Christianity

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Christianity is a group of religious traditions, originating with Jesus Christ, that assert that Jesus is Lord, Saviour, God, the son of God and messiah -- the sole saviour of all humanity.

Introduction

Christianity consists of many branches, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, the various religious denominations of Protestantism. Other branches of Christianity have arisen which claim a separate historical lineage, such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

According to a 1993 estimate, Christianity was the most populous religion, at 2.1 billion followers (1 billion Catholics, 500 million Protestants, 240 million Orthodox and 275 million others), before Islam at 1.1 billion and Hinduism at 1.05 billion.

Christianity emerged from Judaism in the first century of the Common Era (C.E.). Christians brought many ideas and practices from Judaism, including: monotheism; the belief in a messiah (or Christ, which means "anointed one" - who Christians believe to be Jesus); certain practices of worship, such as prayer, reading from religious texts, a priesthood, the idea that worship here on earth is patterned after worship in heaven. The book of Acts, in the Christian New Testament (NT), says that Christ's followers were first called Christians by non-believers in the city of Antioch, where they had fled and settled after early persecutions in Palestine, probably just a few years after Jesus' death, (and ascension).—Acts 11:19, 26.

Christianity holds one central idea, claiming that: By faith in the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ individuals are saved from death both spiritual and physical by redeeming them from their sins (i.e. faults, misdeeds, disobedience, rebellion against God) through faith, repentance, and obedience; reconciling mankind to God through sanctification so that man can return to his place with God in paradise. Though, the full value of Jesus' sacrifice, and the extent and meaning of the words "death" and "paradise" is in dispute between the various Christian religions, along with the full merits of Jesus Christ's sacrifice.

Doctrine

The most crucial points in Christian teaching are Jesus' incarnation, atonement, crucifixion, death and miraculous resurrection to redeem mankind from sin and death. These events are believed by Christians to be the basis of God's work to reconcile humanity with himself. Many Christians believe that this emphasis on God giving his beloved Son for the sake of humanity is a key difference between Christianity and religions where the emphasis is instead placed solely on humans working for salvation. The most uniform and broadly agreed upon 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:

Mary, the mother of Jesus, bore in her womb and gave birth to the Son of God, who although eternally existent was formed in her womb by the Spirit of God. From her humanity he received in his person, a human intellect and will, and all else that a child would naturally receive from its mother.
Jesus was innocent of any sin. Through the death of Jesus, believers are forgiven of sins and reconciled to God. Believers are baptized into the death of Christ. Through faith, they live by the promise of resurrection from death to everlasting life through Christ. The Holy Spirit is given to them, to bring hope and lead mankind into true knowledge of God and His purposes, and help them grow in holiness.
Jesus is the Messiah hoped for by the Jews, the heir to the throne of David. He reigns at the right hand of God with all authority and power. He is the hope of all mankind, their advocate and judge. Until he returns at the end of the age, the Church has the authority and obligation to preach the Gospel and to gather new disciples.
Jesus will return to receive the faithful to himself, so they will live eternally in the intimate presence of God.
Christians believe that the Bible is the word of God. However, some creedal Christians disagree to some extent about how accurate the Bible is and how it should be interpreted.

Other ideas accepted by most Christian religions are:

God is a Trinity, a single eternal being existing in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Jesus is both fully God and fully Man, two "natures" in one person.
Jesus will return to receive the faithful to himself, so they will live eternally in the intimate presence of God.

Christianity is considered by Christians to be the continuation or fulfilment of the Jewish faith. However, many Christian organizations throughout history have had varying ideas about the basic tenets of the Christian faith, from ancient sects such as Arians and Gnosticism, to modern groups such as Jehovah's Witnesses (who seek to reestablish primitive first century Christianity), The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (who believe that God restored the apostolic priesthood to their leader, Joseph Smith in 1829), and the Unification Church. The above groups, for example, differ from one another concerning what Jesus represented himself to be, although all believe him to be the Christ, and with different ideas believe him to have cosmic importance, some calling him a god or God, or others as simply a man. Some of these groups number themselves among the Christian churches, or believe themselves to be the only Christian church. Also, modern day liberal Protestant Christians do not define Christianity as necessarily including belief in the deity of Jesus, the virgin birth, the Trinity, miracles, the resurrection, the ascension of Christ, or the personality or deity of the Holy Spirit. Liberals may recommend belief in such things, or not, but differentiate themselves by defining as included within genuine Christianity anyone who explains their views or teachings principally by appeal to Jesus.

Summary

The following diagram illustrates the manner in which Christian groups trace their own historical development:

File:Christian-lineage.JPG

A detailed look at the various denominations of Christianity can be found in the Wikipedia article Christianity: Denominations.

Christianity today

Not all people identified as Christians accept all, or even most, of the theological positions that their particular church mandates. 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. Millions did take these paths, becoming freethinkers and developing entirely new belief systems such as humanism, atheism, agnosticism, and deism; others created liberal wings of Protestant Christian theology, and the long-suppressed Unitarian trend in Christianity became an acceptable choice for many. The Enlightenment had a much less profound impact on the Eastern Churches of Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy.

This gain in personal freedom of the general populace came with a price to those that wished to impose their religious ideas upon the people: the dissolution of the Christian community as an entity with civic legal authority. In the United States and Europe, many secularized Christians have long since stopped participating in traditional religious duties, attending churches only on a few particular 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.

There have been many responses to this phenomenon within the Christian community, including 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 literal fashion.

The Persecution of Christians, both in the past and today, is the subject of a separate entry.

Christian Heresies

Adoptionism -- Albigensians -- Apollinarism -- Arianism -- Cathars -- Docetism -- Donatism -- Lollardy -- Mandaeans -- Manicheanism -- Monarchianism -- Montanism -- Patripassianism -- Pelagianism -- Priscillianism -- Psilanthropism -- Sabellianism --

In classical times, Gnosticism exchanged ideas and symbolism with Christianity.

Christianity's Relationship with Other Faiths

For more information on the relationship between Christianity and other world religions over the years, see the Wikipedia article on Christianity and World Religions.