A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO CHRISTIANITY

CHRISTIAN POPULATIONS

Global: c. 1,999,564,000

UK: c. 38,100,000

(UK Estimates taken from P.Weller (ed.), Religions in the UK: Directory, 2001-3, The Multi-Faith Centre, Derby, 2001, pp.30-35; global estimates from D. Barrett, World Christian Enclyclopaedia: A Comparative Survey of Churches and Religions, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000.)

BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY

• Christianity has its roots in the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth within the context of the Jewish community.
• As it developed and spread, it increasingly included those of a non-Jewish background and suffered persecution under a number of Roman Emperors, until the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, after which it became adopted as the official religion of the Empire.
• From the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries onwards, Christianity developed missionary movements which, at their peak in the nineteenth century, led to Christian Churches being established throughout the world.
• This, in turn, laid the basis for the modern ecumenical movement towards the unity of global Christianity in which the global profile of Christianity has shifted to Africa and Latin America.

CENTRAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY

• Christianity affirms that the creative intention of God is for a world characterised by peace and unity, and that the purpose of human life is to glorify and enjoy God and the creation.
• However, Christianity also teaches the human beings and the world in which they live have gone fundamentally wrong. Without the intervention of the divine, Christianity sees human beings as being locked into a state of sin which is characterised by self-centredness.
• Through the life and teaching of Jesus, Christians believe that the possibility of forgiveness and renewal of life has been opened up to human beings and to the creation as a whole.
• Responding in faith to the grace of God is seen as the means of overcoming sin and achieving the wholeness of salvation, by means of the operation of the Holy Spirit of Jesus within the lives of believers.
• The qualities of faith, hope and love are seen as of eternal value, and Christianity teaches that the fruits of the operation of the Spirit are:
  • love;
  • joy;
  • peace;
  • patience;
  • kindness;
  • goodness;
  • faithfulness;
  • humility;
  • self-control.

The Person of Jesus

• Christians believe that the nature of the divine has been revealed most clearly through the life, death, resurrection and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth whom they believe to be the promised Messiah of Jewish expectation.
• Jesus offered hope to the marginalised and called upon people to repent of their sins and receive God's forgiveness, warning against the dangers of religious self- righteousness.
• Through Jesus, Christians see the nature of the divine as being characterised by "agape" or self-giving love.
• Christians affirm the incarnation of one God in the person of Jesus, but also that God's activity is not restricted to the person of Jesus. This is a conviction that is expressed in the apparently paradoxical belief that the one God is a Trinitarian God, experienced as Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of all things, often referred to in terms of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Scriptures, Creeds and Tradition

• The Christian scriptures, known collectively as the Bible, are central to Christian belief and practice. Some believe them to be the literal words of God whilst others see them as human writings informed by the Spirit of God.
• The creeds, the most important of which are the Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed, include summaries of orthodox beliefs which were formulated in the early years of Christianity.
• For Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Anglican Christians, the teachings of the early Church Fathers are seen as another important source of authority.

The Church

• The Church is the community of Christian believers, formed by those who look to God's grace for their acceptance by God and one another.
• The Church is understood as having four distinctive marks that characterise it.
• It is:
  • one, in terms of the basic unity of all who confess Jesus as Lord;
  • holy, in terms of its belonging to the Lord and its living accordingly;
  • Catholic, in terms of its universal inclusivity of people of all kinds;
  • Apostolic, in terms of the continuity of its inheritance from the first disciples.
• Baptism marks entry into the Christian Church. Among Anglican, Roman Catholic, Reformed, and Orthodox Christians, baptism is usually offered to babies or infants. Among Baptists, Pentecostals and others, baptism is seen as being appropriate only for those who can personally confess a Christian faith.
• In those traditions that baptise babies and infants, the rite of confirmation is seen as an opportunity personally to affirm an infant baptism, although some Churches administer instead what they describe as "reception into membership".

Mission and Discipleship

• Christians have a commitment to spread the message of Christianity. They understand this to be commanded by Jesus and Good News to announce. For some Christians, this commitment is expressed in terms of organised forms of mission activity.
• The teaching of Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, is central to the form of discipleship to which Christians are called, which involves them in trying to follow the example and pattern of Jesus in their own lives.
• Christianity has a strong tradition of social concern. Service to the hungry, the sick and the imprisoned is seen as being the authentic expression of Christian commitment and believing.

DIVERSITIES IN CHRISTIANITY

• Any beliefs and practices are shared by all Christians. However, there are also distinct teachings and organisational forms for various Christian traditions, the largest of which are the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Pentecostal traditions.
• Following Christianity's adoption as the official religion of the Roman Empire, the Empire began increasingly to become separated into Eastern and Western parts which was also mirrored in the development of differences between the Churches of the East and West.
• A formal division opened up in 1054 leading to the development of the Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox forms of Christianity.
• With the Protestant Reformation, Western Christendom diversified further into national Churches closely aligned with local rulers and Free Churches that sought an independent congregational life separate from the structures of the state.  

Catholic

• The Catholic Church includes around half of all Christians in the world and sees itself as directly inheriting an apostolic line of succession from the earliest Christian leaders. It is led by the Pope.

Orthodox

• The Orthodox Churches of Christianity see themselves as being in continuity with the undivided Church before its separation into Eastern and Western traditions.
• Orthodox Churches are independently governed, each with their own leaders who are bound together by their recognition of an Ecumenical Patriatch, the Patriarch of Constantinople.

Protestants

• Protestant Churches vary considerably, and especially concerning forms of Church organisation and government.
• They emphasise the supremacy of scriptural authority and of faith in Jesus. They include the following denominational forms:
  • Baptist;
  • Brethren;
  • Congregationalist;
  • Lutheran;
  • Methodist;
  • Moravian;
  • Presbyterian;
  • Reformed;
  • Salvationist.
  • Churches of the Anglican tradition see themselves as both Reformed and Catholic. They are autonomous Churches that look for international leadership to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Pentecostal

• The Pentecostal tradition emerged within the broader Protestant tradition and additionally emphasises the possibility of contemporary sharing the spiritual gifts and experience of the earliest Christians.
• Restorationist and House Church Movements have more recently emerged seeking what they believe to be more biblical forms of Church life.
• In a number of parts of the world, but especially in Africa, indigenous forms of Christianity have developed and which are seen by many as more authentically inculturated expressions of the Christian faith than the traditions imparted by missionaries.

© MultiFaithNet, 2004

An on-line service of the The Multi-Faith Centre at the University of Derby