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. Technically, divisions between one group and another
are defined by doctrine and church authority. Issues such as the
nature of
Jesus, the authority of apostolic
succession, and papal primacy separate one denomination from
another.
The
Roman Catholic Church is the largest denomination
with over 1 billion members, comprising over half of all Christians
worldwide making it the largest denomination for any religion
world-wide.
Protestant denominations
comprise roughly 38-39% of Christians worldwide, and together the
Catholics, Protestants,
Anglicans, and
other closely related denominations comprise Western Christianity.
Eastern Orthodoxy, largely Greek
and Russian, and the much smaller
Oriental Orthodoxy, along with the Mar
Toma churches and the
Assyrian Church of the East are
considered Eastern Christianity. Western Christian denominations
prevail in Europe and its former colonies. Eastern Christian
denominations are represented mostly in Eastern Europe (including
all of Russia), and the Near East.
Christians have various doctrines about the Church, the body of
faithful that they believe was established by Jesus Christ, and how
the divine church corresponds to Christian denominations. Both the
Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox consider themselves to
faithfully represent the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
Protestants separated from the Catholic Church theologies and
practices that they considered not based on fundamental Christian
doctrine. Generally, members of the various denominations
acknowledge each other as Christians, at least to the extent that
they acknowledge historically orthodox views including the deity of
Jesus and doctrines of sin and salvation, even though some
obstacles hinder full communion between churches.
Since the reforms surrounding
Vatican II,
the Catholic Church has referred to Protestant communities as
denominations, while reserving the term "church" for
apostolic churches, including the Eastern
Orthodox (see
subsistit in and
branch theory).
Major branches
Christianity has denominational families (or movements) and also
has individual denominations (or communions). Within these
denominational families and movements are (often further
denominational families and) various individual denominations or
communions. The difference between a denomination and a
denominational family is sometimes unclear to outsiders. Some
denominational families can be considered major branches.
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.
Denominationalism is an ideology
which views some or all Christian groups as being, in some sense,
versions of the same thing regardless of their distinguishing
labels. Not all churches teach this. The Catholic and Orthodox
Churches do not use this term as its implication of
interchangeability does not agree with their theological teachings.
There are some groups which practically all others would view as
apostate or
heretical, and not legitimate versions of
Christianity.
There were some movements considered heresies by the early church
which do not exist today and are not generally referred to as
denominations. Examples include the
Gnostics (who had believed in an
esoteric dualism called
gnosis), the
Ebionites (who denied the
divinity of Jesus), and the
Arians (who believed Jesus said "My Father is
greater than I"). The greatest divisions in Christianity today,
however, are between Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and various
denominations formed during and after the
Protestant Reformation. There also
exists in Protestantism and Orthodoxy various degrees of unity and
division.
Comparisons between denominational churches must be approached with
caution. For example, in some churches, congregations are part of a
larger church organization, while in other groups, each
congregation is an independent
autonomous organization. This issue is
further complicated by the existence of groups of congregations
with a common heritage that are officially nondenominational and
have no centralized authority or records, but which are identified
as denominations by non-adherents. Study of such churches in
denominational terms is therefore a more complex proposition.
Numerical comparisons are also problematic. Some groups count
membership based on adult believers and
baptized children of believers, while others only
count adult baptized believers. Others may count membership based
on those adult believers who have formally affiliated themselves
with the congregation. In addition, there may be political motives
of advocates or opponents of a particular group to inflate or
deflate membership numbers through
propaganda or outright deception.
Historical schisms and methods of classification scheme
Christianity has not been a monolithic faith since the
first century or
Apostolic Age, if ever, and today there exist
a large variety of groups that share a common history and tradition
within and without
mainstream Christianity. Since
Christianity is the largest
religion in the
world (making approximately one-third of the population), it is
necessary to understand the various faith traditions in terms of
commonalities and differences between tradition,
theology,
church
government, doctrine, language, and so on.
The largest
schism or division in
many classification schemes is between the families of
Eastern and
Western Christianity. After these two
larger families come distinct branches of Christianity. Most
classification schemes list six (in order of size: Roman
Catholicism,
Protestantism,
Eastern Orthodoxy,
Anglicanism,
Oriental Orthodoxy, and
Assyrians). Others may include
Restorationism as a seventh, but
classically this is included among Protestant movements.
Unlike Roman Catholicism, Protestantism is a general movement that
has no universal governing authority. As such, diverse groups such
as
Adventists,
Anabaptists,
Baptists,
Congregationalists,
Lutherans,
Methodists,
Presbyterians,
Reformed,
Pentecostals, and
Restorationists (depending on one's
classification scheme) are all a part of the same family, and with
further doctrinal variations within each group. From there come
denominations, which in the West, have independence from the others
in their doctrine. The Eastern and Roman Catholic churches, due to
their
hierarchical structures, are not
said to be made up of denominations, rather, they include kinds of
regional councils and individual congregations and church
bodies.
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
The initial differences between the East and West traditions stem
from socio-
cultural and
linguistic divisions in and between the
Western Roman and
Byzantine Empires. Since the West (that is,
Western Europe) spoke
Latin as its
lingua franca and the East
(Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and northern Africa)
largely used
Koine Greek to transmit
writings, theological developments were difficult to translate from
one branch to the other. In the course of
ecumenical councils (large gatherings of
Christian leaders), some church bodies split from the larger family
of Christianity. Many earlier
heretical
groups either died off for lack of followers and/or suppression by
the church at large (such as
Apollinarians,
Montanists, and
Ebionites).
The first significant, lasting split in historic Christianity came
from the
Assyrian Church of
the East, who left following the
Christological controversy over
Nestorianism in 431 (the Assyrians in 1994
released a common Christological statement with the
Roman Catholic Church). Today, the
Assyrian and Roman Catholic Church view this schism as largely
linguistic, due to problems of translating very delicate and
precise terminology from Latin to
Aramaic
and vice-versa (see
Council of
Ephesus). Following the
Council
of Chalcedon in 451, the next large split came with the
Syrian and
Alexandrian (Egyptian or Coptic)
churches dividing themselves, with the dissenting churches becoming
today's
Oriental Orthodoxy. (A
similar Christological statement was made between
Pope John Paul II and Syriac patriarch
Ignatius Zakka I Iwas, as well
as between representatives of both Eastern and Oriental
Orthodoxy).
There has been a claim that the Chalcedonian Creed restored
Nestorianism, however this is refuted by maintaining the following
distinctions associated with the
person of Christ:two
hypostases, two natures (Nestorian); one hypostasis, one nature
(Monophysite); one hypostasis, two natures
(Orthodox/Catholic).
Although the church as a whole didn't experience any major
divisions for centuries afterward, the Eastern and Western groups
drifted until the point where patriarchs from both families
excommunicated one another in about
1054 in what is known as the
Great
Schism. The political and theological reasons for the schism
are complex, but one major controversy was the inclusion and
acceptance in the West of the
filioque
clause into the
Nicene Creed, which
the East viewed as erroneous. Another was the definition of
papal primacy.
Both West
and East agreed that the patriarch of Rome was owed a "primacy of
honour" by the other patriarchs (those of Alexandria
, Antioch
, Constantinople
and Jerusalem), but the West also
contended that this primacy extended to jurisdiction, a position
rejected by the Eastern patriarchs. Various attempts at
dialogue between the two groups would occur, but it was only in the
1960s, under Pope
Paul VI and Patriarch
Athenagoras, that significant steps
began to be made to mend the relationship between the two.
In Western Christianity, there were a handful of
geographically-isolated movements that preceded the spirit of the
Protestant Reformation. The
Cathars were a very strong movement in
medieval southwestern France, but did not survive into modern
times.
In
northern Italy
and
southeastern France
, Peter Waldo founded the Waldensians in the 12th century. This
movement has largely been absorbed by modern-day Protestant groups.
In
Bohemia, a movement in the early 15th
century by
Jan Hus called the
Hussites defied Roman Catholic
dogma and still exists to this day (alternately known
as the
Moravian Church).
The
Protestant Reformation began
with the posting of Martin Luther's
Ninety-Five Theses
in Saxony
on October 31, 1517. They
written as a set of grievances to reform the pre-Reformation
Western Church.
Luther's
writings, combined with the work of Swiss
theologian
Huldrych Zwingli and French
theologian and politician John Calvin
sought to reform existing problems in doctrine and practice.
However, due to the reactions of ecclesiastical office holders at
the time of the reformers, the Roman Catholic Church separated from
them, instigating a rift in
Western
Christianity.
In England
, Henry VIII of England declared himself
to be supreme governor of the Church
of England with the Act of
Supremacy in 1531, founding the Church of England, repressing both
Lutheran reformers and those loyal to the pope.
The
Old Catholic Church split
from the
Catholic Church in
the 1870s because of the promulgation of the
dogma of
Papal
Infallibility as promoted by the
First Vatican Council of 1869–1870.
The term 'Old Catholic' was first used in 1853 to describe the
members of the See of Utrecht that were not under Papal authority.
The Old Catholic movement grew in America but has not maintained
ties with Utrecht, although talks are under way between independent
Old Catholic bishops and Utrecht.
The
Liberal Catholic Church
started in 1916 via an Old Catholic bishop in London, bishop
Matthew, who consecrated bishop James Wedgwood to the Episcopacy.
This stream has in its relatively short existence known many
splits, which operate worldwide under several names.
Eastern churches
In the Eastern world, the largest body of believers is the
Eastern Orthodox Church, sometimes
imprecisely called "Greek Orthodox" because from the time of Christ
through the Byzantine empire, Greek was the common language
(
Greek Orthodox actually refers to
only one portion of the entire Orthodox Church). The Eastern
Orthodox Church believes itself to be the continuation of the
original Christian church established by
Jesus Christ, and the
Apostle. They consider themselves to be
spiritually one body while administratively they are grouped into
several
autocephalous councils. They do
not recognize any single bishop as universal church leader, but
rather each bishop governs only his own
diocese. The
Patriarch of Constantinople is
known as the
Ecumenical
Patriarch, and holds the title "
first among equals" meaning only that if
a great council is called, the Patriarch sits as president of the
council. He has no more power than any other bishop. Currently, the
largest
synod with the most members is the
Russian Orthodox
Church.
The
Oriental Orthodox
Churches are organized in a similar manner, with six national
autocephalous groups and two autonomous bodies.
Although the region of
modern-day Ethiopia
and Eritrea
has had a
strong body of believers since the infancy of Christianity, these
regions only gained autocephaly in 1963 and 1994
respectively. Since these groups are relatively obscure in
the West, literature on them has sometimes included the
Assyrian Church of the East as a
part of the Oriental Orthodox Communion, but the Assyrians have
maintained theological, cultural, and ecclesiastical independence
from all other Christian bodies since 431. The church is
administered in a hierarchical model not entirely unlike the
Catholics, with the head of the church being the
Patriarch Catholicos of
Babylon, currently HH
Mar Dinkha
IV.
Due to oppression,
the church's headquarters is in Chicago, Illinois
, rather than Assyria (Syria,
northern Iraq
and part of
Iran
). Some believers have remained in the Middle
East, though, and a small congregation still exists due to
missionary efforts of the 7th and 8th centuries in China
. Even within this small group, there is a
rival Catholicos (Patriarch) in California
.
Western churches
Catholicism,
Anglicanism and
Protestantism are the three major divisions of
Christianity in the Western world.
However, Catholics do not describe themselves as a denomination but
rather as the original Holy and Universal Church; which all others
branched off from, as do some Anglicans. The
Baptist,
Methodist, and
Lutheran churches are generally
considered to be Protestant denominations, although strictly
speaking, of these three, the Lutheran denomination, is the only
one of these founded as a "protest" against Roman Catholicism.
Anglicanism was generally classified
as Protestant, but since the "Tractarian" or
Oxford Movement of the 19th century, led by
John Henry Newman, Anglican
writers emphasize a more catholic understanding of the church and
characterize it as more properly understood as its own tradition —
a
via media ("middle way"),
both Protestant and
Catholic. A case is sometimes also made to regard Lutheranism in a
similar way, considering the catholic character of its foundational
documents (the
Augsburg
Confession and other documents contained in the
Book of Concord) and its existence prior to
the Anglican, Anabaptist, and
Reformed
churches, from which nearly all other Protestant denominations
derive.
One central tenet of
Catholicism and
Anglicanism, like
Eastern Orthodoxy and some other
denominations, is its practice of
Apostolic Succession. "Apostle" means
"one who is sent out." Jesus commissioned the first
twelve apostles (see
Biblical Figures for the list of the
Twelve), and they, in turn laid hands on subsequent church leaders
to ordain (commission) them for ministry. In this manner, Roman
Catholics, and Anglicans trace their ordained ministers all the way
back to the original Twelve. Roman Catholics,believe that the
Pope has authority which can be traced directly
to the apostle
Peter whom they hold to
be the original head of and first Pope of the
Christian Church. There are smaller
churches, such as the
Old Catholic
Church which rejected the definition of
Papal Infallibility at the
First Vatican Council, and
Anglo-Catholics,
Anglicans who believe that Anglicanism is a
continuation of historical
Catholicism
and who incorporate many Catholic beliefs and practices. The
Catholic Church refers to
itself simply by the terms
Catholic and
Catholicism (which mean universal). The Catholic Church
has traditionally rejected any notion that those outside its
communion can be regarded as part of any true Catholic Christian
faith. Catholicism has a hierarchical structure in which supreme
authority for matters of faith and practice are the exclusive
domain of the Pope, who sits on the Throne of Peter, and the
bishops when acting in union with him. Most Catholics are unaware
of the existence of
Old
Catholicism which represents a relatively recent split from the
Catholic Church and is particularly vocal in rejecting their use of
the term
Catholic.
Each Protestant movement has developed freely, and many have split
over theological issues. For instance, a number of movements grew
out of spiritual
revivals, like
Methodism and
Pentecostalism. Doctrinal issues and matters
of
conscience have also divided
Protestants. The
Anabaptist tradition,
made up of the
Amish,
Hutterites, and
Mennonites, rejected the Roman Catholic and
Lutheran doctrines of
infant baptism;
this tradition is also noted for its belief in
pacifism. Many churches in the Restorationist group
reject being identified as Protestant or even as denominations, as
they use only the Bible not creeds, and model the church after what
the feel is the first century church found in scripture; the
churches of Christ are one example;
African Initiated Churches,
like
Kimbanguism, mostly fall within
Protestantism, with a varying degree of syncretism.
The measure of mutual
acceptance between the denominations and movements varies, but is
growing largely due to the ecumenical
movement in the 20th century and overarching Christian bodies
such as the World Council of Churches
.
Christians with Jewish roots
One group which has maintained its Jewish identity alongside an
acceptance of Jesus as the
Messiah and the
New Testament as authoritative are
Messianic Jews, also called Hebrew
Christians. Since the founding of the church, there have been
Jewish elements retained by particular groups that wanted to retain
their national heritage alongside the
Gospel
message. In fact, the first council was called in Jerusalem to
address just this issue, and the deciding opinion was written by
Jesus's relative
James the Just, the
first bishop of Jerusalem and a pivotal figure in the Christian
movement. Due to the entirely different history of such movements
and groups, they defy any simple classification scheme.
There is
also a Christian community who descend from some of the earliest
Jewish converts in Kerala
, in India
. This
community, known as the
Knanaya maintain
some of their Jewish traditions alongside their Christian heritage,
though much of this was lost under the persecution of Portuguese
colonists.
Uncategorized
Some denominations which arose alongside the Western Christian
tradition consider themselves Christian, but neither Roman Catholic
nor wholly Protestant, such as the
Religious Society of Friends
(
Quakers).
Quakerism began as an
evangelical Christian movement in 17th century England, eschewing
priests and all formal Anglican or Roman Catholic sacraments in
their worship, including many of those practices that remained
among the stridently Protestant Puritans
such as baptism with water. They were known in America for
helping with the Underground Railroad and, like the Mennonites,
Quakers traditionally refrain from participation in war. The
Salvation Army is often, albeit
incorrectly, understood to be a social relief organization. It is,
in fact, a denomination that does extensive social relief
work.
Messianic movements
Other faith traditions claim not to be descended from any of these
groups directly.
The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for instance, is often
grouped with the
Protestant churches, but
does not characterize itself as Protestant.
Its origination
during the Second Great
Awakening parallels the founding of numerous other indigenous
American religions, especially in the Burned-over district of western
New
York
state, and in the western territories of the
United
States
, including the Adventist
movement, the Jehovah's
Witnesses, Christian Science
(which had roots in Congregationalism but regarded itself as
restorative), and the Restoration
Movement (sometimes called "Campbellites" or "Stone-Campbell
churches", which include the Evangelical Christian
Church in Canada, the Christian Church and
the Church of Christ). Each
of these groups, founded within fifty years of one another,
originally claimed to be an unprecedented, late restoration of the
primitive Christian church.
New Thought Movement
Another group of churches are known under the banner of "
New Thought,". These churches share a
spiritual,
metaphysical and
mystical predisposition and understanding of the
Bible and were strongly influenced by the
Transcendentalist movement
particularly the work of
Emerson. Another antecedent of this
movement was
Swedenborgianism,
founded on the writings of
Emanuel
Swedenborg in 1787. The New Thought concept was named by
Emma Curtis Hopkins ("teacher of
teachers") after Hopkins broke off from
Mary Baker Eddy's
Church of Christ, Scientist the
movement had been perviously known as the Mental Sciences. The New
Thought movement includes
Religious
Science founded by
Ernest Holmes;
Divine Science, founded by
Malinda Cramer and the
Brook sisters; and
Unity founded by
Charles Fillmore and
Myrtle Fillmore. The founders of
these denominations all studied with Emma Curts Hopkins. Each of
one these
New Thought Churches has been
influenced by a wide variety of ancient spiritual ideas. Each of
these churches identify to different degrees with Christianity,
Unity being the most explicit.
The Christian Community
The Christian Community
(German: Die Christengemeinschaft) is a worldwide Movement for
Religious Renewal. It was founded in 1922 in Switzerland by the
Lutheran theologian and minister Friedrich Rittlemeyer, inspired by
Rudolf Steiner, the Austrian mystic
and founder of
Anthroposophy. Both
Protestants and Roman Catholics took part in the initial
development of this movement, which combines a "high church" regard
for the spiritual significance of the mass with rational theology
and freedom of thought.
Christian-related movements
Two movements which are entirely unrelated in their founding share
a common element of an additional Messiah or incarnation of Christ:
the
Unification Church and the
Rastafari movement. These groups
would also fall outside of traditional
taxonomies of Christian groups.
Differences of opinion regarding the definition of
Christianity
While a precise definition of what constitutes Christianity is
difficult at best, there are some groups worshipping Christ that
accuse other groups worshipping Christ of not being Christians
because of theological differences. The majority of Christians
belong to denominations that express their faith in a creed derived
from the Council of Nicea, including the
Orthodox,
Catholic,
Anglican,
Methodist and
Lutheran
churches.
Considering this diversity, it may be impossible to define what
Christianity is without either rejecting all definitions, or
adopting a particular definition as authoritative and thus
excluding others. In terms of the modern aim of scientific and
objective definition, both options are considered
problematic.
Christianity, even in its infancy as a
Jewish sect, rejected ethnic
definition. It was conceived and grew as an international religion
with global ambitions, spreading rapidly from
Jerusalem to nations and people
all over the world (following the
Great
Commission). Doctrines, rather than ethnicity, define essential
Christianity - even where ethnic groups have been Christian for
generations. The multiplicity of communities of faith may be partly
accounted for by the definition of Christianity according to
specific points of indispensable doctrine, the denial of which sets
the
heretic, or apostate, outside of "the
Church", where perhaps he is accepted by another church holding
doctrines compatible with his own.
Points of distinctive doctrine may be a very small number of simple
propositions, or very numerous and difficult to explain, depending
on the group. Some groups are defined relatively statically, and
others have changed their definitions dramatically over time. As an
example, sometime after the First Council of Nicaea in AD 325
established the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and before the
Enlightenment, Christian
teachers who denied the doctrine of the
Holy Trinity would be cast out of their
churches, and at times exiled or otherwise deprived of the
protection of law. In later times, some points of the doctrine of
the Trinity are considered false doctrines according to groups such
as
The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
Christadelphians, and the
Jehovah's Witnesses (representing tens of
millions of believers combined). The
Iglesia ni Cristo, for its part believe
the Trinity dogma is a totally unchristian doctrine. These groups
believe that their religious view of the Godhead comes from
Christian teachings prior to the establishment of the doctrine of
the Trinity AD 325. For example,
Latter-day Saints teach that God the
Father, His Son
Jesus Christ, and the
Holy Ghost are
three distinct beings
that are one in purpose forming the
Godhead. Some groups have their
roots in the
Latter Day Saint
Movement, like
Community of
Christ, but have reformed to such an extent that they are now
more trinitarian and are striving to be recognized as mainstream
Christianity.
Other movements coalesced to form today's
Unitarian Universalism, whose member
congregations recognize to varying degrees and in different ways
their Christian origins. Unitarians and Universalists have
historically been non-creedal and congregations have been
self-governing, such that when the denominations consolidated in
1961, some congregations and individual Unitarian Universalists
continued to identify themselves broadly as Christian, even more as
"followers of Jesus" while other Unitarian Universalist
congregations simultaneously embrace agnostics and atheists as well
as "followers of Jesus".
Another group, the
local churches, is
similar in many respects to mainstream Christianity but
theologically reject
denominationalism altogether.
There are also some Christians that reject organized religion
altogether.
Christian anarchists
believe that the original teachings of Jesus were corrupted by
Roman
statism (see
early Christianity), and that earthly
authority such as government, or indeed the established Church, do
not and should not have power over them. Following "
The Golden Rule", many oppose the use
of physical force in any circumstance, and advocate
nonviolence.
The Russian
novelist Leo Tolstoy
wrote The Kingdom
of God Is Within You, [43469] and was a Christian anarchist.
See also
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