Western religions

The Western religions are the religions that originated within Western culture, which are thus historically, culturally, and theologically distinct from Eastern, African, Indian and Iranian religions. The term Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) is often used instead of using the East and West terminology, as these originated in the Middle East.

Western culture itself was significantly influenced by the emergence of Christianity and its adoption as the state church of the Roman Empire in the late 4th century and the term "Christendom" largely indicates this intertwined history. Western Christianity was significantly influenced by Hellenistic religion (notably neoplatonism) as well as the Roman imperial cult. Western Christianity is largely based on the Catholic Church's Latin Church tradition, as opposed to Eastern Orthodoxy, from which it was divided by the Great Schism of the 11th century, and further includes all Protestant traditions that split with the Catholic Church from the 16th century onward.

Since the 19th century, Western religion has diversified into numerous new religious movements, including Occultism, Spiritism and diverse forms of Neopaganism.

The West as a culture or civilization historically evolved out of Greco-Roman classical antiquity. These cultures had polytheistic religions, viz. Greek polytheism and Roman polytheism. Eastern influences on these religions are evident from the earliest times, the Orientalizing period at the very beginning of Greek antiquity.

During Hellenism and the Roman Empire period, Eastern (Oriental) religions exerted a considerable influence on "Western" religion, giving rise to Persian influenced traditions like Gnosticism and Mithraism, as well as Egyptian and Chaldean influence on mystery religions (Orphism), astrology and magic. Early Christianity itself is a further example of Orientalizing influence on the later Roman Empire.

During the same period, inherited traditions of native Roman religion were marginalized or overlaid by interpretatio graeca, and the Roman imperial cult evolved into a civil religion which involved state ritual rather than religious faith or experience. Celtic and Germanic religion was described by Roman ethnography as primitive, but at the same time as pure or unspoiled compared to the so-called urban decadence of Rome.

Western Christianity is a subset of Christianity, originally based on the Latin Christianity of the Catholic Church, as opposed to Eastern Orthodoxy – from which it was divided during the Great Schism of the 11th century – and various other non-western Christian movements. Western Christianity itself was divided by the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, and pronouncedly "Western" forms of Christianity include Puritanism and Evangelicalism, movements resulting from the various "Great Awakenings" in the 18th to 20th century English-speaking world and popularly practiced in the United States.

For at least a millennium and a half, Europe has been nearly equivalent to Christian culture. The Christian culture was the predominant force in Western civilization, guiding the course of philosophy, art, music, science, social structure and architecture.