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Christianity (Greek Χριστιανισμός, from the word Xριστός (Christ) is a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in the New Testament.
Its followers, known as Christians, believe that Jesus is the begotten Son of God and the Messiah (Christ) prophesied in the Hebrew Bible (the part of scripture common to Christianity and Judaism). To Christians, Jesus Christ is a teacher, the model of a virtuous life, the revealer of God, and most importantly the saviour of humanity who suffered, died, and was resurrected to bring about salvation from sin. Christians maintain that Jesus ascended into heaven, and most denominations teach that Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead, granting everlasting life to his followers. Christians call the message of Jesus Christ the Gospel ("good news") and hence label the written accounts of his ministry as gospels.
Like Judaism and Islam, Christianity is classified as an Abrahamic religion (see also Judeo-Christian). Christianity began as a Jewish sect in the eastern Mediterranean, quickly grew in size and influence over a few decades, and by the 4th century had become the dominant religion within the Roman Empire. During the Middle Ages, most of the remainder of Europe was Christianized, with Christians also being a (sometimes large) religious minority in the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of India. Following the Age of Discovery, through missionary work and colonization, Christianity spread to the Americas and the rest of the world.
Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization at least since the 4th century. As of the early 21st century, Christianity has between 1.5 billion and 2.1 billion adherents, representing about a quarter to a third of the world's population.
History and origins
Main article: History of ChristianityEarly Church and Christological Councils
Christianity began as a Jewish sect in the eastern Mediterranean in the mid-first century. Under the leadership of the Apostles, especially Peter and Paul, and the early bishops, which they saw as successors of the Twelve Apostles.
From the beginning, Christians were subject to various persecutions. This involved even death for Christians such as Stephen and James, son of Zebedee. Larger-scale persecutions followed at the hands of the authorities of the Roman Empire, beginning with the year 64, when Emperor Nero blamed them for the Great Fire of Rome. According to Church tradition, it was under Nero's persecution that early Church leaders Peter and Paul were each martyred in Rome. Further widespread persecutions of the Church occurred under nine subsequent Roman emperors, most intensely under Decius and Diocletian. From the year 150, Christian teachers began to produce theological and apologetic works aimed at defending the faith. These authors are known as the Church Fathers, and study of them is called Patristics. Notable early Fathers include Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria and Origen.
Christianity was legalized in the fourth century, when Constantine I issued an edict of toleration in 313. On 27 February 380, Emperor Theodosius I enacted a law establishing Catholic Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. From at least the 4th century, Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization.
Constantine was also instrumental in the convocation of the First Council of Nicaea in 325, which sought to address the Arian heresy and formulated the Nicene Creed, which is still used by the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglican Communion, and many Protestant churches. Nicaea was the first of a series of Ecumenical (worldwide) Councils which formally defined critical elements of the theology of the Church, notably concerning Christology. The Assyrian Church of the East did not accept the third and following Ecumenical Councils, and are still separate today.
Early Middle Ages
With the decline and fall of the Roman Empire in the west, the papacy became a political player, first visible in Pope Leo's diplomatic dealings with Huns and Vandals. The church also entered into a long period of missionary activity and expansion among the former barbarian tribes. Catholicism spread among the Germanic peoples (initially in competition with Arianism), the Celtic and Slavic peoples, the Hungarians and the Scandinavian and Baltic peoples.
Around 500, St. Benedict set out his Monastic Rule, establishing a system of regulations for the foundation and running of monasteries. Monasticism became a powerful force throughout Europe, and gave rise to many early centers of learning, most famously in Ireland, Scotland and Gaul, contributing to the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century.
From the 7th century onwards, Islam conquered the Christian lands of the Middle East, North Africa and much of Spain, resulting in oppression of Christianity and numerous military struggles, including the Crusades, the Spanish Reconquista and wars against the Turks.
The Middle Ages brought about major changes within the church. Pope Gregory the Great dramatically reformed ecclesiastical structure and administration. In the early 8th century, iconoclasm became a divisive issue, when it was sponsored by the Byzantine emperors. The Second Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (787) finally pronounced in favour of icons. In the early 10th century, western monasticism was further rejuvenated through the leadership of the great Benedictine monastery of Cluny.
High and Late Middle Ages
In the west, from the 11th century onward, older cathedral schools developed into universities (see University of Paris, University of Oxford, and University of Bologna.) Originally teaching only theology, these steadily added subjects including medicine, philosophy and law, becoming the direct ancestors of modern western institutions of learning.
Accompanying the rise of the "new towns" throughout Western Europe, mendicant orders were founded, bringing the consecrated religious life out of the monastery and into the new urban setting. The two principal mendicant movements were the Franciscans and the Dominicans founded by St. Francis and St. Dominic respectively. Both orders made significant contributions to the development of the great universities of Europe. Another new order were the Cistercians, whose large isolated monasteries spearheaded the settlement of former wilderness areas. In this period church building and ecclesiastical architecture reached new heights, culminating in the orders of Romanesque and Gothic architecture and the building of the great European cathedrals.
From 1095 under the pontificate of Urban II, the Crusades were launched. These were a series of military campaigns in the Holy Land and elsewhere, initiated in response to pleas from the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I for aid against Turkish expansion. The Crusades ultimately failed to stifle Islamic aggression and even contributed to Christian enmity with the sacking of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade.
Over a period stretching from the 7th to the 13th century, the Christian Church underwent gradual alienation, resulting in a schism dividing it into a Western, largely Latin branch, the Roman Catholic Church, and an Eastern, largely Greek, branch, the Orthodox Church. These two churches disagree on a number of administrative, liturgical, and doctrinal issues, most notably papal primacy of jurisdiction. The Second Council of Lyon (1274) and the Council of Florence (1439) attempted to reunite the churches, but in both cases the Eastern Orthodox refused to implement the decisions and the two principal churches remain in schism to the present day. However, the Roman Catholic Church has achieved union with various smaller eastern churches.
Beginning around 1184, following the crusade brought about by the Cathar heresy, various institutions, broadly referred to as the Inquisition, were established with the aim of suppressing heresy and securing religious and doctrinal unity within Christianity through conversion and prosecution.
Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation
Main articles: Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation
The 15th-century Renaissance brought about a renewed interest in ancient and classical learning. Another major schism, the Reformation, resulted in the splintering of the Western Christendom into several Christian denominations. Martin Luther in 1517 protested against the sale of indulgences and soon moved on to deny several key points of Roman Catholic doctrine. Others like Zwingli and Calvin further criticized Roman Catholic teaching and worship. These challenges developed into the movement called Protestantism, which repudiated the primacy of the pope, the role of tradition, the seven sacraments, and other doctrines and practices. Reformation in England began in 1534, when King Henry VIII had himself declared head of the Church of England. Beginning in 1536, the monasteries throughout England, Wales, and Ireland were dissolved.
Partly in response to the Protestant Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church engaged in a substantial process of reform and renewal, known as the Counter-Reformation or Catholic Reform. The Council of Trent clarified and reasserted Roman Catholic doctrine. During the following centuries, competition between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism became deeply entangled with political struggles among European states.
Meanwhile, the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492 brought about a new wave of missionary activity. Partly from missionary zeal, but under the impetus of colonial expansion by the European powers, Christianity spread to the Americas, Oceania, East Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa.
Throughout Europe, the divides caused by the Reformation led to outbreaks of religious violence and the establishment of separate state religions in Western Europe: Lutheranism in parts of Germany and in Scandinavia and Anglicanism in England in 1534. Ultimately, these differences led to the outbreak of conflicts in which religion played a key factor. The Thirty Years' War, the English Civil War, and the French Wars of Religion are prominent examples. These events intensified the Christian debate on persecution and toleration.
Christianity in the Modern Era
In the Modern Era, Christianity was confronted with various forms of skepticism and with certain modern political ideologies such as liberalism, nationalism and socialism. Events ranged from mere anti-clericalism to violent outbursts against Christianity such as the Dechristianisation during the French Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, and general hostility of Marxist movements, especially the Russian Revolution.
Christian commitment in Europe dropped as modernity and secularism came into their own in Western Europe, while religious commitments in America have been generally high in comparison to Western Europe. The late 20th century has shown the shift of Christian adherence to the Third World and southern hemisphere in general, with western civilization no longer the chief standard bearer of Christianity.
Demographics
Further information: Christianity by countryWith an estimated number of adherents that ranges between 1.5 billion and 2.1 billion, split into around 34,000 separate denominations, Christianity is the world's largest religion. The Christian share of the world's population has stood at around 33 per cent for the last hundred years. This masks a major shift in the demographics of Christianity; large increases in the developing world have been accompanied by substantial declines in the developed world, mainly in Europe and North America. It is still the predominant religion in Europe, the Americas, the Philippines, and Southern Africa. However it is declining in some areas including Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), Northern Europe (including Great Britain, Scandinavia and other places), France, Germany, the Canadian provinces of Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec, the Western and Northern portions of the United States, and parts of Asia (especially the Middle East, South Korea, Taiwan and Macau).
In most countries in the developed world, church attendance among people who continue to identify themselves as Christians has been falling over the last few decades. Some sources view this simply as part of a drift away from traditional membership institutions, while others link it to signs of a decline in belief in the importance of religion in general.
Denominations
Main article: Christian denominationThere 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 five main groupings: Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, Protestantism and Restorationism.
Roman Catholicism and other Catholic groups
Main article: Roman Catholic ChurchThe (Roman) Catholic Church is comprised of those particular churches, headed by bishops, in communion with the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, as its highest authority in matters of faith, morality and Church governance. Like the Eastern Orthodox, the Roman Catholic Church through Apostolic succession traces its origins to the Christian community founded by Jesus Christ. Catholics maintain that the "one, holy, catholic and apostolic church" founded by Jesus subsists fully in the Roman Catholic Church, but also acknowledges other Christian churches and communities and works towards reconciliation among all Christians. The Roman Catholic faith is detailed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The 2,782 sees are grouped into 23 particular rites, the largest being the Latin Rite, each with distinct traditions regarding the liturgy and the administering the sacraments. With more than one billion baptized members, the Roman Catholic Church is the largest church representing over half of all Christians and one sixth of the world's population.
Various smaller communities, such as the Old Catholic and Independent Catholic Churches, include the word Catholic in their title, and share much in common with Roman Catholicism but are no longer in communion with the See of Rome. The Old Catholic Church is in communion with the Anglican Communion.
Eastern Orthodoxy
Main article: Eastern Orthodox ChurchEastern Orthodoxy is comprised of those churches in communion with the Patriarchal Sees of the East, such as the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. Like the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church also traces its heritage to the foundation of Christianity through Apostolic succession and has an episcopal structure, though the autonomy of the individual, mostly national churches is emphasized. A number of conflicts with Western Christianity over questions of doctrine and authority culminated in the Great Schism. Eastern Orthodoxy is the second largest single denomination in Christianity, with over 200 million adherents.
Oriental Orthodoxy
The Oriental Orthodox Churches (also called Old Oriental Churches) are those eastern churches that recognize the first three ecumenical councils — Nicaea, Constantinople and Ephesus — but reject the dogmatic definitions of the Council of Chalcedon and instead espouse a Miaphysite christology.
Protestantism
In the 16th century, Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, and John Calvin inaugurated what has come to be called Protestantism. Luther's primary theological heirs are known as Lutherans. Zwingli and Calvin's heirs are far broader denominationally, and are broadly referred to as the Reformed Tradition. Most Protestant traditions branch out from the Reformed tradition in some way. In addition to the Lutheran and Reformed branches of the Reformation, there is Anglicanism after the English Reformation. The Anabaptist tradition was largely ostracized by the other Protestant parties at the time, but has achieved a measure of affirmation in more recent history.
The oldest Protestant groups separated from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century Protestant Reformation, followed in many cases by further divisions. For example, the Methodist Church grew out of Anglican minister John Wesley's evangelical and revival movement in the Anglican Church. Several Pentecostal and non-denominational Churches, which emphasize the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit, in turn grew out of the Methodist Church. Because Methodists, Pentecostals, and other evangelicals stress "accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior", which comes from John Wesley's emphasis of the New Birth, they often refer to themselves as being born-again.
Estimates of the total number of Protestants are very uncertain, partly because of the difficulty in determining which denominations should be placed in these categories, but it seems clear that Protestantism is the second largest major group of Christians after Roman Catholicism in number of followers (although the Eastern Orthodox Church is larger than any single Protestant denomination).
A special grouping are the Anglican churches descended from the Church of England and organised in the Anglican Communion.. Some Anglican churches consider themselves both Protestant and Catholic. Some Anglicans consider their church a branch of the "One Holy Catholic Church" alongside of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, a concept rejected by the Roman Catholic Church and some Eastern Orthodox.
Some Christians who come out of the Protestant tradition identify themselves simply as "Christian", or "born-again Christian"; they typically distance themselves from the confessionalism and/or creedalism of other Christian communities by calling themselves "non-denominational" — often founded by individual pastors, they have little affiliation with historic denominations.
Restorationism
Restorationism is composed of various unrelated churches that believe they are restoring the original church of Jesus Christ and not reforming any of the churches existing at the time of their perceived restorations. They teach that the other divisions of Christianity have introduced defects into Christianity, which is known as the Great Apostasy. Some of these are historically connected to early-19th century camp meetings in the Midwest and Upstate New York. American Millennialism and Adventism, which arose from Evangelical Protestantism, produced the Jehovah's Witnesses movement (with 6.6 million members), and, as a reaction specifically to William Miller, Seventh-day Adventists. Additionally, there are the following groups: Christadelphians, Churches of Christ with 2.6 million members, Disciples of Christ with 800,000 members, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the largest denomination of the Latter Day Saint movement with over 13 million members. Though Restorationists have some superficial similarities, their doctrine and practices vary significantly.
Mainstream Christianity is widely used to refer collectively to the common views of major denominations of Christianity (such as Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Anglicanism, Orthodox Christianity) as against the particular tenets of other sects or Christian denomination. The context is dependent on the particular issues addressed, but usually contrasts the orthodox majority view against heterodox minority views of groups like Restorationists. In the most common sense, "mainstream" refers to Nicene Christianity, or rather the traditions which continue to claim adherence to the Nicene Creed.
Ecumenism
Main article: EcumenismMost churches have long expressed ideals of being reconciled with each other, and in the 20th century Christian ecumenism advanced in two ways. One way was greater cooperation between groups, such as the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of Protestants in 1910, the Justice, Peace and Creation Commission of the World Council of Churches founded in 1948 by Protestant and Orthodox churches, and similar national councils like the National Council of Churches in Australia which includes Roman Catholics.
The other way was institutional union with new United and uniting churches. Congregationalist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches united in 1925 to form the United Church of Canada, and in 1977 to form the Uniting Church in Australia. The Church of South India was formed in 1947 by the union of Anglican, Methodist, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, and Reformed churches.
Steps towards reconciliation on a global level were taken in 1965 by the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches mutually revoking the excommunications that marked their Great Schism in 1054; the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) working towards full communion between those churches since 1970; and the Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches signing The Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999 to address conflicts at the root of the Protestant Reformation. In 2006 the Methodist church adopted the declaration.
See also
- Freedom of religion
- Criticism of Christianity
- Good news (Christianity), concerning the gospel message of Christianity
Notes
- Christianity's status as monotheistic is affirmed in, amongst other sources, the Catholic Encyclopedia (article "Monotheism"); William F. Albright, From the Stone Age to Christianity; H. Richard Niebuhr; About.com, Monotheistic Religion resources; Kirsch, God Against the Gods; Woodhead, An Introduction to Christianity; The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Monotheism; The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, monotheism; New Dictionary of Theology, Paul, p. 496-499; Meconi. "Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity". p. 111f.
- BBC, BBC - Religion & Ethics - 566, Christianity
- ^ The term "Christian" (Greek Template:Polytonic) was first used in reference to Jesus's disciples in the city of Antioch Acts 11:26 about 44 AD, meaning "followers of Christ". The earliest recorded use of the term "Christianity" (Greek Template:Polytonic) was by Ignatius of Antioch, around 100 AD. See Elwell/Comfort. Tyndale Bible Dictionary, p. 266, 828
- The specification of Jesus as 'begotten' son is used to indicate the belief that Jesus is the Son of God by nature, as part of the Trinity, rather than by adoption, as Christians believe all true believers are. See Voting About God in Early Church Councils by Ramsay MacMullen, Yale University Press, 2006
- See: Arianism
- McGrath, Christianity: An Introduction, p. 4-6.
- J.Z.Smith, p. 276.
- Anidjar, p. 3.
- Fowler, World Religions: An Introduction for Students, p. 131.
- ^ Robinson, Essential Judaism: A Complete Guide to Beliefs, Customs and Rituals, p. 229.
- ^ Esler. The Early Christian World. p. 157f.
- McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity, p. 301-303.
- ^ Orlandis, A Short History of the Catholic Church (1993), preface.
- "between 1,250 and 1,750 million adherents, depending on the criteria employed" (McGrath, Christianity: An Introduction, page xvl.)
- "1.5 thousand million Christians" (Hinnells, The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion, p. 441.)
- Major Religions Ranked by Size
- Hinnells, The Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion, p. 441.
- Acts 7:59
- Acts 12:2
- Theodosian Code XVI.i.2, in: Bettenson. Documents of the Christian Church. p. 31.
- Cite error: The named reference
UMC - Our Common Heritage as Christianswas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity, p. 37f.
- ^ Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, p. 238-242.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, p. 248-250.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, p. 244-247.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, p. 260.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, p. 278-281.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, p. 305, 312, 314f..
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, p. 303-307, 310f., 384-386.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, p. 305, 310f., 316f.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, p. 321-323, 365f.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, p. 292-300.
- Riley-Smith. The Oxford History of the Crusades.
- "The Great Schism: The Estrangement of Eastern and Western Christendom". Orthodox Information Centre. Retrieved 2007-05-26.
- Duffy, Saints and Sinners (1997), p. 91
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, p. 300, 304-305.
- Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, p. 310, 383, 385, 391.
- Simon. Great Ages of Man: The Reformation. p. 7.
- Simon. Great Ages of Man: The Reformation. p. 39, 55-61.
- Schama. A History of Britain. p. 306-310.
- Bokenkotter, A Concise History of the Catholic Church, p. 242-244.
- Simon. Great Ages of Man: The Reformation. p. 109-120.
- A general overview about the English discussion is given in Coffey, Persecution and Toleration in Protestant England 1558-1689.
- Mortimer Chambers, The Western Experience (vol. 2) chapter 21.
- ^ Adherents.com– Number of Christians in the world
- "Major Religions Ranked by Size". Adherents. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
- Ustorf. "A missiological postscript", p. 219f.
- Encyclopedia Britannica table of religions, by region; retrieved November 2007
- New UK opinion poll shows continuing collapse of 'Christendom'
- Barrett/Kurian.World Christian Encyclopedia, p. 139 (Britain), 281 (France), 299 (Germany).
- BBC NEWS - Guide: Christians in the Middle East
- Is Christianity dying in the birthplace of Jesus?
- Number of Christians among young Koreans decreases by 5% per year
- Christianity fading in Taiwan | American Buddhist Net
- A Gambling-Fueled Boom Adds to a Church’s Bane
- Putnam, Democracies in Flux: The Evolution of Social Capital in Contemporary Society, p. 408.
- McGrath, Christianity: An Introduction, p. xvi.
- Peter Marber, Money Changes Everything: How Global Prosperity Is Reshaping Our Needs, Values and Lifestyles, p. 99.
- Sydney E. Ahlstrom (, p. 381.) characterized denominationalism in America as "a virtual ecclesiology" that "first of all repudiates the insistences of the Roman Catholic church, the churches of the 'magisterial' Reformation, and of most sects that they alone are the true Church." For specific citations, on the Roman Catholic Church see the Catechism of the Catholic Church §816; other examples: Donald Nash, Why the Churches of Christ are not a Denomination; Wendell Winkler, Christ's Church is not a Denomination; and David E. Pratt, What does God think about many Christian denominations?
- "Divisions of Christianity". North Virginia College. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
- "The LDS Restorationist movement, including Mormon denominations". Religious Tolerance. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
{{cite web}}: line feed character in|title=at position 33 (help) - Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium.
- Duffy, Saints and Sinners, p. 1.
- Hitchcock, Geography of Religion, p. 281.
- Norman, The Roman Catholic Church an Illustrated History, p. 11, 14.
- ^ Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, chapter 2, paragraph 15.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 865.
- Marthaler, Introducing the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Traditional Themes and Contemporary Issues (1994), preface.
- John Paul II, Pope (1997). "Laetamur Magnopere". Vatican. Retrieved 2008-03-09.
- Annuario Pontificio (2007), p. 1172.
- Barry, One Faith, One Lord (2001), p. 71
- ^ Adherents.com, Religions by Adherents
- Zenit.org, "Number of Catholics and Priests Rises", 12 February 2007.
- Central Intelligence Agency, (2007).
- According to the Bonn Accord of 1931, cited at Old Catholic Church of the Beatitudes.
- Council of Anglican Episcopal Churches in Germany.
- Cross/Livingstone. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, p. 1199.
- ^ McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity. p. 251-259.
- "About The Methodist Church". Methodist Central Hall Westminster. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
- ^ "American Holiness Movement". Finding Your Way, Inc. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
- "Christianity: Pentecostal Churches". Finding Your Way, Inc. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
- "Statement of Belief". Cambridge Christ United Methodist Church. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
- "The New Birth by John Wesley (Sermon 45)". The United Methodist Church GBGM. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
- "God's Preparing, Accepting, and Sustaining Grace". The United Methodist Church GBGM. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
- "Total Experience of the Spirtit". Warren Wilson College. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
- Sykes/Booty/Knight. The Study of Anglicanism, p. 219.
- Gregory Hallam, Orthodoxy and Ecumenism.
- Gregory Mathewes-Green, "Whither the Branch Theory?", Anglican Orthodox Pilgrim Vol. 2, No. 4.
- Confessionalism is a term employed by historians to describe "the creation of fixed identities and systems of beliefs for separate churches which had previously been more fluid in their self-understanding, and which had not begun by seeking separate identities for themselves — they had wanted to be truly Catholic and reformed." (MacCulloch, The Reformation: A History, p. xxiv.)
- McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity, p. 91f.
- "The Restorationist Movements". Religious Tolerance. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
- "What is Restorationism?". Got Questions Ministries. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
- JW-Media.org Membership 2005
- Statistical Report: Annual Council of the General Conference Committee Silver Spring, Marlyand, 6 October—11, 2006
-
"Nicene Creed". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-31.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity, p. 581-584.
- McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity. p. 413f.
- McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity, p. 498.
- McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity, p. 373.
- McManners, Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity, p. 583.
- Methodist Statement
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- Barrett, David; Kurian, Tom et al. (ed.). World Christian Encyclopedia. Oxford University Press (2001).
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- Kirsch, Jonathan. God Against the Gods.
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- Letham, Robert. The Holy Trinity in Scripture, History, Theology, and Worship. P & R Publishing (2005). ISBN 0875520006.
- Lorenzen, Thorwald. Resurrection, Discipleship, Justice: Affirming the Resurrection Jesus Christ Today. Smyth & Helwys (2003). ISBN 1573123994.
- McLaughlin, R. Emmet, Caspar Schwenckfeld, reluctant radical: his life to 1540, New Haven: Yale University Press (1986). ISBN 0-300-03367-2.
- MacCulloch, Diarmaid, The Reformation: A History. Viking Adult (2004).
- Marber, Peter. Money Changes Everything: How Global Prosperity Is Reshaping Our Needs, Values and Lifestyles. FT Press (2003). ISBN 0130654809
- Marthaler, Berard. Introducing the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Traditional Themes and Contemporary Issues. Paulist Press (1994). ISBN 0809134950
- Mathison, Keith. The Shape of Sola Scriptura (2001).
- McClintock, John, Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. Harper &Brothers, original from Harvard University (1889)
- McGrath, Alister E. Christianity: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishing (2006). ISBN 1405108991.
- McGrath, Alister E. Historical Theology.
- McManners, John. Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity. Oxford University Press (1990). IBSN 0198229283.
- Meconi, David Vincent. "Pagan Monotheism in Late Antiquity", in: Journal of Early Christian Studies.
- Metzger, Bruce M., Michael Coogan (ed.). Oxford Companion to the Bible. Oxford University Press (1993). ISBN 0195046455.
- Norman, Edward. The Roman Catholic Church, An Illustrated History. University of California (2007) ISBN 978-0-520-25251-6
- Olson, Roger E., The Mosaic of Christian Belief. InterVarsity Press (2002). ISBN 9780830826957.
- Orlandis, Jose, A Short History of the Catholic Church. Scepter Publishers (1993) ISBN 1851821252
- Ott, Ludwig. Grundriß der Dogmatik. Herder, Freiburg (1965).
- Pelikan, Jaroslav; Hotchkiss, Valerie (ed.) Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition. Yale University Press (2003). ISBN 0300093896.
- Putnam, Robert D. Democracies in Flux: The Evolution of Social Capital in Contemporary Society. Oxford University Press (2002).
- Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Oxford History of the Crusades. New York: Oxford University Press, (1999).
- Robinson, George. Essential Judaism: A Complete Guide to Beliefs, Customs and Rituals. New York: Pocket Books (2000).
- Schama, Simon . A History of Britain. Hyperion (2000). ISBN 0-7868-6675-6.
- Servetus, Michael. Restoration of Christianity. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press (2007).
- Simon, Edith. Great Ages of Man: The Reformation. Time-Life Books (1966). ISBN 0662278208.
- Smith, J.Z. (1998).
- Spitz, Lewis. The Protestant Reformation. Concordia Publishing House (2003). ISBN 0570033209.
- Sproul, R.C. Knowing Scripture.
- Spurgeon, Charles. A Defense of Calvinism.
- Sykes, Stephen; Booty, John; Knight, Jonathan. The Study of Anglicanism. Augsburg Fortress Publishers (1998). ISBN 080063151X.
- Talbott, Thomas. Three Pictures of God in Western Theology" (1995).
- Ustorf, Werner. "A missiological postscript", in: McLeod, Hugh; Ustorf, Werner (ed.). The Decline of Christendom in Western Europe, 1750-2000. Cambridge University Press (2003).
- White, Howard A. The History of the Church.
- Woodhead, Linda. An Introduction to Christianity.
Further reading
- Gill, Robin (2001). The Cambridge companion to Christian ethics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521779189.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - Gunton, Colin E. (1997). The Cambridge companion to Christian doctrine. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-47695-X.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - MacMullen, Ramsay (2006). Voting About God in Early Church Councils. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300115962.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - Padgett, Alan G.; Sally Bruyneel (2003). Introducing Christianity. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books. ISBN 1570753954.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Price, Matthew Arlen; Collins, Michael (1999). The story of Christianity. New York: Dorling Kindersley. ISBN 0-7513-0467-0.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Ratzinger, Joseph (2004). Introduction To Christianity (Communio Books). San Francisco: Ignatius Press. ISBN 1586170295.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - Tucker, Karen; Wainwright, Geoffrey (2006). The Oxford history of Christian worship. Oxford : Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513886-4.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - Wagner, Richard (2004). Christianity for Dummies. For Dummies. ISBN 0764544829.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - Webb, Jeffrey B. (2004). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Christianity. Indianapolis, Ind: Alpha Books. ISBN 159257176X.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - Woodhead, Linda (2004). Christianity: a very short introduction. Oxford : Oxford University Press. ISBN 0192803220.
{{cite book}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help)
External links
- "BBC - Religion & Ethics - Christianity". British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters:|accessdaymonth=,|month=,|accessyear=,|accessmonthday=, and|coauthors=(help) A number of introductory articles on Christianity.
- "CBC Montreal - Religion - Christianity". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters:|accessdaymonth=,|month=,|accessyear=,|accessmonthday=, and|coauthors=(help) An overview of Christianity.
- "Netzarim". - Click at 'History Museum' in the left menu. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters:|accessdaymonth=,|month=,|accessyear=,|accessmonthday=, and|coauthors=(help) The origin of Christianity
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