Christianity
Christianity is one of the leading world monotheistic religions that is based on the teachings of Jesus Christ that changed, change and will change millions of peoples' lives throughout the world.
It has its own ideas and principles that changed for these two thousand years, but the core essence remains to be the same. It was believed that Jesus Christ was the Only Begotten Son of God and Messiah as it was foretold in the Bible (Collection of Holy Texts that appear to be mutual for Christianity and Judaism). For followers, Jesus was all that he could be: he was the Son of God, a teacher, a spiritual leader, in other words a Holy Creature that was resurrected to bring salvation on the sinful Earth. Almost all Christians that Jesus arose from the dead and enheavened in order to return and judge the living and dead. All those that live in a decent way are supposed to be granted an eternal living. All the statements Jesus conveyed in the course of his life are collected in the volume called "Gospel" (Good News) and are considered to be one of the guiding principles for every Christian.
However, Christianity wasn't always as powerful and wide-spread as it is nowadays. Originally, it was a Jewish sect in Israel that had own closed circle of supporters and worshippers. In the beginning, it wasn't that popular or wide-spread. It was even persecuted by the Roman authorities with the aim of abolishing all those citizens that "fell" into a barbaric sect. However, by the end of the fourth century Christianity becomes the state religion of the Roman Empire and starts being enforced for the remainder of Europe. In the course of the Middle Ages, almost all Europe was Christianized. With the Age of Renaissance and Great Geographical Discoveries, Christianity spread to Americas and all around the world.
It goes beyond al questions that Christianity was one of the main factors influencing on the development of Western civilization up to that time. Nowadays, it is one of the fundamental world religions enjoying the number of believers that amounts to 2 billion approximately and presenting a third of the world's population.
It has one of the largest number of denominations inside but all these groups tend to comply with general religious rules and principles.