Some Christian Symbols

Christianity comes in many brands. It originally evolved from Judaism, but by the end of the 1st Century it had spun off to become a separate religion. The big burst of growth came when Rome made it the official religion in the 4th Century. For about a thousand years, there were only three versions: Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Coptic. Then in the 16th Century, Martin Luther created the Protestant Reformation. The first Protestant Denomination was the Lutheran Church. About the same time, King Henry VIII split from the Catholic Church and formed the Church of England.

Over the next 100 years we had the Anabaptists, Calvinists, Puritans, Quakers, and numerous other groups. In the 18th Century, John Wesley split off from the Church of England to form the Methodist Church. The other mainline Protestant denominations were formed about the same time. The splintering continued in the 19th Century forward to where we have hundreds of Protestant Denominations today. The Roman Catholic Church is still the largest Christian Church in the world today.

The broad categories of the many Protestant denominations are progressive, traditional, and evangelical. There are branches within denominations. Progressives are oriented toward social justice, traditional emphasize dogma and tradition, while evangelical focus on personal salvation and emphasis on the Bible. In general terms, Evangelicals believe in the inerrancy of the King James translation of the Bible. The other groups are more open to interpretation.

The distinctions involve not only theology, dogma, and views on human sexuality, but also on organizational practices. Some focus primarily on the local congregation while others have a more hierarchical structure with strong connections.

This brief history of Christianity explains that the term is so broad as to almost be meaningless. We are as diverse among ourselves as the great divide with the other World Religions. There was an ecumenical movement in the 1960s and 70s to try to draw closer together, but the denominations are becoming ever more divisive today. The Methodists are getting the headlines, but they are not alone.

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