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Religions
Autor desconhecido · Domínio público, Wikimedia CommonsChristianity
Χριστιανισμός (Christianismós) · Followers of Christ
2.3 billionFollowers worldwide
28.8%Of world population
United StatesWhere most live
345Unreached
Sacred bookThe Bible (Old and New Testaments)
Origin1st century, Judea and Galilee (Roman Empire)
FounderJesus Christ
What it is
Christianity was born in the first century out of Judaism, in Judea and Galilee, then part of the Roman Empire, through the ministry of Jesus Christ. His first followers believed he was the Messiah promised in the Hebrew Scriptures, put to death by crucifixion and raised on the third day, and that this resurrection confirmed his identity as the Son of God and Savior of humanity. From this core, the faith spread quickly across the Roman Empire and, in the centuries that followed, to practically the whole world.
Today Christianity is the largest religion in the world, with about 2.3 billion followers, 28.8% of the world’s population according to the Pew Research Center (2020 data), present in practically every country. The largest Christian populations are in the United States, Brazil and Mexico. Within this broad family, three great traditions stand out: Roman Catholicism, with about 1.4 billion baptized members according to the Catholic Church’s own official statistics; Orthodoxy, with about 260 million believers according to Pew, including ancient churches such as the Coptic and Ethiopian; and Protestantism together with the evangelical movement, for which estimates vary widely depending on who is counted. All of them share faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior, the Trinity and the authority of the Scriptures, but they differ on points such as the structure of church authority, the understanding of the sacraments and devotional practices.
These differences arose from concrete historical processes, such as the Great Schism of 1054, which separated the Orthodox East from the Latin West, and the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, which gave rise to the evangelical and Protestant traditions out of a critique of the practices and teachings of the church of that time. Understanding these differences accurately, without caricature, helps evangelical Christians engage respectfully with brothers and sisters of other traditions.
Most of this site is devoted to helping Christians understand other religions and peoples not yet reached by the gospel. This page is a deliberate exception: here the goal is not to understand someone else’s faith but our own, in all its internal diversity, so that readers may better know the great Christian family they belong to and relate to it in an informed and charitable way.
Pillars and practices
1
The Trinity
The belief that there is one God, eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, each fully God and distinct from the others, with no division of the divine essence. This is the most basic foundation that unites all historic Christian traditions, expressed since the early centuries in creeds such as the Nicene Creed of 325, expanded in 381 into the form churches still recite today.
2
The authority of Scripture
The Bible, made up of the Old and New Testaments, is recognized by all Christians as the Word of God and the record of divine revelation. The traditions differ on the exact role of church tradition alongside Scripture, but none denies that the Bible is central and normative for the Christian faith.
3
The death and resurrection of Christ
The heart of the Christian faith is the proclamation that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of humanity and rose on the third day, defeating death. This historical event is celebrated by all Christian traditions, though with different liturgies and emphases, especially at Easter.
4
Salvation by grace through faith
All Christians believe that salvation comes from God, by his grace, and not as something earned by human merit alone. The exact emphasis on the role of faith, works and the sacraments in this process varies between traditions, but the conviction that salvation is God's gift in Christ is shared by all.
5
The Great Commission
Jesus' call for his followers to make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching them, is recognized by the whole Christian church as an essential part of its mission in the world. It is this call that still drives cross-cultural missionary work around the globe today.
Main branches
What is believed
The Triune God
One God in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, eternal and equal in divine nature but distinct in person and role. It is the central mystery of Christian revelation, beyond full human understanding, yet essential to grasp how God relates to creation and to salvation.
The incarnation
The belief that the Son of God became fully human in Jesus Christ without ceasing to be fully God, born of a woman, the virgin Mary, to live among human beings and accomplish the work of salvation. This permanent union of divinity and humanity in one person is distinctive of Christianity, unlike, for example, the Hindu idea of avatars, in which a god appears in earthly form.
Sin and the human condition
The conviction that all humanity inherits a condition of separation from God through the fall of Adam and Eve, described at the beginning of the Bible, and that no human being can restore that relationship on their own. This condition is why salvation depends entirely on God's initiative.
Grace and salvation in Christ
The belief that salvation is offered as God's free gift, made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus and received by faith in him. Christian traditions differ in their emphasis on the role of the sacraments and of works in the believer's life, but they agree that the basis of salvation is the work of Christ, not human merit.
The church as the body of Christ
All who believe in Jesus together form the universal church, described in the Bible as the body of Christ and the people of God, beyond any particular denomination or tradition. This spiritual unity coexists, in historical practice, with different forms of church organization and government among the traditions.
The second coming of Christ
The hope that Jesus will return visibly to judge the living and the dead and fully establish his kingdom, bringing history as we know it to a close. The details of how and when this will happen vary between traditions and theological schools, but the expectation of Christ's return is shared by the whole historic church.
Eternal life
The belief that death is not the end, and that those who are in Christ will receive the resurrection of the body and eternal life in the presence of God. This hope gives meaning to present suffering and sustains the perseverance of Christians facing hardship and persecution around the world.
Dates and practices
Christmas
The celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, held on December 25 by most Western traditions, Catholic and Protestant, and on a slightly different date by some Orthodox churches, depending on the liturgical calendar used. It is one of the two greatest feasts of the Christian calendar in practically the whole world.
Good Friday
The day on which Christians remember the crucifixion and death of Jesus, with solemn services and liturgies in practically every tradition. It marks the most somber point of Holy Week, which leads up to the celebration of the resurrection.
Easter Sunday
The celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his death, regarded as the most central event of the whole Christian faith and the most important date in the Christian calendar, ahead even of Christmas in theological weight.
Pentecost
The celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, fifty days after Easter, recorded in the book of Acts and understood as the birth of the Christian church and the start of the missionary spread of the gospel.
Holy Week
The week before Easter, in which many Christian traditions remember the last days of Jesus' earthly ministry, with greater liturgical emphasis among Catholics and Orthodox, but increasingly observed in evangelical churches as well.
How they live
Sunday worship
Most Christians gather on Sundays to worship, hear the preaching of the Word and take part in the life of the local church, although the format varies widely between a Catholic Mass, an Orthodox liturgy and an evangelical service. This weekly rhythm of gathering as a community is one of the most visible and widely shared features of Christian life worldwide.
Personal and communal prayer
Prayer, both individual and corporate, is a central part of everyday Christian life in every tradition, whether in free, spontaneous moments, common among evangelicals, or in fixed liturgical prayers, more common among Catholics and Orthodox. In any form, prayer expresses the conviction that Christians can relate directly to God.
Reading and studying the Bible
Reading, studying and meditating on the Scriptures is a practice valued by all Christian traditions, although the weight given to individual reading outside the liturgy varies a great deal, with individual reading especially emphasized among Protestants and evangelicals since the Reformation.
The local church as a community
Beyond worship, the local church is usually a place of friendship, mutual care, counseling and practical service, often including social outreach to the poorest. This sense of belonging to a concrete community of faith is an important part of how Christianity is lived day to day, in any tradition.
Celebrations of the Christian calendar
Dates such as Christmas and Easter structure the year for billions of Christians around the world, with celebrations at home, at church and in the community, though the degree of liturgical elaboration varies between traditions. These celebrations keep the memory of the central events of the faith alive from generation to generation.
Diversity of cultural expression
Christianity today is lived in visually very different ways, from Byzantine Orthodox chant to contemporary evangelical worship, by way of the Catholic liturgy and African, Latin American and Asian forms of worship. This cultural diversity, within a shared faith in Christ, is one of the defining features of Christianity as a truly global religion.
Brief history
- around 4 BC Birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, in Judea, then a kingdom ruled by Herod the Great under Roman control.
- around AD 30 to 33 Jesus' public ministry in Galilee and Judea, followed by his death by crucifixion in Jerusalem and, according to Christian testimony, his resurrection on the third day.
- around AD 30 to 33 Pentecost, fifty days after the resurrection: the Holy Spirit comes upon the disciples in Jerusalem, traditionally regarded as the birth of the church and the start of the apostolic spread of the gospel across the Roman Empire.
- AD 313 Edict of Milan: Emperors Constantine and Licinius guarantee Christians freedom of worship, confirming the end of official persecution that Emperor Galerius had already decreed in 311.
- AD 325 The Council of Nicaea, the first great ecumenical council, formally defines the doctrine of the full divinity of Christ and lays the foundations of the Nicene Creed, which, expanded at the Council of Constantinople in 381, is still used by practically all Christian traditions.
- 1054 The Great Schism: the formal break between the church of the East, which would become Eastern Orthodoxy, and the church of the West, tied to Rome, over theological disputes and questions of authority that had built up over centuries.
- 1517 The Protestant Reformation: Martin Luther publishes his 95 theses, criticizing practices such as the sale of indulgences and starting a movement that would give rise to the Protestant traditions and, later, the evangelical movement.
- 16th to 20th centuries A great missionary expansion of Christianity to the Americas, Africa and Asia, through Catholic, Protestant and, more recently, evangelical missionaries, taking the gospel to practically the whole world. In places such as India, Ethiopia and the Middle East, however, ancient churches had existed long before the Europeans arrived.
- 20th and 21st centuries Christianity consolidates its place as the largest religion in the world, with the center of gravity of its vitality and growth shifting more and more from the Northern Hemisphere to Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia.
How to engage in dialogue
Point of contact
Catholics, Orthodox and evangelicals share a core faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, in the Trinity and in the authority of the Bible. This common ground is immense and should be the starting point of any conversation between traditions, before turning to any differences.
Baptism, in its different forms, and the Bible as the Word of God are recognized by practically every historic Christian tradition. Recognizing these bonds helps evangelicals see Catholics and Orthodox as brothers and sisters in the faith, not as strangers to it.
What to avoid
Avoid automatically treating every Catholic or Orthodox believer as someone without genuine faith in Christ. There is real sincerity and spiritual depth within these traditions, just as there is nominalism within evangelical circles themselves.
Avoid caricaturing practices such as the veneration of Mary and the saints as "idolatry" without first understanding the Catholic and Orthodox explanation of this practice, which in their own theology sets it apart from the worship due to God alone. Disagreeing with the practice is legitimate, but disagreeing with a caricature of it is not honest dialogue.
Avoid the denominational arrogance of treating your own tradition as automatically synonymous with true Christianity. Differences of emphasis on points such as the role of church tradition alongside Scripture are legitimate historical debates, not grounds for disqualifying the other person as a Christian.
What to ask
How does your tradition understand the relationship between faith and works in salvation? It is a genuine question that often reveals more agreement than people expect, and helps pinpoint exactly where the real difference lies.
What does the veneration of the saints or of Mary mean, in practice, in your experience of faith? Asking before drawing conclusions avoids caricature and opens the way to a respectful conversation about a real difference between the traditions.
Where most live
218.6M
174.2M
124.9M
121.4M
108.6M
107.2M
106.8M
105.8M
84.4M
79.8M
53.9M
53.7M
Estimate: the religion's percentage in each country multiplied by the country's population.
Unreached peoples of this religion 345 in total
+50
+79
+30
+39
+32
+17
+11
+16
What to pray for
- For the unity of the body of Christ around the world, that the differences between traditions may not obscure the shared witness of the gospel before a world that needs Jesus.
- For revival and genuine faithfulness within every Christian tradition, Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant, that faith may be lived deeply and not merely inherited as cultural tradition.
- For the global mission of the church, that Christians of every tradition may take the gospel to the peoples and places that have not yet had the opportunity to hear it.
- For Christians of every tradition around the world who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ, that they may have courage, protection and perseverance.
- For wisdom and humility, so that evangelical Christians may engage respectfully and clearly with Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sisters, seeking genuine understanding before judgment.
