Christianity is the world’s major and most wide spread religions.
It is monotheistic in nature and centres around the teachings and the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The holy book of Christianity is known as the Bible and includes a New Testament and an Old Testament. The New Testament is unique to Christianity while the books of the Old Testament are actually old sacred Jewish scriptures. Christians believe that the Bible was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and that it is the true word of God. The followers of Christianity are known as Christians, and the one central belief they all share is that Jesus is the son of the one God.
Christianity is often grouped together with Judaism and Islam, together they are known as the Abrahamic religions. These three are the biggest religions in the world, they are all monotheistic and all three recognise the tradition of Abraham in their teachings. Together all three of the Abrahamic faiths represent over half of the world’s population. Both Judaism and Islam recognise the existence of Jesus but do not recognise him as the son of God. In fact Christianity started of as a sect of Judaism and Jesus himself was a Jewish man.
Along with a belief of Jesus as the Christ or Messiah and the son of God, there are many other important Christian tenants and values. Christians also believe in the holiness of the Church and the communion of saints. They believe in the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, and the time of the second coming of Jesus which is otherwise know as salvation day. These are all well accepted Christian doctrines, however there are also many other beliefs that some Christians hold to and others do not, and it is these that split Christianity into many different denominations.
Early Christianity first split in the 400′s into groups now known as Oriental Orthodox and the Assyrian Church. There was another schism in the 11th century when Roman Catholicism split with Eastern Orthodoxy. But the splits that effect most people living in the west today happened during the reformation of the 16th century, when Roman Catholicism split again into the sub strands now called Protestantism, Anglicanism and Anabaptism. These splits are not all as clear cut as they seem though as some groups such as the Anglican Communion claim to have descended from both Catholic and Protestant origins.
Christianity is estimated to have somewhere between 1.5 billion and 2.1 billion followers worldwide making it the world’s largest religion. Church attendance is falling in some countries though and is generally decreasing the most in the developed world. Christianity has had such an impact on the cultures of many countries in the past 2000 years, and whether a person is a Christian or not, if we are living in the west then we are all still being influenced by Christian ideals and values. These exist in our legal system and are celebrated with our holidays and our calender. Whatever a person may think of Christianity, there is no doubt that it has been an incredible global force in the past and will continue to be for a long time to come.