World religions Christianity By Weronika Domagaa Christianity monotheistic

World religions – Christianity By: Weronika Domagała

Christianity - monotheistic religion of revelation, based on the teachings of Jesus Christ. Its followers recognize in him the promised Messiah and Saviour, who established the Kingdom of God by his resurrection. The canon of the Christian faith has been written in the New Testament, and shall be forwarded by the churches. According to Acts In Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. With time, the faithful began to express individuality. The first recorded use of the term Christianity was found in the Letter to the Corinthians. Christianity was originally symbolised by the fish, then it a cross became a symbol. The name was established by joining the first two letters of the Greek word Christos and the crucifixion of Jesus.

Fundamentals of faith According to the Christian faith, God revealed himself to the humanity in the history of Israel and the Church. This process reached its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Along with the Jews, Christians confess that God is one and that He is the Creator of the visible and the invisible (the spiritual) worlds. Man is the crown jewel in the level of His creation, the image of Himself, revealing the mind of the Creator. Part of the Christian religion is the belief that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, but God is in three persons - Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. The most important belief in this religion is that through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has brought salvation to the world.

First centuries Historically, during the first six centuries of the existance of this faith the Christianity was spread orally. The Christianity members understood their faith as the community which members share the same beliefs, and treated themselves as a Church which had the same values such as: unity, holiness, catholicy (universality) and apostolicity. The main dogmatic truths about the mystery of Christ and the Persons of the Holy Trinity were defined in the first four Ecumenical Councils – in Nicea (325), Constantinople (381), Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451).

Statistics Christianity is now the most numerous religion in the world. It is now professed by about 33% of the world population. Among the nearly 2. 5 billion Christians we distinguish among(as of 2011): �approximately 1. 16 billion Catholics �approximately 1. 04 billion Protestants (approximately 612 million charismatic, approximately 426 million classic) � approximately �about � about 271 million Orthodox 87 million Anglicans, 35 million Christians who belong to other denominations. To the last position we also include various sects of Christian origin. The Christianity predominates the religious structure of Europe, both Americas and Australia, in Africa only around 38% of the population is Catholic, in Asia catholics are in the minority. Today, there already 42 thousand churches and ecclesial communities.

Main branches The Christianity is divided into three main branches: Catholicism – including the Roman Catholic Church with the Latin, Greek-Catholic and other Eastern rites, old catholic creeds, including Mariavitism and traditionalist and liberal mainstreams Eastern Churches - which include the Orthodox and Oriental and the Assyrian churches Protestantism - a series of confessions derived from the sixteenth-century Reformation among which evangelical churches such as Lutheranism, Calvinism and Presbyterianism, Methodism are distinguished, evangelical religion, also called revival, such as Baptist, In addition, two other trends are often distinguished: Anglicanism and Episcopal religion; Oriental Churches include: Oriental Orthodox churches and Assyrian churches. Thus, according to this classification there are five mainstreams in Christianity. Another separate category is the Unitarianism – it negate the knowledge about the Holy Trinity.

Persecution of Christians Today, in many countries there is a persecution of Christians because of their faith. According to the report of the Aid of the Church in Need christians are discriminated in more than 70 countries around the world. According to this study, persecutions affect approximately 200 million people, and more than 170 thousand people are killed each year. The most difficult conditions for the christians are in the countries such as Afghanistan, China, North Korea, Mjanmar, Pakistan, Nigeria, Sudan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe. Representatives of the Aid to the Church in Need said that Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world today.

Women in Christianity The basic vision of a Christian woman, her role in the family, in society and in the Church, emphasizes her equality with man in the relation to human dignity. At the same time it points out the obvious fact that both sexes are not identical. Differences make the possibility of mutual complementarity.

The most important rituals in Christianity Baptism Confirmation Holy Communion

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