A Wisdom Archive on Christianity

History

Christianity originated in the first century AD. According to Acts 11:19 and 11:26 in the Christian New Testament, Jesus's followers were first called Christians by non-Christians in the city of Antioch, where they had fled and settled after early persecutions in Palestine. After Jesus' death, early Christian doctrine was taught by Paul of Tarsus and the apostles. The term Christian derives from Greek Χριστός Khrist�s (Christ), and means "belonging to Christ".

Relative peace and good roads throughout the Roman Empire allowed Christianity to spread quickly over the next three centuries, but more important was the conversion of Emperor Constantine in 312. Combined with his Edict of Milan in 313, Constantine's conversion effectively made Christianity the favored religion of the Empire, and he organized the first of several ecumenical councils for resolving doctrinal issues. Between the first century and 1050, missionaries from Constantinople, Ireland (from about 450), and elsewhere evangelized Christianity throughout Europe, Asia and Africa, translating the Bible into local languages and sometimes incorporating elements of native culture into Christian custom (see for example Easter: Symbolism of Easter, Halloween: Alleged Christianizing the Celtic Samhain).

In the second millennium, Christianity spread worldwide but experienced accelerating fragmentation. The Great Schism of 1054 split the universal Church into Western and Eastern branches: the Western branch gradually consolidated into the Catholic Church under the central authority of Rome (see Catholicism), while the Eastern branch became known as the Orthodox Church with the Patriarch of Constantinople as the most honored bishop among its autocephalous churches (see Eastern Orthodoxy). In the European Reformation of the 1520s, Protestants and numerous similar churches arose in objection to perceived abuses of growing Papal authority and to perceived doctrinal error and novelty in Rome. This sparked a vigorous struggle for the hearts and minds of Europeans. Disputes between Catholics and Protestants sparked persecution and were part of the motivations for various wars, both civil and foreign.

Protestants arrived in North America (and later Australasia) with European settlement, but lacking any central authority in either Rome or national governments, they worshipped in hundreds, and later thousands, of independent denominations (see Restorationism). Christianity was taken to South America and Africa by European colonists, especially in the 16th to 19th centuries.

In the 19th and 20th centuries many Christian-dominated nations, especially in Western Europe, became more secular. Most communist states were governed by avowed atheists, though only Albania was officially atheist. Adherents to Fundamentalist Christianity, particularly in the United States, also perceived threats from new scientific findings about the age of the Earth and evolution of life.

Courtesy to: www.wikipedia.org

Christianity - The Philosophy

Introduction and links to related topics

Below are some short introductions. Click on the blue hyperlinked word to get more related articles.


Christianity - Major world religion whose development was begun by Plato 300 BC in the School of Philosphers in Athens. It was more fully developed in the fourth century AD when the Emperor Constantine established a universal (Catholic) church. At this time, the belief that Jesus the Nazarite was the promised Messiah or Christ of Israel was accepted, along with a set of books, known as the New Testament. (See Christianity)



Christianity - The doctrine of faith based on the acceptance of Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah and the Son of God (Yahweh/Jehovah) in accordance with the New Testament in the Bible. Christianity encompasses religions including Roman Catholic, Anglican, Baptist, Morman and Fundamentalist Christian sects.

Christianity - Religion of beliefs and practices claiming to come from the teaching of Jesus; hundreds of denominations of professed ways to worship Jesus, all important to the person who feels their Bible interpretations is correct

Christian Fundamentalism - Fundamentalism is a Protestant view that affirms the absolute and unerring authority of the Bible, rules out a scientific or critical study of the scriptures, denies the theory of evolution, and holds that alternate religious views within Christianity or outside are false.

A Bible conference of conservative Protestants at Niagara, New York, in 1895 affirmed five doctrinal points that were later named the "five fundamentals":
the verbal inerrancy of scripture,
the divinity of Jesus,
the virgin birth,
the substitutionary atonement, and
Jesus'' bodily resurrection and physical return.

Although these points do not include all the elements of Protestant fundamentalism, they are regularly present in fundamentalist views.

A series of volumes entitled The Fundamentals by American, Canadian, and British writers (1910-15) carried the discussion further by attacking Catholic doctrine, Christian Science, Mormon teachings, Darwin''s theory of evolution, and liberal theology''s critical study of the Bible and denial of miracles. In 1920 C. L. Laws used the term fundamentalist in the Baptist Watchman-Examiner to identify these views. In the North during the 1920s and following, Presbyterians and Baptists, among others, were torn by controversies over fundamentalism. From this struggle came institutions like Westminster Theological Seminary (1929) and new denominations such as the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the Conservative Baptist Association of America (1947).

Interdenominational organizations were also formed, e. g. , the American Council of Christian Churches (1941, to offset the National Council of Churches) and the National Association of Evangelicals (1942). By the 1950s, Neo-Orthodox theology with its emphasis on biblical revelation had changed the theological situation from a standoff between fundamentalists and liberals by developing a middle ground between them. Since the more militant fundamentalist leaders had settled into their own organizations by then, the basis for intragroup fights lessened, and the controversy waned. With the political swing to the Right in the 1980s fundamentalist voices found new support. Attacks on evolution and liberal scholarship fell into the background as some fundamentalists emphasized more positive themes such as conversion, personal and social morality, and a right-wing political agenda. In other groups, however, attacks on nonfundamentalist scholarship came with new vigor. Fundamentalism is characteristically evangelistic. Some ministries combine evangelism with healing.

Christos - Christos (Greek) Anointed; applied in the Greek Mysteries to a candidate who had passed the last degree and become a full initiate. Also the immanent individual god in a person, equivalent in some respects to Dionysos, Krishna, etc.

The Hebrew word for anointed (mashiah) is generally written in English as Messiah. What we know as Christianity is a syncretism of borrowings from Neoplatonism, neo-Pythogoreanism, Greek Gnosticism, and Hebrew religion. Christos was commonly used in the Greek translation of the Bible as a title of the Jewish Kings, those who had been anointed for reigning -- a symbolic rite taken originally from the Mysteries. St. Paul''s use of the word shows that he understood its true mystical meaning, but spoke with precaution in his public epistles or writings.

The first two letters of the Greek word, , superimposed in a monogram, were on the military standard of the later Christian emperors of Rome, probably dating from Constantine, and have a significance as geometrical symbols besides.

See also CHRESTOS

Evangelical Christianity - A widespread trans-denominational shift towards more conservative Christian doctrine that developed after World War II, usually associated with televangelism.

An evangel is a missionary, a proselytizer. The term can be used to describe all churches that hold to or give heavy emphasis to conservative Protestant beliefs. (In Germany, “Evangelical” is basically synonymous with “Lutheran. ”) These include: the infallibility of the Bible, the sinful and fallen state of humanity, and salvation through faith in Jesus. See Fundamental Christianity.

Liberal Christianity - A movement that seeks to retain religious and spiritual values of Christianity while discounting the authority of the Bible. Its origins are in the German Enlightenment, notably in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and the religious views of Friedrich Schleiermacher.

Liberals claim the Bible is merely inspired, not infallible. They prefer naturalistic explanations of miracles or view miracle accounts as legend or myth.

They often deny or reinterpret in mythical terms such doctrines as the virgin birth, atoning death, and even the resurrection of Jesus. Liberalism has been most influential in mainline Protestant denominations and is rejected in Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christianity.

Unity School Of Christianity - A New Thought church founded by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore

Esoteric Christianity - A mystical form of Christianity that sees its "corn truth" as identical to the "core truth" of every other religion (i.e., man is divine). This form of Christianity is at home with Aldous Huxley''s "perennial philosophy." (See: Perennial Philosophy.)

Neo-orthodox Christianity - Development associated with the strong reaction of Swiss theologians Karl Barth and Emil Brunner against the barrenness of liberal Christianity. They felt that Scripture, although a flawed, fallible, human product, could still be used by God to accomplish His purposes. Thus the Bible becomes inspired in its proclamation when the Holy Spirit quickens faith and obedience in its hearers.

Esoteric Christianity - A mystical form of Christianity that sees its "core truth" as identical to the "core truth" of every other religion (i. e. , man is divine). This form of Christianity is at home with Aldous Huxley''s "perennial philosophy. "

Exoteric Christianity - A form of Christianity identified with historic or orthodox Christianity that New Agers would describe as being devoid of all spiritual authenticity;
Fall of Man - N
Refers to the fall of man''s consciousness. A fallen consciousness is one that recognizes the existence of only the material realm. The Christ is believed to have "redeemed" man in the sense that he enabled man to perceive the spiritual world behind the material world.

Orthodox Christianity - Generically the term orthodox refers to traditional, conservative forms of Christianity, upholding the traditional Christian beliefs about God as a Trinity and about Jesus as taught in the Catholic Church''s early creeds. In this sense orthodox Christianity includes conservative Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant Christianity More specifically, the term Orthodox (with a capital O) refers to the state churches of Eastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean (Russian Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, etc. ) who split with Roman Catholicism of the West largely over the issue of papal authority.

Alamo Christian Foundation - A Christian organization founded by Tony Alamo, who has been imprisoned by authorities for his illegal activities. Teaches traditional Christianity is dead. Former followers have reported deplorable living conditions, mind control, and slave labor.