By Peter Amsterdam
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Throughout the centuries, since the earliest days of Christianity, Christians have often reached the world through becoming known as a “force for good” in their community. Even when others didn’t necessarily embrace the Christians’ faith or understand their religion, or when they were persecuted and maligned, their kind deeds and good works shone brightly before all men and made a difference in the world of their day. As the apostle Peter said in his Epistle, “Live such good lives among the [unbelievers] that … they may see your good deeds and glorify God” (1 Peter 2:12).
In this article on the effects of Christianity, we will examine the positive effects that Christianity has had on the world with the advent of hospitals and schools.1
During the first three centuries after Jesus’ death and resurrection, Christians were intermittently faced with severe persecution, and the only way they could care for the sick was to take them into their homes to tend to their illnesses.Once Christianity was legal and could be freely practiced, beginning in AD 324, Christians were in a much better position to provide institutional care for the sick and dying. The church council of Nicaea in AD 325 instructed bishops to establish a hospice in every city that had a cathedral. The purpose of a hospice was not only to care for those who were ill, but also to provide shelter for the poor and for Christian pilgrims.
This aligned with what Jesus taught: “I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me’” (Matthew 25:36–40).
The apostle Peter wrote, “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9), and the apostle Paul instructed that church leaders must be hospitable (1 Timothy 3:2). As a part of hospitality, church leaders were expected to take in both strangers and other Christians in need, which included helping to care for the sick and dying.
The first hospital was built by Saint Basil in Caesarea, Cappadocia (Eastern Turkey), in about AD 369. The next was built in a nearby province, Edessa, in AD 375. The first hospital in the West was built in Rome about AD 390 by Fabiola, a wealthy widow who was an associate of Jerome, an important Christian teacher of the early church. She founded another hospital in AD 398, about fifty miles southwest of Rome. Chrysostom (347– 407), another early church father, had hospitals built in Constantinople in the late fourth and early fifth centuries.
By the sixth century, hospitals had become a common part of monasteries. In the ninth century, during the reign of Emperor Charlemagne, numerous hospitals were built. By the mid-1500s there were 37,000 Benedictine monasteries that cared for the sick, and by that time, hospitals were plentiful in Europe.
While the Crusaders, who fought eight wars between 1096 and 1291 to liberate the Holy Land from Muslim rule, deserve harsh judgment for some of their actions, one commendable thing they did was to construct hospitals in Palestine and other Middle Eastern areas. They also founded healthcare orders, which were dedicated to the provision of healthcare for all, Christians and Muslims alike.
In the United States, one of the very first hospitals was founded by the Quakers in the early 1700s, which was one of only two hospitals until the early 1800s. In the second half of the 1800s, many more hospitals were built, usually by local churches and Christian denominations. The hospitals were often named after the denomination which sponsored them, such as Baptist Hospital, Lutheran Hospital, Methodist Hospital, and Presbyterian Hospital, while others were given names such as St. John’s, St. Luke’s, St. Mary’s, etc.
Education
Another area influenced by Christianity was public education for all children. Today, free public schools are common; however, this wasn’t always the case. Prior to the 1500s, most education in Europe, especially at the elementary level, was supported and operated by the church in cathedral schools. Sadly, few people overall were literate, as very few attended the church schools.
Martin Luther (1483–1546) advocated a state school system in which students of both sexes would be taught in the local language in primary schools, followed by Latin secondary schools and universities.2 His coworker Philip Melanchthon (1497–1560) persuaded the civic authorities in Germany to start the first public school system. Luther also advocated that the civil authorities should compel children to attend school. Over time, Luther’s idea of compulsory education took root in other countries. Today the concept that every child should attend school is written into law in most countries, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that education is a fundamental human right.
Education for the deaf
Teaching the deaf an inaudible language largely originated because of three Christian men—Abbé Charles-Michel de L’Épée, Thomas Gallaudet, and Laurent Clerc. L’Épée was a priest who developed a sign language to use in teaching the deaf in Paris in 1775. His goal was that the deaf would be able to hear the message of Jesus.3 Thomas Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc brought L’Épée’s sign language to the United States.
Laurent Clerc, born in a small village near Lyon, France, lost his hearing when he was one year old. He attended the National Institute for Deaf Children of Paris and eventually became a teacher there. Thomas Gallaudet, a clergyman who wanted to help the deaf, attended the school where Clerc taught in order to learn sign language. These two men decided to travel to the United States in order to open the first school for the deaf there. Before returning to Europe in order to learn more about working with the deaf, Gallaudet said to a deaf girl, “I hope when I come back to teach you much about the Bible, and about God, and Christ.” The two men started a school for the deaf in 1817. In 1864, Gallaudet’s son founded the first college for the deaf, which later became known as Gallaudet University in Washington, DC.
Not much is known about care for the blind in the first few centuries after Jesus’ death and resurrection. In the fourth century, Christians operated some facilities for the blind. In 630, a center was built in Jerusalem. In the thirteenth century, Louis IX built a hospice for the blind in Paris. In the 1830s, Louis Braille, a dedicated Christian Frenchman who lost his sight at an early age, developed a means by which the blind could read. He came upon a system used by the military which incorporated raised dots to enable the reading of messages in the dark. From this idea he developed his own system of pricked raised dots which allowed the blind to read. On his deathbed, he said, “I am convinced that my mission is finished on earth; I tasted yesterday the supreme delight; God condescended to brighten my eyes with the splendor of eternal hope.”4
Universities
It is commonly accepted that the oldest existing university in Europe is the University of Bologna, Italy, founded in 1158. It specialized in canon law (church law). The next university in Europe was the University of Paris, founded in 1200. It originally specialized in theology, and in 1270 it added the study of medicine. Bologna became the mother of several universities in Italy, Spain, Scotland, Sweden, and Poland. The University of Paris became the mother of Oxford and of universities in Portugal, Germany, and Austria. Emmanuel College, a British Christian college within the University of Cambridge, became the mother of Harvard in America.5
Harvard University, one of America’s most prominent, was established to train ministers of the gospel. Its original motto was (in Latin) Truth for Christ and the Church. It was founded by the Congregational Church. Other prominent American universities were also founded by Christian denominations, such as Yale University (Congregational), Northwestern University (Methodist), Columbia University (Episcopalian), Princeton University (Presbyterian), and Brown University (Baptist).
As we can see, Christianity played an important role in the history and development of educational facilities and hospitals, and thus has helped to make the world a better place, and continues to do so today. God has called Christians of every age to be “the light of the world.” He told His followers to “let your light shine before people, so that they will see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:14–16). As we each strive to share the gospel with others; as we provide assistance—spiritual or practical, or both—to those the Lord puts in our path; as we do our part to bring God’s love to others and to better their lives in whatever ways we are able, our witness and our works will shine forth His light as a “city set on a hill” to draw others to Him (Matthew 5:14).
Originally published April 2019. Adapted and republished November 2025. Read by Reuben Ruchevsky.
1 Points from this article were taken from How Christianity Changed the World, by Alvin J. Schmidt (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004).
2 Martin Luther, “Preface,” Small Catechism, in The Book of Concord, ed. Theodore G. Tappert (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1959), 338.
3 Harlan Lane, When the Mind Hears (New York: Random House, 1984), 58.
4 Etta DeGering, Seeing Fingers: The Story of Louis Braille (New York: David McKay, 1962), 110.
5 Schmidt, How Christianity Changed the World, 187
