Understanding Christianity: Beliefs and Global Spread

• Christianity is the world’s largest religion, with over 2.2 billion adherents, representing a third of the global population.
• Christians worship the God of the Jewish and Christian scriptures, believing that God is accessible through Jesus of Nazareth.
• Jesus, a first-century Jewish carpenter, teacher, and healer, was crucified but Christians believe he rose from the dead to become the savior.
• Christians consider Jesus the Christ and God’s Son.
• Motivated by this belief, Christians have spread their religion worldwide.
• About 20% of Christians reside in Africa, 25% in Latin America, 25% in Europe, 15% in Asia, and 10% in North America.
• Christianity is expanding in Africa and Latin America, while declining in Europe and North America.
• Christians belong to a global community, or church but are divided into denominations, disagreeing on who belongs in this worldwide church.
• Differences among denominations stem from regional, cultural variations, and basic questions of church leadership and relating to God.
• The Roman Catholic Church is the largest division, with over half of all Christians (1.1 billion people).
• The Catholic Church is governed by bishops and priests, who are celibate men. Women and married men are excluded from positions of authority.
• The Pope, the bishop of Rome, has supreme authority and is seen as Christ’s representative on Earth.
• Authority figures in Catholicism include the saints (deceased men and women communing with God).
• Eastern Orthodox Christians constitute around 12% of Christianity, or 260 million people.
• Like Catholics, Orthodox Christians believe God draws close through church officials and saints.
• Orthodox priests are not required to be celibate, and they do not acknowledge the Pope's authority.
• The Orthodox Church is led by bishops who preside over national and regional churches, with the leader in Constantinople as the "first among equals."
• Protestantism represents around 35% of all Christians, with about 800 million adherents.
• Following Martin Luther and other reformers, Protestants believe Christians can connect with God directly, without bishops, priests, or saints.
• Protestants consider the Bible the supreme religious authority.
• Protestants have divided into hundreds of denominations due to differing Bible interpretations.
• Aside from Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant Christians, there are about 80 million Anglican Christians.
• Some Anglicans consider themselves Protestant while some have Catholic commonalities and some see themselves as a middle ground of the two.
• 35 million Christians hold beliefs on the margins of the Christian tradition, like Mormons, Unitarians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, and Christian Scientists.
• The type of Christianity varies by area; Poland is mostly Catholic, Greece is mostly Orthodox.
• North America has the most varieties of Christianity, with Protestants outnumbering Catholics two to one.
• Most countries in Latin America are overwhelmingly Catholic.

History in Timeline

• End of 1st century BCE: Birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
• Ca. 27-33 CE: Jesus’ ministry and crucifixion.
• Ca. 45-65 CE: The apostle Paul’s missionary activities.
• 2nd-4th century CE: The appearance of Gnosticism, early creeds, and widespread martyrdom.
• 3rd-4th centuries: The appearance of monasticism.
• 313 CE: Emperor Constantine legalizes Christianity in the Roman Empire.
• 325 CE: Constantine convenes the Council of Nicaea.
• 330 CE: Constantinople is founded as the center for Christianity in the east.
• 590-604 CE: The reign of Pope Gregory the Great.
• 8th century: The iconoclastic controversy.
• 1054 CE: The Great Schism.
• 11th-13th centuries: The Crusades, the Scholastic movement, and the mendicant orders.
• 14th-15th centuries: The papal schism leads to Avignon popes.
• 15th – 16th centuries: European colonization and missions.
• 16th century: Protestant Reformation; establishment of the Church of England; the Catholic Reformation.
• 16th-17th centuries: Religious wars ravage Europe.
• 18th century: Christianity enters the modern period; appearance of liberalism and Evangelicalism.
• 19th century: The First Vatican Council.
• Early 20th century: The appearance of the Pentecostal movement and fundamentalism.
• Mid-20th century: The ecumenical movement promotes cooperation among different denominations.
• 1960s: The Second Vatican Council; the appearance of Liberation Theology.
• End of 20th century: The dramatic expansion of Christianity in the Global South.

Origins

• Christianity appeared near the end of an important era in Judaism, which began in 586 BCE with the Babylonian destruction of the first Jewish temple and ended in 70 CE with the Roman destruction of the second Jewish temple.
• During this era, new types of Judaism emerged and Christianity was one of them.
• Christianity broke ties due to beliefs about Jesus and its universal mission.
• Christianity began in the Roman province of Palestine (modern Israel) around 30 CE.
• John the Baptist, an apocalyptic prophet, announced the coming of the “Kingdom of God”.
• He urged people to prepare by repenting and undergoing baptism (ritual immersion).
• Jesus of Nazareth was baptized by John and began his own ministry in northern Palestine.
• For two or three years, Jesus traveled, taught, and performed miracles.
• He was arrested in Jerusalem for violating Jewish law and encouraging sedition against the Roman empire.
• Jesus was crucified, a torture reserved for Rome’s worst criminals.
• Jesus' followers claimed his crucifixion established a new relationship between God and humanity.
• They believed Jesus became Christ by dying to save the world and was both divine and God’s son.
• Followers claimed that God raised him from the dead and that Jesus would return to punish evil and reward followers with eternal life.
• God gave Jesus’s followers the Holy Spirit to guide them and supply spiritual gifts.

Explore the core tenets of Christianity, the world's largest religion with over 2.2 billion followers. Learn about the significance of Jesus, the global distribution of Christians, and the religion's expansion in Africa and Latin America, as well as the divisions into denominations.