Christianity , a symbol of Christianity.]]
Christianity is a monotheistic, broadly trinitarian religion, encompassing many religious traditions that trace their origins to Jesus Christ. Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and the Lord and sole Savior of all humanity as the Jewish Messiah. Over the past two millennia, Christianity has diverged into three main branches: Catholicism, Protestantism, and Eastern Orthodox. Collectively, it is the world's largest single religion, with over two billion followers.
Christianity todayAs of 2004, Christianity is the world's most widely practiced religion, with 2.0 billion adherents (followed by Islam with 1.2 billion, Hinduism with 841 million, and the nonreligious with 774 million). Christianity has many branches, including 1.1 billion Roman Catholics, 367 million Protestants in a number of traditions, 216 million Orthodox, 84 million Anglicans, 414 million Independents (unaffiliated with the major streams of Christianity), and 31.7 million "marginals" (Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, etc.), these last being denominations which describe themselves as Christian but are not standardly recognized as such by other denominations. Although Christianity is the largest religion in the world and there are massive missionary efforts under way, as a whole it is declining in terms of the overall population. While the population of the world grows at roughly 1.25% per year, Christianity is growing at about 1.12% per year. By contrast, Islam is growing at 1.76% per year. Christianity in certain geographic sectors (Africa, Asia) and certain parts of groups (evangelicals, marginals) are, however, growing rapidly. This is due to the fact that countries where Christianity is the dominant religion tend to be more developed countries with lower birth rates. Thus the character and nature of Christianity is changing. Not all people identified as Christians accept all, or even most, of the theological positions held by their particular churches. Like the Jewish people, Christians in the West were greatly affected by The Enlightenment in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Perhaps the most significant change for them was total or effective separation of church and state, thus ending the state-sponsored Christianity that existed in so many European countries. Now one could be a free member of society and disagree with one's church on various issues, and one could even be free to leave the church altogether. Many did leave, developing belief systems such as Deism, Unitarianism, and Universalism, or becoming atheists, agnostics, or humanists. Others created liberal wings of Protestant Christian theology. Modernism in the late 19th century encouraged new forms of thought and expression that did not follow traditional lines. Reaction to "The Enlightenment" and Modernism triggered the development of literally thousands of Christian Protestant denominations, traditionalist splinter groups of the Catholic Church that do not recognize the legitimacy of many reforms the Catholic Church has undertaken, and the growth of hundreds of fundamentalist groups that interpret the entire Bible in a characteristically literal fashion. In the United States and Europe, liberalism also led to secularism. Some Christians have long since stopped participating in traditional religious duties, attending churches only on a few particular holy days per year or not at all. Many of them recall having highly religious grandparents, but grew up in homes where Christian theology was no longer a priority. They have developed ambivalent feelings towards their religious duties. On the one hand they cling to their traditions for identity reasons; on the other hand, the influence of the secular Western mentality, the demands of daily life, and peer pressure tear them away from traditional Christianity. Marriage between Christians of different denominations, or between a Christian and a non-Christian, was once taboo, but has become commonplace. Traditionally Catholic countries such as France have largely become agnostic, and similar trends are reflected in various degrees in Western Europe. Liberal Christianity grew rapidly during the early 20th century in Europe and North America, by the 1960s gaining the leadership of many of the larger US and Canadian denominations. However, this trend has reversed. At the turn of the 21st century, though secular society tends to prefer to consider the more accommodating liberals as the representatives and spokesmen of Christianity, the "mainline" liberal churches are shrinking. This is partly due to loss of evangelistic zeal, partly due to drift of their membership to conservative denominations, and partly due to the failure of one generation to pass on Christianity to the next. Among the larger Protestant denominations in the USA, only the conservative Southern Baptist is growing. Evangelical para-church organizations have grown rapidly in the last half of the 20th century. The liberal Christian Century magazine has shrunk, while being replaced by its challenger, the rapidly growing evangelical Christianity Today. The Enlightenment had much less impact on the Eastern Churches of Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy. Having to face a much more hostile secular society, especially during the rise of Communism, the church clung to ancient beliefs, even as its membership eroded. Today in Eastern Europe and Russia, a renewing trend is taking place. After decades of Communism and atheism, there is widespread interest in Christianity, as well as religion in general. Many Orthodox churches and monasteries are being rebuilt and restored, filled beyond capacity; Protestants of many denominations are pouring in to evangelize and plant churches; and the Catholic church is revealing once secret dioceses and undertaking other steps to support Catholic churches more openly. In South America and Africa, Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity form rapidly growing movements that are increasingly sending missionaries to Europe and North America. This is also true of Asia where many of the underground house churches intend to send hundreds of thousands of missionaries out over the next decade. As Modernism developed into Consumerism during the second half of the 20th century the Megachurch phenomenon developed – catering for skeptical non-Christians by providing "seeker sensitive" presentations of Christian belief. The Alpha Course can be viewed as an example one such presentation of Christianity. Since the development of Postmodernism with its rejection of universally accepted belief structures in favour of more personalized and experiential truth, organized Christianity has increasingly found itself at odds with the desire many people have to express faith and spirituality in a way that is authentic to them. What has thus far been known as the Emerging Church is a by-product of this trend, as many people who broadly accept Christianity seek to practice that faith while avoiding established Church institutions. A large and growing movement within the Christian church, especially in the West and most visible in the United States, is the evangelical movement. Most mainstream protestant denominations have a significantly active evangelical minority, and, in some cases, a dominant majority (see Confessing Movement). Evangelicals are "trans-denominational" and are more willing to have formal and informal relationships with evangelicals from outside their denomination than to have the same sort of relationship with non-evangelicals within their denomination. Some evangelicals have been schismatic within various church organisations, leaving to form their own denominations. More often they are forced out. It was only by dint of sheer determination that John Wesley, founder of Methodism, was able to remain an Anglican priest against intense opposition. His followers separated in America, and in England after his death. Evangelicals claim that their beliefs are no less than true Christianity itself and that those within the church who differ from them may not be true believers. This attitude has led to much disunity amongst churches, especially those with a large modernist influence. Evangelicals cannot be easily categorised, but almost all will believe in the necessity of a personal conversion and acceptance of Jesus as saviour and Lord, the eventual literal return of Christ, a more conservative understanding of the Bible and a belief in the miraculous. There are many different types of Evangelicals including Dispensationists, Reformed Christians, Pentecostals, Charismatics and Fundamentalists. For more, see:\n* List of Christian denominations\n* Christianity: DenominationsDoctrineChristians continued many ideas and practices from the Hebrew faith, including monotheism, the belief in a Messiah (or Christ from the Greek cristos, which means "anointed one"), certain forms of worship (such as prayer, and reading from religious texts), a priesthood, and the idea that worship on Earth is modelled on worship in Heaven. The central belief of Christianity is that by faith in the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, individuals are saved from death - both spiritual and physical - by redemption from their sins (i.e. faults, misdeeds, disobedience, rebellion against God). Through God's grace, by faith, repentance, and obedience, men and women are reconciled to God through sanctification or theosis and returned to their place with God in Heaven. Crucial beliefs in Christian teaching are Jesus' incarnation, atonement, crucifixion, death and resurrection to redeem humankind from sin and death; the belief that the New Testament is a new part of the Bible; and supersessionism. Supersessionism is the belief that the Jews' chosenness found its ultimate fulfillment through the message of Jesus: Jews who remain non-Christian are no longer considered to be chosen, since they reject Jesus as the messiah and son of God, although in the spirit of Christian-Jewish Reconciliation this position has been softened by most major churches and Jews are still recognized to have a special status due to their covenant with God. The emphasis on God giving his son, or the Son (who is God) coming down to earth for the sake of humanity, is an essential difference between Christianity and other religions, where the emphasis is instead placed solely on humans working for salvation. The most uniform and broadly accepted tradition of doctrine, with the longest continuous representation, repeatedly reaffirmed by official Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant definitions (although not without dissent, as noted below) asserts that specific beliefs are essential to Christianity, including but not limited to:
Christian heresiesThe following is a list of beliefs within Christianity that have been called heresies. Adoptionism -- Albigensians -- Apollinarism -- Arianism -- Cathar -- Docetism -- Donatism -- Ebionites--Gnosticism -- Lollardy -- Mandaeans -- Manicheanism -- Monarchianism -- Monothelitism -- Montanism -- Nestorianism -- Patripassianism -- Pelagianism -- Priscillianism -- Psilanthropism -- Sabellianism/Modalism -- Unitarianism -- Universalism In Classical times, Gnosticism took ideas and symbolism from Christianity. Some modern self-proclaimed Christian movements hold beliefs that more closely resemble these ancient heresies.Christianity's relationship with other faithsFor more information on the relationship between Christianity and other world religions over the years, see the Wikipedia article on Christianity and World Religions.Christianity and JudaismSince the Holocaust, there has been much to note in the way of reconciliation between some Christians groups and the Jewish people; the article on Christian-Jewish reconciliation studies this issue. Messianic Judaism refers to a group of evangelical Christian religious movements, self-identified as Jewish, who believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Contrary to Judaism, they are trinitarians, professing that Jesus is God, incarnate. Even though many Messianic Jews are ethnically Jewish, they are not considered part of the Jewish community by mainstream Jewish groups. They are not to be confused with the many Christian believers of Jewish ethnic background who are members not of these religious movements, but rather of regular Christian churches. For more, see:\n* Comparing and contrasting Judaism and Christianity\n* Judeo-Christian tradition\n* Christianity and anti-SemitismChristianity and persecutionChristians have been both the victims and the perpetrators of persecution (see Persecution of Christians). In spite of the widely held belief that such violence is antithetical to Christ's teachings, Christian adherents have at times persecuted, tortured and killed others for refusing to believe in their type of Christianity. Conflicts within Christianity itself have led to persecutions of one Christian group by another. Protestants, Catholics and other Christians have persecuted each other in the name of Jesus. In the second half of the 20th century Roman Catholics and Protestants have been killing each other in Northern Ireland. The concept of religious tolerance -- that Christians in political authority should permit persons of differing faith to practice their own religions -- has risen and fallen many times in history. At times, church leaders have considered tolerance itself to be a heresy. Modern Christianity appears, for the most part, to have adopted a position of tolerance -- though exceptions exist, such as American Christian Reconstructionism which calls for the persecution of dissenting faiths. An example was Father Lawrence Jenco, whose health was nearly broken by almost two years held as a hostage in Lebanon. When asked about his feelings toward his Hezbollah captors, he replied that he had to forgive them. However, differing interpretations of actions by Christians exist. For example, when a military coalition of mostly-Christian countries conducted the 2003 invasion of Iraq, some observers considered it was a Christian coalition deliberately attacking a country because it was Islamic, while most Christians argued it was done for secular reasons, with religion having nothing to do with it.Christian churches worldwideFor a list of the various kinds of culturally different Christian churches around the world today see the List of Christian denominations. For information about the various "super-bodies" of churches which many individual congregations or in some cases bishoprics of these churches associate under see full communion. The ancient Christian-Jewish nasrani tradition today survives in South India.See also
External links\n* Christian Forum - A place for teens to discuss Christianity, ask questions, and share the Bible.\n* Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry - Christianity, Cults, and Other Religions\n* The Bible Gateway - The Bible in 41 different languages and most major versions. Text, audio, and commentaries. Free, no registration.\n* BillyGraham.org - Billy Graham's articles on Christianity.\n* ChristianAnswers.net - In their words - "A site providing biblical answers to contemporary questions for all ages and nationalities with over 30-thousand on-line files accessed over 58-million times per month"\n* Ship of Fools - ecumenical "magazine of Christian unrest". With large, lively discussion boards, and the world's first online virtual church.\n* adherents.com's statistics on Christianity\n* A description of the Christian religion at religioustolerance.org \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nsimple:Christianity\n\n\n\n\nzh-cn:基督教/简\nzh-tw:基督教/繁\n\nCategory:ChristianityCategory:Wikipedia Featured Articles |
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"When ideas fail, words come in very handy." - Goethe (1749-1832) |
and other forces led to schisms in Christianity over the millennia, but all branches trace their roots to early Christianity.]]
