Christianity (from the
Greek word ,
Khristos, "
Christ", literally "anointed one") is a
monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of
Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the
New Testament.
Christians believe Jesus is the
son of
God,
God having become man
and the
savior of humanity. Christians,
therefore, commonly refer to Jesus as
Christ
or
Messiah.
Adherents of the Christian faith, known as
Christians, believe that Jesus is the Messiah
prophesied in the
Hebrew Bible (the part of
scripture common to Christianity and
Judaism). The foundation of Christian theology is
expressed in the early Christian ecumenical creeds, which contain
claims predominantly accepted by followers of the Christian faith.
These professions state that Jesus suffered, died from
crucifixion, was buried, and was
resurrected from the dead to open heaven to
those who believe in him and trust him for the remission of their
sins (
salvation). They further maintain
that Jesus bodily
ascended into
heaven where he rules and reigns with
God the Father. Most
denominations teach that Jesus will
return to
judge all humans, living and dead, and grant
eternal life to his followers. He is
considered the
model of a
virtuous life, and both the
revealer and physical
incarnation of
God. Christians call the message of
Jesus Christ
the Gospel
("good news") and hence refer to the earliest written accounts of
his ministry as
gospels.
Christianity
began as a Jewish sect and is classified as an
Abrahamic religion. Originating in the
eastern
Mediterranean, it
quickly grew in size and influence over a few decades, and by the
4th century had become the dominant religion within the
Roman Empire.
During the
Middle Ages, most of the
remainder of Europe was
Christianized, with Christians also being a
(sometimes large) religious minority in the
Middle East,
North
Africa, and parts of
India. Following the
Age of Discovery, through
missionary work and colonization, Christianity
spread to the
Americas,
Australasia, and the rest of the world,
therefore Christianity is a major influence in the
shaping of Western
civilization.
As of the early 21st century, Christianity has between 1.5 billion
and 2.1 billion adherents. Christianity represents about a quarter
to a third of the world's population and is the
world's largest religion. In
addition, Christianity is the
state
religion of several countries.
Beliefs
Though there are many important differences of interpretation and
opinion of the Bible on which Christianity is based, Christians
share a set of beliefs that they hold as essential to their
faith.
Creeds
Creeds (from Latin
credo meaning "I believe") are concise
doctrinal statements or confessions, usually of religious beliefs.
They began as baptismal formulae and were later expanded during the
Christological controversies of the
fourth and fifth centuries to become statements of faith.
The
Apostles Creed (
Symbolum
Apostolorum) was developed between the second and ninth
centuries. It is the most popular creed used in worship by Western
Christians. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God
the Creator. Each of the doctrines found in this creed can be
traced to statements current in the
apostolic period. The creed was apparently
used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in
the churches of Rome.Since the Apostles Creed is still unaffected
by the later Christological divisions, its statement of the
articles of Christian faith remain largely acceptable to most
Christian denominations:
The
Nicene Creed, largely a response to
Arianism, was formulated at the Councils of
Nicaea and
Constantinople in 325 and
381 respectively and ratified as the universal creed of
Christendom by the
First Council of Ephesus in
431.
The
Chalcedonian Creed, developed
at the
Council of Chalcedon in
451, though rejected by the
Oriental
Orthodox Churches, taught Christ "to be acknowledged in two
natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably": one
divine and one human, and that both natures are perfect but are
nevertheless
perfectly united into one
person.
The
Athanasian Creed, received in
the western Church as having the same status as the Nicene and
Chalcedonian, says: "We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in
Unity; neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the
Substance."
Most Christians (
Roman Catholics,
Eastern Orthodox and
Protestants alike) accept the use of
creeds, and subscribe to at least one of the creeds mentioned
above.
Many evangelical Protestants reject creeds as definitive statements
faith, even while agreeing with some creeds' substance. The
Baptists have been non-creedal “in that they have not sought to
establish binding authoritative confessions of faith on one
another.”
Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church and the Churches of Christ.
Jesus Christ
The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in
Jesus as the
Son of God and
the
Messiah (Christ). The title "Messiah"
comes from the
Hebrew word מָשִׁיחַ
(
māšiáħ) meaning
anointed one. The Greek
translation (
Christos) is the source of the English word
"
Christ".
Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was
anointed by God as savior of humanity, and hold
that Jesus' coming was the fulfillment of
messianic prophecies of the
Old Testament. The Christian concept
of the Messiah differs significantly from
the contemporary Jewish concept. The core
Christian belief is that through belief in and acceptance of
the death and
resurrection of Jesus,
sinful
humans can be reconciled to God and thereby are offered salvation
and the promise of
eternal life.
While there have been many
theological disputes over the
nature of Jesus over the first centuries of
Christian history, Christians generally believe that Jesus is
God incarnate and
"
true God and true man" (or both
fully divine and fully human). Jesus, having become
fully human, suffered the pains
and temptations of a mortal man, but did not
sin. As fully God, he rose to life again. According to
the
Bible, "God raised him from the dead," he
ascended to heaven, is
"seated at the right hand of the Father" and will ultimately return
to fulfill the rest of
Messianic
prophecy such as the
Resurrection of the dead, the
Last Judgment and final establishment
of the
Kingdom of God.
According to the
Gospels of
Matthew and
Luke, Jesus was
conceived by the
Holy Spirit and
born from
the Virgin Mary. Little of Jesus'
childhood is recorded in the
canonical
Gospels, however
infancy Gospels
were popular in antiquity. In comparison, his adulthood, especially
the week before his death, are well documented in the Gospels
contained within the
New Testament.
The Biblical accounts of Jesus' ministry include:
his baptism,
miracles, preaching,
teaching, and deeds.
Death and resurrection of Jesus
Christians consider the resurrection of Jesus to be the cornerstone
of their faith (see
1 Corinthians
15) and the most important event in human history. Among
Christian beliefs, the death and resurrection of Jesus are two core
events on which much of Christian doctrine and theology is based.
According to the New Testament Jesus was
crucified, died a physical death, was buried
within a tomb, and rose from the dead three days later. The New
Testament mentions several
resurrection appearances of
Jesus on different occasions to his
twelve apostles and
disciples, including "more than five
hundred brethren at once," before Jesus'
Ascension to heaven. Jesus' death
and resurrection are commemorated by Christians in all worship
services, with special emphasis during
Holy
Week which includes
Good Friday and
Easter Sunday.
The death and resurrection of Jesus are usually considered the most
important events in
Christian
Theology, partly because they demonstrate that Jesus has power
over life and death and therefore has the authority and power to
give people
eternal life.
Christian churches accept and teach the New Testament account of
the resurrection of Jesus with very few exceptions. Some modern
scholars use the belief of Jesus' followers in the resurrection as
a point of departure for establishing the continuity of the
historical Jesus and the
proclamation of the
early church. Some
liberal Christians do not
accept a literal bodily resurrection, seeing the story as richly
symbolic and spiritually nourishing
myth.
Arguments over death and resurrection claims occur at many
religious
debates and
interfaith dialogues.
Paul the Apostle, an early Christian
convert and missionary, wrote, "If Christ was not raised, then all
our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless."
Salvation
Paul of Tarsus, like Jews and Roman
pagans of his time, believed that sacrifice can bring about new
kinship ties, purity, and eternal life. For Paul the necessary
sacrifice was the death of Jesus: Gentiles who are "Christ's" are
like Israel descendants of Abraham and "heirs according to the
promise". The God who raised Jesus from the dead would also give
new life to the "mortal bodies" of Gentile Christians, who had
become with Israel the "children of God" and were therefore no
longer "in the flesh".
Modern Christian churches tend to be much more concerned with how
humanity can be
saved from a
universal condition of sin and death than the question of how both
Jews and Gentiles can be in God's family. According to both
Catholic and Protestant doctrine, salvation comes by Jesus'
substitutionary death and
resurrection. The Catholic Church teaches that salvation does
not occur without faithfulness on the part of Christians; converts
must live in accordance with principles of love and ordinarily must
be baptized. Martin Luther taught that baptism was necessary for
salvation, but modern Lutherans and other Protestants tend to teach
that salvation is a gift that comes to an individual by
God's grace, sometimes defined as "unmerited
favor", even apart from baptism.
Christians differ in their views on the extent to which
individuals' salvation is pre-ordained by God. Reformed theology
places distinctive emphasis on grace by teaching that individuals
are
completely incapable of
self-redemption, but that
sanctifying grace is irresistible. In
contrast Arminians, Catholics, and Orthodox Christians believe that
the exercise of
free will is necessary to
have faith in Jesus.
Trinity
Trinity refers to the teaching that the one God comprises
three distinct, eternally co-existing persons; the
Father, the
Son (incarnate in
Jesus Christ), and the
Holy
Spirit. Together, these three persons are sometimes called
the
Godhead, although there
is no single term in use in Scripture to denote the unified
Godhead. In the words of the
Athanasian
Creed, an early statement of Christian belief, "the Father is
God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are
not three Gods but one God". They are distinct from another: the
Father has no source, the Son is begotten of the Father, and the
Spirit proceeds from the Father. Though distinct, the three persons
cannot be divided from one another in being or in operation.
The
Trinity is an essential doctrine of
mainstream Christianity. "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" represents
both the
immanence and
transcendence of God. God is believed to be
infinite and God's presence may be perceived through the actions of
Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
According to this doctrine, God is not divided in the sense that
each person has a third of the whole; rather, each person is
considered to be fully God (see
Perichoresis). The distinction lies in their
relations, the Father being unbegotten; the Son being begotten of
the Father; and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and (in
Western theology)
from the Son. Regardless
of this apparent difference, the three 'persons' are each
eternal and
omnipotent.
The word
trias, from which
trinity is derived, is
first seen in the works of
Theophilus of Antioch. He wrote of
"the Trinity of God (the Father), His Word (the Son) and His Wisdom
(Holy Spirit)". The term may have been in use before this time.
Afterwards it appears in
Tertullian. In
the following century the word was in general use. It is found in
many passages of
Origen.
Trinitarians
Trinitarianism denotes those Christians who believe in the
concept of the
Trinity. Almost all
Christian denominations and Churches hold Trinitarian beliefs.
Although the words "Trinity" and "Triune" do not appear in the
Bible, theologians beginning in the third century developed the
term and concept to facilitate comprehension of the New Testament
teachings of God as Father, God as Jesus the Son, and God as the
Holy Spirit. Since that time, Christian theologians have been
careful to emphasize that Trinity does not imply three gods, nor
that each member of the Trinity is one-third of an infinite God;
Trinity is defined as one God in three Persons.
Non-trinitarians
Nontrinitarianism refers to
beliefs systems that reject the
doctrine of the
Trinity. Various
nontrinitarian views, such as
adoptionism or
modalism,
existed in early Christianity, leading to the disputes about
Christology. Nontrinitarianism later
appeared again in the
Gnosticism of the
Cathars in the 11th through 13th centuries,
in the
Age of Enlightenment of
the 18th century, and in
Restorationism during the 19th century.
Scriptures
Christianity regards the Bible, a collection of
canonical books in two parts (the
Old Testament and the
New Testament), as the authoritative word of
God. It is believed by Christians to have been written by human
authors under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and therefore for
many it is held to be the
inerrant word of God. Jews, Catholics,
Orthodox and Protestants each define separate lists of
Books of the Bible that each considers
canonical. These variations are a reflection of the range of
traditions and
councils that have convened on the
subject. Every version of the complete Bible always includes books
of the Jewish scriptures, the
Tanakh, and
includes additional books and reorganizes them into two parts: the
books of the Old Testament primarily sourced from the Tanakh (with
some variations), and the 27 books of the New Testament containing
books originally written primarily in Greek. The Roman Catholic and
Orthodox canons include other books from the
Septuagint which Roman Catholics call
Deuterocanonical. Protestants
consider these books to be
apocryphal. Some versions of the
Christian Bible have a separate Apocrypha section for the books not
considered canonical by some Churches or by the groups publishing
them.
Catholic and Orthodox interpretations
In
antiquity, two schools of exegesis developed in Alexandria
and Antioch. Alexandrine
interpretation, exemplified by
Origen, tended
to read Scripture
allegorically, while
Antiochene interpretation adhered to the literal sense, holding
that other meanings (called
theoria) could only be accepted if based on the
literal meaning.
Catholic theology distinguishes two
senses of scripture: the literal and the spiritual.
The
literal sense of understanding scripture is the
meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture. The
spiritual
sense is further subdivided into:
Regarding
exegesis, following the rules of
sound interpretation, Catholic theology holds:
- the injunction that all other senses of sacred scripture are
based on the literal
- that the historicity of the Gospels must be absolutely and
constantly held
- that scripture must be read within the "living Tradition of the
whole Church" and
- that
"the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in
communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome
".
Protestant interpretation
- Clarity of Scripture:Protestant Christians believe that the
Bible is a self-sufficient revelation, the final authority on all
Christian doctrine, and revealed all
truth necessary for salvation. This concept is known as
sola scriptura. Protestants
characteristically believe that ordinary believers may reach an
adequate understanding of Scripture because Scripture itself is
clear (or "perspicuous"), because of the help of the Holy Spirit,
or both. Martin Luther believed that without God's help Scripture
would be "enveloped in darkness." He advocated "one definite and
simple understanding of Scripture." John
Calvin wrote, "all who...follow the Holy Spirit as their guide,
find in the Scripture a clear light." The Second Helvetic (Latin
for "Swiss") Confession, composed by the pastor of the Reformed
church in Zurich (successor to Protestant reformer Zwingli) was adopted as a declaration of doctrine by
most European Reformed churches.
- Original intended meaning:Protestants stress the meaning
conveyed by the words of Scripture, the historical-grammatical method.
The historical-grammatical method or grammatico-historical method
is a effort in Biblical
hermeneutics to find the intended original meaning in the text.
This original intended meaning of the text is drawn out through
examination of the passage in light of the grammatical and
syntactical aspects, the historical background, the literary genre
as well as theological (canonical) considerations. The
historical-grammatical method distinguishes between the one
original meaning and the significance of the text. The significance
of the text includes the ensuing use of the text or application.
The original passage is seen as having only a single meaning or
sense. As Milton S. Terry said: "A fundamental principle in
grammatico-historical exposition is that the words and sentences
can have but one significance in one and the same connection. The
moment we neglect this principle we drift out upon a sea of
uncertainty and conjecture." Technically speaking, the
grammatical-historical method of interpretation is distinct from
the determination of the passage's significance in light of that
interpretation. Taken together, both define the term (Biblical)
hermeneutics.
Some Protestant interpreters make use of typology.
Afterlife and Eschaton
Most Christians believe that human beings experience divine
judgment and are rewarded either with eternal life or
eternal damnation. This includes the
general judgement at the
Resurrection of the dead (see
below) as well as the belief (held by Catholics, Orthodox and most
Protestants) in a
judgment
particular to the individual soul upon physical death.
In Roman Catholicism, those who die in a state of grace, i.e.,
without any mortal sin separating them from God, but are still
imperfectly purified from the effects of sin, undergo purification
through the intermediate state of
purgatory to achieve the holiness necessary for
entrance into God's presence. Those who have attained this goal are
called
saints (Latin
sanctus, "holy").
Christians believe that the second coming of Christ will occur at
the
end of time. All who have died will
be
resurrected bodily from the
dead for the
Last Judgment. Jesus
will fully establish the
Kingdom of
God in fulfillment of
scriptural
prophecies.Jehovah's Witnesses deny the existence of hell.
Instead, they hold that the souls of the wicked will be
annihilated.
Worship
Justin Martyr described 2nd century
Christian
liturgy in his
First Apology (
c. 150) to
Emperor Antoninus Pius, and his description remains
relevant to the basic structure of Christian liturgical
worship:
Thus, as Justin described, Christians assemble for communal worship
on Sunday, the day of the resurrection, though other liturgical
practices often occur outside this setting. Scripture readings are
drawn from the Old and New Testaments, but especially the Gospels.
Often these are arranged on an
annual
cycle, using a book called a
lectionary. Instruction is given based on these
readings, called a
sermon, or homily. There
are a variety of congregational
prayers,
including thanksgiving, confession, and intercession, which occur
throughout the service and take a variety of forms including
recited, responsive, silent, or sung. The
Lord's Prayer, or Our Father, is regularly
prayed. The
Eucharist (called
Holy Communion, or the Lord's Supper) is the
part of liturgical worship that consists of a consecrated meal,
usually bread and wine. Justin Martyr described the
Eucharist:
Some
Christian denominations
practice
closed communion. They
offer communion to those who are already united in that
denomination or sometimes individual church. Catholics restrict
participation to their members who are not in a state of
mortal sin. Most other churches practice
open communion since they view communion as a
means to unity, rather than an end, and invite all believing
Christians to participate.
Some groups depart from this traditional liturgical structure. A
division is often made between "
High"
church services, characterized by
greater solemnity and ritual, and "
Low"
services, but even within these two categories there is great
diversity in forms of worship.
Seventh-day Adventists meet on
Saturday (the original
Sabbath), while others do not meet
on a weekly basis.
Charismatic
or
Pentecostal congregations may
spontaneously feel led by the Holy Spirit to action rather than
follow a formal order of service, including spontaneous prayer.
Quakers sit quietly until moved
by the Holy Spirit to speak. Some
Evangelical services resemble concerts with
rock and pop music, dancing, and use
of multimedia. For groups which do not recognize a priesthood
distinct from ordinary believers the services are generally lead by
a
minister,
preacher, or
pastor. Still
others may lack any formal leaders, either in principle or by local
necessity. Some churches use only
a
cappella music, either on principle (e.g., many
Churches of Christ object to the use of
instruments in worship) or by tradition (as in Orthodoxy).
Worship can be varied for special events like
baptisms or weddings in the service or significant
feast days. In the
early church, Christians and those yet to
complete initiation would separate for the Eucharistic part of the
worship. In many churches today, adults and children will separate
for all or some of the service to receive age-appropriate teaching.
Such children's worship is often called
Sunday school or
Sabbath school (Sunday schools are often held
before rather than during services).
Sacraments
In Christian belief and practice, a
sacrament is a
rite, instituted by Christ, that mediates
grace, constituting a
sacred mystery. The term is derived from
the
Latin word
sacramentum, which was
used to translate the Greek word for
mystery. Views
concerning both what rites are sacramental, and what it means for
an act to be a sacrament vary among Christian denominations and
traditions.
The most conventional functional definition of a sacrament is that
it is an outward sign, instituted by Christ, that conveys an
inward, spiritual grace through Christ. The two most widely
accepted sacraments are
Baptism and the
Eucharist, however, the majority of
Christians recognize seven Sacraments or Divine Mysteries: Baptism,
Confirmation
(
Chrismation in the
Orthodox tradition), and the Eucharist,
Holy Orders,
Reconciliation of a Penitent (confession),
Anointing of the Sick, and
Matrimony. Taken
together, these are the
Seven
Sacraments as recognised by churches in the
High church tradition—notably
Roman Catholic,
Eastern Orthodox,
Oriental Orthodox,
Independent Catholic,
Old Catholic and some
Anglican. Most other denominations and
traditions typically affirm only Baptism and Eucharist as
sacraments, while some Protestant groups, such as the Quakers,
reject sacramental theology. Some
Christian denominations who believe
these rites do not communicate grace prefer to call them
ordinances.
Liturgical calendar
Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Eastern Christians, and traditional
Protestant communities frame worship around a
liturgical calendar. This includes
holy days, such as
solemnities which commemorate an event in the life
of Jesus or the
saints, periods of
fasting such as
Lent, and other
pious events such as
memoria or lesser
festivals commemorating saints. Christian groups that do not follow
a liturgical tradition often retain certain celebrations, such as
Christmas,
Easter
and
Pentecost. A few churches make no use
of a liturgical calendar.
Symbols
The
cross, which is today one of the
most widely recognised symbols in the world, was used as a
Christian symbol from the earliest times. Tertuallian, in his book
De Corona, tells how it was already a tradition for
Christians to trace repeatedly on their foreheads the sign of the
cross. Although the cross was known to the early Christians, the
crucifix did not appear in use until the
fifth century.
Among the symbols employed by the primitive Christians, that of the
fish seems to have ranked first in importance. From monumental
sources such as tombs it is known that the symbolic fish was
familiar to Christians from the earliest times. The fish was
depicted as a Christian symbol in the first decades of the second
century. Its popularity among Christians was due principally, it
would seem, to the famous acrostic consisting of the initial
letters of five Greek words forming the word for fish (Ichthys),
which words briefly but clearly described the character of Christ
and the claim to worship of believers:
Iesous Christos Theou
Yios Soter, meaning,
Jesus Christ, Son of God,
Saviour.
Christians from the very beginning adorned their
tombs with paintings of Christ, of the saints, of
scenes from the Bible and allegorical groups. The catacombs are the
cradle of all Christian art. The first Christians had no prejudice
against images, pictures, or statues. The idea that they must have
feared the danger of idolatry among their new converts is disproved
in the simplest way by the pictures even statues, that remain from
the first centuries. Other major Christian symbols include the
chi-rho monogram, the
dove (symbolic of the Holy Spirit), the sacrificial
lamb (symbolic of Christ's sacrifice), the
vine
(symbolising the necessary connectedness of the Christian with
Christ) and many others. These all derive from writings found in
the New Testament.
History and origins
Early Church and Christological Councils
Christianity began as a
Jewish sect in the
eastern
Mediterranean in the
mid-first century. Its earliest development took place under the
leadership of the
Twelve Apostles,
particularly
Saint Peter and
Paul the Apostle, followed by the early
bishops, whom Christians considered the
successors of the
Apostles.
From the beginning, Christians were subject to
persecution. This involved
punishments, including death, for Christians such as
Stephen and
James,
son of Zebedee. Larger-scale persecutions followed at the hands
of the authorities of the Roman Empire, first in the year 64, when
Emperor Nero blamed them for the
Great Fire of Rome. According to
Church tradition, it was under Nero's persecution that early Church
leaders Peter and
Paul of Tarsus were
each martyred in Rome. Further widespread
persecutions
of the Church occurred under nine subsequent Roman emperors, most
intensely under
Decius and
Diocletian. From the year 150, Christian teachers
began to produce theological and apologetic works aimed at
defending the faith. These authors are known as the
Church Fathers, and study of them is called
Patristics. Notable early Fathers include
Ignatius of Antioch,
Polycarp,
Justin
Martyr,
Irenaeus,
Tertullian,
Clement of Alexandria, and
Origen.
State persecution ceased in the 4th century, when
Constantine I issued an
edict of toleration in 313. On 27 February
380, Emperor
Theodosius I enacted a law
establishing Christianity as the official religion of the Roman
Empire. From at least the 4th century, Christianity has played a
prominent role in the
shaping of Western
civilization.
Constantine was also instrumental in the convocation of the
First Council of Nicaea in
325, which sought to address the
Arian
heresy and formulated the
Nicene
Creed, which is still used by the
Roman Catholic Church,
Eastern Orthodoxy,
Anglican Communion, and many
Protestant churches. Nicaea was the first of a
series of
Ecumenical Councils
which formally defined critical elements of the theology of the
Church, notably concerning
Christology.
The
Assyrian Church of the
East did not accept the third and following Ecumenical
Councils, and are still separate today.
Early Middle Ages
With the decline and fall of the Roman Empire in the west, the
papacy became a political player, first
visible in
Pope Leo's diplomatic dealings
with
Huns and
Vandals. The church also entered into a long period
of missionary activity and expansion among the former barbarian
tribes.
Catholicism spread among the
Germanic peoples (initially in
competition with Arianism the
Celtic and
Slavic peoples, the
Hungarians, the
Scandinavians, and the
Baltic peoples.
Around 500,
St. Benedict set out his
Monastic Rule, establishing a system
of regulations for the foundation and running of
monasteries.
Monasticism became
a powerful force throughout Europe, and gave rise to many early
centers of learning, most famously in Ireland
, Scotland
and Gaul, contributing to the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th
century.
From the
7th century onwards, Islam conquered the
Christian lands of the Middle East,
North Africa and much of Spain
, resulting
in oppression of Christianity and numerous military struggles,
including the Crusades, the Spanish
Reconquista and wars against the
Turks.
The Middle Ages brought about major changes within the church.
Pope Gregory the Great
dramatically reformed
ecclesiastical structure and
administration. In the early 8th century,
iconoclasm became a divisive issue, when it was
sponsored by the
Byzantine emperors. The
Second Ecumenical Council of
Nicaea (787) finally pronounced in favor of icons.
In the early 10th
century, western monasticism was further rejuvenated through the
leadership of the great Benedictine monastery of Cluny
.
High and Late Middle Ages
In the
west, from the 11th century onward, older cathedral schools
developed into universities (see University of Paris
, University of Oxford
, and University of Bologna
.) Originally teaching only theology, these steadily added subjects including
medicine, philosophy and law, becoming the direct ancestors of
modern western institutions of learning.
Accompanying the rise of the "new towns" throughout Western Europe,
mendicant orders were founded,
bringing the
consecrated religious
life out of the monastery and into the new urban setting. The
two principal mendicant movements were the
Franciscans and the
Dominicans founded by
St. Francis and
St.
Dominic respectively. Both orders made significant
contributions to the development of the great universities of
Europe. Another new order were the
Cistercians, whose large isolated monasteries
spearheaded the settlement of former wilderness areas. In this
period church building and ecclesiastical architecture reached new
heights, culminating in the orders of
Romanesque and
Gothic architecture and the building of
the great European cathedrals.
From 1095 under the pontificate of
Urban
II, the
Crusades were launched. These
were a series of military campaigns in the
Holy Land and elsewhere, initiated in response to
pleas from the Byzantine Emperor
Alexios I
for aid against
Turkish expansion.
The
Crusades ultimately failed to stifle Islamic aggression and even
contributed to Christian enmity with the sacking of Constantinople
during the Fourth
Crusade.
Over a period stretching from the 7th to the 13th century, the
Christian Church underwent gradual alienation, resulting in a
schism dividing it into a
Western, largely Latin branch, the
Roman Catholic Church, and an
Eastern, largely Greek, branch, the
Orthodox Church. These two
churches disagree on a number of administrative, liturgical, and
doctrinal issues, most notably
papal
primacy of jurisdiction. The
Second Council of Lyon (1274) and the
Council of Florence (1439)
attempted to reunite the churches, but in both cases the Eastern
Orthodox refused to implement the decisions and the two principal
churches remain in schism to the present day. However, the Roman
Catholic Church has achieved union with various
smaller eastern churches.
Beginning around 1184, following the crusade against the
Cathar heresy, various institutions, broadly
referred to as the
Inquisition, were
established with the aim of suppressing
heresy and securing religious and doctrinal unity
within Christianity through
conversion and prosecution.
Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation
The 15th-century
Renaissance brought
about a renewed interest in ancient and classical learning. Another
major schism, the
Reformation, resulted in the
splintering of the Western Christendom into several
Christian denominations.
Martin Luther in 1517
protested against the sale of
indulgences and soon moved on to deny several
key points of Roman Catholic
doctrine.
Others like
Zwingli and
Calvin further criticized Roman Catholic
teaching and worship. These challenges developed into the movement
called
Protestantism, which repudiated
the
primacy of the pope, the role of
tradition, the
seven sacraments,
and other doctrines and practices. The
Reformation in England began in 1534,
when
King Henry VIII had himself
declared head of the
Church of England. Beginning in 1536, the
monasteries throughout England, Wales and Ireland were
dissolved.
Partly in response to the Protestant Reformation, the Roman
Catholic Church engaged in a substantial process of reform and
renewal, known as the
Counter-Reformation or Catholic Reform.
The
Council of Trent clarified and
reasserted Roman Catholic doctrine. During the following centuries,
competition between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism became
deeply entangled with political struggles among European
states.
Meanwhile, the discovery of America by
Christopher Columbus in 1492 brought
about a new wave of missionary activity. Partly from missionary
zeal, but under the impetus of
colonial
expansion by the European powers, Christianity spread to the
Americas, Oceania,
East Asia, and
sub-Saharan Africa.
Throughout Europe, the divides caused by the Reformation led to
outbreaks of
religious violence
and the establishment of separate state religions in Western
Europe:
Lutheranism in parts of Germany
and in Scandinavia and
Anglicanism in
England in 1534. Ultimately, these differences led to the outbreak
of
conflict in which religion played a
key factor. The
Thirty Years' War,
the
English Civil War, and the
French Wars of Religion are
prominent examples. These events intensified the
Christian debate
on persecution and toleration.
Christianity in the Modern Era
In the
Modern Era, Christianity was
confronted with various forms of
skepticism and with certain modern
political ideologies such as
liberalism,
nationalism and
socialism. Events ranged from mere
anti-clericalism to violent outbursts
against Christianity such as the
Dechristianisation
during the
French Revolution, the
Spanish Civil War, and general
hostility of Marxist movements, especially
the Russian Revolution.
Christian commitment in Europe dropped as modernity and secularism
came into their own in Western Europe, while religious commitments
in America have been generally high in comparison to Western
Europe. The late 20th century has shown the shift of Christian
adherence to the Third World and southern hemisphere in general,
with western civilization no longer the chief standard bearer of
Christianity.
Demographics
Christianity by percentage of
population in each country.
[[File:Christian States.svg|right|thumb|300px|Nations with
Christianity as their
state
religion:
]]
With an estimated number of adherents that ranges between 1.5
billion and 2.1 billion, split into around 34,000 separate
denominations, Christianity is the
world's largest religion. The
Christian share of the world's population has stood at around 33
per cent for the last hundred years. This masks a major shift in
the demographics of Christianity; large increases in the developing
world (around 23,000 per day) have been accompanied by substantial
declines in the developed world, mainly in Europe and North America
(around 7,600 per day).
It is still the predominant religion in
Europe, the Americas, the Philippines
, and Southern Africa. However it is
declining in many areas including the Northern and Western United States
, Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), northern
Europe (including Great Britain, Scandinavia and other places), France, Germany,
the Canadian provinces of Ontario
, British
Columbia
, and
Quebec
, and parts of Asia (especially the Middle East,
South
Korea
, Taiwan
and Macau
).
In most countries in the developed world, church attendance among
people who continue to identify themselves as Christians has been
falling over the last few decades. Some sources view this simply as
part of a drift away from traditional membership institutions,
while others link it to signs of a decline in belief in the
importance of religion in general.
Christianity, in one form or another, is the
sole state religion of the following
nations: Armenia
(Armenian Apostolic), Bolivia
(Roman Catholic), Costa Rica
(Roman Catholic), Denmark
(Evangelical Lutheran), El Salvador
(Roman Catholic), England
(Anglican), Finland
(Evangelical Lutheran & Orthodox), Georgia
(Georgian Orthodox), Greece
(Greek
Orthodox), Iceland
(Evangelical Lutheran), Liechtenstein
(Roman Catholic), Malta
(Roman
Catholic), Monaco
(Roman
Catholic), Norway
(Evangelical
Lutheran), Scotland (Presbyterian), Switzerland
(Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, or
Protestant—denomination varies per canton) and Vatican City
(Roman Catholic).
There are
numerous other countries, such as Cyprus
, which
although do not have an established
church, still give official recognition to a specific Christian denomination.
Main grouping of Christianity
The four primary divisions of Christianity are Roman Catholicism,
the Orthodox church, Anglican, and Protestantism. There are other
Christian groups that do not fit neatly into one of these primary
categories. The Nicene Creed is "accepted as authoritative by the
Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and major Protestant
churches." There is a diversity of
doctrines and practices among groups calling
themselves Christian. These groups are sometimes classified under
denomination, though for
theological reasons many groups reject this classification
system.
A simplified chart of historical
developments of major groups within Christianity.
Catholic Church
The
Catholic Church comprises those
particular churches, headed by
bishops, in communion with the
Pope, the Bishop
of Rome, as its highest authority in matters of faith, morality and
Church governance. Like the
Eastern
Orthodox, the Roman Catholic Church through
Apostolic succession traces its origins
to the Christian community founded by Jesus Christ. Catholics
maintain that the "
one, holy,
catholic and apostolic church" founded by Jesus
subsists fully in the Roman Catholic Church, but also
acknowledges other Christian churches and communities and works
towards
reconciliation among all
Christians. The Catholic faith is detailed in the
Catechism of the Catholic
Church.
The 2,782
sees are grouped into
23 particular
rites, the largest being the
Latin
Rite, each with distinct traditions regarding the
liturgy and the administering the
sacraments. With more than
1.1 billion baptized members, the Catholic Church is the largest
church representing over half of
all Christians and one sixth of the
world's population.
Various smaller communities, such as the
Old Catholic,
Heenum Catholic and
Independent Catholic Churches,
include the word
Catholic in their title, and share much
in common with Roman Catholicism but are no longer in
communion with the
See of Rome. The
Old
Catholic Church is in communion with the
Anglican Communion.
Orthodox churches
Eastern Orthodoxy comprises those
churches in communion with the Patriarchal Sees of the East, such
as the
Ecumenical
Patriarch of Constantinople. Like the Roman Catholic Church,
the Eastern Orthodox Church also traces its heritage to the
foundation of Christianity through
Apostolic succession and has an
episcopal structure, though the
autonomy of the individual, mostly
national churches is emphasized. A number of conflicts with Western
Christianity over questions of doctrine and authority culminated in
the
Great Schism. Eastern Orthodoxy
is the second largest single denomination in Christianity, with
over 200 million adherents.
The
Oriental Orthodox Churches
(also called
Old Oriental Churches) are those eastern
churches that recognize the first three ecumenical
councils—
Nicaea,
Constantinople and
Ephesus—but reject the dogmatic
definitions of the
Council of
Chalcedon and instead espouse a
Miaphysite christology. The Oriental Orthodox communion
comprises six groups:
Syriac
Orthodox,
Coptic Orthodox,
Ethiopian Orthodox,
Eritrean Orthodox,
Malankara Orthodox Syrian
Church (India) and
Armenian
Apostolic churches. These six churches, while being in
communion with each other are completely independent
hierarchically. These churches are generally not in communion with
Eastern Orthodox Churches
with whom they are in dialogue for a return to unity.
Protestantism
In the 16th century,
Martin Luther,
Huldrych Zwingli, and
John Calvin inaugurated what has come to be
called
Protestantism. Luther's primary
theological heirs are known as
Lutherans. Zwingli and Calvin's heirs are far
broader denominationally, and are broadly referred to as the
Reformed Tradition. Most Protestant
traditions branch out from the Reformed tradition in some way. In
addition to the Lutheran and Reformed branches of the Reformation,
there is
Anglicanism after the
English Reformation. The
Anabaptist tradition was largely ostracized by
the other Protestant parties at the time, but has achieved a
measure of affirmation in more recent history. Some but not most
Baptists prefer not to be called
Protestants, claiming a direct ancestral line going back to the
apostles in the first century.
The oldest Protestant groups separated from the Catholic Church in
the 16th century
Protestant
Reformation, followed in many cases by further divisions. For
example, the
Methodist Church grew
out of Anglican minister
John Wesley's
evangelical and
revival movement in the
Anglican Church. Several
Pentecostal and non-denominational Churches,
which emphasize the cleansing power of the
Holy Spirit, in turn grew out of the Methodist
Church. Because Methodists, Pentecostals, and other
evangelicals stress "accepting Jesus as your
personal Lord and Savior", which comes from
John Wesley's emphasis of the
New Birth, they often refer to themselves as being
born-again.
Estimates of the total number of Protestants are very uncertain,
partly because of the difficulty in determining which denominations
should be placed in these categories, but it seems clear that
Protestantism is the second largest major group of Christians after
Catholicism in number of followers (although the Orthodox Church is
larger than any single Protestant denomination).
A special grouping are the Anglican churches descended from the
Church of England and organised in
the
Anglican Communion.. Some
Anglican churches consider themselves both Protestant and Catholic.
Some Anglicans consider their church a
branch of the "One Holy Catholic Church"
alongside of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, a
concept rejected by the Roman Catholic Church and some Eastern
Orthodox.
Some groups of individuals who hold basic Protestant tenants
identify themselves simply as "Christians" or "
born-again Christians. They typically distance
themselves from the
confessionalism and/or
creedalism of other Christian communities by calling
themselves "
non-denominational." Often
founded by individual pastors, they have little affiliation with
historic denominations.
Other
The
Second Great Awakening, a
period of religious revival that occurred in the U.S. during the early 1800s, saw the development of a
number of unrelated churches. They generally saw themselves
as restoring the original church of
Jesus
Christ rather than reforming one of the existing churches. A
common belief held by Restorationists was that the other divisions
of Christianity had introduced doctrinal defects into Christianity,
which was known as the
Great
Apostasy.
Some of the churches originating during this period are
historically connected to early-19th century camp meetings in the
Midwest and Upstate New York. American
Millennialism and
Adventism, which arose from Evangelical
Protestantism, influenced the
Jehovah's Witnesses movement (with 7
million members), and, as a reaction specifically to
William Miller, the
Seventh-day Adventists. Others,
including the
Christian Church ,
Evangelical
Christian Church in Canada,
Churches of Christ, and the
Independent
Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, have their roots in the
contemporaneous Stone-Campbell
Restoration Movement, which was
centered in Kentucky and Tennessee. Other groups originating in
this time period include the
Christadelphians and
The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the largest denomination of
the
Latter Day Saint
movement with over 13 million members. While the churches
originating in the Second Great Awakening have some superficial
similarities, their doctrine and practices vary
significantly.
Ecumenism
Most
churches have long expressed ideals
of being reconciled with each other, and in the 20th century
Christian
ecumenism advanced in two ways.
One way
was greater cooperation between groups, such as the Edinburgh Missionary
Conference of Protestants in 1910, the Justice, Peace and
Creation Commission of the World Council of Churches
founded in 1948 by Protestant and Orthodox
churches, and similar national councils like the National Council of
Churches in Australia which includes Roman
Catholics.
The other way was institutional union with new
United and uniting churches.
Congregationalist,
Methodist, and
Presbyterian churches united in 1925 to form
the
United Church of Canada,
and in 1977 to form the
Uniting Church in Australia. The
Church of South India was
formed in 1947 by the union of Anglican,
Methodist,
Congregationalist,
Presbyterian, and
Reformed churches.
Steps towards reconciliation on a global level were taken in 1965
by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches mutually revoking the
excommunications that marked their
Great Schism in 1054; the
Anglican Roman
Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) working towards full
communion between those churches since 1970; and the
Lutheran and Roman Catholic
churches signing The
Joint
Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999 to address
conflicts at the root of the Protestant Reformation. In 2006, the
Methodist church adopted the
declaration.
See also
Endnotes
- Christianity's status as monotheistic is affirmed in, amongst
other sources, the Catholic Encyclopedia (article "
Monotheism"); William F. Albright, From the Stone
Age to Christianity; H. Richard Niebuhr; About.com, Monotheistic Religion resources; Kirsch,
God Against the Gods; Woodhead, An Introduction to
Christianity; The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia
Monotheism; The New Dictionary of
Cultural
Literacy, monotheism; New Dictionary of
Theology, Paul, pp. 496–99; Meconi. "Pagan Monotheism
in Late Antiquity". p. 111f.
- BBC, BBC—Religion & Ethics—566,
Christianity
- Briggs, Charles A. The fundamental Christian faith: the
origin, history and interpretation of the Apostles' and Nicene
creeds. C. Scribner's sons, 1913. Online:
http://books.google.com/books?id=VKMPAAAAIAAJ
- The term "Christian" (Greek ) was first used in reference to Jesus'
disciples in the city of
Antioch about 44 AD,
meaning "followers of Christ". The name was given by the non-Jewish
inhabitants of Antioch, probably in derision, to the disciples of
Jesus. In the New Testament the names by which the disciples were
known among themselves were "brethren", "the faithful", "elect",
"saints", "believers". The earliest recorded use of the term
"Christianity" (Greek ) was by Ignatius of Antioch, around 100 AD.
See Elwell/Comfort. Tyndale Bible Dictionary, pp. 266,
828
- Defined to avoid the ambiguous term "orthodox"
- Sheed, Frank. "Theology and Sanity." (Ignatius Press: San
Francisco, 1993), pp. 276.
- McGrath, Christianity: An Introduction, pp. 4-6.
- Robinson, Essential Judaism: A Complete Guide to Beliefs,
Customs and Rituals, p. 229.
- Esler. The Early Christian World. p. 157f.
- J.Z.Smith, p. 276.
- Anidjar, p. 3.
- Fowler, World Religions: An Introduction for Students,
p. 131.
- McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity,
pp. 301-03.
- "between 1,250 and 1,750 million adherents, depending on the
criteria employed" (McGrath, Christianity: An
Introduction, page xvl.)
- "1.5 thousand million Christians" (Hinnells, The Routledge
Companion to the Study of Religion, p. 441.)
- Hinnells, The Routledge Companion to the Study of
Religion, p. 441.
- [see Christianity#Demographics for
information and references]
- Olson, The Mosaic of Christian Belief.
- Pelikan/Hotchkiss, Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the
Christian Tradition.
- Catholics United for the Faith, "We Believe in One God"
- Encyclopedia of Religion, "Arianism".
- Catholic Encyclopedia, " Council of Ephesus".
- Christian History Institute,
First Meeting of the Council of
Chalcedon.
- British Orthodox Church, The
Oriental Orthodox Rejection of Chalcedon
- Pope Leo I, Letter to Flavian
- Catholic Encyclopedia, " Athanasian Creed".
- Avis, Paul (2002) The Christian Church: An Introduction to
the Major Traditions, SPCK, London, ISBN 0-281-05246-8
paperback
- White, The
History of the Church.
- Ron Rhodes, The Complete Guide to Christian
Denominations, Harvest House Publishers, 2005, ISBN
0-7369-1289-4
- Metzger/Coogan, Oxford Companion to the Bible, pp.
513, 649.
- , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
- Hanegraaff. Resurrection: The Capstone in the Arch of
Christianity.
- , , , , , , and
- This is drawn from a number of sources, especially the early
Creeds, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, certain
theological works, and various Confessions drafted during the
Reformation including the Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of
England, works contained in the Book of Concord.
- Fuller, The Foundations of New Testament Christology,
p. 11.
- A Jesus
Seminar conclusion: "in the view of the Seminar, he did not
rise bodily from the dead; the resurrection is based instead on
visionary experiences of Peter, Paul, and Mary."
- Funk. The Acts of Jesus: What Did Jesus Really
Do?.
- Lorenzen. Resurrection, Discipleship, Justice: Affirming
the Resurrection Jesus Christ Today, p. 13.
- Ball/Johnsson (ed.). The Essential Jesus.
- Wright, N.T. What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of
Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity? (Oxford, 1997), p.
121.
- CCC 846; Vatican II, Lumen Gentium 14
- See quotations from Council of Trent on Justification at
http://www.justforcatholics.org/a14.htm
- Westminster Confession, Chapter X; Spurgeon, A Defense of
Calvinism.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, Grace and Justification
- Kelly. Early Christian Doctrines. pp. 87-90.
- Alexander. New Dictionary of Biblical Theology. p.
514f.
- McGrath. Historical Theology. p. 61.
- Metzger/Coogan. Oxford Companion to the Bible. p.
782.
- Kelly. The Athanasian Creed.
- Oxford, "Encyclopedia Of Christianity, pg1207
- Fowler. World Religions: An Introduction for Students.
p. 58.
- Theophilus of Antioch Apologia ad Autolycum II 15
- McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity.
p. 50.
- Tertullian De Pudicitia chapter 21
- McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity,
p. 53.
- Moltman, Jurgen. The Trinity and the Kingdom: The Doctrine
of God. Tr. from German. Fortress Press, 1993. ISBN
080062825X
- Harnack, History of Dogma.
- Catechism of the Catholic
Church, Inspiration and Truth of Sacred Scripture
(§105-108)
- Second Helvetic Confession, Of the Holy Scripture Being the True Word of
God
- Chicago Statement on
Biblical Inerrancy, online text
- Bruce, The Canon of Scripture; Catechism of the
Catholic Church, "The Canon of Scripture", § 120
- Metzger/Coogan, Oxford Companion to the Bible. p.
39.
- Kelly. Early Christian Doctrines. pp. 69-78.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Holy Spirit, Interpreter of Scripture §
115-118.
- Thomas Aquinas, "Whether in Holy Scripture a word may have several
senses"
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, §116
- Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum (V.19).
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, "The Holy Spirit, Interpreter of Scripture" §
113.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, "The Interpretation of the Heritage of Faith" §
85.
- Mathison. The Shape of Sola Scriptura.
- Foutz, Martin Luther and Scripture.
- John Calvin, Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles 2
Peter 3:14-18
- Article about Helvetic confessions
- Second Helvetic Confession, Of Interpreting the Holy Scriptures; and of
Fathers, Councils, and Traditions
- Sproul. Knowing Scripture, pp. 45-61; Bahnsen,
A Reformed Confession Regarding Hermeneutics (article
6).
- p. 205
- p. 565
- e.g., in his commentary on Matthew 1 (§III.3) Matthew Henry interprets
the twin sons of Judah, Phares and Zara, as an allegory of the
Gentile and Jewish Christians. For a contemporary
treatment, see Glenny, Typology: A Summary Of The Present Evangelical
Discussion.
- Catholic Encyclopedia, " Particular Judgment".
- Ott, Grundriß der Dogmatik, p. 566.
- David Moser, What the Orthodox believe concerning prayer for the
dead.
- Ken Collins, What
Happens to Me When I Die?.
- Audience of 4 August 1999
- Catholic Encyclopedia, " The
Communion of Saints".
- Thomas
Aquinas, Summa Theologicum, Supplementum Tertiae
Partis questions 69 through 99
- "The death that Adam brought into the world is spiritual as
well as physical, and only those who gain entrance into the Kingdom
of God will exist eternally. However, this division will not occur
until Armageddon, when all people will be resurrected and given a
chance to gain eternal life. In the meantime, "the dead are
conscious of nothing."What is God's Purpose for the Earth?"
Official Site of Jehovah's Witnesses. Watchtower, July 15,
2002.
- Cross/Livingstone. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian
Church. p. 1435f.
- Hickman. Handbook of the Christian Year.
- Minucius Felix speaks of the cross of Jesus in its familiar
form, likening it to objects with a crossbeam or to a man with arms
outstretched in prayer ( Octavius of Minucius Felix, chapter XXIX).
- "At every forward step and movement, at every going in and out,
when we put on our clothes and shoes, when we bathe, when we sit at
table, when we light the lamps, on couch, on seat, in all the
ordinary actions of daily life, we trace upon the forehead the
sign." (Tertullian, De Corona, chapter 3)
- Dilasser. The Symbols of the Church.
- Catholic Encyclopedia, " Symbolism of the Fish".
- Catholic Encyclopedia, " Veneration of Images.
- Theodosian Code XVI.i.2, in: Bettenson. Documents
of the Christian Church. p. 31.
- Orlandis, A Short History of the Catholic Church
(1993), preface.
- McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity,
p. 37f.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, pp. 238–42.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, pp. 248–50.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, pp. 244–47.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, p. 260.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, pp. 278–81.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, pp. 305, 312,
314f..
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, pp. 303–07,
310f., 384–86.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, pp. 305, 310f.,
316f.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, pp. 321–23,
365f.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, pp. 292–300.
- Riley-Smith. The Oxford History of the Crusades.
- Duffy, Saints and Sinners (1997), p. 91
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, pp. 300,
304–05.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, pp. 310, 383,
385, 391.
- Simon. Great Ages of Man: The Reformation. p. 7.
- Simon. Great Ages of Man: The Reformation. pp. 39,
55–61.
- Schama. A History of Britain. pp. 306–10.
- Bokenkotter, A Concise History of the Catholic Church,
pp. 242–44.
- Simon. Great Ages of Man: The Reformation. pp.
109–120.
- A general overview about the English discussion is given in
Coffey, Persecution and Toleration in Protestant England
1558–1689.
- Mortimer Chambers, The Western Experience (vol. 2)
chapter 21.
- Adherents.com Number of Christians in the world
- Werner Ustorf. "A missiological postscript", in McLeod and
Ustorf (eds), The Decline of Christendom in Western Europe,
1750-2000, (Cambridge University Press, 2003)
pp. 219–20.
- Encyclopedia Britannica table of religions, by
region. Retrieved November 2007.
- American Religious Identification Survey
2008
- New UK opinion poll shows continuing collapse of
'Christendom'
- Barrett/Kurian.World Christian Encyclopedia, p. 139
(Britain), 281 (France), 299 (Germany).
- BBC NEWS—Guide: Christians in the Middle
East
- Is Christianity dying in the birthplace of Jesus?
- Number of Christians among young Koreans decreases
by 5% per year
- A Gambling-Fueled Boom Adds to a Church’s
Bane
- Putnam, Democracies in Flux: The Evolution of Social
Capital in Contemporary Society, p. 408.
- McGrath, Christianity: An Introduction, p. xvi.
- Peter Marber, Money Changes Everything: How Global
Prosperity Is Reshaping Our Needs, Values and Lifestyles, p.
99.
- Sydney E. Ahlstrom ( , p. 381.) characterized denominationalism
in America as "a virtual ecclesiology" that "first of all
repudiates the insistences of the Roman Catholic church, the
churches of the 'magisterial' Reformation, and of most sects that
they alone are the true Church." For specific citations, on the
Roman Catholic Church see the Catechism of the Catholic
Church §816; other examples: Donald Nash, Why the Churches of Christ are not a
Denomination; Wendell Winkler, Christ's Church is not a Denomination; and David E.
Pratt, What does God think about many Christian
denominations?
- Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium.
- Duffy, Saints and Sinners, p. 1.
- Hitchcock, Geography of Religion, p. 281.
- Norman, The Roman Catholic Church an Illustrated
History, p. 11, 14.
- Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, chapter 2, paragraph
15.
- Catechism of the Catholic
Church, paragraph 865.
- Marthaler, Introducing the Catechism of the Catholic
Church, Traditional Themes and Contemporary Issues (1994),
preface.
- Annuario Pontificio (2007), p.
1172.
- Barry, One Faith, One Lord (2001), p. 71
- Adherents.com, Religions by Adherents
- Zenit.org, " Number of Catholics and Priests Rises", 12 February
2007.
- Central Intelligence Agency,
CIA World Factbook (2007).
- According to the Bonn Accord of 1931, cited at Old Catholic Church of the Beatitudes.
- Council of
Anglican Episcopal Churches in Germany.
- Cross/Livingstone. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian
Church, p. 1199.
- Oriental Orthodox Churches
- An Introduction to the Oriental Orthodox
Churches
- Syrian Orthodox Resources -- Middle Eastern
Oriental Orthodox Common Declaration
- McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity.
pp. 251–59.
- Sykes/Booty/Knight. The Study of Anglicanism, p.
219.
- Gregory Hallam, Orthodoxy and Ecumenism.
- Gregory Mathewes-Green, " Whither the Branch Theory?", Anglican Orthodox
Pilgrim Vol. 2, No. 4.
- Confessionalism is a term employed by historians to describe
"the creation of fixed identities and systems of beliefs for
separate churches which had previously been more fluid in their
self-understanding, and which had not begun by seeking separate
identities for themselves—they had wanted to be truly Catholic and
reformed." (MacCulloch, The Reformation: A History, p.
xxiv.)
- McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity,
p. 91f.
- JW-Media.org Membership 2005
- Statistical Report 2008
- "LDS Church says membership now 13 million worldwide", Salt
Lake Tribune, June 25, 2007.
- Press Release, LDS Church, "One Million Missionaries, Thirteen Million
Members", June 25, 2007.
- The church counts all members who were ever baptized, who have
neither been excommunicated nor asked to have their names removed
from church records. Independent surveys estimate that about 50% of
people on LDS Church rolls do not identify with the religion. See
John Dart, Counting Mormons: study says LDS numbers
inflated, Christian Century, August 21, 2007.
- McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity,
pp. 581–84.
- McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity.
p. 413f.
- McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity,
p. 498.
- McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity,
p. 373.
- McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity,
p. 583.
- Methodist Statement
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