When was the Gospel of Matthew written? When did the Buddha live? When were the Vedas written? When were the Salem Witch Trials? When did Constantine convert to Christianity?

So many questions... so difficult to find quick answers to them. One of the best ways to learn about religion is to study religious history, but too often events are studied in isolation. This new feature will present comprehensive timelines of religious history.

One way to explore the site's information on religious and philosophical history is to go to the Today in History feature - click on a date and find out what happened on that date: who was born, who died, what books were published, etc.

• Today in History

There are two different ways to go through the timelines. The first is from the "overviews" - short general timelines which list major events from Europe, the Middle East and Asia in three columns. Clicking on any event will take you to a specific chronology where you can learn more and see other events happening at the same time:

• Overview #1: 8000 BCE - Year 0
• Overview #2: Year 0 - 2000 CE

The second means of going through the timelines is picking a specific timeline you want to read. Although the major religions are separated, important dates of all the religions are mixed into all the timelines - that way, when you are reading about the history of Islam, you can also see what important things were happening with Christianity or Buddhism. In addition, important non-religious events and people are included as reference points.

Christianity

• New Testament
• Early Christianity
• Medieval Christianity I: 450 - 800
• Medieval Christianity II: 800 - 1100
• Medieval Christianity III: 1100 - 1200
• Medieval Christianity IV: 1200 - 1300
• Medieval Christianity V: 1300 - 1400
• Medieval Christianity VI: 1400 - 1500
• Modern & Reformation: 1500 - 1600
• Modern & Reformation: 1600 - today
• European Persecution of Witches
• Salem Witch Trials
• The Inquisition
• Christian Councils

Other Religions

• Old Testament
• Buddhism
• Hinduism I: 8000 BCE - 1500 CE
• Hinduism II: 1500 - today
• Early Islam: 570 - 1500

Other Chronologies

• Early & Medieval Philosophy: 500 BCE - 1399 CE
• Renaissance Philosophy: 1400 - 1699
• Enlightenment Philosophy: 1700 - 1799
• Modern Philosophy: 1800 - 1899
• Contemporary Philosophy: 1900 - 2003
• History of Iraq: Timeline of Events, 3500 BCE - 2004 CE