politics and world events may affect a society in general.
1178195
Constantine officially ended it with Edict of Milan in 313 Ad which legalized Christianity. Though it had become much less common to persecute them before.
118731
Christians live in a peacefull society of tolerance. Our fundimental beliefs bring us great wealth and power.
732864
Well, after Constantine conquered Rome, he legalized Christianity.  You could make the case that he's directly responsible for the Dark Ages, which began a little over a century later, a thousand years of superstition, ignorance, and repression of the arts and sciences, under religious rule.   More like de-civilzation and cultural devolvement.
1057603
Religion into sexual violence and oppressing kids. Look at the history of christianity
1052083
A pagan one. :-P Pagan religions were the majority until Christianity came along.
775544
I don't know specifically about England in the 1950s, but in general, in the English-speaking world (and probably often outside it) there was an influence of what is usually called Jansenism -- though like many such things, I suspect it was more complex than that.  The picture many people were given of the the Catholic faith involved the following:  strong emphasis on obedience to Church authorities; virtual idolization of priests; hatred of the body and especially of sexuality; contempt for women -- or angelizing them (the so-called 'virgin or whore' syndrome); sacraments treated as 'objective' sources of grace to the neglect of the subjective dimension, which had the effect of treating confession and communion in a highly mechanistic way; ecclesiastical triumphalism; an unbiblical mariology that sometimes displaced Christ; a rigid form of thomism influenced by some of the worst aspects of early modern philosophy.  And above all, as you mention, an emphasis on avoiding sin rather than cultivating closeness with God.  I'm sure there are other elements, but you get the idea.\n\nWhat was neglected?  Well, the Bible was.  Laypeople were often told not to read it, since Protestants did such things.  The Holy Spirit was the unknown person of the Trinity.  Even Jesus was treated as a distant judge accessible only through his mother's mediation.  The idea that being a Christian means cultivating a close friendship with Jesus for the purpose of transforming one's life into a 'divine' sort of life -- deification by participation -- was largely if not completely absent.\n\nAnyway, I doubt all this can be attributed to Jansenism, but it was a factor.  And I'm sure this can't have been the universal experience of Catholicism.  But from everything I've heard, these features were quite common before Vatican II, and they still influence many people's reactions to the Church even today.  In fact, most of the controversial debates inside Catholicism have their roots in this kind of Catholicism -- or in reactions against it.