Portal:Christianity/Intro

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Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, as presented in the New Testament writings of his early followers. It is the world's largest religion, with an estimated 2.1 billion adherents, or about one-third of the total world population.

It shares with Judaism the Hebrew Scriptures (called the Old Testament by Christians), and is sometimes called an Abrahamic religion, along with Judaism and Islam.

In the Bible, the names "Christian" and hence "Christianity" are first attested in Acts 11:26: "For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch Jesus' disciples were first called Christians" (Gr. χριστιανοί, from Christ Gr. Χριστός, which means "the anointed").

Within Christianity, numerous distinct groups have developed, with diverse beliefs that vary widely by culture and place. Since the Protestant Reformation, Christianity is usually considered as being divided into three main branches:

Eastern Orthodox: Eastern Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Assyrian Church of the East, with a combined membership of more than 240 million baptised adherents.

• Orthodox Christianity
  
• Assyrian
  
• Oriental
  

Western Catholic: With more than one billion adherents the Roman Catholic Church is most immediately identified with the Latin Rite, which is the predominant form of Catholicism in Western Europe, Africa and the Americas; however, the Catholic Church also includes several Eastern Catholic rites.

• Roman Catholicism
  
• Eastern Rite Catholic
  

Protestantism: Numerous denominations and groups such as Anglicans, Lutherans, Reformed, Evangelical, Charismatic, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, Anabaptists, and Pentecostals. The oldest of these groups separated from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. The later groups typically formed as separations from the older ones. Some Protestants identify themselves simply as Christian, or born-again Christian . Others, particularly among Anglicans and in Neo-Lutheranism, identify themselves as being "both Catholic and Protestant". Worldwide total is just under 500 million.

• Magisterial Reformation
  
  • Lutheranism
    
  • Reformed
    
  • Anglicanism
    
  • Methodism
    
  • Baptist
    
• Radical Reformation
  
  • Anabaptism
    
  • Restorationism
    
  • Quakerism (or Friends; see also: English Dissenters)
    

Other denominations and churches which self-identify as Christian but which distance themselves from the above classifications together claim around 300 million members, including African indigenous churches, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also called Mormons), Jehovah's Witnesses, Quakers and other groups. The early leaders of most of these groups were originally Protestants. See also Christian denomination