Christianity Trivia
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99 free Christianity trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free Christian trivia questions with answers. This Christianity trivia quiz is about the religion itself rather than Bible stories (those have their own quizzes on the site). It starts with the big picture: how many Christians there are, the branches they belong to, where the word 'Christian' was first used and what the Trinity means. Then it follows the story through history: Constantine and Nicaea, the Great Schism of 1054, Jerome's Vulgate and Gutenberg's Bible, Luther at Wittenberg, Henry VIII, the Crusades, Vatican II and the popes of the 2020s. Along the way it covers the calendar and the customs, from Advent and Ash Wednesday to Lent, Pentecost and why Christmas is on 25 December, plus the family tree of denominations: Coptic and Armenian, Orthodox and Catholic, Baptists, Methodists, Quakers, Amish, Latter-day Saints, Pentecostals and the Salvation Army. It suits youth groups, RE classes, church quiz nights and Christian trivia games, and anyone curious about how the faith took shape. About a third of the questions are easy, a third medium and the rest genuinely hard. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and reference sources, and each question shows the sentence that confirms it once you have answered.
30 of 99 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01By 2020, which region had overtaken Europe as home to the most Christians?
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa now has more Christians than either Latin America or Europe, ending Europe's long lead.
Q 02Which saint is said to have used a three-leafed shamrock to show how God is three persons in one?
Saint Patrick
Saint Patrick's shamrock lesson isn't written down until 1726, though coins from the late 1600s already show him holding one.
Q 03According to the Acts of the Apostles, in which city were followers of Jesus first called 'Christians'?
Antioch
Antioch is where Barnabas and Saul taught large crowds for a whole year.
Q 04Which Roman emperor issued the Edict of Milan in 313, decriminalising Christianity?
Constantine
Constantine was only baptised as he lay dying in 337, nearly a quarter-century after the edict.
Q 05Which emperor's Edict of Thessalonica in 380 made Nicene Christianity the Roman state church?
Theodosius I
Theodosius I later did public penance at Bishop Ambrose's demand after his troops massacred people in Thessalonica.
Q 06The Christian doctrine that God is one being in three persons is called what?
The Trinity
The Trinity was first named in Greek around AD 180, and Tertullian is the first known Latin writer to use trinitas.
Q 07The excommunications behind the 1054 Great Schism were lifted by which pope?
Paul VI
Paul VI's declaration with the patriarch of Constantinople was a gesture of goodwill, and it did not end the schism.
Q 08What did the 'Filioque' dispute behind the 1054 schism concern?
Whether the Spirit proceeds from the Son too
Whether the Spirit proceeds from the Son too: Spanish churches added 'and the Son' to the creed at Toledo in 589, but the papacy's liturgy took it up only around 1014.
Q 09Which Patriarch of Constantinople was excommunicated by papal legates in 1054 and returned the favour?
Michael Cerularius
Michael Cerularius had shut the Latin churches in Constantinople, and the legates answered by placing their bull on the altar during the liturgy.
Q 10Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses of 1517 attacked which church practice in particular?
The sale of indulgences
The sale of indulgences was linked to preacher Johann Tetzel and the slogan 'As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs'.
Q 11In which German university town were the Ninety-five Theses said to be nailed to the church door?
Wittenberg
Wittenberg's original wooden church doors burned in 1760, and bronze doors inscribed with the theses replaced them in 1858.
Q 12The 1534 Act of Supremacy made which English king 'Supreme Head of the Church of England'?
Henry VIII
Henry VIII broke with the papacy after Pope Clement VII refused to annul his first marriage, and Thomas More was beheaded in 1535 for rejecting the title.
Q 13Which nation is credited as the first state to adopt Christianity officially, around AD 301?
Armenia
Armenia's King Tiridates III had kept Gregory the Illuminator imprisoned for over a decade before Gregory converted him.
Q 21Lent lasts 40 days in memory of what?
Jesus fasting in the desert
Jesus fasting in the desert lasted 40 days and nights, and Matthew's Gospel says the devil tempted him there.
Q 22Pentecost, celebrated seven weeks after Easter, commemorates which event?
The Holy Spirit descending on the Apostles
The Holy Spirit descending on the Apostles came with what seemed like tongues of fire, which is why red is Pentecost's colour.
Q 23What is Pentecost traditionally called in Britain?
Whitsunday
Q 14The Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt traces its founding to which Gospel writer?
Mark
Mark is said to have founded the church in Alexandria, and in the 820s two Venetian merchants carried his body off to Venice.
Q 15In Eastern Orthodoxy, how is the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople ranked relative to other bishops?
First among equals
First among equals: the Ecumenical Patriarch alone can call extraordinary synods, yet he has no direct jurisdiction over other Orthodox churches.
Q 16Which apostle is regarded by Catholic tradition as the first pope?
Peter
Peter, a fisherman first named Simon, is said to have asked to be crucified upside down, feeling unworthy to die as Jesus did.
Q 17Elected in May 2025, Pope Leo XIV is the first pope from which country?
United States
Leo XIV, born in Chicago in the United States, switched to Spanish in his first balcony speech to greet Chiclayo, the Peruvian diocese he had led.
Q 18Pope Francis, who died in 2025, was the first pope from which religious order?
The Jesuits
The Jesuits had never produced a pope before him, and he took his name to honour Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscans.
Q 19Many Protestant churches recognise only two sacraments: baptism and which other?
Holy Communion
Holy Communion and baptism are the two rites that Christians broadly agree Christ himself instituted.
Q 20Which day marks the start of Lent in Western Christianity?
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday ashes come from burning palms saved from the previous year's Palm Sunday, often on Shrove Tuesday.
Whitsunday probably means 'White Sunday', after the white robes worn by people newly baptised at the feast.
Q 24Advent, which opens the Western church year, begins on which day?
The fourth Sunday before Christmas
The fourth Sunday before Christmas can fall anywhere from 27 November to 3 December, whichever Sunday is nearest St Andrew's Day.
Q 25The earliest record of Christmas on 25 December comes from which city, around AD 336?
Rome
Rome's Chronograph of 354 also marks 25 December as the birthday of Sol Invictus, the 'unconquered' sun god.
Q 26The early Christian fish symbol, the ichthys, works as an acrostic in which language?
Greek
The Greek letters ΙΧΘΥΣ, the word for fish, are the initials of 'Jesus Christ, God's Son, Saviour'.
Q 27Which artist, who saw himself as a sculptor rather than a painter, frescoed the Sistine Chapel ceiling?
Michelangelo
Michelangelo took Pope Julius II's commission reluctantly, then spent four years, from 1508 to 1512, painting the ceiling.
Q 28The Gutenberg Bible, printed in Mainz around 1455, was an edition of which text?
The Latin Vulgate
The Latin Vulgate was Saint Jerome's translation, and Gutenberg's lender Johann Fust later sued him and took over the workshop.
Q 29Which commandment lost its 'not' in the 1631 Wicked Bible?
Adultery
Adultery lost its 'not', so the verse read 'Thou shalt commit adultery', and the royal printers were fined £300 and lost their printing licence.
Q 30Which pope launched the First Crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095?
Urban II
Urban II died two weeks after the crusaders took Jerusalem in July 1099, before news of their victory had reached him.