With some two billion followers, Christianity is the world's most widespread religion. Its largest groups are the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches and the Protestant churches. Christianity is based on the life, death and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. Its sacred scripture is the Bible. The part of the Christian Bible known as the New Testament tells the story of Jesus.
Beliefs
Christianity is divided into more than 33,000 different denominations, or groups. Therefore it is hard to come up with a list of beliefs that apply to all Christians. Central to the religion, however, is the belief that Jesus is the Christ, or chosen one, whom God sent to the world to save humans. Christians maintain that Jesus had to suffer, die and be raised from the dead to make up for people's sins and lack of faith in God. Christians view Jesus's new life after death as hope that they too may be granted everlasting life.
Christians also believe in the Trinity. The Trinity (meaning ‘the three') is the idea that three figures are united in one God: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is thought of as a helper sent to guide and teach humans.
Practices
At the core of Christian living is love for God above all things. Christianity also tells people to love one another. People are encouraged to be forgiving, humble, kind and patient.
Worshippers in a Roman Catholic church face the altar, which is heavily decorated. Roman Catholic …
Christians through the years have come up with a variety of ways to express their faith. Many Christians regularly attend church services, with Sunday being the most common day of worship. Services usually involve singing, Bible readings and a sermon or lesson, but they vary in detail and length according to Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic traditions.
The ceremonies of baptism and Communion are performed in many Christian churches. Baptism is a way of officially making a person a member of a Church. The ceremony involves the use of water to represent the washing away of sin. Communion is a holy act that remembers Jesus. In memory of the Last Supper – the final meal Jesus had with his followers – many religious services contain a part in which members of the Church eat bread and drink wine.
Christians celebrate two main events in the life of Jesus at Christmas and Easter. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus. Because the actual date of Jesus's birth is unknown, a day had to be selected. Some Christian churches selected 25 December; others chose 6 January. Today most churches think of Christmas as a long celebration that spans the time between those two dates. The spring holiday of Easter is especially important to Christians because it celebrates Jesus's resurrection, or rising from the dead. The date of the holiday changes from year to year.
Divisions
Over the centuries, differences concerning religious belief and practice led Christians to divide into groups. In the year 1054 a major split took place in Christianity when the churches in western Europe separated from the churches in the Byzantine Empire to the east. This division created the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox churches.
Greek Orthodox Christian priests and worshippers gather for a mass, or service, in Bethlehem. …
One of the main things that sets Roman Catholicism apart from other Christian churches is that it is headed by the pope, who is considered the supreme authority in belief and practice for all members. The Eastern Orthodox churches do not regard the pope as their supreme leader. Instead, Eastern Orthodoxy is a group of independent, self-governing churches that are each under the guidance of a bishop. These churches include the Russian Orthodox Church, the Church of Alexandria (Egypt) and the Church of Greece.
Some Protestant Christian churches attract large numbers of worshippers.
In the 1500s a movement known as the Reformation led to a split within the Roman Catholic Church. Many Christians broke away from Roman Catholicism to organise the Protestant churches. These rejected a number of Roman Catholic beliefs, including the authority of the pope and certain teachings on how to get to heaven. Protestantism itself eventually divided over religious belief and practice, and the word Protestant has come to refer to most Christian denominations that are not Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox. Included within the framework of Protestantism are Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Reformed groups, Christian fundamentalists, Baptists, Brethren, Quakers, Pentecostals, Mennonites and many more.
History
Jesus and Early Followers
Christianity began in the lands of the Middle East. It grew out of the Jewish religion, called Judaism. The Jews believed themselves to be God's chosen people. They waited for the Messiah, the one who would bring God's message and help them escape from their enemies. Around AD 29 a Jew named Jesus began to preach in Galilee. Many common people liked him because of his healing powers and his ability to teach about religion through stories known as parables. Although some people believed that he was the promised Messiah, others (especially the privileged class) wanted him arrested. A follower of Jesus named Judas told authorities where to find Jesus, and Jesus was sentenced to death. The Bible holds that Jesus rose from the dead three days after being put to death, spent 40 days on Earth after his Resurrection and then was taken up to heaven.
After Jesus's death, the people who came to be called Christians continued to practise religion in the same way as Jews, except they believed Jesus was the chosen one for whom the Jews had been waiting. (Jews believed their redeemer was still to come.) Later a missionary named Paul helped separate Christianity and Judaism into two distinct religions. He also helped spread Jesus's message to non-Jews, or Gentiles.
Spread of Christianity
To help spread Jesus's teachings, some early Christians wrote about him. Writings by four men – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – were chosen as the standard account of Jesus's life and teaching. These four narratives were called Gospels, meaning ‘good news'. They were gathered together with other writings in what came to be called the New Testament. The material in the New Testament is thought to have been written between about AD 50 and 150. The New Testament and the Old Testament (the Jewish Bible) together form the Bible used in Christianity.
In the early days of the Church, most of the lands around the Mediterranean were part of the Roman Empire. Life was difficult and dangerous for early Christians living in those lands. In AD 312, however, the Roman emperor Constantine the Great was converted to Christianity. The next year he called for tolerance towards all religions in the empire. He moved his seat of government east to a newly founded Christian city that became known as Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey). By the end of the 300s Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire, and Church leaders had become involved in many public issues. This great power helped secure Christianity's place in the world.
Christianity in the Middle Ages
Christianity continued to gain strength during the Middle Ages, a time period spanning from about 500 to 1500. The powerful, wealthy popes of this period sent out missionaries to spread the religion, held councils, resolved legal disputes and guided the lives of all Christians. The popes often needed the support of friendly kings to be successful, but sometimes the Church leaders and the royalty did not agree. Great disputes resulted.
Nevertheless, the Church was the chief cultural institution of the time. The first universities, in Bologna, Paris and other European cities, were established with the help of Church leaders. Monks were important in this period as teachers and scholars. Although they spent much time in prayer, they also copied and illustrated books and ran schools. They created libraries, conducted scientific research and established hospitals.
As Christianity expanded, it could not remain unified. Disagreements among Christians caused some groups to break away from the established Church. Finally, in 1054, the Eastern Church at Constantinople separated from the Western Church in Rome because of differences in belief and practice. The two branches have remained apart ever since.
Another major development in Christianity in the Middle Ages was the Crusades. In the 1000s, armies of a Muslim empire known as the Seljuks conquered south-western Asia. They took over many places associated with the earthly life of Jesus Christ. From the late 1000s to the late 1200s, Christian armies of knights and princes travelled from Europe to the Middle East in an attempt to free the Holy Land from the Muslims. The crusaders failed to win back the Holy Land, but they did open up trade between Europe and the East.
Modern Period
Five centuries after the separation of the Eastern and Western Christian churches, a major split took place within the Roman Catholic Church. In 1517 a German priest and scholar named Martin Luther began to publicly question certain practices and teachings of Roman Catholicism. Luther's criticism helped bring about the religious revolution known as the Reformation. Originally, Luther and other Protestant reformers hoped only to bring about changes within the established Church, but their ideas met with strong opposition. The end result was the creation of the Protestant churches.
As Christianity flourished in Europe, Christians came to believe that their religion should be taught to people in other lands. Shortly before the Reformation, they began making contact with many other parts of the world, including the Americas. Beginning in the 1500s Christian missionaries brought their faith, as well as education and medicine, to parts of Africa, Asia and North and South America. These efforts helped make Christianity the most widespread religion in the world.
At the beginning of the 1900s some 80 per cent of Christians lived in Europe or North America. By the year 2000, about 60 per cent of Christians were citizens of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Part of the success of Christianity in these regions was due to the blending of the areas' traditional religious practices with the teachings of Christianity.
