Traditions

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[edit] Background

"There once was a family that was a large, quite diverse family, but it was very conscious of who and what it was, what its traditions were and where it was situated, where it lived there in upstate New York. They knew exactly how it had come to migrate to upstate New York, who belonged and who didn’t belong, what the whole history of the family had been. Of course, this nice, neat package was when one looked back and wrote the history from long afterwards. Some incidents were just swept off because they were forgotten, and some incidents were better forgotten and so they got left out of the writing of the official history. But one thing was sure: everyone knew who the Picketts were and their place in society and who ranked where.

If one had been there earlier, during the founding, we might say, of the family, we would have found that there were segments of the family: sons who had gone off to the sea and become sailors, and they landed in other countries and founded families there. They were left out of the account. But those at least who really counted wrote back every year and said how much they loved the family, how strong their attachment to it was, and what their respect was for the what you might call the ruling elder or patriarch of the family, of the current generation. From time to time they would send back some dues, and so on.

My little analogy won’t hold up strictly, but sometimes we treat the history of the church like that family history. There’s a standard account, one that is given credence, or at least deferred to, of exactly how the church came into being, how it got planted, and how the growth of the church took place. Even though most of us are from a Protestant background and pride ourselves on being immediately related to Jesus Christ, sometimes we buy into this account: that there is a great branching that took place at the Reformation, but before that there was a solid trunk, and that trunk was planted in Rome. So the account gets purified. Things get left off that don’t fit into that solid trunk: earlier branches, earlier offshoots. They get left aside, sometimes forgotten, and sometimes better forgotten, and just swept off."

--Dwight Baker, World Christian Foundations, Module 3, Number 14

In this section as well as in Denominations, we look at the various individual segments that make up the global family of Christianity. Some of these sections any given reader won't agree should be included. Many readers will disagree on which sections should be in and which sections should be out. Our slightly biased point of view will dictate that all be included and given a fair and objective treatment, and you can make up your own mind on each one.

[edit] Blocs

African Independent Churches: Ranging from an evangelical theological position to a high degree of compromise.
Anglican
Independent: churches that are typically orthodox but declare themselves outside the Western structures.
Marginal: churches that are on the "margins" of orthodox Christianity, often viewed as heretical or cults.
Orthodox: Eastern churches, originating out of Byzantium.
Protestant: churches that have their history out of the Reformation.
Roman Catholic: church that is allied with the Pope in Rome, often viewed by evangelical Christians as an apostate or false church since the Reformation.