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West Church, Umm el-Jimal (Jordan)
Ruins of the West Church found at the village of Umm el-Jimal in the north of Jordan, which was occupied between the 1st century CE (by the Kingdom of Nabatea) and the 9th century CE (during the Abbasid period). Inscriptions made by Tanukhid Arabs – of whom Queen Mavia is well-known for her revolt against Roman emperor Valens in 378 CE – have also been found here. The construction date of the church is debated.
Questions & Answers
When were churches first built?
- Churches appear in the 1st century as homes of believers in which Christian worship services were held. Buildings constructed specifically as houses of worship appear between the 1st and 2nd centuries.
What is the oldest church in the world?
- The oldest church in the world extant is the Dura-Europos Church in Dura-Europos, Syria.
What is the largest church in the world?
- St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, constructed 1506-1626, is the largest church in the world.
What caused the change in the design of churches?
- Churches were often - not always - ornate and heavily ornamented buildings until the Protestant Reformation of 1517. Afterwards, Protestant congregations constructed more modest structures with a focus on the pulpit and a reduction or elimination of iconography and ornamentation. Catholic churches, generally, continued to be built with an emphasis on the grandeur and majesty of God.
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Based on Wikipedia content that has been reviewed, edited, and republished.
Original image by Michael Gunther. Uploaded by Emma Groeneveld, published on 09 March 2018. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
