Christianity: Difference between revisions

{{Useful Notes}}

{{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}}

 

* Most Christians, now and throughout history, obviously have had sex. While sexual morality, most universally in the form of refraining from sex outside of marriage, is of great importance for many Christians, others view it more like the pork issue in Judaism/Islam. See Shakers for an example of a sect that does not believe in sex at ''all''. A lot of the negative views towards sex and sexuality stem from the influence that Greek philosophy had on early Christianity, most specifically Platonism. This was later reinforced in modern times with Victorian sensibilities. But to say that a significant number of modern-day Christians have a negative view of sex would be misleading - many, including most 'mainline' Protestants and the Catholic Church, simply view it as sacred and best confined to married couples. The only actual statements of Jesus re. sex were telling an adulterous woman to "sin no more" and also saying that sex after divorce is adultery. Further specified as she was particularly mentioned as sleeping with married men.

* The Christian faith is by no means restricted to those who are "perfect,"- in fact, Jesus Himself often lectured hypocrites, especially those who saw themselves as "perfect", and hung out with sinners (a fact that really pissed off His opponents). Christianity is in fact a religion that embraces sinners; this doesn't mean you keep sinning, though. The emphasis is on trying to avoid sinning with God's help. It's not a "Get out of Hell free card", but rather the idea that, since God's love and grace are absolutely infinite, there isn't a sin you could imagine that He wouldn't forgive you for if your desire for forgiveness were sincere.

* 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.

 

== Definitions: ==

* 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.

'''This section is not a test. These are rhetorical questions. [[Rhetorical Question Blunder|Answering them is not something a wise person would do.]]'''

 

* Circumcision -- Paul says it's unnecessary, else God would have done it for us. Can we do it anyway? Are we still required to? Do we have to?

* Is gambling cool? Does insurance count as gambling?

* May women be ordained? For that matter, do we really need ordination at all?

* Communion: Did Jesus say that the bread literally was his body and the wine literally was his blood? Was it purely symbolic? Neither? Cannibalism? How does this square with vegetarianism?

* Homosexuality: Can we all just agree that we have opinions on this matter and leave it at that? Or is the issue an important one that doesn't allow for compromise?

* When can someone get a divorce? Is divorce even ''real'', or is it just a legal term instead of a spiritual reality?<ref>Jesus said, "What God has joined, let no man put asunder," so getting a divorce on Earth may mean diddly-squat to The Big Guy Upstairs. Furthermore, remarrying would be either adultery or polygamy.</ref>

* What exactly is God's name -- Jehovah? Yahweh? YHVH? Jesus? Yeshua/Yehoshua? Eloh? Al-Illah? Allah? Adonai? Abraxas? Lord? The {{smallcaps|Lord}}? God? All of the above? Or [[These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know|are we not supposed to ask]]?

* Theistic Evolution: Is evolution just part of God's [[Xanatos Gambit]] where the causal chain from the big bang to the human soul is all part of His plan?

* Hell: What exactly is it? Is it a place? Is it eternal? Are there literal flames? Can you escape it? Is it maybe a metaphor? Is it layered, with some [[Circles of Hell|circles]] being worse than others, as in Dante's ''[[The Divine Comedy|Inferno]]''?

* What happens to the righteous unbelievers? Are the worthy heathens able to convert in the afterlife? Might they be given a chance to convert at the moment of death if they were sincerely doing the best with what they believed in? Does it even matter what they believe, or will their acts of good get them saved despite never accepting Jesus? Or does God suss out who's willing to accept Jesus and take extraordinary measures to ensure that the Gospel gets to them - not needing to go so far with the many who wouldn't accept even if they knew?

* What about people who died as unbelievers because they never heard about Jesus, or were too young or mentally infirm to understand? What about the millions of people who lived ''before'' Jesus? Is there a "Limbo" between Heaven and Hell where these folks' souls go, or do they get a free pass to Heaven, or are they condemned to Hell? And is this Limbo a place of joy, punishment, or both, or neither?

** Similarly, does a baptism performed on someone who doesn't understand it, or is too young to understand it, "count" as far as salvation goes? And what happens if this person later gains the ability to fully understand what baptism and salvation are all about? Do kids eventually reach an "age of reason", beyond which they're accountable to God for their beliefs and behavior, but before which God considers them too young to know any better?

* Is religion actually an example of God's love refracted through culture and history, or is belief more like a valid passport?

* Did Henry VIII suck at running a church and screw up Anglican apostolic succession?

* And that entire Reformation business, justified? And whose fault is it?

* Should every word in the Bible be taken literally, or should it be analyzed like a literary work for different symbols? Both? Neither?

* How does one go about interpreting the Bible literally? How literal is literal enough? Jesus taught in parables; does that mean the Bible as a whole should be taken as a spiritual parable? Or can we just pick and choose the bits to take literally and consign the rest to poetic allegory?

* Was the Bible written and compiled by man, by God, or by both? If the text is "inspired," what does that mean?

* Saints -- should we care? Are some of them just poorly concealed [[Expy|rip-offs]] of local pagan deities? Or are they genuinely holy people who continue to care about people on Earth even after their own deaths? And how much power of intercession do they have anyways?

* Speaking of archaic language, what's the deal with [[wikipedia:Thou#Religious uses|obsolete informal pronouns]]? Do they actually give a better sense of intimacy with God or do they just end up sounding even more formal because they're so rarely used?

* Was Jesus' manifestation in 1st-century Iudaea a one-time event? Is it possible that similar figures in other world religions were also manifestations of Him? If they are, does this mean these other religions are true? If intelligent life exists on other worlds, are they subject to the same covenant that human beings are?

* Judgment Day: Is it coming soon? Is the [[Book of Revelation]] a literal account of things to come, or an allegory for events occurring at the time it was written? Will the righteous [[Caught Up in the Rapture|ascend bodily into heaven]] before the Tribulation begins? Will there be a Tribulation at all, or will the end times sneak in like a thief in the night?

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 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"; Last Rites often includes the sacraments Anointing of the Sick and Reconciliation, but is not itself a sacrament). 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.

 

==== Traditional Catholicism ====

 

 

=== [[Orthodox Christianity]]: ===

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:

* Oriental Orthodox -- Not to be confused with Eastern Orthodox, this is a collection of national churches structured similar to the Eastern Orthodox Church who do not accept the Council of Chalcedon (451). The Coptic (i.e. Egyptian), Ethiopian, Syrian, Indian and Armenian Churches are examples. Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants sometimes label them as Eutychians (who believe that the human nature of Christ was united with and overwhelmed by the divine nature), but they self-define themselves as miaphysites (who believe in one ('mia') united nature ('physis') in which the human attributes are not overwhelmed). They consider the dyophysitism of Chalcedonian Christians to be at best crypto-Nestorian. (If you didn't understand any of that, don't worry, you've got something in common with 99% of us Christians). Much in the way that the Eastern Orthodox recognize the Patriarch of Constantinople as first among equals, the Oriental Orthodox recognize the Patriarch of Alexandria (who confusingly lives in Cairo), the head of the Coptic Church, as the first-among-equals "head" of the communion; despite the style "Pope," he actually has no authority over the rest of the churches (merely influence). The most recent Coptic Pope, Shenouda III, died in 2012.

* Churches of the East -- Technically Three Churches:

 

=== Protestant Christianity: ===

** Interestingly, within Protestantism generally, belief in the Real Presence of Christ in Communion tends to be less common the "lower" the church. This is not, however, the case in Anglicanism for rather peculiar reasons. The Anglican church uses its ''Book of Common Prayer'' as its "rule of faith." This includes the "39 Articles," which are basic statements of doctrine. These state that the bread and wine actually "partake" in the body and blood of Christ. Generally speaking, high church Anglicans consider the "39 Articles" to be of historical but not doctrinal interest, but due to their closeness to Catholics they do affirm the presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Low church Anglicans, on the other hand, take the 39 articles seriously and so they ''also'' believe in the Real Presence of Christ in Communion. Likewise, it also specifies the various necessary services (daily prayer, sunday services, weddings, funerals, etc.) as well as the set readings from the Old and New Testaments as well as Psalms.

* 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.

*** Ironically, the Reformed Episcopal Church is now considerably more Catholic than much of the Episcopal Church.

* 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.

* Lutherans -- A collection of predominantly Germanic denominations that broke communion with Rome under the leadership of Martin Luther. The most important issues were salvation by faith alone, the total bondage of the will to sin, and scripture as the only infallible authority. Believe in the objective presence of Christ in communion (but in a different way than Catholics. Catholics believe in "transubstantiation", or that the bread and wine become the ''actual'' body and blood of Christ. Lutherans believe in "consubstantiation", which teaches that Jesus is real and present in the meal, but doesn't necessarily specify in what way). Unusual among Protestants for their identification of being 'born again' with baptism. Their services are very similar to Catholic masses. Originally known as 'Evangelicals.' They only recognize the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist.

* Arminians -- 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 one becomes a Christian, rather than baptizing infants, and is generally divided into two groups: Southern Baptists and general Baptists. The Southern Baptist denomination is centered in the American Deep South, where it is a deeply ingrained part of traditional Southern culture, and often characterized as an exceedingly conservative organization and an important part of the community, especially in rural areas. Other Baptist churches and subdenominations vary widely in actual doctrine, often adhering closely to one of the other denominations mentioned on this page. Historically, many Baptists adhered to slightly modified Calvinist theology.

* 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.

** [[Amish]] -- Probably the most well known of the Anabaptists, they are most well known for their disavowal of technology. They aren't hostile to technology per se, only its tendency to get in the way of leading a good Christian life. So they do allow [[Schizo-Tech]] -- case in point: horse drawn buggies with blinkers. Also famous for their barn raisings, quilts, and oddly enough, wild teenagers. They are also [[Incredibly Lame Pun|sects maniacs]], schisms within schisms (based as often on what technology and/or dress is permitted as actual beliefs), to the point where many sects consist of a single congregation, and more than one of a single family. Outsiders tend to collectively refer to the horse-and-buggy, no-buttons sects as "Old Order".<br /><br />On the wild teenager issue: it is referred to as ''Rumspringa'' or ''Rumschpringe'', a method to short-circuit the "teenage rebellion" phase by giving said teens free reign to rebel for a short time (as many tropes on this site will tell you, teenagehood and strict religious moralizing are not the best combination for producing a mentally healthy adult). At age 16, teens are allowed to leave the Amish community and experience life outside, and unsurprisingly, the experience usually consists of a combination of sex, drugs, and rock and roll (at least, that is the Hollywood version of event, in most communities, Rumspringa tends to be quite tame, it simply involves the parents giving the teen more space to act out, be slightly more tolerant of "the lip", letting them wear "English" clothes, drive, drink alcohol. and such. The outrageous things are usually done more out of symbolic "been there, done that" idea then in actual defiance). The period ends when the teen is ready to return to receive baptism to join the church as an adult, or with him deciding to leave the church. Moral indiscretions in this period are usually quietly forgiven and forgotten. All things considered, leaving the church (which is not the same thing as getting the shunning treatment) is a very rare event. This practice also means that for a subculture that shun technology, every Amish knows how to drive.

* Quaker -- The correct name is Religious Society of Friends. At the very core they believe that God (or Jesus, or the Light, depending on where you are and who you ask) is in everyone. From this comes a number of other, better known values, such as nonviolence (would you kill God?), simplicity (so you can better hear the light), equality (well if God's in everyone...), and integrity (would you lie to God?). Very non hierarchical; they do not believe in ministers and "meeting for worship" consists of any one who wants to coming up and talking about whatever they want, amid vast amounts of silence (yes it's ''supposed'' to be "awkward"). Quakers show up in some of the most unexpected places; for instance, would you believe that [[Richard Nixon]] was a Quaker? (He wasn't particularly religious, though).

* Shakers -- got their name from the fact that they'd "shake the sin out of their fingers." Founded by Ann Lee, it dwindled to a current population of 4 (yes, four) due to the fact they don't believe in sex, helped along by a 1960 law that banned religious groups from adopting children. Renowned for their furniture. As of December 2009, it's down to three.

** On the healthy-living front: The Seventh-Day Adventists ran numerous sanitariums in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly in the Midwest (and most particularly in Michigan). While some SDA ideas did end up in modern nutrition, a lot of them (like eating bland food to suppress impure urges) didn't. They are, however, responsible for the corn flakes you ate for breakfast this morning, as well as a few other forms of breakfast cereal.

* 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.

* Circumcellions -- Perhaps the most bizarre of them all. They decided that the primary virtue in the life of a Christian was martyrdom, and to that end, wandered the countryside with blunt clubs they called "Israelites." They would waylay armed travelers, taunting them and beating them lightly with the clubs while shouting "Laudate Deum!" in hopes of earning a swift martyrdom. No, I'm serious. They really did that. Obviously one of those sects that are universally regarded as "not getting it". Also probably got funny looks in the afterlife. This sect was wiped out in th 4th century after several groups decided to help them out and slaughtered all their members

 

 

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{{reflist}}

[[Category:Christianity]]