Christianity: Difference between revisions

The world's biggest single religious group 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.

 

A few basic points that the majority of Christians agree on; any disagreement will be mentioned '''in the entry for the appropriate sect!''':

 

* A side issue: Jesus' historicity. The question of His holiness, position as Christ, and so on are obviously beyond the scope of scientific inquiry as they are not falsifiable. Jesus Himself left no writings that have survived to the present day, and the earliest Christian writings known today (i.e., the Biblical Gospels and the Gospels of Thomas) date to several decades after His life. It is generally accepted as fact that Jesus, as in the individual described in the Bible, did, in fact, historically exist. This continues to be dicey, since the claim that Jesus the guy exists needs to be sorted for different notions of "exists". Was there an itinerant preacher guy named Yeshua somewhere in Judaea around AD 20-40 who made a stir and got offed by the powers that be? Almost certainly. Did that guy say or do anything ascribed to him in the Bible? Less certain. Was He born on December 25th of the year 1 B.C.? Almost certainly not, since modern archaeologists believe King Herod (during whose reign Jesus is said to have been born) to have died several years prior, and the date of Christmas to have been set by the early medieval church to coincide with competing winter solstice festivals.

 

* Mainline Protestant Christians believe a Christian is one who acknowledges s/he is a sinner, accepts Christ's offer of salvation, is forgiven by God on Christ's behalf, repents and changes his or her life to reflect this, and spreads the word to others. Although, there's a bit of variation between denominations regarding whether humans have to initiate this process to be saved, or if God just does it anyways regardless of explicit acceptance. Protestants also claim that the Bible is the ultimate and only necessary authority for knowing how to live a Christian life, but also say that it is largely up to the individual to interpret the Bible's instructions as to how to live their own life (though the learned advice of the clergy is not to be discounted).

* Catholics believe that [[The Pope]] is the rightful successor of St. Peter, who was given the authority by Jesus to guide and direct the Christian Church on Earth and that faith alone isn't sufficient except combined with acts. Basically, same as above but the Church (e.g. Pope) is the final earthly authority for figuring out how to actually do it and that it isn't enough just to believe in Christ, you also have to act like you believe. Contrary to common misunderstanding, they do believe in the Bible as strongly as Protestant Christians do, but their belief in the Church's authority simply means they do not believe that God's word consists of the Bible ''alone''- it didn't end with the last period of [[Book of Revelation|Revelation]], but rather, has continued throughout history.

* Some liberal denominations reject the notion of external salvation entirely, and only focus on Jesus' message of compassion and forgiveness while not focusing so much, if at all, on His teachings on personal morality and sanctification. Others keep the focus on the personal morality and sanctification, but express it through acts of charity and giving- many major charity organizations around the world are run by Christians, and many hospitals and ambulances worldwide originated as Christian organizations.

 

As you probably already know Christians are not one collective bunch. Disagreements over theology and dogma have resulted in everything from quiet splits to devastating wars, in the past and even today- much like most religions. In Christianity, this has resulted in the notable tendency to create new churches, and this in turn leads to the large number of different Christian churches.

 

* Predestination: Does God know the future before it happens? If so, does that mean that [[Prescience Is Predictable|some people are elected to be saved before they are even born]], while others are damned? Or does human free will allow the future to change in ways that even God can't foresee?

 

 

There are a lot of different denominations all with their own slightly different beliefs, practices, [[Trope|tropes]], and what not. Broken up by type:

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Actor/director Mel Gibson was one of the best known of Traditionalists with questionable standing with Rome.

 

 

Which split off at the First Vatican Council, primarily because of their opposition to the dogma of Papal Infallibility. Funnily enough, despite their name, their beliefs are among the most liberal of the Christian denominations.

 

 

An American offshoot, annoyed by the predominance of Irish immigrants in the American Catholic hierarchy, they joined the Old Catholic Church, but not to be outdone, then broke off with the Old Catholic Church over ordination of women.

 

 

A group of autonomous "particular Churches" of the Eastern traditions that are in full communion with Rome and recognize the Pope as head of the Church. Almost every Eastern Rite has a counterpart among the Eastern Orthodox and other Eastern churches, and largely keep the same traditions. They are pejoratively termed "uniates" by their counterparts that are not in communion with Rome. "Roman Catholicism" as it's commonly known in the West ([[Nuns-N-Rosaries|you know, Latin, priestly celibacy, Mass, unleavened bread, old ladies wearing headcovers praying the Rosary in front of a statue of Mary]]) is actually more properly called the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church. Eastern Catholics have Divine Liturgy (not Mass) and use leavened bread at communion. Most Eastern rites don't require priests to be celibate (a ''discipline'' of the Latin Rite, not a ''dogma'' of the Catholic Church). Byzantine Catholics cross themselves right-to-left just like their Eastern Orthodox brethren. Among the one billion or so Catholics in the world, only about 17 million are from one of the Eastern Rites. Eastern Catholics are every bit as Catholic (in terms of being in communion with Rome) as the Latin Rite Catholics, but due to their small numbers and their more prominent Orthodox counterparts, most people (heck, most Latin Rite Catholics) don't even know that they exist.

 

 

Announced in October 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI, in the wake of the growing schism within Anglicanism regarding the ordination of openly gay priests, this is a new structure designed to accommodate those Anglicans who wish to convert to Catholicism while retaining their Anglican identity. The precise nature of the arrangement has yet to be revealed in an "Apostolic Constitution", but it is expected that it will enable the use of Anglican Liturgy and, to a degree, the retention of married clergy. Several Anglican groups have already indicated that they will accept the offer.

 

Various Churches that broke with the Church in Rome a millennium ago or more (they say Rome broke with them, others see it as a clean break both ways). Many branches are in active discussion with the Catholic Church over reuniting, some almost a millennium:

* Eastern Orthodox-- Established as a distinct entity in 1054 when the Pope and the Byzantine Patriarch mutually excommunicated each other (the question of who exactly broke off from whom is a millennium-old flame war, [[Serious Business|literally]]). Similar to Catholicism in theology and practice, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a collection of related churches, usually of an ethnic or cultural makeup. Whatever language this group traditionally used is the language of their religious ceremonies (as Latin was for the Roman Catholic Church until recently). The main triggers for the split were Papal supremacy and whether the phrase ''filioque'' (and the Son) should be inserted into the Nicene Creed, as Eastern Orthodoxy insists that it throws off the delicate balance of the Trinity's interrelationship, which they labored so hard to establish intellectually. A further divergence from Western Christianity arose during the Hesychast Controversy of the 14th century, which resulted in the official denial of absolute divine simplicity, a view held by Roman Catholics as well as most Protestants and which (ironically) is too complex to describe here. The most commonly known churches in this group are the Greek Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox church. Widely known for their practice of iconography, the making of small icons that depict saints, martyrs and other holy figures. Also on a different calendar than the Western churches, so that Easter (or Pascha, rather) and related holy days don't coincide with the ones being observed around them. (Convenient when Orthodox Christmas falls after Western Christmas - can you say clearance sale?) Like Catholics, Orthodox Christians recognize seven sacraments and venerate saints, many of whom they share in common with Catholics.

** Chaldean Catholic Church -- Technically a Rite in the Catholic Church that would fall under eastern Catholicism above this church left the Assyrian Church of the East in 1553 to join the Roman Church.

 

Not one sect, but an umbrella term for hundreds of churches who broke with Catholicism, most of which claim descent from Martin Luther's stand in 1521, Protestantism eschews most Catholic sacraments and the veneration of saints, and encourages individual study of Scripture. Generally, Protestants do not practice the sacraments of confession, confirmation, or anointing of the sick. Baptism is performed by many Protestant groups, though when (birth vs. adult conversion) and how (sprinkling vs. full immersion) differs from church to church. Frequency of celebrating Communion varies greatly within Protestant denominations, anywhere from never to being practiced during every service. Typically, churches with more formal liturgy (orders of service) and more Catholic trappings will celebrate it more frequently, while those lacking such liturgy will usually celebrate it infrequently and usually on an informal basis. Belief in transsubstantiation is almost unknown, but liturgical churches typically believe in a doctrine of Real Presence that is extremely similar. Around half of Protestants, by population, are members of churches that confess a doctrine of Real Pressence. Due to Protestantism's distrust of having an official hierarchy to maintain orthodoxy and emphasis on biblical interpretation, the original sect from the Reformation splintered very quickly. Protestant churches now include Lutherans, Baptists, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, and Methodists, among many others. If a sect of Christianity doesn't fall into any other category, it usually gets filed under Protestantism.

* Anglican Christianity -- An offshoot of Roman Catholicism originating in 1534 when Henry VIII claimed dominion over the English church with the Act of Supremacy. Largely identical to Catholicism in terms of ceremonial practice. The sacrament of Confession is not practiced, but Confirmation is. It should be noted that Anglicanism is considered a Protestant church in a historical context; as the acceptance of the Pope as temporal head of the church is ''required'' for conciliation with the Roman Catholic denomination, Anglicans by definition are not RC. Although, it did not split from Catholicism in the same way as the original Protestant Movement. Note also that Henry's schism with Rome allowed many sincere Protestants within England to preach. Further note that many "low" Anglican churches are firmly committed to independence from Rome.<br /><br />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.

** The Moravians were a strong influence on John Wesley; he actually studied with Zinzendorf in Herrnhut for a brief time, though he ultimately disagreed with them on a few key theological points. These difference were enough for him to create what would become Methodism.

 

The following groups are pretty hard to fit into any of the above categories. Some of these sects are considered by some of the other sect to not be Christian. Most of them tend to disagree. We will all ([[Subjective Trope|mostly, somewhat]]) agree that they are definitely not Catholic, probably not Protestant, and that we really really really don't want to start a [[Flame War]] (literally or figuratively) about this issue.

* [[Gnosticism]] -- Non-'orthodox' sects which were active from approximately 100-400 AD. Orthodox Christian sects ended up disavowing them, which resulted in some rather interesting developments. Gnostic writers and their texts were far more common in the early centuries of the Church and have a very different flavor than the modern Bible. Today they are largely extinct, but a few holdouts still remain, especially with the discovery of the Nag Hammadi library in the 1940s. Gnosticism interpreted the teachings of Christ in the context of late Greek philosophy and local polytheistic religions. Gnostics identified the God of the Old Testament with a being called the Demiurge, a kinda sorta evil deity who created the world to trap human souls in flesh. They saw Jesus as an incarnation of pure wisdom sent by a good God to teach man to transcend his bodily form, but not as a universal "savior" in whom one must believe. Though Gnosticism itself is rarely heard of outside theological symposia these days, its influence can be felt in the Gospel of John, which shares much gnostic terminology, while subverting it (John 1:1, the <s>word</s> Logos became flesh, wah!?). Also in [[The Da Vinci Code]], but that's [[Dan Browned|another story]].

* Catharism/Albigensianism was a particularly large offshoot of the gnostics. Taking root in France in the 11th century, they believed in poverty, avoidance of sex, and vegetarianism (but fish and anal sex were both OK, one because of confusion about how sexual reproduction works, the other because it can't lead to having kids). They were ultimately suppressed during the Albigensian Crusade, but not before they gave us the word ''buggery.'' The voluntary poverty of the Dominican Order of Preachers was inspired by the Cathars, against whom Saint Dominic himself had preached with limited success.

 

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* [[The Bible]]

* [[Broken Base]]: Catholicism vs. Protestantism, the Protestant denominations vs. each other, Mainstream Christianity vs. Mormonism vs. Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.