Christianity

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From a small band of frightened followers in AD 33, Christianity has grown to be the largest religious faith with over 2 billion adherents worldwide in 6 major traditions.

Although it originated in Israel with a group of Jews, Christianity early on shed its cultural ties. Since then it has come to encompass tens of thousands of cultures and languages around the world.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Traditions 1.2 Major Splits in History 1.3 Accommodation 1.4 Councils 1.5 Monasteries 1.5.1 Formative Monasteries 1.5.2 Early Monasteries 1.5.3 Medieval Monasteries 1.5.4 Monasteries between Medieval and the Modern 1.5.5 Modern Monasteries 2 Coptic Church 3 The Modern Church 3.1 Renewal within Catholicism 4 Current Status 4.1 Growth Worldwide 5 Missions

[edit] History

[edit] Traditions

Christianity is divided in many Traditions and blocs. Major traditions include Anglicans, Independents, Orthodox, Marginal Christians, Protestants, and Roman Catholics.

[edit] Major Splits in History

Christianity has experienced certain "splits" or "schisms" in history. Some of the groups were considered heretics. Among the more notable groups were:

• Manichaens: The Manichaens are followers of the prophet Mani, who lived from 216-276 BC in Mesopotamia. Manichaens follow a dualistic religion that believes in salvation by a secret knowledge (Gnosticism).
• Marcionism: Marcion (b. 110) was a Gnostic who taught the existence of two gods.

[edit] Accommodation

In 601 Gregory the Great gave a principle of accommodation.

[edit] Councils

[edit] Monasteries

[edit] Formative Monasteries

[edit] Early Monasteries

[edit] Medieval Monasteries

[edit] Monasteries between Medieval and the Modern

[edit] Modern Monasteries

[edit] Coptic Church

• History of the Coptic Church

[edit] The Modern Church

[edit] Renewal within Catholicism

Catholic charismatic renewal has had an impact far beyond the 100 million or so who are, or have been, involved. A large proportion of the Catholic missionary force is charismatic. The Evangelical Catholic movement has been gaining in influence and numbers with its more biblical interpretation of faith. Pray that millions of nominal Catholics may come to a warm, living faith in the Lord Jesus, and not lose their spiritual dynamism by being absorbed and neutralized by the system.

[edit] Current Status

Worldwide, Christianity claimed 600 million adherents in 1900, making up 35% of the world’s population. Over half were in Europe, with most of the balance split between North and South America. After seventy-five years (including two World Wars, one “Cold War” and numerous plans to evangelize the world), Christianity had barely kept pace with the global population but had spread out more evenly over the planet. Total adherents rose to 1.3 billion by the year 2000, still one-third of the world.

During this time, Africa saw stunning movements in the East, South and West, but the most dramatic occurred in Middle Africa (1% to 75%). Asia’s Christians grew but not as significantly: the greatest move was in Southeast Asia, which went from 10% to 19%. Europe saw a significant decline, due mostly to the Communist-dominated Eastern region (which fell from 90% to 57%). North America and Latin America remained at the same proportion.

For the twenty-five year period ending in 2000, little actually changed in spite of the many plans to evangelize the world by AD 2000. The chief problem: too few workers deployed to the historically non-Christian areas of the world (North Africa, Asia, etc). Middle and Southern Africa continued their movement, both reaching 81% Christian. The house churches of Eastern Asia spread across China like wildfire, moving that region from 1% to 8% Christian. Eastern Europe dramatically reversed itself in the 1990s and rose again to 72% Christian (more a matter of returning to one’s roots than a brand new turning). The rest of Europe, however, was secularizing and Christianity lost ground. Movements in Latin America were mostly between branches of Christianity, while North America and the Pacific saw the church’s position slowly eroding.

Demographics are the leading force for change, and we can project the future of Christianity mostly on their basis. By 2025 Christianity will be very slowly increasing and fairly evenly divided between the continents. Africa’s East, Middle and South will be a “Bible belt” with significant competition occurring in the West. Gains in the North are unlikely without a significant and probably costly new effort.

Christianity in Asia will continue to make slow-but-certain gains. Europe’s population is declining and with it the church; by 2025, Southern Europe (with its declining churches and rising immigrants) will drop below 75% Christian. Ironically, the church is now growing in the East: numerically the church will be fewer but it is not declining as fast as the population, so its proportion is increasing.

Latin America and North America are continuing their secularizing trend, but even so it is unlikely that Christianity will decline significantly. Still the Americas will have tremendous problems with apathy, nominalism and even with defining what a Christian is. Likewise, secularization in the Pacific will lead to the Australia-New Zealand region dropping below 75% Christian as well.

Such a future is not particularly ideal: gains in Africa and Asia are being offset by losses in once firmly Christian regions. See also Christian trends

[edit] Growth Worldwide

Name	1900	1975	2000	2025	1900	%	1975	%	2000	%	2025	%	00-75	75-00	00-25
World	1,616.1	4,073.3	6,085.0	7,904.5	558.0	35%	1,333.2	33%	2,011.8	33%	2,703.1	34%	+ -	+ +	+ +
AFRICA	107.6	415.8	812.5	1,344.5	9.9	9%	167.0	40%	376.8	46%	666.5	50%	+ +	+ +	+ +
East Africa	27.9	125.8	255.7	447.7	4.5	16%	64.2	51%	158.1	62%	300.1	67%	+ +	+ +	+ +
Middle Africa	18.1	47.0	96.0	184.3	0.2	1%	35.3	75%	78.1	81%	154.4	84%	+ +	+ +	+ +
North Africa	28.2	97.9	175.1	256.0	2.7	10%	8.8	9%	15.9	9%	22.4	9%	+ -	+ +	+ -
Southern Africa	5.5	29.3	52.1	55.1	2.1	37%	22.2	76%	42.6	82%	46.4	84%	+ +	+ +	+ +
West Africa	27.9	115.9	233.6	401.4	0.5	2%	36.4	31%	82.2	35%	143.2	36%	+ +	+ +	+ +
ASIA	953.0	2,395.2	3,675.8	4,728.1	21.9	2%	113.3	5%	307.9	8%	504.5	11%	+ +	+ +	+ +
East Asia	529.3	1,096.7	1,479.2	1,652.0	2.2	0%	12.7	1%	113.4	8%	202.7	12%	+ +	+ +	+ +
South-central Asia	313.3	876.1	1,484.6	2,098.7	4.6	1%	33.6	4%	71.8	5%	123.8	6%	+ +	+ +	+ +
South-east Asia	80.6	321.3	518.9	678.3	8.4	10%	60.2	19%	110.8	21%	163.5	24%	+ +	+ +	+ +
West Asia	29.7	101.1	193.1	299.1	6.7	23%	6.8	7%	11.9	6%	14.5	5%	+ -	+ -	+ -
EUROPE	402.6	675.5	728.5	707.2	380.6	95%	506.3	75%	554.8	76%	547.2	77%	+ -	+ +	- +
East Europe	169.4	285.7	304.6	267.1	151.9	90%	163.7	57%	218.2	72%	211.0	79%	+ -	+ +	- +
North Europe	58.0	88.2	94.2	101.7	56.9	98%	76.4	87%	77.6	82%	81.7	80%	+ -	+ -	+ -
South Europe	70.7	132.5	146.1	148.9	68.5	97%	116.2	88%	121.6	83%	122.1	82%	+ -	+ -	+ -
West Europe	104.6	169.2	183.6	189.5	103.3	99%	150.0	89%	137.3	75%	132.4	70%	+ -	+ -	+ -
LATIN AMERICA	65.1	322.4	522.9	696.5	62.0	95%	305.2	95%	484.5	93%	639.1	92%	+ -	+ -	+ -
Caribbean	6.9	27.1	37.5	44.7	6.7	98%	21.4	79%	30.4	81%	36.9	83%	+ -	+ +	+ +
Central America	18.0	79.2	136.0	185.7	17.8	99%	77.7	98%	130.7	96%	175.9	95%	+ -	+ -	+ -
South America	40.3	216.2	349.4	466.2	37.5	93%	206.1	95%	323.5	93%	426.3	91%	+ +	+ -	+ -
NORTH AMERICA	81.6	243.4	315.0	388.0	78.8	97%	222.3	91%	263.5	84%	315.2	81%	+ -	+ -	+ -
PACIFIC	6.1	20.8	30.3	40.1	4.7	78%	19.2	92%	24.3	80%	30.7	77%	+ +	+ -	+ -
Australia-New Zealand	4.6	16.7	22.9	28.9	4.4	97%	15.6	93%	17.6	77%	20.5	71%	+ -	+ -	+ -
Polynesia
Melanesia	1.4	3.9	6.9	10.5	0.2	15%	3.3	85%	6.3	90%	9.5	91%	+ +	+ +	+ +
Micronesia	0.1	0.3	0.5	0.7	0.1	76%	0.3	96%	0.5	93%	0.7	90%	+ +	+ -	+ -

See more details in Regions

[edit] Missions

• Missions in Algeria

• Missions in Angola

• Missions in Argentina