History
History of Religion
A factual, cited timeline. Every entry below links back to its source — check them, and tell us if something needs correcting.
Middle Paleolithic (c. 300,000–30,000 BCE)
The oldest known intentional human burials — bodies interred with stone tools and animal remains — date to this period; this implies some belief in an afterlife, though its exact nature is undetermined.
c. 3500 BCE
The earliest evidence of Mesopotamian religion, involving worship of natural forces as providers of sustenance, coincides with the invention of writing in Sumer.
c. 3100–3000 BCE
Following the unification of Egypt, state organization became based on kingship, and the pharaoh was understood as holding an intermediate, semi-divine status between humanity and the gods.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Ancient Egyptian religion"
c. 1500–500 BCE
Indo-European-speaking peoples who entered India from the Iranian plateau composed the Vedas, the foundational texts of Vedic religion, one of the major traditions that shaped later Hinduism.
13th century BCE
According to Israelite tradition, the Exodus from Egypt and the covenant given at Sinai under Moses established the foundational religious and legal framework of ancient Israelite religion, the precursor to Judaism.
6th–4th century BCE
Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, lived in northern India during this period and founded Buddhism after attaining enlightenment near Bodh Gaya.
551–479 BCE
Confucius lived and taught in the state of Lu in China; his ethical and social teachings, later systematized by followers, became the basis of Confucianism, which shaped Chinese civilization for over two millennia.
1st century CE
Christianity began as a movement within Judaism centered on the life, teachings, and death of Jesus of Nazareth, then spread rapidly beyond Judea to Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome via early missionary journeys.
Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica, "History of early Christianity"
313 CE
Roman emperors Constantine I and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan, extending legal toleration to Christians throughout the empire and ending state-sponsored persecution.
610–622 CE
According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad received his first revelations around 610 CE in Mecca; in 622 CE he and his followers emigrated to Medina (the Hijra), marking the start of the Islamic community and calendar.
1469–1539 CE
Guru Nanak, born in the Punjab region, founded Sikhism as a monotheistic faith emphasizing meditation on the divine name; his teachings and those of nine successor Gurus were later compiled into the Guru Granth Sahib.
1517 CE
Martin Luther is traditionally said to have posted his Ninety-five Theses on indulgences on the Wittenberg Castle Church door on October 31, 1517, an event regarded as the start of the Protestant Reformation and the split within Western Christianity.
1893 CE
The World's Parliament of Religions convened in Chicago, bringing Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Jain, Zoroastrian, and other representatives together publicly for the first time in the modern era; it is widely regarded as the birth of the modern interfaith movement.
Source: Harvard Divinity School, The Pluralism Project, "Parliament of Religions, 1893"
2010–2020 CE
Globally, Christians remained the largest religious group (28.8% in 2020) but grew slower than world population; Muslims were the fastest-growing group (25.6%); and the religiously unaffiliated ("nones") grew to 24.2% of the world's population, the third-largest category after Christians and Muslims.
Source: Pew Research Center, "How the Global Religious Landscape Changed From 2010 to 2020"