Christendom, or the
Christian
world, has several meanings. In a
cultural sense it refers to the
worldwide community of
Christians, adherents of
Christianity. This community
numbers in the billions of people of
the
world population. This
community is spread across many different
nations and
ethnic groups
connected only by
faith in
Christ and observance of the
Bible. In a
historical or
geopolitical sense the term usually refers
collectively to
Christian
majority countries or countries in which Christianity dominates
or was a territorial phenomenon.
Terminology and usage
The term
Christendom is developed from the Latin word
Christianus. The
Christian world is also known
collectively as the
Church of Christ or
Corpus
Christianum. The Latin term
Corpus
Christianum is often translated as
the Christian
body, meaning the community of all Christians. The Christian
polity, embodying a less secular meaning, can be compatible with
the idea of both a religious and a temporal body:
Corpus
Christianum. The
Corpus Christianum can be seen as a
Christian equivalent of the Muslim
Ummah. The
Kingdom
of God is also frequently used, denoting that the
Christian world is within (or among) people.
"Christendom" is used in this article to denote the
global community of Biblical Christianity.
Christendom as such is set on the appellation of
religious aspect. However, the word is also used
with its other meaning to
frame true Christianity. A more
secular meaning can denote that the term
Christendom
refers to Christians considered as a group, the "
Political
Christian World", as an informal
cultural hegemony that Christianity has
traditionally enjoyed in the
West.
History
Early Christendom
In the beginning of Christendom, early Christianity was a religion
spread in the Greek/Roman world and beyond as a 1st century
Jewish sect, which historians refer to as
Jewish Christianity. It may be
divided into two distinct phases: the
apostolic period, when the first apostles were
alive and organising the Church, and the
post-apostolic period, when an early
episcopal structure developed, whereby bishoprics were governed by
bishops (overseers).
The post-apostolic period concerns the time roughly after the death
of the apostles when bishops emerged as overseers of urban
Christian populations. The earliest recorded use of the terms
Christianity (Greek ) and
Catholic (Greek ), dates to this
period, the
2nd
century, attributed to
Ignatius
of Antioch c. 107. Early Christendom would close at
the end of
imperial
persecution of Christians after the ascension of
Constantine the Great and the
Edict of Milan in AD 313 and the
First Council of Nicaea in
325.
Middle Christendom
"Christendom" has referred to the
medieval
and
renaissance notion of the
Christian world as a
sociopolitical polity.
In essence, the earliest vision of Christendom was a vision of a
Christian
theocracy, a
government founded upon and upholding Christian
values, whose institutions are spread through and over with
Christian doctrine. In this
period, members of the Christian
clergy wield
political authority. The
specific relationship between the
political leaders and the clergy varied
but, in theory, the national and political divisions were at times
subsumed under the leadership of the
church as an institution. This would tempt
Church leader and political leaders
alike throughout the time in European history.

Depiction of Constantine and the
Nicene Fathers holding the Nicene Creed.
Emperor Constantine issued the
Edict of Milan in 313 proclaiming
toleration for the Christian religion, and
convoked the
First Council of Nicaea in 325 whose
Nicene Creed included belief in "one
holy catholic and apostolic Church".
Christianity became the
state religion of the Empire in 392 when
Theodosius I prohibited the
practice of
pagan
religions. The Church gradually became a defining institution
of the Empire.
As the
Western Roman Empire
disintegrated into
feudal kingdom and
principalities, the concept of Christendom
changed as the western church became independent of the Emperor and
the Christians of the
Eastern Roman
Empire. The
Byzantine Empire
came to see themselves as the last bastion of Christendom.
Christendom would take a turn with the rise of the
Franks, a Germanic tribe who converted to the
Christian faith and entered into
communion with Rome.
On Christmas Day 800
AD, Pope Leo III made the fateful
decision to switch his allegiance from the emperors in Constantinople
and crowned Charlemagne,
the king of the Franks, as the Emperor of what came to be known as
the Holy Roman Empire. This
empire created a alternative definition of
Christendom in
contrast to the Byzantine Empire. The question of what constituted
true Christendom would occupy political and religious
leaders up into the
modern era.
After the
collapse of
Charlemagne's empire, the southern remnants of the Holy Roman
Empire became a collection of states loosely connected
to the Holy See of
Rome. Tensions between
Pope
Innocent III and secular rulers ran high, as the pontiff
exerted control over their temporal counterparts in the west and
vice versa. The pontificate of Innocent III is considered the
height of temporal power of the papacy. The
Corpus
Christianum described the then current notion of the
community of all
Christians united under the
Roman Catholic Church. This community
was to be guided by Christian values in its politics, economics and
social life. Its legal basis was the
corpus iuris canonica (body of canon
law).
In the East, Christendom became more defined as the
Byzantine Empire's gradual loss of
territory to an
expanding Islam and
the
muslim conquest of
Persia. This caused Christianity to become important to the
Byzantine identity. After the
East-West
Schism which divided the Church religiously, there had been the
notion of a
universal Christendom that included the East
and the West. The Byzantines divided themselves in the
Byzantine rite of the
Eastern Orthodox Church and the
eastern rite of the
Catholic Church. The political
reunion with the west, after the East-West schism, was put asunder
by the
Fourth Crusade when
Crusaders conquered the Byzantine capital
of Constantinople and hastened the
decline of the Byzantine
Empire on the
path to
its destruction. With the breakup of the Byzantine Empire into
individual nations with nationalist Orthodox Churches, the term
Christendom described Western Europe, Catholicism, Orthodox
Byzantines, and other Eastern rites of the Church.
Late Christendom
The
Western Church's peak of authority over all European Christians and
their common endeavors of the Christian community — for example,
the Crusades, the fight against the
Moors in the Iberian Peninsula
and that against the Ottomans in the Balkans —
helped to develop a sense of communal identity against the obstacle
of Europe's deep political divisions. But this authority
also fostered the
Inquisition and
anti-Jewish
pogroms, to root out divergent
elements and create a religiously uniform community.
Christendom ultimately was led into specific crisis in the
late Middle Ages, when the
kings of France managed to establish a French
national church during the 14th century and the papacy became ever
more aligned with the
Holy Roman Empire of the
German Nation. Known as the
Western
Schism, western Christendom was a split between three men, who
were driven by politics rather than any real theological
disagreement for simultaneously claiming to be the true pope. The
Avignon Papacy developed a reputation
of corruption that estranged major parts of Western Christendom.
The schism
was ended by the Council of Constance
.
Before the modern period, Christendom was in a general crisis in
the time of the
Renaissance Popes
because of the moral laxity of these pontiffs and their willingness
to seek and rely on temporal power as secular rulers did. The
Renaissance Church became a
secular institution in this period, shedding its spiritual roots,
with insatiable greed for material wealth and temporal power. The
Italian Renaissance produced
little of what could be considered great ideas or institutions by
which men living in society could be held together in harmony. .
The Roman Church fell into neglect under the Renaissance popes,
whose fall from spiritual grace sparked Reformations.
The
Reformation and the
ensuing rise of independent states caused the term "Christendom" to
take on a more general meaning in Western Europe signifying
countries which were predominantly Christian as opposed to Islamic
or
pagan countries. Catholics at the time
advocated Christendom's restoration and argued that, with the
division of Protestantism into many denominations, Christendom
could only apply to the civilization of Catholic nations that
espoused the doctrine of the Social Reign of
Christ the King. The Catholic nations did
represent a large portion of European Christians and the
Corpus
Christianum initially was composed of the Christian community
of these nations, rather than all Christians worldwide. But
developments in western philosophy and European events were
critical in the change of the notion of the
Corpus
Christianum. The
Hundred Years'
War accelerated the process of transforming France from a
feudal monarchy to a centralized state. The rise of
strong, centralized monarchies
denoted the European transition from
feudalism to
capitalism.
By the end of the Hundred Years' War, both France and England were
able to raise enough money through taxation to create independent
standing armies.
In the Wars of
the Roses, Henry Tudor took
the crown of England
. His
heir, the
absolute
king
Henry VIII establishing
the
English church.
Classical culture
Art and literature
Writings and poetry
Christian literature is writing
that deals with Christian themes and incorporates the Christian
world view. This constitutes a huge body of extremely varied
writing.
Christian poetry is any
poetry that contains
Christian teachings, themes, or references. The
influence of Christianity on poetry has been great in any area that
Christianity has taken hold. Christian poems often directly
reference the
Bible, while others provide
allegory.
Supplemental arts
Christian art is art produced in an
attempt to illustrate, supplement and portray in tangible form the
principles of Christianity. Virtually all Christian groupings use
or have used art to some extent. The prominence of art and the
media, style, and representations change; however, the unifying
theme is ultimately the representation of the life and times of
Jesus and in some cases the
Old Testament. Depictions of saints are also
common, especially in
Anglicanism,
Roman Catholicism, and
Eastern Orthodoxy.
Illumination
An
illuminated manuscript is
a
manuscript in which the
text is supplemented by the addition of decoration.
The
earliest surviving substantive illuminated manuscripts are from the
period AD 400 to 600, primarily produced in Ireland
, Constantinople
and Italy
. The
majority of surviving manuscripts are from the
Middle Ages, although many illuminated
manuscripts survive from the 15th century
Renaissance, along with a very limited number
from
Late Antiquity.
Most illuminated manuscripts were created as
codices, which had superseded scrolls; some isolated
single sheets survive. A very few illuminated manuscript fragments
survive on
papyrus. Most medieval
manuscripts, illuminated or not, were written on
parchment (most commonly of
calf, sheep, or goat skin), but most manuscripts
important enough to illuminate were written on the best quality of
parchment, called
vellum, traditionally made
of unsplit
calfskin, though high quality
parchment from other skins was also called
parchment.
Iconography
Christian art began, about two centuries after Christ, by borrowing
motifs from Roman Imperial imagery, classical Greek and Roman
religion and popular art.
Religious
images are used to some extent by the
Abrahamic Christian faith, and often
contain highly complex iconography, which reflects centuries of
accumulated tradition. In the
Late
Antique period iconography began to be standardised, and to
relate more closely to
Biblical texts,
although many gaps in the
canonical
Gospel narratives were plugged with matter from the
apocryphal gospels. Eventually the Church would
succeed in weeding most of these out, but some remain, like the ox
and ass in the
Nativity of
Christ.
An
icon is a religious work of art, most
commonly a painting, from
Eastern
Orthodox Christianity. Christianity has used
symbolism from its very beginnings. In both East
and West, numerous iconic types of
Christ,
Mary and saints and other
subjects were developed; the number of named types of icons of
Mary, with or without the infant Christ, was especially large in
the East, whereas
Christ
Pantocrator was much the commonest image of Christ.
Christian symbolism invests
objects or actions with an inner meaning expressing Christian
ideas.
Christianity has borrowed from
the common stock of significant symbols known to most periods and
to all regions of the world.
Religious symbolism is effective when it
appeals to both the intellect and the emotions. Especially
important depictions of Mary include the
Hodegetria and
Panagia
types. Traditional models evolved for narrative paintings,
including large cycles covering the events of the Life of Christ,
the
Life of the Virgin, parts of
the Old Testament, and, increasingly, the lives of popular
saints. Especially in the West, a system of
attributes developed for
identifying individual figures of saints by
a standard appearance and symbolic objects held by them; in the
East they were more likely to identified by text labels.
Each
saint has a story and a reason why he or
she led an exemplary life. Symbols have been used to tell these
stories throughout the history of the Church. A number of Christian
saints are traditionally represented by a
symbol or
iconic motif associated with their
life, termed an attribute or
emblem, in order
to identify them. The study of these forms part of
iconography in
Art
history. They were particularly
Architecture

The structure of a typical Gothic
cathedral.
Christian architecture
encompasses a wide range of both secular and religious styles from
the foundation of Christianity to the present day, influencing the
design and construction of buildings and structures in Christian
culture.
Buildings were at first adapted from those originally intended for
other purposes but, with the rise of distinctively ecclesiastical
architecture, church buildings came to influence secular ones which
have often imitated religious architecture. In the 20th century,
the use of new materials, such as concrete, as well as simpler
styles has had its effect upon the design of churches and arguably
the flow of influence has been reversed. From the birth of
Christianity to the present, the most significant period of
transformation for Christian architecture in the west was the
Gothic cathedral. In the east,
Byzantine architecture was a
continuation of
Roman
architecture.
Philosophy
Christian philosophy is a term
to describe the fusion of various fields of
philosophy with the
theological doctrines of Christianity.
Scholasticism, which means "that [which]
belongs to the school", and was a method of learning taught by the
academics (or
school people) of
medieval
universities circa 1100–1500.
Scholasticism originally started to reconcile the
philosophy of the ancient classical philosophers
with medieval Christian theology. Scholasticism is not a philosophy
or theology in itself but a tool and method for learning which
places emphasis on
dialectical
reasoning.
Christian civilization
Medieval conditions
The
Byzantine Empire, which was the
most sophisticated culture during antiquity, suffered under
muslim conquests limiting its
scientific prowess during the Medieval period. Christian
Western Europe had suffered a catastrophic
loss of knowledge following the fall of the
Western Roman Empire. But thanks to the
Church scholars such as
Aquinas and
Buridan,
the West carried on at least the spirit of scientific inquiry which
would later lead to Europe's taking the lead in science during the
Scientific Revolution using
translations of
medieval works.
Medieval technology refers to
the technology used in medieval Europe under Christian rule. After
the
Renaissance of the
12th century, medieval Europe saw a radical change in the rate
of new inventions, innovations in the ways of managing traditional
means of production, and economic growth. The period saw major
technological advances, including the
adoption of
gunpowder and the
astrolabe, the invention of
spectacles, and greatly improved
water mills, building techniques,
agriculture in general,
clocks, and
ships. The latter
advances made possible the dawn of the
Age of Exploration. The development of
water mills was impressive, and extended from agriculture to
sawmills both for timber and stone, probably
derived from
Roman technology.
By the
time of the Domesday Book, most large
villages in Britain
had
mills. They also were widely used in
mining, as described by
Georg Agricola in
De Re Metallica for raising ore from shafts,
crushing ore, and even powering
bellows.
Significant in this respect were advances within the fields of
navigation. The
compass and
astrolabe along
with advances in shipbuilding, enabled the navigation of the
World Oceans and thus domination of the worlds
economic trade.
Gutenberg’s
printing press made possible a
dissemination of knowledge to a wider population, that would not
only lead to a gradually more egalitarian society, but one more
able to dominate other cultures, drawing from a vast reserve of
knowledge and experience.
Renaissance innovations
During the
Renaissance, great advances
occurred in geography, astronomy, chemistry, physics, math,
manufacturing, and engineering. The rediscovery of ancient
scientific texts was accelerated after the Fall of Constantinople,
and the invention of
printing which would
democratize learning and allow a faster propagation of new ideas.
Renaissance
technology is the set of artifacts and customs, spanning
roughly the 14th through the 16th century.
The era is marked by
such profound technical advancements like the printing press, linear perspectivity, patent law, double shell domes
or Bastion
fortresses. Draw-books of the Renaissance
artist-engineers such as
Taccola and
Leonardo da Vinci give a deep
insight into the mechanical technology then known and
applied.
Renaissance
science spawned the
Scientific
Revolution; science and technology began a cycle of mutual
advancement. The
Scientific Renaissance was the early
phase of the Scientific Revolution. In the two-phase model of
early modern science: a
Scientific
Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries, focused on the
restoration of the natural knowledge of the ancients; and a
Scientific Revolution of the 17th century, when scientists
shifted from recovery to innovation.
Biblical science
The various books of the
Old Testament
and the
New Testament contain
descriptions of the physical world, and can be considered a source
of information of the
history of
science in the Iron Age Levant. Proponents of "
Biblical knowledge" over this prefer
readings that would explain discoveries made historically. Items
that are cited, among others, include
agriculture,
astronomy
and
life origins,
biology,
ecology,
electricity,
mathematics,
medical knowledge (such as
mental health and
sanitation).
For all the scientific investigations regarding sacred literature,
there has been a cause far more general and powerful, for it is a
cause surrounding and permeating all. If, in the atmosphere
generated by the earlier developed sciences, the older growths of
biblical interpretation have drooped and withered and are evidently
perishing, new and better growths have arisen with roots running
down into
the sciences. While
researches in these sciences have established the fact that
accounts formerly to be special revelations, they have also begun
to impress upon the intellect and conscience of the thinking world
the fact that the religious and moral truths thus disengaged from
the old masses of myth and legend are all the more venerable and
authoritative, and that all individual or national life of any
value must be vitalized by them.
If, then,
modern science in general
has acted powerfully to dissolve away older
theological interpretation, it has also been active in a
reconstruction and
recrystallization of
truth. In the light thus obtained the sacred
text has been transformed: out of the old chaos has come order; out
of the old confused mass of hopelessly conflicting statements in
religion and morals has come, in obedience to this new conception
of development, the idea of a sacred literature which mirrors the
most striking evolution of morals and religion in the history of
the human race. Thus it is that, with the keys furnished by this
new race of biblical scholars, the way has been opened to treasures
of thought which have been inaccessible to theologians for two
thousand years. Proponents of "
Biblical foreknowledge" beyond this
prefer readings that would anticipate discoveries historically made
only in modern times.
Biblical Creationism
Christian fundamentalists
adhere to a belief known as Bible scientific foresight advocating
that certain Bible passages show an understanding of science beyond
that presumed to exist at the time the it was written.
Creationism is a specific Christian belief that
humanity,
life, the
Earth, and the
universe were
created
in their original form by a
deity. In this
belief systems, this is the
Abrahamic God.
Modern Christendom
In
modern history,
the Reformation and rise of
modernity in the early 16th century entailed a
change in the
Corpus Christianum. The
Peace of Augsburg in 1555 officially ended
the idea that all Christians could be united under one church. The
principle of
cuius regio,
eius religio ("whose the region is, his religion")
established the religious, political and geographic divisions of
Christianity, and this was established in
international law with the
Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, which
legally ended the concept of a single Christian
hegemony, i.e. the "One, Holy, Catholic, and
Apostolic Church" of the
Nicene Creed.
Each government determined the religion of their own state.
Christians living in states where their denomination was
not the established church were guaranteed the right to
practice their faith in public during allotted hours and in private
at their will. With the Treaty of Westphalia, the
Wars of Religion came to an end,
and in the
Treaty of Utrecht of
1713 the concept of the
sovereign
national state was born. The
Corpus Christianum has
since existed with the modern idea of a tolerant and diverse
society consisting of many different communities.
Geographic spread

Christianity - Percentage by
country
Christianity is the predominant religion in
Europe, Russia
, the Americas, the Philippines
, Southern Africa,
Central Africa and East Africa. There are also large
Christian communities in other parts of the world, such as
Central Asia, where Christianity is the
second-largest religion after
Islam.
The
United
States
is the largest Christian country in the world by population, followed by
Brazil
and Mexico
.
Many
Christian not only live in, but also have an official status in a
state religion of the following
nations: Argentina
(Roman Catholic
Church), Armenia
(Armenian
Apostolic Church), Bolivia
(Roman Catholic Church), Costa Rica
(Roman Catholic Church), Denmark
(Danish National
Church), El
Salvador
(Roman
Catholic Church), England
(Church of England), Greece
(Church of Greece), Iceland
(Church of
Iceland), Liechtenstein
(Roman Catholic Church), Malta
(Roman
Catholic Church), Monaco
(Roman
Catholic Church),Romania
(Romanian Orthodox Church), Norway
(Church of Norway), Vatican City
(Roman Catholic Church), Switzerland
(Roman Catholic Church, Swiss Reformed Church and Christian Catholic
Church of Switzerland) and Georgia
(Georgian
Orthodox Church).
Demographics
The estimated number of
Christians in the
world ranges from 1.5 billion to 2.3 billion people. Composed of
around 34,000 different
denominations,
Christianity is the world's largest
religion. Christians have composed about 33 percent
of the world's
population for around 100
years.
Notable Christian organizations
A
religious order is a lineage of
communities and organizations of people who live in some way set
apart from society in accordance with their specific religious
devotion, usually characterized by the principles of its founder's
religious practice. In contrast, the term
Holy Orders is used by many Christian churches
to refer to ordination or to a group of individuals who are set
apart for a special role or ministry. Historically, the word
"order" designated an established civil body or corporation with a
hierarchy, and ordinatio meant legal incorporation into an ordo.
The word "holy" refers to the Church. In context, therefore, a holy
order is set apart for ministry in the Church. Religious orders are
composed of initiates (laity) and, in some traditions, ordained
clergies.
Various organizations include:
Christianity law and ethics
Church and state framing
Within the framework of Christianity, there are at least three
possible definitions for Church law. One is the Torah/Mosaic Law
(from what Christians consider to be the
Old Testament) also called
Divine Law or
Biblical
law. Another is the instructions of
Jesus of
Nazareth in the
Gospel (sometimes
referred to as
the Law of Christ
or the
New Commandment or the
New Covenant). A third is
canon law which is the internal
ecclesiastical law governing the
Roman Catholic Church, the
Eastern Orthodox churches, and the
Anglican Communion of churches. The way
that such church law is
legislated, interpreted and at times
adjudicated varies widely among these three
bodies of churches. In all three traditions, a canon was initially
a rule adopted by a
council (From
Greek kanon / κανών,
Hebrew kaneh / קנה, for rule, standard, or
measure); these canons formed the foundation of canon law.
Christian ethics in general has
tended to stress the need for
grace,
mercy, and
forgiveness because of human weakness and
developed while
Early Christians
were subjects of the
Roman Empire. From
the time Nero blamed Christians for setting Rome ablaze (64 AD)
until Galarius (311 AD), persecutions against Christians erupted
periodically. Consequently, Early Christian ethics included
discussions of how believers should relate to Roman authority and
to the empire.
Under the
Emperor
Constantine I (312-337), Christianity became a legal religion.
While some scholars debate whether Constantine's conversion to
Christianity was authentic or simply matter of political
expediency,
Constantine's decree made
the empire safe for Christian practice and belief. Consequently,
issues of Christian doctrine, ethics and church practice were
debated openly, see for example the
First Council of Nicaea and the
First seven Ecumenical
Councils. By the time of
Theodosius
I (379-395), Christianity had become the
state religion of the empire. With
Christianity in power, ethical concerns broaden and included
discussions of the proper role of the state.
Render unto Caesar… is
the beginning of a phrase attributed to Jesus in the
synoptic gospels which reads in full,
"
Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God
the things that are God’s". This phrase has become a widely
quoted summary of the relationship between Christianity and secular
authority. The gospels say that when Jesus gave his response, his
interrogators "marvelled, and left him, and went their way." Time
has not resolved an ambiguity in this phrase, and people continue
to interpret this passage to support various positions that are
poles apart. The traditional division, carefully determined, in
Christian thought is the
state and
church have separate
spheres of influence.
Thomas Aquinas thoroughly discussed
that
human law is
positive law
which means that it is
natural law
applied by governments to societies. All human laws were to be
judged by their conformity to the natural law. An unjust law was in
a sense no law at all. At this point, the natural law was not only
used to pass judgment on the moral worth of various laws, but also
to determine what the law said in the first place. This could
result in some tension. Hardly a single portion of ethics does
Aquinas present to us but is enriched with his keen philosophical
commentaries. Late ecclesiastical writers followed in his
footsteps.
Religious republics
A
Christian Republic is most
broadly defined as a
republic with a
state religion of Christianity.
Although in general the term means a republic of a Christian
orientation. That orientation usually means that the state religion
effects the laws and the political parties are Christian
oriented.
Democratic ideology
Christian democracy is a
political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to
public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe, largely
under the influence of
Catholic
social teaching. In a number of countries, the democracy's
Christian ethos has been diluted by
secularisation. In practice, Christian
democracy is often considered
conservative on cultural, social and
moral issues and
progressive on fiscal
and economic issues. In places, where their opponents have
traditionally been secularist
socialists
and
social democrats, Christian
democratic parties are moderately
conservative, whereas in other cultural and
political environments they can lean to the left.
Women roles
Attitudes and beliefs about the roles and responsibilities of
women in Christianity vary
considerably today as they have throughout the last two millennia —
evolving along with or counter to the societies in which Christians
have lived. The Bible and Christianity historically have been
interpreted as excluding women from church leadership and placing
them in submissive roles in marriage. Male leadership has been
assumed in the church and within marriage, society and
government.
Some contemporary writers describe the role of women in the life of
the church as having been downplayed, overlooked, or denied
throughout much of Christian history.
Paradigm shifts in gender roles in society
and also many churches has inspired reevaluation by many Christians
of some long-held attitudes to the contrary.
Christian egalitarians have
increasingly argued for equal roles for men and women in
marriage, as well as for the
ordination of women to the
clergy. Contemporary conservatives meanwhile
have reasserted what has been termed a "
complementarian" position, promoting the
traditional belief that the
Bible ordains
different roles and responsibilities for women and men in the
Church and family.
Major Christian denominations

Worldwide distribution of Catholic
(yellow), Protestant (purple) and Orthodox (cyan) Christians
relative to the total population per country.
Non-Christians (white) are also noted.
 A schematic of Christian
denominational taxonomy.
The different width of the lines (thickest for "Protestantism"
and thinnest for "Oriental Orthodox" and "Nestorians") is without
objective significance.
Protestantism in general, and not just Restorationism, claims
a direct connection with Early Christianity.
|
 Major branches and movements within
Protestantism
|
A
Christian denomination is
an identifiable religious body under a common name, structure, and
doctrine within Christianity. Worldwide, Christians are divided,
often along ethnic and linguistic lines, into separate churches and
traditions. Various denominations, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses,
make particular distinctions in their literature. While the
generally-accepted definition of "Christendom" is sometimes
intended,
The Watchtower and
other
publications of
Jehovah's Witnesses more often intend the term to indicate
merely
professed Christianity as distinct from
true
Christianity. Although they do claim to be Christian,
Jehovah's Witnesses claim to be no part
of "Christendom". They explain their use of the term:
"What is the definition of “Christendom” as used in
Watch Tower publications?
Most often the term “Christendom” is used in the Society’s
publications in the more restricted way in which the word is first
defined in the dictionary: “Christianity”; actually, professed
Christianity, in contrast to the true Christianity of the Bible.
This focuses primarily on the religious aspects. However, the word
is sometimes used in our publications in its enlarged second
meaning: “the portion of the world in which Christianity prevails.”
("Questions From Readers", The Watchtower, August 1, 1981,
page 31)
For details, see "True Christianity Is Flourishing", The
Watchtower, March 1, 2004, page 7
As retrieved 2009-04-09, "While Christendom's
theologians, missionaries, and churchgoers continue to grapple with
the gathering storm of controversy in their churches, true
Christianity is flourishing worldwide. Indeed, true Christians
[...] invite you to join Jehovah's Witnesses in united Christian
worship of the only true God, Jehovah."; and Watchtower, April 1,
2001, page 18, "Equally striking is the contrast between Jehovah’s
Witnesses and Christendom today. [...] The very features that
Christendom lacks abound among Jehovah’s Witnesses!"; Also The
Watchtower, April 15, 1962, page 229, "It is out of date to define
Christendom as meaning Christianity. True Christians today do not
confuse Christendom with Christianity or make them identical."
Technically, divisions between one group and another are defined by
church doctrine and
church authority. Centering around language
of
professed Christianity and
true Christianity,
issues that separate one group of followers of
Jesus from another include:
Christianity is composed of, but not limited to, five major
branches of Churches:
Catholicism,
Eastern Orthodox,
Oriental Orthodox,
Anglican and
Protestant; some groupings include Anglicans
amongst Protestants. The
Assyrian Church of the East is
also a distinct Christian body, but is much smaller in adherents
and geographic scope. Each of these five branches has important
subdivisions. Because the Protestant subdivisions do not maintain a
common theology or earthly leadership, they are far more distinct
than the subdivisions of the other four groupings.
Denomination typically refers to one of the many Christian
groupings including each of the multitude of Protestant
subdivisions.
Sizes of denomination
Catholicism is the largest
denomination, comprising just over half of Christians
worldwide.
In Christendom, the largest denominations are:
- The Catholic Church - 1.2
billion
- Protestantism - 540 million
- Eastern Orthodoxy - 210
million
- Oriental Orthodoxy - 75
million
- Anglicanism - 77 million
- Nontrinitarianism - 26
million
- Nestorianism - 1 million
Christendom and other beliefs
In the interaction between Christendom and other belief systems,
men and women when not at war with their neighbors have always made
an effort to understand
the Other (not least
because understanding is a strategy for defense, but also because
for as long as there is dialogue wars are delayed). Such
interactions have lead to various
interfaith dialogue events. History
records many examples of interfaith initiatives and dialogue
throughout the ages. In the field of
comparative religion, the interactions
connects fundamental ideas in Christianity with similar ones in
other religions.
Christianity and other
religions appear to share some elements. Regarding
Christianity's relationship with other world beliefs, Christianity
and other beliefs have differences and similarities in connection
with each other.
Judaic world
Although
Christianity and
Judaism share historical roots, these two religions diverge in
fundamental ways.
Judaism places
emphasis on actions, focusing primary questions
on how to respond to the eternal
covenant God made with
Israelites and
Proselytes, as recorded in the
Torah. Though
Judeo-Christian tradition emphasizes
continuities and convergences between the two religions, there is
an emphasis by mainstream Jews on the widely diverging views held
by Christianity and Judaism.
Muslim world

Map of Muslim majority countries
Christianity and Islam share
their origins in the
Abrahamic
tradition, as well as Judaism.
Islam
accepts many aspects of Christianity as part of its
faith - with some differences in interpretation, and
rejects other aspects.
Buddhist world

Percentage adherents of
Buddhism.
There has been much speculation regarding a possible connection
between both the
Buddha and the
Christ, and between
Buddhism and Christianity.
Buddhism
originated in India
about 500
years before the Apostolic Age and the
origins of
Christianity.
Hindu world
Hinduism - Percentage by country
The declaration
Nostra Aetate
officially established inter-religious dialogue between Catholics
and Hindus. It has promoted common values between religions. There
are over 17.3 million Catholics in India, which represents less
than 2% of the total population and is the largest Christian Church
within India.
However, the Holy See has expressed concern
with regards to religious violence in the state of Orissa
, which is
closely related to the ideology of Hindutva.
Secular world
Irreligion is an absence of religion,
indifference to religion, and/or hostility to religion.
Secularism, in one sense, may assert the right to
be free from religious rule and teachings and freedom from the
imposition of religion upon the people. In its most prominent form,
secularism is critical of religious orthodoxy and asserts that
religion impedes human progress because of its focus on
superstition and
dogma
rather than on
reason and the
scientific method.
Humanism refers to a philosophy centered around
humankind. Much of
Humanism's
life stance upholds human reason, ethics, and justice, and
rejects
supernaturalism (
Christian mythology). As a logical
result, Secularist and Humanist through their rejections are in
direct opposition to Christians.
See also
- Main:Outline of
Christianity, Christian
Apologetics, Criticism of
Christianity
- General: Ecumenism, Christianity and other
religions, Christian Flag,
Crusade, Christian pilgrimage, The Good News, The City of God
- History: History of
Christianity, Constantinian
shift, Constantine I
and Christianity
- Roman Catholic Church: Papism, Church militant and church
triumphant, Union of
Christendom, Catholic
Church and ecumenism, Political Catholicism, Interdict
- "Western" concepts: Western world,
Western nationalism
- Muslim world:Caliphate, Ummah, Mohammadan
- Church and State: Freedom of
religion, Caesaropapism, Ecumene, Dominionism,
Res publica
christiana
- Other:Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire (Holy Roman Emperor)
References
- 21st century sources
- 20th century sources
- 19th century sources
- Hull, Moses. Encyclopedia of Biblical Spiritualism; Or, A Concordance
to the Principal Passages of the Old and New Testament Scriptures
Which Prove or Imply Spiritualism; Together with a Brief History of
the Origin of Many of the Important Books of the Bible.
Chicago: M. Hull, 1895. (ed., reprint version is available)
- Bosanquet, Bernard. The
Civilization of Christendom, And Other Studies. London: S.
Sonnenschein, 1893.
- Church Club of New York. The
History of Teachings of the Early Church, As a Basis for the
Re-Union of Christendom; Lectures. Church Club lectures. New
York: E. & J.B. Young, 1893.
- Egar, John Hodson. Christendom; Ecclesiastical and Political, from
Constantine to the Reformation. New York: J. Pott, 1887.
- The Churches of Christendom. Edinburgh: Macniven and
Wallace, 1884.
- Charles, Elizabeth Rundle. Sketches of the Women of Christendom. New York: Dodd,
Mead and Co, 1880.
- Naville, Ernest. The
Christ: Seven Lectures. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark,
1880.
- Cox, George W. Latin and Teutonic Christendom: An Historical Sketch.
London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1870.
- Girdlestone, Charles. Christendom; Sketched from History in the Light of Holy
Scripture. London: Published for the Author by Sampson Low,
Son, & Marston, 1870.
- Thomson, John Radford. Symbols of Christendom. 1867.
- Allies, T. W. The
Formation of Christendom. London: Burns & Oates, 1865.
- Stearns, George. The
Mistake of Christendom; or, Jesus and His Gospel Before Paul and
Christianity. Boston: B. Marsh, 1857.
- Johnson, Richard, The
Renowned History of the Seven Champions of Christendom. W.
Baynes and son, 1824.
Footnotes
- Marty, Martin E. The
Christian World: A Global History. Modern Library chronicles,
29. New York: Modern Library, 2007.
- Adherents.com Adherents.com Christians: Number of
Christians in the world
- Though, the interpretations of the Bible do
vary as well as the nature of Biblical law in
Christianity.
- See http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Christendom
- Kingdom is within: "The kingdom of God does not come with
observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For
indeed, the kingdom of God is within [or among] you."
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Tacitus, Annales xv 44; Josephus
Antiquities xviii 3; Mortimer Chambers, The Western
Experience Volume II chapter 5; The Oxford Dictionary of
the Jewish Religion page 158.
- Walter Bauer, Greek-English Lexicon; Ignatius of
Antioch Letter to the Magnesians 10, Letter to the
Romans ( Roberts-Donaldson tr., Lightfoot tr., Greek text). However, an edition presented on some websites, one that
otherwise corresponds exactly with the Roberts-Donaldson
translation, renders this passage to the interpolated inauthentic
longer recension of Ignatius's letters, which does not contain the
word "Christianity."
- Palmer, 1881. Edwin Palmer, [The Greek Testament with the
Readings Adopted by the Revisers of the Authorized Version].
London: Simon Wallenberg Press, 2007. ISBN 1843560232
- The Disintegration of the Christianitas,
fritzwagner.com.
- This was presaging the modern nation-state
- Catholic Encyclopedia, article Symbolism
- Alfred Crosby described some of this technological revolution
in his The Measure of Reality : Quantification in Western
Europe, 1250-1600 and other major historians of technology
have also noted it.
- In earlier days, when some critic in advance of his time
insisted that Moses could not have written an account embracing the
circumstances of his own death, it was sufficient to answer that
Moses was a prophet; if attention was called to the fact that the
great early prophets, by all which they did and did not do, showed
that there could not have existed in their time any "Levitical
code," a sufficient answer was "mystery"; and if the discrepancy
was noted between the two accounts of creation in Genesis, or
between the genealogies or the dates of the crucifixion in the
Gospels, the cogent reply was "infidelity." But the thinking world
has at last been borne by the general development of a scientific
atmosphere beyond that kind of refutation.
- For example, comparative Anthropology in general, by showing
that various early stages of belief and observance, once supposed
to be derived from direct revelation from heaven to the Hebrews,
are still found as arrested developments among various savage and
barbarous tribes; Comparative Mythology and Folklore, by showing
that ideas and beliefs regarding the Supreme Power in the universe
are progressive, and not less in Judea than in other parts of the
world; Comparative Religion and Literature, by searching out and
laying side by side those main facts in the upward struggle of
humanity which show that the Israelites, like other gifted peoples,
rose gradually, through ghost worship, fetichism, and polytheism,
to higher theological levels; and that, as they thus rose, their
conceptions and statements regarding the God they worshipped became
nobler and better — all these sciences are giving a new solution to
those problems which dogmatic theology has so long laboured in vain
to solve.
- White, A. D. (1903) v. 2
- Encyclopedia Britannica table of religions, by
region; retrieved November 2007
- [1]Largest Christian Population in the world;
retrieved April 2009
- Argientine - Religion. argentina.gov.ar. (cf.,
juridical status different from the rest of churches in line with
the National Constitution)
- Burns, "Aquinas's Two Doctrines of Natural Law."
- Blevins, Carolyn DeArmond, Women in Christian History: A
Bibliography. Macon, Georgia: Mercer Univ Press, 1995. ISBN
086554493X
- These belief systems include various non-Christian
life stances,
world views,
ideologies,
philosophies, and
religions.
External links