Christianity
- At June 10, 2009
- By Betty
- In Mysticism, Religion
- 0
Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. Christians believe Jesus to be the Son of God and the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. With an estimated 2.1 billion adherents in 2001, Christianity is the world’s largest religion. It is the predominant religion in the Americas, Europe, Philippine Islands, East Timor, Australia, New Zealand and large parts of Africa (see Christianity by country). It is also growing rapidly in Asia, particularly in China and South Korea..
Christianity began in the 1st century AD as a Jewish sect, and shares many religious texts with Judaism, specifically the Hebrew Bible, known to Christians as the Old Testament (see Judeo-Christian). Like Judaism and Islam, Christianity is classified as an Abrahamic religion. The name “Christian” was first applied to the disciples in Antioch, as recorded in Acts 11:26. The earliest recorded use of the term Christianity is by Ignatius of Antioch.
There is a diversity of doctrines and practices among groups calling themselves Christian. These groups are sometimes classified under denominations, though for theological reasons many groups reject this classification system. Christianity may be broadly represented as being divided into three main groupings:
Roman Catholicism: The Roman Catholic Church, the largest single body, includes the Latin Rite and totals more than 1 billion baptized members.
Eastern Christianity: Eastern Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Churches, the 100,000 member Assyrian Church of the East, and others with a combined membership of more than 300 million baptized members.
Protestantism: Groups such as Anglicans, Lutherans, Reformed/Presbyterians, Congregational/United Church of Christ, Evangelical, Charismatic, Baptists, Methodists, Nazarenes, Anabaptists, Seventh-day Adventists and Pentecostals. The oldest of these separated from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century Protestant Reformation, followed in many cases by further divisions. Estimates of the total number of Protestants are very uncertain, partly because of the difficulty in determining which denominations should be placed in this category, but it seems to be unquestionable that Protestantism is the second major branch of Christianity (after Roman Catholicism) in number of followers.
Some Protestants identify themselves simply as Christian, or born-again Christian; they typically distance themselves from the confessionalism of other Protestant communities by calling themselves “non-denominational” – often founded by individual pastors, they have little affiliation with historic denominations. Others, particularly some Anglicans, eschew the term Protestant and thus insist on being thought of as Catholic, adopting the name “Anglo-Catholic.” Finally, various small communities, such as the Old Catholic and Independent Catholic Churches, are similar in name to the Roman Catholic Church, but are not in communion with the See of Rome. The Roman Catholic Church was simply called the “Catholic Church” until other groups started considering themselves “Catholic.” The term “Roman Catholic” was made to distinguish the Roman Catholics from other groups.
Restorationists, are historically connected to the Protestant Reformation, do not usually describe themselves as “reforming” a Christian Church continuously existing from the time of Jesus, but as restoring the Church that they believe was lost at some point. Restorationists include Churches of Christ with 2.6 million members, Disciples of Christ with 800,000 members, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 12 million members, and Jehovah’s Witnesses with 6.6 million members. Though Restorationists have some basic similarities, their doctrine and practices vary significantly.
Certain of these groups deviate from the tenets which most groups hold as basic to Christianity and are considered heretical or even non-Christian by many mainstream Christian groups; this is particularly true for non-trinitarians.
Christians identify Jesus as God incarnate and the Messiah. The title Messiah comes from the Hebrew word meaning “the anointed one”. The Greek translation (Christos) is the source of the English word Christ. Christians believe that, as Messiah, Jesus was anointed as ruler and savior of humanity in general, and hold that Jesus’s coming was the fulfilment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of Messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept.
Most Christians believe that Jesus is “true God and true man” (or both fully divine and fully human). Jesus, having become fully human in all respects, including the aspect of mortality, suffered the pains and temptations of mortal man, yet he did not sin. As fully God, he defeated death and rose to life again with the resurrection. (See Death and Resurrection of Jesus). According to the Bible, “God raised him from the dead”, he ascended to heaven, to the “right hand of God”, and will return again to fulfil the rest of Messianic prophecy such as the Resurrection of the dead, the Last Judgment and establishment of the Kingdom of God, see also Messianism and Messianic Age.
According to Christian Scripture, while still a virgin, Mary conceived Jesus not by sexual intercourse, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. (See Nativity of Jesus)
Little of Jesus’s childhood is recorded in the Gospels compared to his adulthood, especially the week before his death. The Biblical accounts begin with his baptism, and go on to recount miracles (e.g. turning water into wine at a marriage at Cana, exorcisms, healings, &c.), quote his teachings (e.g. the Sermon on the Mount and parables) and narrate his deeds (e.g. calling the Twelve Apostles and sharing hospitality with outcasts and the poor).
Christianity regards the Bible, a collection of canonical books in two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament, as authoritative: written by human authors under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and therefore the inerrant Word of God. Protestants believe that the scriptures contain all revealed truth necessary for salvation (See Sola scriptura).
The Old Testament contains the entire Jewish Tanakh, though in the Christian canon the books are ordered differently and some books of the Tanakh are divided into several books by the Christian canon. The Catholic and Orthodox canons include the Hebrew Jewish canon and other books (from the Septuagint Greek Jewish canon) which Catholics call Deuterocanonical, while Protestants consider them Apocrypha.
The first four books of the New Testament are the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), which recount the life and teachings of Jesus. The first three are often called synoptic because of the amount of material they share. The rest of the New Testament consists of a sequel to Luke’s Gospel, the Acts of the Apostles, which describes the very early history of the Church, a collection of letters from early Christian leaders to congregations or individuals, the Pauline and General epistles, and the apocalyptic Book of Revelation.
Some traditions maintain other canons. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church maintains two canons, the Narrow Canon, itself larger than any Biblical canon outside Ethiopia, and the Broad Canon, which has even more books. The Latter-day Saints, though generally not considered Christian, hold the Bible and three additional books to be the inspired word of God: the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price.
Though Christians largely agree on the content of the Bible, no consensus exists on its interpretation, or exegesis. In antiquity, two schools of exegesis developed in Alexandria and Antioch. Alexandrine interpretation, exemplified by Origen, tended to read Scripture allegorically, while Antiochene interpretation adhered to the literal sense, holding that other meanings (called theoria) could only be accepted if based on the literal meaning.
Catholic theology distinguishes two senses of scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral, and anagogical senses. The literal sense is “the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation.” The allegorical sense includes typology, for example the parting of the Red Sea is seen as a “type” of or sign of baptism; the moral sense contains ethical teaching; the anagogical sense includes eschatology and applies to eternity and the consummation of the world. Catholic theology also adds other rules of interpretation, which include the injunction that all other senses of sacred scripture are based on the literal, that the historicity of the Gospels must be absolutely and constantly held, that scripture must be read within the “living Tradition of the whole Church”, and that “the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.”
Many Protestants stress the literal sense or historical-grammatical method, even to the extent of rejecting other senses altogether. Martin Luther advocated “one definite and simple understanding of Scripture”. Other Protestant interpreters make use of typology. Protestants characteristically believe that ordinary believers may reach an adequate understanding of Scripture because Scripture itself is clear (or “perspicuous”), because of the help of the Holy Spirit, or both. Martin Luther believed that without God’s help Scripture would be “enveloped in darkness”, but John Calvin wrote, “all who refuse not to follow the Holy Spirit as their guide, find in the Scripture a clear light.” The Second Helvetic Confession said, “we hold that interpretation of the Scripture to be orthodox and genuine which is gleaned from the Scriptures themselves (from the nature of the language in which they were written, likewise according to the circumstances in which they were set down, and expounded in the light of like and unlike passages and of many and clearer passages).” The writings of the Church Fathers, and decisions of Ecumenical Councils, though “not despise[d]”, were not authoritative and could be rejected.