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{{Useful Notes}}
[[File:Christianity symbols.svg|thumb|200px|The Latin Cross and the Fish]]
{{quote|''For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.''|'''[[Jesus Christ]]''', [[The Four Gospels|John]] 3:16, King James Version}}
'''Christianity''' is a monotheistic religion that originated in what is now Israel in the 1st century A.D. as an offshoot of [[Judaism]]. It is based on the teachings of [[Jesus|Jesus of Nazareth]], a Jewish rabbi whose followers identified Him as the ''Messiah'' promised in the Old Testament, and who was executed by Roman and Judean authorities for His heresy. Christianity teaches that a day will come when the world will end and all of mankind will be judged by God, and that only those who follow Jesus and accept His sacrifice on their behalf will be spared from eternal punishment. Christianity spread throughout the [[Roman Empire]], despite systematic persecution of Christians, and in the 4th century became the official religion of the Empire, and thereafter the dominant religion throughout Europe and the western world.
That doesn't even begin to describe it.
The world's biggest single religious group{{verify}} tends to be a bit misunderstood at times, even by its own adherents. Since only one-in-three people worldwide describe themselves as Christians, it follows that at least [[Two Out of Three Ain't Bad|two out of three people]] are a little vague on what it is all about.
{{TOCright}}
== Basics ==
A few basic points that the majority of Christians agree on; any disagreement will be mentioned '''in the entry for the appropriate sect!''':
* Christianity is a monotheistic religion from the perspective of modern adherents. The most prevalent view is that the one [[God]] subsists in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (sometimes collectively called the Trinity). Needless to say, a ''lot'' of philosophy and theology has been devoted to understanding this and it's still a [[Mind Screw]] for many; some sects do away with it entirely, [[Voodoo Shark|probably for that reason]].
* God is omniscient (i.e., knows everything that has ever transpired or will transpire, past, present, and future), omnipotent (i.e., capable of doing anything He desires to), and omnibenevolent (i.e., He loves everyone and everything). As above, a lot of philosophy has been dedicated to comprehending how these qualities interact with each other, and how they can coexist given the seemingly contradictory nature of the world man exists in; the general answer being that [[These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know|God is playing a long game the understanding of which is beyond man's comprehension.]]
* Christ is not Jesus' last name but His title designating His role as Messiah and Savior; it comes from the Greek ''Christos'' meaning "[[The Chosen One|anointed]]", in turn a translation of ''Māšîăḥ''. This is why phrases like "Passion of ''the'' Christ" make sense. Note that this also means that referring to Jesus as "Christ" or "Jesus Christ", rather than just "Jesus", constitutes an implied claim that Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah. To refer to the historical, secular view of Jesus, as opposed to the Christian view, the preferred proper name is "Jesus of Nazareth".
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=== Catholicism ===
We're going to define the Catholicism type as Churches in communion with the Roman Catholic Church as well as those churches that broke off recently, as in the last couple centuries.{{when}}
==== Roman Catholic Church ====
The largest sect in raw numbers (about one in six human beings are Catholic) and one of the many types of Christianity hailing from about AD 300. The leader of the Catholic Church, the Pope, is the Bishop of Rome just as St. Peter was; in practice, the real authority of the Church is with its Bishops, each of whom is responsible for passing on the teachings of the church intact within their dioceses. It should be kept in mind that Catholicism is comprised of diverse segments of believers and that inevitably, there's bound to be some arguments amongst themselves, and let's leave it at that.
Catholicism is generally best known for its rituals and a rather authoritarian approach to religious and moral doctrine. It is believed that the church's teachings on these subjects are "infallible" - without error - because the Holy Spirit will not allow the Church to be in error; debate remains, however on how to interpret this infallibility. There are three sources of infallible teachings, two of which are not controversial. First, there is the "Magisterium" of the Church: the teachings of the church that are considered universal by the Pope and Bishops. Second are the teachings of Church Councils - meetings of all the bishops within the Church, called by the Pope to settle in a democratic fashion questions of an extraordinary nature. The Catholic Church recognizes 21 Councils as having occured in its history, the most recent of which was the Second Vatican Council held from 1962-1965 (which, among many other mostly procedural changes, allowed Mass to be said in languages other than Latin). The last source, and the most controversial, is the Pope himself; Catholics believe the Pope is infallible when he speaks on matters of faith or morals, leaving no wiggle room. This circumstance is known as ''ex cathedra'', which literally means "from the chair." When the Pope solemnly defines a doctrine or dogma, he is speaking ''ex cathedra''. In the grand scheme of the Church it is a very new idea, first officially pronounced in 1870, and which modern theologians recognize as having been exercised only seven times in the history of the church, most recently in 1950. Many people debate just how solemnly, and what language a pope has to speak to be doing so, however, if the term anathema (a bad thing, as in "let him be anathema") shows up, you're probably in ''ex cathedra'' territory. As a note, infallibility has nothing to do with impeccability, that is, sinlessness (Peter the Apostle, considered to be the first Pope by Catholics, denied Christ three times in The Bible).
Infallibility is viewed as a negative power, that means the pope is incapable of speaking falsely when speaking ''ex cathedra'' on faith and morals. This does not extend to private letters, most public discourses, theological musings and what not, though they are to be accorded respect. Note that due to the principle of ''doctrinal development'' in Catholicism (the belief that new dogmas are simply ''existing'' beliefs that have been better understood and now ''explicitly'' defined, as opposed to doctrinal ''innovation'' which means coming up with new doctrine or changing existing ones), this rule applies ''retroactively''. But in practice, infallible teachings from the Pope are very rare; the Church doesn't keep a list, [[wikipedia:Papal infallibility#Instances of papal infallibility|but by one theologian's count, there have only been seven in the entire 2000-year history of the Church, the most recent in 1950]].
Catholicism recognizes seven "sacraments," signs of God's grace: Baptism, Communion (a remembrance of the Last Supper, and where Catholics believe Jesus acting through the priest turns the bread and wine into Himself), Confirmation (when people choose to become full members of the Church as adults), Marriage, Holy Orders (where clergy take their vows), Reconciliation, and Anointing of the Sick (sometimes, and not quite correctly, called "[[Last Rites (trope)|Last Rites]]"; Last Rites often includes the sacraments Anointing of the Sick, Reconciliation, and
An important difference between Catholicism and some Protestant sects is that Catholics do not believe the Bible is entirely literal, only "divinely inspired." For example, Popes have endorsed the theory of evolution as both plausible and consistent with Catholic teaching, referring to the Creation story of Genesis as a metaphor or a poetic way of describing the creation of man by God. This reflects the greater emphasis that Catholicism puts on human reason and philosophy in terms of theological learning. Scholasticism, popularized by St. Thomas Aquinas, is a major influence on this way of thinking.
Another important Catholic tradition is the remembrance of Canonical Saints: people who have been found by the Church to have led holy lives, are considered examples for Catholics to follow, and are believed to have demonstrated they are in Heaven and have God's favor by granting what the church considers miracles (usually, healings without a certain medical explanation) to those who ask saints to "intercede" for them with God. There are at least 5,000 Canonical Saints (the most important being "The Virgin" Mary, who was Jesus' earthly mother), though some of them may be more legends than real people. Note that the word "saint" is often misinterpreted to mean an especially good person. In Catholic theology, anyone currently in heaven is a "saint" (hence the fact that the Church does not Canonize living people); thus, anyone who died in a state of grace is a saint, regardless of what sort life they led. When people talk about "saints", they usually mean ''Canonical Saints''. When the Catholic Church formally declares that someone is a saint, that person is said to be "canonized", and someone who has been canonized is a Canonical Saint. Whether someone has been canonized, however, is irrelevant to whether they are a saint. Despite common usage, the Pope does not "make" people saints; only God can do that. The Pope is merely reporting on current events.▼
▲Another important Catholic tradition is the remembrance of Canonical Saints: people who have been found by the Church to have led holy lives, are considered examples for Catholics to follow, and are believed to have demonstrated they are in Heaven and have God's favor by granting what the church considers miracles (usually, healings without a certain medical explanation) to those who ask saints to "intercede" for them with God. There are at least 5,000 Canonical Saints (the most important being "The Virgin" Mary, who was Jesus' earthly mother), though some of them may be more legends than real people. Note that the word "saint" is often misinterpreted to mean an especially good person. In Catholic theology, anyone currently in heaven is a "saint" (hence the fact that the Church does not Canonize living people); thus, anyone who died in a state of grace is a saint, regardless of what sort life they led. When people talk about "saints", they usually mean ''Canonical Saints''. When the Catholic Church formally declares that someone is a saint, that person is said to be "canonized", and someone who has been canonized is a Canonical Saint. Whether someone has been canonized, however, is irrelevant to whether they are a saint. Despite common usage, the Pope does not "make" people saints; only God can do that. The Pope is merely reporting on current events. (Notably, most Roman Catholic churches are named after canonical saints, and Spanish, Portuguese, and French explorers and settlers often used their names as placenames.)
==== Traditional Catholicism ====
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Some "highs" on the other hand are "More Roman than Rome" in terms of worship practice. Anglican Churches recognize two sacraments - Baptism and the Eucharist, as primary, since those were the only two that Jesus himself presided over. Anglicans, on the whole believe in the real presence of Christ in communion, though it is officially left a mystery just how that looks.
====Episcopalianism:====
What the Anglican Church morphed into in the United States. It's not company-owned, but it's certainly the largest (and first) franchisee. The split came after the American Revolution when clergy swearing an oath of loyalty to the British monarch suddenly became a bit of a problem. Similar to Modern-Day Catholicism, albeit more liberal. Subject to the Archbishop of Canterbury (an Anglican bishop) in a "First amongst equals" sort of way, and thereby subject to the authority of the Anglican Communion as well. However, Episcopalians are ''not'', technically, Church of England, and are therefore not subject to Her Majesty. Still keeps rituals the Catholic church has abandoned, such as incense and kneeling rails at the altar to receive communion. Like the Church of England uses the ''Book of Common Prayer'', but with its own set of revisions, the most notable being the development of alternate rites for Sunday service with more modern language introduced in 1979. Sadly, the Episcopal Church in the United States has been falling apart lately, particularly over the issue of ordaining gay clergy, the uniqueness of Christ and the authority of scripture (this is probably where the stereotype of Episcopalians as "anything goes" types comes from). The actual "falling apart" piece of the Episcopalian Church is a rather small number of very vocal churches. That said, several other pastors have issues with the church, just not enough to break off. Furthermore, one could argue that the Episcopalian Church has been "breaking apart" for the better part of the 20th century, with issues including abortion, gay marriage, ordination of women and so forth causing certain churches to break off. A small group of these churches have petitioned the Anglican Communion to become a separate region of the Communion within the United States (these regions are normally defined by geography, not belief). The issue is complicated.
* There are some cases of Episcopal communities which have chosen to become Roman Catholic ''en masse''.
==== Evangelical Christianity ====
Somewhat synonymous to "Fundamentalism", a movement within Christianity unique to America beginning in the 19th century as a response to Modernity, and continued to gain popularity into the 20th. While early leaders of this movement shunned mainline churches, their followers instead stayed within their congregations and spread their teachings through these communities, injecting a particular flavor of Premillenialist theology into already-existing American Protestanism. However around the turn of the century the movement did start splitting from these mainline churches to create their own congregations and are now mostly associated with giant cross-denominational mega-churches. Evangelicals emphasize the potential imminence of Judgment Day and the importance of converting non-believers. Notable evangelical preachers of the 20th century include Jimmy Swaggart, Oral Roberts, Billy Graham (and later his son Franklin), Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson. Most of these preachers are best known to the public through TV programs connected to their respective churches, and are thus sometimes called "televangelists". Evangelicals have a reputation for being highly, but not exclusively, conservative and in America are highly influential in politics, especially in the southern states.
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An offshoot of Calvinism developed by Jacobus Arminius, Arminianism holds that election to salvation is conditional and that God's grace can be resisted. Many Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists, Evangelicals, and Pentecostals hold to Arminian soteriology. 'Arminian' is often misspelled 'Armenian,' which is a totally unrelated ethnic group that has a totally unrelated form of Christianity (see "Oriental Orthodox" above).
====Baptists====
Baptists are defined from other Christian sects by practicing baptism when
==== Anabaptists====
An extreme Reformation sect that practiced an extreme heresy in the eyes of the rest of the rest of Christianity: "believer's baptism," a re-baptism for people when they join the church, regardless of whether they were baptized as infants. In fact, Anabaptists didn't believe in baptizing infants at all. This ended up going badly for the Anabaptists it turns out that infant baptism is the kind of issue that makes strange bedfellows. In between killing each other, the Roman Catholics and the Lutherans teamed up to burn and drown the Anabaptists on this issue... Didn't really work, as the existence of modern day Amish and Mennonites can attest. A lot of Anabaptist descendants believe in nonviolence and separation from modern societies and countries. Anabaptists are not to be confused with Baptists, which are descended from more "mainline" Protestantism. Anabaptists are survived in the modern day by a number of different denominations including the Amish, Mennonites, and Hutterites. These groups tend to be almost exclusively based in rural communities, though there are plenty of exceptions. To qualify the rosy portrait given above, it must be noted that many Anabaptists were violent theocrats. Incidentally, the Mennonites (from whom the Amish split in the 17th century) were always pacifists and separatists, which was the reason they survived persecution, not a result of persecution.
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==== Seventh-day Adventists ====
The basics are in the name: they worship on the Jewish Sabbath (sundown Friday to sundown Saturday) instead of on Sunday, and they believe the Second Coming is imminent. They believe that they should honor the Sabbath each week, but, like most Christian sects, do not follow the scriptural teachings of the Sabbath Year (every 7th year) or the Jubilee Year (every 25th or 50th year). Also known for vegetarianism, a strong focus on healthy living (many adherents belonging to the medical field), and a belief in soul sleep. Adventist teaching is largely based on the work of a nineteenth-century writer Ellen G. White; Adventists refer to Mrs. White as the "Voice of Prophecy" and consider her writings second in authority only to the Bible. The SDA grew out of the Millerite movement which believe that the world would end on 22 October 1844. This day is now referred to as "The Great Disappointment" in a massive understatement. Many modern Adventists view "The Great Disappointment" as a result of misinterpretation of the of the date, stating that it was incorrectly meant to be the end of the world, when it was merely the start of "The Remnant Church" in preparation for the End Times.
==== Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement ====
Generally called some variant of Disciples of Christ, Church of Christ, or a generic Christian Church. Founded when Barton Stone and Thomas Campbell independently came up with the idea that all these creeds and churches named after a founder is wrong. Individual churches are autonomous and believe on full immersion baptism. Southern Churches of Christ tend to be strictly non-instrumental vs the northern Christian Churches use instruments. Disciples of Christ formally split from the others when they formed an ecumenical council.
====Christian Scientists ====
More properly "The Church of Christ, Scientist." Founded by a Boston woman, Mary Baker Eddy, whose sickness was not healed by "animal magnetism" (which worked by inadvertently hypnotizing the patient) but did get better after praying. Their main difference from other types of Christianity is denying the existence of the physical world (which peculiarly sounds rather like [[Buddhism]]). This leads to the conclusion that there is no need to rely on drugs and medical treatment, since these imply a reality to the physical. In practice, failing to be good enough at seeing that there is no physical world is not a sin, so members are allowed to seek medical help as a second resort. They also deny the existence of evil, Satan and any need to evangelize or proselytize. They are very much in favor of reading though. Not to be confused with the Church of Scientology. The sect established ''[[wikipedia:The Christian Science Monitor|The Christian Science Monitor]]'' as a response to criticism and ridicule of Eddy early on; it eventually became a top outlet for high-quality journalism in the United States.
==== Moravians ====
One of the oldest Protestant sects, and one of the very few surviving that can lay claim to independence before Martin Luther's proclamation. The Moravians have their origins in 1400's Bohemia and Moravia, following the execution of Jan Hus, a priest who openly criticized the Catholic Church, particularly their practices of indulgences and not allowing texts to be published and said in the language of the people. He was burned at the stake in 1415; his followers organized and rebelled. Although they were successful, they were eventually overrun and scattered by the Catholic Habsburgs in 1621. A group of refugees managed to escape to Germany, where an open-minded nobleman, [[Awesome McCoolname|Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf]], allowed them to settle on his estate at Herrnhut. Fascinated by their story and teachings, he eventually became a Moravian bishop, sent forth the first Protestant missionaries, and founded the [[Eagle Land|American]] Moravian settlements of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Salem,<ref>now Winston-Salem</ref> North Carolina. Much like their early counterparts, modern Moravians strongly believe in a focus on the essential basics of Christianity, the freedom to choose styles of worship, tolerance towards others who believe differently, and a call of stewardship to dedicate time and talents to those who need them. The most famous Moravian practice is the ''Lovefeast'', a simple meal, usually bread and a beverage, eaten as a congregation to show of fellowship and celebration.<ref>This does ''not'' replace communion, which Moravians also observe.</ref> There are also 26-pointed stars called Moravian stars that are often used as Christmas decorations; they did not get their start as religious symbol, but are called so because they were used as a geometry lesson at the Moravian Boys' School in Niesky, Germany.
=== Other ===
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* [[Creepy Cool Crosses]]: Obviously.
* [[Deep South]]: The region is also known in North America as the Bible Belt.
* [[Devil's Advocate]]: The Devil's Advocate (''advocatus diaboli'') is the popular name for the Promoter of the Faith (''promotor fidei''), a person appointed by the Catholic Church who argues against the formal recognition of someone as a Saint by, again, the Catholic Church. The job has been taken up on at least one occasion (Mother
* [[Evil Counterpart]]: [[wikipedia:Unholy Trinity (Christianity)|According to]] [[The Other Wiki]], at least, some Christians believe in an evil counterpart to the Holy Trinity called the Unholy Trinity, consisting of Satan (evil counterpart to God), The Anti-Christ (evil counterpart to Jesus) and the False Prophet (evil counterpart to The Holy Spirit)
* [[Fanon]]: Much of Christianity's pop culture presentation comes from the work of artists and writers of non-[[Canon]] literature, perhaps most famously John Milton and [[Word of Dante|Dante Alighieri]]. This may explain some of the non-source weirdness in Christian belief.
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* [[The Knights Templar]]
* [[Knight Templar]]
* [[Last Rites (trope)|Last Rites]]
* [[The Legions of Hell]]
* [[The Messiah]]: Three guesses who.
* [[The Missionary]]
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Herod]]
* [[Nuns Are Funny]]
* [[Nuns Are Mikos]]
* [[Nuns Are Spooky]]
* [[Nuns-N-Rosaries]]: Specifically Catholic.
* [[The Order]]
* [[Pals with Jesus]]: Quite literally, at least to some traditions.
* [[Satan]]: Though the character goes back to Judaism or before, the mythology now associated with him is largely a Christian invention. His characterization has evolved continuously with the religion, growing from a rather buffoonish trickster/tempter figure in medieval folktales to an almost Manichean embodiment of evil in contemporary media. Has sometimes been thought to represent Man's capacity to do evil, and has thus grown as our ability to do harm to one another has grown.
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{{reflist}}
{{Abrahamic Traditions}}
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