Timeline of religion

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Prehistory

Middle Paleolithic (200,000–50,000 BCE)

No strong archaeological evidence of religious practices by humans or Neanderthals.

100,000 BCE: Earliest known human burial in the Middle East.

78,000–74000 BC: Earliest known Homo Sapiens burial of a child in Panga ya Saidi, East Africa.

70,000–35,000 BC: Neanderthal burials take place in areas of Europe and the Middle East.

40,000 BC: The remains of one of the earliest known anatomically modern humans to be discovered cremated, was buried near Lake Mungo.

38,000 BCE: The oldest known animal-shaped sculpture in the world (The Aurignacian Löwenmensch figurine; one of the oldest known sculptures). Maybe anthropomorphic or representing a deity.

35,000–26,001 BCE: No more record of Neanderthal burials. "Venus figurines", some deliberately broken or stabbed. Representing murders, or some unknown social belief?.^{[citation needed]}

25,000–21,000 BCE: Burials in Iberia, Wales, and eastern Europe incorporate heavy use of red ochre. Also periwinkle shells, weighted clothing, dolls, possible drumsticks, mammoth ivory beads, fox teeth pendants, panoply of ivory artifacts, "baton" antlers, flint blades, etc.

13,000–8,000 BCE: Burial activity resumed. Dozens of men, women, and children were buried in the same caves used 10,000 years beforehand, seperated by cave walls and large limestone blocks. The burials share a number of characteristics (such as use of ochre, and shell and mammoth ivory jewellery) that go back thousands of years. Old burials were commonly re-dug and moved to make way for new ones, with the older bones often being gathered and cached together. Large stones may have acted as grave markers. Pairs of ochred antlers were sometimes mounted on poles within the cave; like leaving flowers perhaps.

10th to 6th Millennium BCE

9130–7370 BCE: Apparent period of Göbekli Tepe, one of the oldest human-made sites of worship; similar usage also found in nearby Nevalı Çori.

7500–5700 BCE: The settlements of Catalhoyuk Anatolia possibly practiced worship in communal shrines. Numerous clay figurines and impressions of phallic, feminine, and hunting scenes have been found.^{[citation needed]}

Ancient Era

c.3750 BCE: The Proto-Semitic people emerged from a generally accepted urheimat in the Arabian Peninsula and Levant. The Proto-Semitic people would migrate throughout the Near East into Mesopotamia, Egypt, Ethiopia and the eastern shore of the Mediterranean.

3300–1300 BCE: The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was a Bronze Age civilization (3300–1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900 BCE) in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, noted for its cities built of brick, roadside drainage system and multi-storeyed houses.

3200–3100 BCE: Newgrange, the 250,000 ton (226,796.2 tonne) passage tomb aligned to the winter solstice in Ireland, was built.

3102–1000 BCE: Kurukshetra War. Religious tradition holds that the war marks the transition to Kali Yuga and thus dates it to 3102 BCE. Historians think closer to 1000 BCE is more likely. The existing text of the Mahabharata mostly belongs to the period between c. 500 BCE and 400 CE.

3100 BCE: The initial form of Stonehenge was completed. The circular bank and ditch enclosure, about 110 metres (360 ft) across, may have been completed with a timber circle.

3000 BCE: Sumerian Cuneiform emerged from the proto-literate Uruk period, allowing the codification of beliefs and creation of detailed historical religious records.

The second phase of Stonehenge was completed and appeared to function as the first enclosed cremation cemetery in the British Isles.

2635–2610 BCE: The oldest surviving Egyptian Pyramid was commissioned by Pharaoh Djoser.

2600 BCE: Stonehenge began to take on its final form. The wooden posts were replaced with bluestone. It began taking on an increasingly complex setup (including an altar, a portal, station stones, etc.) and shows consideration of solar alignments.

2560 BCE: approximate completion time of the Great Pyramid of Giza, the oldest pyramid of the Giza Plateau.

2494–2345 BCE: The first of the oldest surviving religious texts, the Pyramid Texts, was composed in Ancient Egypt.

2200 BCE: The Minoan Civilization developed in Crete. Citizens worshipped a variety of goddesses.

2150–2000 BCE: The earliest surviving versions of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh—originally titled He who Saw the Deep or Surpassing All Other Kings.

1700–1100 BCE: Rig Veda composed. This is the first mention of Rudra, now associated with Shiva.

1600 BCE: The ancient development of Stonehenge came to an end.

1500 BCE: The Vedic Age began in India after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation.

1351 or 1353 BCE: The reign of Akhenaten, sometimes credited with starting the earliest known recorded monotheistic religion, in Ancient Egypt.^{[citation needed]}

1300–1000 BCE: The "standard" Akkadian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh was edited by Sin-liqe-unninni.

1250–600 BCE: Upanishads composed, containing the earliest emergence of some of the central religious concepts of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.

1200 BCE: The Greek Dark Age began.

1200 BCE: The Olmecs built the earliest pyramids and temples in Central America.

877–777 BCE: The life of Parshvanatha, 23rd Tirthankara of Jainism.

800 BCE: The Greek Dark Age ends.

8th to 6th centuries BCE: The Chandogya Upanishad Verse 3.17.6 mentions Krishna Devakiputra (Sanskrit: कृष्णाय देवकीपुत्रा) as a student of the sage Ghora Angirasa. The Krisna that is said to be an avatar of Vishnu is not known to have this teacher.

6th to 5th centuries BCE: The first five books of the Jewish Tanakh, the Torah (Hebrew: תורה‬), are probably compiled.

6th century BCE: Possible start of Zoroastrianism; however some date Zarathustra closer to 1000 BCE. Zoroastrianism flourished under the Persian emperors known as the Achaemenids. The emperors Darius (ruled 522–486 B.C.E.) and Xerxes (ruled 486–465 B.C.E.) made it the official religion of their empire.

600–500 BCE: The earliest Confucian writing, Shu Ching, incorporates ideas of harmony and heaven.

599–527 BCE: The life of Mahavira, 24th and last Tirthankara of Jainism.

c.563/480–c.483/400 BCE,: Gautama Buddha, founder of Buddhism was born.

551 BCE: Confucius, founder of Confucianism, was born.

399 BCE: Socrates was tried for impiety.

369–372 BCE: Birth of Mencius and Zhuang Zhou

300 BCE: The oldest known version of the Tao Te Ching was written on bamboo tablets.

300 BCE: Theravada Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka by the Venerable Mahinda.^{[citation needed]}

c.250 BCE: The Third Buddhist council was convened by Ashoka. Ashoka sends Buddhist missionaries to faraway countries, such as China, mainland Southeast Asia, Malay kingdoms, and Hellenistic kingdoms.

140 BCE: The earliest grammar of Sanskrit literature was composed by Pāṇini. Linguistically, the Bhagavad Gita is in classical Sanskrit of the early variety. This suggests that the text was composed after the Pāṇini era. This would date the text as transmitted by the oral tradition to the later centuries of the 1st-millennium BCE, and the first written version probably to the 2nd or 3rd century CE.

100 BCE–500 CE: The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, one of the oldest texts in Yoga, were composed.

Common Era

1st to 5th centuries

c.4 BCE–c.30/33 CE: The life of Jesus of Nazareth, the central figure of Christianity.

c.27-31 CE: The death of John the Baptist.

50–62: The first Christian Council was convened in Jerusalem.

70: The Siege of Jerusalem, the Destruction of the Temple, and the rise of Rabbinic Judaism.

220: Manichaean Gnosticism was formed by the prophet Mani.

250: Some of the oldest parts of the Ginza Rba, of Mandaean Gnosticism, were written.

250–900: Classic Mayan step pyramids were constructed.

313: The Edict of Milan decreed religious toleration in the Roman empire.

325: The first ecumenical council (the Council of Nicaea) was convened. It established the original Nicene Creed and fixed the date of Easter. It also confirmed the primacy of the Sees of Rome, Alexandria and Antioch, and granted the See of Jerusalem a position of honour.

c.350: The oldest record of the complete biblical texts (the Codex Sinaiticus) survives in a Greek translation called the Septuagint, dating to the 4th century CE.

380: Theodosius I declared Nicene Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire.

381: The second ecumenical council (the First Council of Constantinople) reaffirmed and revised the Nicene Creed, repudiating Arianism and Pneumatomachi.

381–391: Theodosius proscribed paganism within the Roman Empire.

393: A council of early Christian bishops listed and approved a biblical canon for the first time at the Synod of Hippo.

Middle Ages (5th–15th centuries)

See also: History of religions § Middle Age

5th to 10th centuries

405: St. Jerome completed the Vulgate, the first Latin translation of the Bible.

410: The Western Roman Empire began to decline, signalling the onset of the Dark Ages.

424: The Church of the East in Sassanian Empire (Persia) formally separated from the See of Antioch.

431: The third ecumenical council (the First Council of Ephesus) repudiated Nestorianism, proclaimed the Virgin Mary as the Theotokos (the God-bearer or Mother of God). It also repudiated Pelagianism and again reaffirmed the Nicene Creed.

449: The Second Council of Ephesus declared support for Eutyches and attacked his opponents.

451: The fourth ecumenical council (the Council of Chalcedon) rejected the Eutychian doctrine of monophysitism, adopting instead the Chalcedonian Creed.

451: The Oriental Orthodox Church rejected the christological view put forth by the Council of Chalcedon and was excommunicated.

480–547: Benedict of Nursia wrote his Rule, laying the foundation of Western Christian monasticism.

553: The fifth ecumenical council (the Second Council of Constantinople) repudiated the Three Chapters as Nestorian and condemned Origen of Alexandria.

570–632: The life of Prophet Muhammad of Islam

632: Work began on the compilation of the Quran into the form of a book (soon to be known as Mashaf-ul-Hafsa), in the era of Abu Bakr, the first Caliph of Islam.

632–661: The Rashidun Caliphate heralded the Arab conquest of Persia, Egypt and Iraq, bringing Islam to those regions.

650: All written versions of the Qur'an were destroyed except the Mashaf-ul-Hafsa in the era of Uthman, the third Caliph of Islam.

661–750: The Umayyad Caliphate brought the Arab conquest of North Africa, Spain and Central Asia, marking the greatest extent of the Arab conquests and bringing Islam to those regions.

680–681: The sixth ecumenical council (the Third Council of Constantinople) rejected Monothelitism and Monoenergism.

c.680: The division between Sunni Muslims and Shiites developed.^{[citation needed]}

692: The Quinisext Council (also known as the Council in Trullo), an amendment to the 5th and 6th ecumenical councils, established the Pentarchy.

712: Kojiki, the oldest Shinto text, was written.

716–936: The migration of Zoroastrian (Parsi) communities from Persia to India began, caused by Muslim conquest of their lands and the ensuing persecution.^{[citation needed]}

754: The latrocinium Council of Hieria supported iconoclasm.

787: The seventh ecumenical council (the Second Council of Nicaea) restored the veneration of icons and denounced iconoclasm.

788–820: The life of Hindu philosopher Adi Shankara, who consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedānta.

c.850: The oldest extant manuscripts of the vocalized Masoretic text, upon which modern editions are based, date to 9th century CE.^{[citation needed]}

11th to 15th centuries

1017-1137: Life of founder of vishishtadvaita vedanta, philosopher and social reformer Ramanujacharya

c.1052–c.1135: The life of Milarepa, one of most famous yogis and poets of Tibetan Buddhism.

1054: The Great Schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches was formalised.

1095–1272: The First Crusade, Norwegian Crusade, Second Crusade, Third Crusade, Fourth Crusade, Albigensian Crusade, Fifth Crusade, Sixth Crusade, Seventh Crusade, Eighth Crusade, and Ninth Crusade.

1206: The Delhi Sultanate was established.

1222–1282: The life of Nichiren Daishonin, the Buddha of the Latter Day of the Law and founder of Nichiren Buddhism.. Based at the Nichiren Shoshu Head Temple Taisekiji (Japan), this branch of Buddhism teaches the importance of chanting the mantra Nam Myōhō Renge Kyō.

1229: The Codex Gigas was completed by Herman the Recluse in the Benedictine monastery of Podlažice near Chrudim.

1238-1317: Life of philosopher Madhvachacharya, founder of dvaita vedanta

1320: Pope John XXII laid the groundwork for future witch-hunts with the formalisation of the persecution of witchcraft.

1378–1417: The Roman Catholic Church split during the Western Schism.

1415: The death of Jan Hus who is considered as the first reformer of the Western Christianity. This event is often considered as the beginning of the Reformation.

1469–1539: The life of Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism.

1484: Pope Innocent VIII marked the beginning of the classical European witch-hunts with his papal bull Summis desiderantes.

1486–1534: Chaitanya Mahaprabhu popularised the chanting of the Hare Krishna and composed the Siksastakam (eight devotional prayers) in Sanskrit. His followers, Gaudiya Vaishnavas, revere him as a spiritual reformer, a Hindu revivalist and an avatar of Krishna.

Early modern and Modern eras

See also: History of religions § Modern period

16th century

1500: In the Spanish Empire, Catholicism was spread and encouraged through such institutions as the missions and the Inquisition.

1517: Martin Luther posted The Ninety-Five Theses on the door of All Saints' Church, Wittenberg, launching the Protestant Reformation.

1526: African religious systems were introduced to the Americas, with the commencement of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

1534: Henry VIII separated the English Church from Rome and made himself Supreme Head of the Church of England.

1562: The Massacre of Vassy sparked the first of a series of French Wars of Religion.

17th century

1699: Guru Gobind Singh Ji created the Khalsa in Sikhism.

18th century

1708: Guru Gobind Singh Ji, the last Sikh guru, died after instituting the Sikh holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib Ji, as the eternal Guru.

1770: Baron d'Holbach published The System of Nature said to be the first positive, unambiguous statement of atheism in the West.

1781: Ghanshyam, later known as Sahajanand Swami/Swaminarayan, was born in Chhapaiya at the house of Dharmadev and Bhaktimata.

1789–1799: In the Dechristianisation of France the Revolutionary Government confiscated Church properties, banned monastic vows and, with the passage of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy, removed control of the Church from the Pope and subordinated it as a department of the Government. The Republic also replaced the traditional Gregorian Calendar and abolished Christian holidays.

c.1790–1840: The Second Great Awakening, a Protestant religious revival in the United States.

1791–1917: The Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire allowed residency by Jews, and beyond which Jewish residency was mostly forbidden.

1791: Freedom of religion, enshrined in the Bill of Rights, was added as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, forming an early and influential secular government.

19th century

1801: The French Revolutionary Government and Pope Pius VII entered into the Concordat of 1801. While Roman Catholicism regained some powers and became recognized as "the religion of the great majority of the French", it was not afforded the latitude it had enjoyed prior to the Revolution and was not re-established as the official state religion. The Church relinquished all claims to estate seized after 1790, the clergy was state salaried and was obliged to swear allegiance to the State. Religious freedom was restored.

1819–1850: The life of Siyyid 'Alí Muḥammad Shírází (Persian: سيد علی ‌محمد شیرازی), better known as the Báb, the founder of Bábism.

1817–1892: The life of Bahá'u'lláh, founder of the Baháʼí Faith.

1823: The Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith claimed to see the Angel Moroni and prophesied of what is now the Book of Mormon.

1830s: Adventism was started by William Miller in the United States.

1830: The Church of Christ was founded by Joseph Smith on 6 April – initiating the Latter Day Saint restorationist movement.

1835–1908: The life of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement.

1836–1886: The life of Ramakrishna, saint and mystic of Bengal.

1844: Joseph Smith was murdered, reportedly by John C. Elliott, on 27 June, resulting in a succession crisis in the Latter Day Saint movement.

1857: First great popular uprising against British colonial government in India. Also called Sepoy Mutiny.

1875: The Theosophical Society was formed in New York City by Helena Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge and others.

1879: Christian Science was granted its charter in Boston, Massachusetts.

1881: Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society was formed by Charles Taze Russell, initiating the Bible Student movement.

1889: The Ahmadiyya Community was established.

1893: Swami Vivekananda's first speech at The Parliament of World Religions, Chicago, brought the ancient philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the western world.

1899: Aradia (aka The Gospel of the Witches), one of the earliest books describing post witchhunt European religious Witchcraft, was published by Charles Godfrey Leland.

20th century

1901: The incorporation of the Spiritualists' National Union legally representing Spiritualism in the United Kingdom.

1904: Thelema was founded by Aleister Crowley.

1905: In France the law on the Separation of the Churches and the State was passed, officially establishing state secularism and putting an end to the funding of religious groups by the state.

Becoming a place of pilgrimage for neo-druids and other pagans, the Ancient Order of Druids organised the first recorded reconstructionist ceremony in Stonehenge.^[when?]

1907: Formation of BAPS (Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha). A major sect in the Swaminarayan Sampradaya By Shastriji Maharaj

1908: The Khalifatul Masih was established in the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community as the "Second Manifestation of God's Power".

1913: The Moorish Science Temple of America is founded in Newark, New Jersey.

1917: The October Revolution in Russia led to the annexation of all church properties and subsequent religious suppression.^{[citation needed]}

1920: The Self Realization Fellowship Church of all Religions with its headquarters in Los Angeles, CA, was founded by Paramahansa Yogananda.

1922-1991: Soviet Union killed an estimated 12 to 20 million Christians.

1926: Cao Dai founded.

1929: The Cristero War, fought between the secular government and religious Christian rebels in Mexico, ended.

1930: The Rastafari movement began following the coronation of Haile Selassie I as Emperor of Ethiopia.

After previously failing to claim the leadership of the Moorish Science Temple of America, Wallace Fard Muhammad creates the Nation of Islam in Detroit, Michigan.

1932: A neo-Hindu religious movement, the Brahma Kumaris or "Daughters of Brahma", started. Its origin can be traced to the group "Om Mandali", founded by Lekhraj Kripalani (1884–1969).

1931: Jehovah's Witnesses emerged from the Bible Student movement under the influence of Joseph Franklin Rutherford.

1939–1945: 6 Million Jews were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

1947: Pakistan, the first nation-state in the name of Islam was created. British India was partitioned into the Muslim-majority nation of Pakistan and the secular nation of India with a Hindu majority.

1948: The modern state of Israel was established as a homeland for the Jews.

1954: The Church of Scientology was founded by L. Ron Hubbard.

Wicca was publicised by Gerald Gardner.

1956: Navayana Buddhism (Neo-Buddhism) was founded by B. R. Ambedkar, initially attracting some 380,000 Dalit converts from Hinduism.

1959: The 14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet amidst unrest and established an exile community in India.

1960s: Various Neopagan and New Age movements gained momentum.^{[citation needed]}

1961: Unitarian Universalism was formed from the merger of Unitarianism and Universalism.

1962: The Church of All Worlds, the first American neo-pagan church, was formed by a group including Oberon Zell-Ravenheart, Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart, and Richard Lance Christie.

1962–1965: The Second Vatican Council was convened.

1965: Srila Prabhupada established the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and introduced translations of the Bhagavad-Gita and Vedic Scriptures in mass production all over the world.

1966: The Church of Satan was founded by Anton LaVey on Walpurgisnacht.

1972–1984: The Stonehenge free festivals started.

1972–2004: Germanic Neopaganism (aka Heathenism, Heathenry, Ásatrú, Odinism, Forn Siðr, Vor Siðr, and Theodism) began to experience a second wave of revival.

1973: Claude Vorilhon established the Raëlian Movement and changed his name to Raël following a purported extraterrestrial encounter in December 1973.

1975: The Temple of Set was founded in Santa Barbara, California.

1979: The Iranian Revolution resulted in the establishment of an Islamic Republic in Iran.

1981: The Stregherian revival continued. "The Book of the Holy Strega" and "The Book of Ways" Volume I & II were published.

1984: Operation Blue Star in the holiest site of the Sikhs, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, led to Anti-Sikh riots in Delhi and adjoining regions, following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

1985: The Battle of the Beanfield forced an end to the Stonehenge free festivals.

1989: Following the revolutions of 1989, the overthrow of many Soviet-style states allowed a resurgence in open religious practice in many Eastern European countries.

1990s: Reconstructionist Pagan movements (Celtic, Hellenic, Roman, Slavic, Baltic, Finnish, etc.) proliferate throughout Europe.

1993: The European Council convened in Copenhagen, Denmark, agreed to the Copenhagen Criteria, requiring religious freedom within all members and prospective members of the European Union.

1995: First Traditional Hindu Mandir outside of India created in London by Pramukh Swami Maharaj (1921-2016) Guru of BAPS.

1998: The Strega Arician Tradition was founded.