Outline of Christianity

The Lamb of God with a vexillum and chalice in stained glass, a symbol of Christ as the perfect sacrifice.

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Christianity:

Christianitymonotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. The Christian faith is essentially faith in Jesus as the Christ (or Messiah), the Son of God, the Savior, and, according to Trinitarianism, God the Son, part of the Trinity with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Main article

Branches of Christianity

Christian denomination

Denominational families

Catholic denominational families

  • Catholic Church – also known as the Roman Catholic Church; the world's largest Christian church, with more than one billion members.
    • Eastern Catholic Churches – autonomous, self-governing (in Latin, sui iuris) particular churches in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.
  • Independent Catholic Churches – Catholic congregations that are not in communion with Rome or any other churches whose sacraments are recognized by the Roman Catholic Church (such as the Eastern Orthodox and some Oriental Orthodox churches).
  • Old Catholic Church – number of Ultrajectine Christian churches that originated with groups that split from the Roman Catholic Church over certain doctrines, most importantly that of papal infallibility.

Eastern denominational families

  • Eastern Orthodox Church – officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest Christian church in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine, all of which are majority Eastern Orthodox.
  • Eastern Catholic Churches – see section above on "Catholic denominational families".
  • Oriental Orthodoxy – faith of those Eastern Christian Churches that recognize only three ecumenical councils — the First Council of Nicaea, the First Council of Constantinople and the First Council of Ephesus.
  • Syriac Christianity – Syriac-speaking Christians of Mesopotamia, comprises multiple Christian traditions of Eastern Christianity.

Protestant denominational families

  • Anglicanism – tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. Most Anglicans today are part of the Anglican Communion.
  • Continuing Anglican movement – number of Christian churches in various countries that profess Anglicanism while remaining outside the Anglican Communion.
  • Adventism – Christian movement which began in the 19th century, in the context of the Second Great Awakening revival in the United States. Most Adventists today are Seventh-day Adventists
  • Anabaptist – Protestant Christians of the Radical Reformation of 16th-century Europe, although some consider Anabaptism to be a distinct movement from Protestantism. Anabaptists practice adult baptism as well as a belief in pacifism.
  • Mennonites – an ethno-religious group based around the church communities of the Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons (1496–1561), who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders.
  • Amish – Amish, sometimes referred to as Amish Mennonites, are a group of Christian church fellowships that form a subgroup of the Mennonite churches.
  • Hutterite – communal branch of Anabaptists who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the 16th century.
  • Schwarzenau Brethren – originated in Germany, the outcome of the Radical Pietist ferment of the late 17th and early 18th century.
  • Baptist – Christians who comprise a group of denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers (believer's baptism, as opposed to infant baptism), and that it must be done by immersion (as opposed to affusion or sprinkling).
  • Methodism – movement of Anglican Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement.
  • Evangelicalism – Protestant Christian movement which began in the 17th century and became an organized movement with the emergence around 1730 of the Methodists in England and the Pietists among Lutherans in Germany and Scandinavia. See the National Association of Evangelicals.
  • Wesleyanism – movement of Protestant Christians who seek to follow the methods or theology of the eighteenth-century evangelical reformers, John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley.
  • Holiness movement – set of beliefs and practices emerging from the Methodist Christian church in the mid 19th century. See the Christian Holiness Partnership
  • Restoration Movement – Christian movement that began on the American frontier during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century.

Seventh-Day Adventists - Christian movement devoted to propagating the Second Coming (Advent) of Jesus Christ. Established in the 1840's, this church views the Bible as its source of inspiration revealed through the Prophecies of Ellen Gould White (1827-1915).

  • Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) – mainline Protestant Christian denomination in North America.
  • Churches of Christ – autonomous Christian congregations associated with one another, seeking to base doctrine and practice on the Bible alone, and seeking to be New Testament congregations as originally established by the authority of Christ.
  • Christian churches and churches of Christ – part of the Restoration Movement and share historical roots with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the a cappella Churches of Christ.

Nontrinitarian denominational families

  • Latter Day Saint movement – Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian primitivist movement founded by Joseph Smith in 1830. Most members of the movement today are part of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but a fraction of Latter Day Saint sects, most notably the Community of Christ, the second largest Latter Day Saint denomination, and those sects that split from the Community of Christ, follow a traditional Protestant trinitarian theology.[1]
  • Oneness Pentecostalism – Oneness Pentecostalism (also known as Apostolic Pentecostalism or One God Pentecostalism) refers to a grouping of denominations and believers within Pentecostal Christianity, all of whom subscribe to the nontrinitarian theological doctrine of Oneness.
  • Bible Student movement – Bible Student movement is the name adopted by a Millennialist[1] Restorationist Christian movement that emerged from the teachings and ministry of Charles Taze Russell, also known as Pastor Russell.

Lists of individuals by denominational groups

Christianity by location

History of Christianity

Overview topics in the History of Christianity

History of Christianity by century

History of Christianity by era

33 - 1517

Ante-Nicene Church, 100 AD – 313 AD

History of early Christianity

Christian Empire (313 AD – 590 AD)
590 AD - 1517 AD

1517 - present

The Roman Catholic Church
Other churches
1517 AD – 1648 AD
1648 AD – 1789 AD
1789 AD – 1914 AD
1914 AD – present

Age of Ideologies

History of Christianity by denomination

These articles contain histories of the denominations they reference.

History of Christianity by region

These articles detail the history of Christianity in the regions they reference.

Texts

  • Old Testament – Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians, and which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism.
  • Law– first five books of the Hebrew Bible.
  • Writings – third and final section of the Hebrew Bible.
  • Prophets – second of the three major sections in the Hebrew Bible.
  • Deuterocanonical books – term used since the sixteenth century in the Catholic Church and Eastern Christianity to describe certain books and passages of the Christian Old Testament that are not part of the Hebrew Bible.
  • New Testament – second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first division being the Old Testament.
  • Gospels – an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
  • Epistles – writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter.
  • Bible prophecy – prediction of future events based on the action, function, or faculty of a prophet.
  • Gospel of Thomas – well preserved early Christian, non-canonical sayings-gospel discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945, in one of a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library.

Jesus

Major events in Jesus' life from the Gospels

From birth to the Passion

The Passion

Main article: Passion (Christianity)

This is the Christian term used for the events and suffering of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion.

Resurrection and Ascension

Christian theology

See Christian theology and Outline of Christian theology

Christian people by type

Lists of Christians

Apostles (the Twelve)

New Testament people (other than the Twelve)

In the gospels

Individuals
Groups

In the Acts of the Apostles

In the Epistles

See also Epistles

In the Book of Revelation

See also Book of Revelation

Romans & 'Herod's family

In the Gospels
In the Acts of the Apostles

Church Fathers

Saints

Martyrs

Popes and patriarchs

By profession

Titles of Christian leaders

Celebrated days

  • Advent – season observed in many Western Christian churches, a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas.
  • Christmas – an annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ
  • Lent – an observance in the liturgical year of many Christian denominations, lasting for a period of approximately six weeks leading up to Easter.
  • Easter Triduum – three-day period from the evening of Maundy Thursday (excluding most of Thursday) to the evening of Resurrection Sunday
  • Good Friday – religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary
  • Holy Saturday – day after Good Friday, the last day of Holy Week in which Christians prepare for Easter. It commemorates the day that Jesus Christ's body laid in the tomb.
  • Easter – Christian festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion at Calvary as described in the New Testament
  • Passover – Some Christians observe a form of the Jewish holiday of Passover.

Christianity and other beliefs

  • Protestantism and Islam – entered into contact during the 16th century, at a time when Protestant movements in northern Europe coincided with the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in southern Europe.
  • Eastern Orthodoxy and Judaism – Relations between Eastern Orthodoxy and Judaism are thought to have a better history than those relations with Catholic or Protestant Christianity.

Christianity and society

Criticism

See also

References

  1. Faith and Beliefs: Our Faith and Beliefs: God, Community of Christ, retrieved 13 August 2009
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