Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on Jesus of Nazareth, whom Christians call Jesus Christ, and New Testament accounts of his life and teachings. With an estimated 2.1 billion adherents in 2001, Christianity is the world's largest religion.[1]

Christianity began in the first century as a Jewish sect[2] [citation needed]. Christians call the Hebrew Bible the Old Testament (see Judeo-Christian).[3] Like Judaism and Islam, Christianity is an Abrahamic religion.

In the Christian scriptures, the term "Christian" is first attested in Acts 11:26: "And in Antioch Jesus' disciples were first called Christians" (Gr. χριστιανους, from Christ Gr. Χριστός, which means "the anointed one").

Denominations of Christianity

Within Christianity numerous distinct groups have developed with beliefs that vary widely by culture and place. Since the Reformation Christianity is usually represented as being divided into three main branches:

Roman Catholicism: The Roman Catholic Church, the largest single body -- which includes several Eastern Catholic communities -- as well as certain smaller communities (e.g., the Old-Catholics), with more than 1.085 billion baptized members.

Eastern Christianity: Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Assyrian Church of the East, and the Eastern Orthodox Churches (including Western Orthodox churches which preserve Latin practices while accepting Orthodox theology), with a combined membership of more than 240 million baptized members.

Protestantism: Numerous denominations and groups such as Anglicans, Lutherans, Reformed, Evangelical, Charismatic, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Anabaptists, 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. Some Protestants identify themselves simply as Christian, or born-again Christian. Others, particularly among Anglicans and in Neo-Lutheranism, identify themselves as being "both Catholic and Protestant". Worldwide total ranges from 592 to 600 million.

Other denominations and churches which self-identify as Christian but which distance themselves from the above classifications together claim around 275 million members. These include African indigenous churches with up to 110 million members (estimates vary widely), The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also called Mormons) with more than 12 million members[4], Jehovah's Witnesses with approximately 6.6 million members[5], and other groups[6]. Most of these groups were founded by Protestants.

In addition to official denominations, break-away sects, orthodox movements within denominations and sects, heretical movements, there are also a wide variety of extra-church groups associated with Christianity.

The historical development of major church branches from their roots.[edit]

Beliefs

Jesus' crucifixion as portrayed by Diego Velбzquez. Jesus' life, especially his crucifixion and resurrection, is the basis of Christianity.Enormous diversity of belief exists among Christians. Nevertheless, certain doctrines have come to characterize the mainstream of Christian theology.

Messiah

Most Christians identify Jesus as the Messiah (Greek Christos, hence Christ) whose coming was prophesied in the Old Testament.

Jesus as God and Man

Most Christians believe that Jesus is fully God (divine) and fully human. Jesus is believed to have become fully human in all respects, including mortality, to have suffered the pains and temptations of mortal man, yet without having sinned. The Chalcedonian Creed (not accepted by the Oriental Orthodox Churches) defined this as Christ having "two natures in one person", a doctrine known to theologians as hypostatic union.

Holy Trinity

Within Christianity, the doctrine of the Trinity states that God is a single Being who exists, simultaneously and eternally, as a communion of three persons (personae, prosopa): Father (the Source, the Eternal Majesty); the Son (the eternal Logos or Word, incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth); and the Holy Spirit. Since the 4th Century AD, in both Eastern and Western Christianity, this doctrine has been stated as "One God in Three Persons," all three of whom, as distinct and co-eternal "persons" or "hypostases," share a single Divine essence, being, or nature.

The word "Trinity" comes from "Trinitas", a Latin abstract noun that most literally means "three-ness" (or "the property of occurring three at once"). Or, simply put, "three are one". The first recorded use of this Latin word was by Tertullian in about 200, to refer to Father, Son and Holy Spirit, or, in general, to any set of three things.

The Greek term used for the Christian Trinity, "Τριάς" (a set of three or the number three),[1] has given the English word triad. The Sanskrit word, "Trimurti," has a similar meaning, as has "Dreifaltigkeit" in German, and many other words in other languages.

The New Testament does not use the word "Τριάς" (Trinity), but only speaks of God (often called "the Father"), of Jesus Christ (often called "the Son"), and of the Holy Spirit, and of the relationships between them. The word "Trinity" began to be applied to them only in the course of later theological reflection.

The earliest Christians were noted for their insistence on the existence of one true God, in contrast to the polytheism of the prevailing culture. While maintaining strict monotheism, they believed also that the man Jesus Christ was at the same time something more than a man (a belief reflected, for instance, in the opening verses of the Letter to the Hebrews, which describe him as the reflection of God's glory and bearing the impress of God's own being, and, yet more explicitly, in the prologue of the Gospel according to John) and also with the implications of the presence and power of God that they believed was among them and that they referred to as the Holy Spirit. St Paul even goes so far as to state that "in [Jesus] lives