Reading: Diverse Forms of Christianity

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Although, as you heard in the brief video introduction, Christianity takes many
forms worldwide, including independent and locally-initiated churches, many
people become acquainted with Christianity through one or more of its major
institutional forms and movements, such as the Roman Catholic Church, the
Orthodox Churches, Ethiopic Christianity, Protestant denominations,
Mormonism (Latter Day Saints), or Pentecostalism. Let's take a closer look now
at these forms and their histories.

ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCHES

The Eastern family of churches, today called the Oriental Orthodox and
Eastern Orthodox churches, go back to the very earliest days of Christianity.
During the first four centuries of the Common Era, Christianity had spread not
only into the Roman and Byzantine Empires, but also into the present-day
Middle East, North Africa, and India. They were united through a pentarchy
that revered patriarchal sees in Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, Jerusalem,
and Rome. Following the Council of Chalcedon in 451, however, the
Christological controversies led by Nestorius and Cyril influenced the first
major schism in the Church. A group of communities that eventually became
known as comprising the Oriental Orthodox Church rejected the decree that
the nature of Christ was united as one and instead promoted the idea that
Christ's human and divine natures remained distinct. Christians of Egypt,
Ethiopia, Syria, Armenia, India, Iraq, and Iran either formally followed these
men into schism or quietly fell off the Greco-Roman radar due to vast
distances and difficult terrain. Furthermore, in the centuries that followed, the
growing estrangement between the Roman and Greek Christians eventually
led to the second major schism of 1054, which culminated in a crisis as the
Pope of Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated each
other. The institutions headed by each became known respectively as the
(Roman) Catholic Church and the (Eastern) Orthodox Churches.

The distinctive theologies and liturgies of the Orthodox churches have

continued to develop into the twenty-first century. One particularly
characteristic theological stance of the Christ event from an Orthodox
perspective is the emphasis on the incarnation of Christ as a means to raise
human nature to the Divine. As Athanasius put it in the fourth century, "the
Son of God became man so that man might become God." This emphasis on
theosis, "becoming divine," stands in contrast to the heavy emphasis on
human sinfulness present in much of the theology of the Western churches.

Monasticism was an important part of the early church tradition, as devout

men and women left urban life and the growing institutions of the church for a
life of devotion to God in prayer and simplicity. Monastic life began as early as
the fourth century, with St. Anthony and the Desert Fathers of Egypt, in whom
both Eastern and Western traditions of monasticism find their source and
inspiration. As Eastern monasticism developed, it included both communal
and solitary religious life and emphasized physical austerity. From these early
centuries onward, the Eastern traditions also developed practices of inner
contemplative prayer called the "prayer of the heart" or the "Jesus prayer".
These forms of concentration and breath-centered prayer have been
preserved in the spiritual treasury of the church to the present day.

As part of a rich spiritual and liturgical tradition, the Orthodox churches also
developed the distinctive use of pictorial icons of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and
the saints. These icons were understood to be windows into the sacred
meaning and presence of these figures, not mere representations of them. The
second council of Nicaea in 787 affirmed the role of icons in the face of virulent
criticism from those who objected to any visual images in worship.

During the seventh century, Christianity encountered the challenge of Islam, a

new religious tradition that gained ground in Palestine, Syria, and Egypt, and
from Anatolia to Spain. The great Dome of the Rock shrine was completed in
Jerusalem in 692. Eight centuries later, the Byzantine Empire, centered at
Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. The great centers of
Orthodoxy, including Constantinople, became centers of Islamic rule, and its
great churches became mosques. For hundreds of years, the encounter with
Islam has been of significance and immediacy for Oriental Orthodox and
Eastern Orthodox churches.

Today, the Eastern Orthodox churches constitute a family of related churches,

including the Greek, Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian, and Syrian churches, each
with a rich history and distinctive liturgical forms. Oriental Orthodox churches
include the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Coptic Church of Egypt, the
Eritrean Church, the Church of St. Thomas in India, and the Jacobite Syrian
Church of Antioch. In 2001, a council of bishops representing both the Eastern
Orthodox and the Oriental Orthodox churches declared their Christologies
effectively consistent, citing linguistic and political factors for the historical
disagreement. While the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental churches are not yet
fully reconciled they, like the Eastern Catholic churches (those who are in
communion with Rome but who follow Eastern traditions of worship) share
very similar theology and practices. Reconciliation efforts continue today.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE CATHOLIC

COMMUNION
The early Christians spoke of their movement as "catholic," a word which
means "universal." Today, Christian churches still affirm "one holy, catholic,
and apostolic church," but the term Catholic with a capital "C" also applies in
common parlance to the Churches within the Catholic Communion, centered
in Rome. Christians could be found in Rome already in the first century. The
Church of Rome claims it was established by the apostles Peter and Paul in the
first century. As it developed, it emphasized the central authority and primacy
of the bishop of Rome, the Pope, over other urban patriarchs.

By the eleventh century, the Catholic Church broke with the Byzantine Church
of the East over issues of both authority and doctrine, although several
attempts were made to restore union and to heal the wounds of division
between the Churches. During the early 15th century, for example, many in the
Roman Church regarded the impending Turkish invasion of the Byzantine
Empire as a "work of Providence" to bind divided Christianity together. In
response, the Council of Florence envisioned union on a grandiose scale not
only with the Greek Byzantine churches but also with the Copts, Ethiopians,
Armenians, and Nestorians. Despite the presence of nearly 700 Eastern
representatives and 360 Latin representatives and the energetic debates that
ensued, reunion was not achieved.

Though disappointed with the failure of the Council of Florence, the Roman
Church began to pursue an attractive alternative inspired by the unexpected
union with the Maronite Church in the twelfth century. This alternative
consisted of the creation of Uniate churches – Eastern in ritual and law but
Roman in religious allegiance. Though the term "uniate" has some derogatory
connotations, the reconciliation that this term signifies is an important
historical development.

Meanwhile, the predominantly Roman church continued to develop strong

traditions of monasticism that began with Benedict (480-550) who wrote the
"Rule of St. Benedict" where he described the principles of prayer, work, and
study essential to the monastic life. Even in the early 21st century, this
document continues to be foundational for the life of Benedictine
communities all over the world. Many of the missionaries of the church were
monks, such as the Venerable Bede (673-735) who brought spiritual leadership
to the early church in England and Boniface (680-754) who was the "apostle of
Germany." In the early Middle Ages, Benedictine monasteries became large
landholders and powerful forces in the local economy. Through the chaos of
the Middle Ages, after the fall of the Roman Empire, they played an essential
role in preserving the spiritual, artistic, and intellectual life of the church.

In the twelfth century, other orders developed that rejected the cloistered and
sometimes wealthy life of the monastery, set apart from society, preferring
more engaged models of Christian community. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)
and the Franciscan order emphasized both individual and communal poverty,
simplicity, and service—not apart from the people, but among them. Dominic
(1170-1221) and the Dominican order emphasized education, preaching, and
teaching. Members of these orders were often reformers as well, calling for a
renewal of monasticism and the church as a whole.

In the 16th century, a movement called the Protestant Reformation sparked a

Catholic "Counter-Reformation." The Council of Trent (1545–1563) followed
with its own reform of corrupt practices within the Catholic Church and
reasserted the visible, hierarchical, and structured authority of the Roman
Catholic Church. This period of Catholic renewal reinvigorated the educational
and missionary zeal of the church with the establishment of the Society of
Jesus, also called the Jesuits, founded by Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556). Especially
with the colonization and conversion of Latin America and with its missions to
Asia and Africa, the Roman Catholic Church became a worldwide church.

Today, the Catholic Communion is centered at the Vatican in Rome, but its
synods, councils of bishops, and local parishes carry on the life and work of the
church on every continent. Approximately half of the world's Christians are
Catholic. The Second Vatican Council considered seriously the new role of the
church in the modern world. Among the many decisions of the Council was to
abandon the predominantly Latin mass in favor of worship in the language and
in the cultural forms of the local community. Another focus was on a new
openness to other religious traditions as represented in the document Nostra
Aetate (In Our Time). A third focus was on how the church should emphasize
not only preaching and sacraments, but a vigorous mission to the poor and
those in need.

This emphasis helped give rise to a movement known as "liberation theology"

that began in Latin America in the 1970s and spread throughout many parts of
the world. Liberation theologians such as the Peruvian Dominican Gustavo
Gutiérrez were initially focused on economic injustices. He interpreted the
Gospels as promoting a "preferential option for the poor" and declared
structures of oppression that perpetuated cycles of poverty and despair as
sinful. This movement spread throughout much of the global south and
eventually inspired other emancipation theologies in the United States and
elsewhere such as Black Liberation Theology, Feminist Liberation Theology,
and Womanist Theology. These latter movements were often led by
Protestants and included members from many other religious traditions (and
none).

ETHIOPIAN CHRISTIANITY
Christianity came to Ethiopia in the early centuries, and an indication of this
far-reaching history can be traced to Christian scriptures. According to
Ethiopian tradition, the Queen of Sheba who visited King Solomon was
Ethiopic, with whom she had a son. Through him, a line of kingship is
established that ties Ethiopia to the royal line of David. Moreover, scripture
tells a court official from Ethiopia visits Jerusalem and on the way home
encounters the apostle Philip. He accepts Philip's message about Jesus, is
baptized, and, according to Ethiopian tradition, spreads this faith when he
returns home. By the fourth century, Christianity was well-established, and
eventually, a wide range of Christian writings was translated into Ge'ez, a
classical language that is still the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox
Tewahedo Church. Ethiopian Christians believe that Jesus's humanity and
divinity are encompassed in one divine nature, and this theological position is
reflected in the church's inclusion of "tewahedo" in its name, which means
"unity" in Ge'ez. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church gives greater
prominence to early Jewish traditions than do Christian institutions in the
West. This church continues to thrive in Ethiopia even as adherents now live in
many parts of the globe.

THE PROTESTANT MOVEMENT

The sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation was sparked by Martin Luther
(1483-1546), a German monk whose studies of the Bible led him to criticize the
leadership of the Catholic Church in his day. First, Luther insisted that religious
authority lay not primarily in church traditions, nor in the hierarchy of bishops
and popes, but in the Bible alone. The teaching of the church and its leaders
must be judged by the standard and teaching of the Bible, which is the sole
authoritative source of the Christian faith. Further, Luther insisted that the
Bible and the worship life of the church be translated from Latin into the
language of the people, so that all might hear and understand it.

From his reading of the New Testament, Luther also concluded that salvation is
by God's grace alone, not by virtue of any works one might do to try to merit it.
And salvation is by faith alone, by the disposition of the heart and mind, not by
any penance a priest may prescribe. Luther especially objected to what were
known as "indulgences" sold by the church to assure one's own well-being in
the afterlife or the well-being of those who had already died. Luther preached
that salvation cannot be earned, much less bought, for it is a gift. In his break
with Rome, Martin Luther left the monastic life and married, thus establishing
the precedent for married clergy in the Protestant churches. He emphasized
the faith of the laity, the Christian life within society, and the "priesthood" of all
believers. The Roman Catholic Church's response to these criticisms was to
excommunicate Luther in 1521.

The Protestant Reformation marked the beginning of what would become a

new movement in the Christian tradition. Its leaders and forms were many, but
the spirit of the Protestant tradition continued to emphasize the importance of
personal faith, the gift of grace, and the authority of the Bible. In Germany, the
Lutheran tradition built on Martin Luther's heritage. Lutheran national
churches also developed in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland. The
Lutheran churches of America today include descendants from all of these
churches.

The "Reformed" churches have their roots in Switzerland, where Ulrich Zwingli
(1484-1531) launched a movement of church reform in Zurich in 1522. At the
same time in Geneva, John Calvin (1509-1564) led a movement that helped
found Reformed churches in the Netherlands, Hungary, England, and Scotland.
The Presbyterian churches are also part of this Reformed tradition and
developed initially under the leadership of the sixteenth-century Scottish
reformer, John Knox (1514-1572). Today's Baptists and Congregationalists trace
their lineage back to the ideas of Zwingli and Calvin as well.

The more radical Anabaptists took issue with Zwingli and the reformers in
Zurich over two issues: the establishment of a state church and infant baptism.
They held that Christian faith is a conscious and voluntary commitment of the
heart. Thus, they rejected the coercion of any state church and also rejected
infant baptism in favor of the baptism of adult believers. The Anabaptists also
shaped the formation of the Baptists churches as well as the historic "peace
churches," such as the Quakers and the Mennonites.

The English Reformation began in the sixteenth century when King Henry VIII
declared the independence of the Church of England from the authority of the
Pope. Some Protestants in England went even further than Henry and called
for a complete purification of the church. Later known as "Puritans," these
radical dissenters in the Church of England set out for North America in the
early 1600s. They envisioned establishing a Christian community, a "holy
commonwealth" in the new world. In the 1700s, John Wesley (1703-1791), a
priest of the Church of England, launched an energetic devotional reform
movement, emphasizing the forgiveness and grace of a loving God. This
movement eventually became known as Methodism. Those who remained
within the Church of England spread their version of Christianity as the British
Empire encircled the world. After the Empire's dissolution, those churches
banded together as the Worldwide Anglican Communion.

Evangelicals have also played a key role in ongoing reformation efforts.

Originally, the term was used to describe the 18th-19th-century religious
reform movements and denominations that resulted from the revivals that
swept the North Atlantic Anglo-American world. These revivals were led by
figures like John Wesley, the itinerant English evangelist George Whitefield
(1715-1770), and American preacher and theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703-
1758). By the 1820s, Evangelicals dominated the American Protestant scene
and played a major role in reform movements such as abolitionism and
prohibition. In the early twentieth century, a conservative movement known as
Fundamentalism sought to affirm tenets of the faith they thought were under
attack, especially the reality of Jesus's virgin birth, his miracles, and bodily
resurrection. They rejected Darwinism and modern biblical criticism and
retreated from public life after the Scopes Trial in 1925, only to re-emerge on
the national political and social scenes decades later.

In the 1960s and up to the present day, emancipation movements throughout

the globe have been and continue to be heavily influenced by Protestants.
Sometimes linked to liberation theology movements and other times
independent of them, figures who are motivated by their faith to promote
human rights include Desmond Tutu (1931-) in South Africa, Naim Stifan Ateek
(1937-) in Palestine, Hisaku Kinakawa in Japan, and Ella Baker (1903-1986),
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz (1943-2012) and
Beverly Harrison (1932-2012) in the United States.

During the 1980s in the United States, conservative organizations like the
Moral Majority and Concerned Women for America were motivated by what
they perceived as a loss of traditional family values. As a result, many
Evangelicals focused on issues such as homosexuality, abortion, and the
direction of mass media. Other movements within Evangelicalism included
Sojourners, a group committed to promoting peace and social justice since the
1970s and intentional communities like the Simple Way in Philadelphia which
seeks to reform the faith by adapting traditional monastic practices for a
modern context. The Simple Way focused on issues like environmental
sustainability and challenging systems that oppressed the poor and
marginalized.

The Protestant Reformation, therefore, launched not a Protestant Church, but

a Protestant movement—a dynamic movement of many churches, engaged in
energetic and ongoing reformation, even today.
At the dawn of the twenty-first century, the resurgence of evangelical
Christianity worldwide is sometimes called a "third force" in the Christian
ecumenical movement, along with the Vatican and the World Council of
Churches. The National Association of Evangelicals, founded in 1942, describes
itself as being a "united voice" for evangelicals. Despite their differences,
evangelicals today base their theology on a strong commitment to the Bible as
the only infallible and authoritative word of God. There is also emphasis placed
on personal faith, expressed by "accepting Christ" into one's own life, and on
evangelism, or the sharing of that faith with others in mission. The worldwide
ministry of Billy Graham (1918-2018), with his huge rallies and revivals, is an
example of how mid-twentieth century evangelists made effective use of the
television communications revolution. Graham was also the among the first to
help steer a new evangelical movement away from the stricter dogmatic line of
the early fundamentalists.

MORMONS: THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY

SAINTS
Mormon tradition began with the publication of the Book of Mormon by
Joseph Smith, an American who claimed that in a vision he had been shown
the burial place of a set of golden plates that preserved an ancient story. This
story was that of Hebrews who had come to the American continent before the
beginning of the Babylonian captivity in 587 BCE. These plates were said to
have been preserved by a prophet named Mormon and buried by his son,
Moroni. Smith claimed to find these plates buried near his home in Palmyra,
New York in the 1820s and set to the task of translating the hieroglyphs on
them with the help of others. Adherents to this tradition, members of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, consider the Book of Mormon to be
evidence of continued revelation to humans by God after the New Testament's
writings. It is one of four of their sacred scriptural texts (the others are the
Bible, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price).

After Smith's death, Brigham Young led a large group of believers to Utah, and
although today a global institution, the church's leadership is centered in Salt
Lake City. The church is organized into geographical units called wards and has
a complex structure of predominately lay clergy, which includes a president
(also known as the prophet), apostles, and bishops.
The Mormon Church today is one of the fastest growing traditions in the world,
with about fifteen million members and an active missionary outreach.

PENTECOSTALISM
The soaring growth of Pentecostalism is a significant part of the new
evangelical wave of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The
movement takes it name from the scriptural story found in a book called The
Acts of the Apostles (2:1-4), which tells of the Holy Spirit descending upon
believers fifty days after the ascent of Christ. Pentecostal worship
emphasizes the "gifts of the Holy Spirit," including "speaking in
tongues." This movement is especially strong in the growing cities of
Latin America, Africa and the U.S. where the pentecostal style of spirit-
filled worship has created vibrant new Christian communities.

MISSION AND GLOBAL EXPANSION

The history of Christian missions is as old as Christianity, inspired by the
commission Jesus left his followers to "make disciples of all nations." Such zeal
was seen in the early Syrian Christians who missionized as far as India and
China in the early third to seventh centuries. Others spread Christianity around
the Mediterranean, along the African coast and deeper south. Churches were
established as well in Ireland and England, Germany and Northern Europe,
Russia and Eastern Europe. However, the sixteenth century, which saw both
the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic "Counter-Reformation," was also
the beginning of European colonial expansion and with it, the expansion of
Christian churches. The Spanish conquered and colonized in the lands of South
America, Mexico, and the Philippines. The Portuguese planted colonies in
Brazil, Africa, India, and China. The British Empire included territories in India,
Ceylon, Burma, Africa, Australia, and North America. The Dutch were in
Indonesia and Africa. The French had colonies in Africa, Southeast Asia, and
North America.

The spread of Christian churches followed in the tracks of empire, trade, and
colonization. At times, the churches and missionaries were involved or
complicit in the exploitation and oppression of colonized people. It is also true,
however, that missionaries were among the strongest critics of colonial
excesses. Many were the first scholars to study the religious and cultural
traditions of the peoples among whom they worked. Especially in Asia,
missionaries were also the first to challenge the exclusivist teachings of the
church, for they saw what they understood to be evidence of God's living
presence in non-Christian faiths.

The order of Jesuits or the Society of Jesus, founded in the sixteenth century,
was influential as a Catholic missionary order, sending Jesuits to such places as
India and China. Later, Protestant missionary societies were formed to link the
Protestant churches of Europe, and later the United States, with the new
churches established in Asia and Africa.

With the end of the colonial era, the mission churches began to develop strong
voices and leadership of their own. Today, much of the dynamism and energy
of the Christian churches worldwide comes from the churches of Africa, Asia,
and Latin America. The last few decades have seen a renewed emphasis on the
expression of the gospel in every culture and language. In the post-colonial
era, churches in all parts of the world have moved away from European or
American expressions of Christianity and have claimed their own culture,
music, and arts in order to shape their own forms of Christian worship and
community.

Optional: For more on Christianity globally, visit this Pew Forum report.