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</style><title>Christianity | Definition, Origin, History, Beliefs, Symbols, Types, & Facts | Britannica</title><div class="original-url"><br><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christianity">https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christianity</a><br><br></div><div id="article" role="article" style="-webkit-locale: "en"; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="system exported">
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<div class="page" style="text-align: start; word-wrap: break-word; max-width: 100%;"><h1 class="title" style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.95552em; line-height: 1.2141em; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; text-align: start; display: block; max-width: 100%;">Christianity | Definition, Origin, History, Beliefs, Symbols, Types, & Facts</h1><div class="leading-image" style="max-width: 100%; margin-bottom: 1.15em; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 0.75rem; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8);"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/10/58810-050-09BA4000/Christ-Ruler-Apostles-Evangelists-figures-Santa-Pudenziana-417-ce.jpg?w=400&h=300&c=crop" alt="mosaic; Christianity" class="" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto; margin: auto; display: block; clear: both;" data-unique-identifier=""></div><section data-level="1" style="max-width: 100%;"><p style="max-width: 100%;"><strong style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span>Christianity</strong>, major <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/religion" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">religion</a> stemming from the life, teachings, and death of <span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jesus" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Jesus of Nazareth</a> (the Christ, or the Anointed One of God) in the 1st century <span style="max-width: 100%;">ce</span>. It has become the largest of the world’s religions and, geographically, the most widely diffused of all faiths. It has a <a data-term="constituency" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/constituency" data-type="MW" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">constituency</a> of more than two billion believers. Its largest groups are the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Roman-Catholicism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Roman Catholic Church</a>, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eastern-Orthodoxy" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Eastern Orthodox</a> churches, and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Protestantism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Protestant</a> churches. The Oriental Orthodox churches <a data-term="constitute" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/constitute" data-type="MW" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">constitute</a> one of the oldest branches of the tradition but had been out of contact with Western Christianity and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eastern-Orthodoxy" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Eastern Orthodoxy</a> from the middle of the 5th century until the late 20th century because of a dispute over <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christology" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Christology</a> (the doctrine of Jesus Christ’s nature and significance). Significant movements within the broader Christian world and sometimes <a data-term="transcending" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transcending" data-type="MW" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">transcending</a> denominational boundaries are <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pentecostalism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Pentecostalism</a>, <a data-term="Charismatic" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Charismatic" data-type="MW" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Charismatic</a> Christianity, Evangelicalism, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/fundamentalism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">fundamentalism</a>. In addition, there are numerous independent churches throughout the world. <em style="max-width: 100%;">See also</em> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Anglicanism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Anglicanism</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Baptist" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Baptist</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Calvinism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Calvinism</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Congregationalism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Congregationalism</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Evangelical-church-Protestantism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Evangelical church</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lutheranism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Lutheranism</a>; Oriental Orthodoxy; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/presbyterian" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">presbyterian</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Presbyterian-churches" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Reformed and Presbyterian churches</a>. </p><!--[P1]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[AM1]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[MOD1]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><p style="max-width: 100%;">This article first considers the nature and development of the Christian religion, its ideas, and its institutions. This is followed by an examination of several <a data-term="intellectual" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intellectual" data-type="MW" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">intellectual</a> <a data-term="manifestations" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manifestations" data-type="MW" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">manifestations</a> of Christianity. Finally, the position of Christianity in the world, the relations among its divisions and denominations, its missionary outreach to other peoples, and its relations with other world religions are discussed. For supporting material on various topics, <em style="max-width: 100%;">see</em> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/angel-religion" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">angel and demon</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bible" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Bible</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/biblical-literature" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">biblical literature</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/canon-law" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">canon law</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/creed" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">creed</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christology" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Christology</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/doctrine" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">doctrine and dogma</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/ecumenism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">ecumenism</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/eschatology" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">eschatology</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/exegesis" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">exegesis</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/faith" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">faith</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/grace-religion" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">grace</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/heaven" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">heaven</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/hell" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">hell</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/heresy" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">heresy</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jesus" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Jesus Christ</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Liturgical-Movement" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">liturgical movement</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/millennialism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">millennialism</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/miracle" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">miracle</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/monasticism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">monasticism</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/monotheism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">monotheism</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/New-Testament" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">New Testament</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Old-Testament" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Old Testament</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/original-sin" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">original sin</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/papacy" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">papacy</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/prayer" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">prayer</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/priesthood" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">priesthood</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/purgatory-Roman-Catholicism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">purgatory</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/sacrament" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">sacrament</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/salvation-religion" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">salvation</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/schism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">schism</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/scripture" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">scripture</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/theism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">theism</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/theology" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">theology</a>; and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/worship" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">worship</a>.</p><!--[P2]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[AM2]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><a href="/quiz/history-of-christianity-quiz" class="clear" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; clear: both; text-decoration: underline;">
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<p style="font-weight: bold; max-width: 100%;">Britannica Quiz</p>
<p style="font-weight: bold; max-width: 100%;">History of Christianity Quiz</p>
<p style="max-width: 100%;">Who is the patron saint of Scotland? Which movement in Christianity sought to establish clerical celibacy? Test what you know about the long and varied history of Christianity with this brief quiz.</p>
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</a><!--[MOD2]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span></section><h2 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.43em; max-width: 100%;">The essence and identity of Christianity</h2> <p style="max-width: 100%;">At its most basic, Christianity is the faith tradition that focuses on the figure of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jesus" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Jesus Christ</a>. In this <a data-term="context" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/context" data-type="MW" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">context</a>, faith refers both to the believers’ act of trust and to the content of their faith. As a <span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/tradition" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">tradition</a>, Christianity is more than a system of religious belief. It also has generated a <a data-term="culture" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture" data-type="MW" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">culture</a>, a set of ideas and ways of life, practices, and <a data-term="artifacts" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/artifacts" data-type="MW" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">artifacts</a> that have been handed down from generation to generation since Jesus first became the object of faith. Christianity is thus both a living tradition of faith and the culture that the faith leaves behind. The agent of Christianity is the church, the <a data-term="community" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/community" data-type="MW" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">community</a> of people who make up the body of believers.</p><!--[P3]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[AM3]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[MOD3]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span> <p style="max-width: 100%;">To say that Christianity “focuses” on Jesus Christ is to say that somehow it brings together its beliefs and practices and other traditions in reference to a historical figure. Few Christians, however, would be content to keep this reference merely historical. Although their faith tradition is historical—i.e., they believe that transactions with the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/sacred" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">divine</a> do not occur in the realm of <a data-term="timeless" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/timeless" data-type="EB" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">timeless</a> ideas but among ordinary humans through the ages—the vast majority of Christians focus their faith in Jesus Christ as someone who is also a present reality. They may include many other references in their tradition and thus may speak of “God” and “human nature” or of the “church” and the “world,” but they would not be called Christian if they did not bring their attentions first and last to Jesus Christ.</p><!--[P4]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[AM4]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[MOD4]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span> <p style="max-width: 100%;">While there is something simple about this focus on Jesus as the central figure, there is also something very complicated. That complexity is revealed by the thousands of separate churches, sects, and denominations that make up the modern Christian tradition. To project these separate bodies against the background of their development in the nations of the world is to suggest the bewildering variety. To picture people expressing their <a data-term="adherence" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adherence" data-type="MW" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">adherence</a> to that tradition in their prayer life and church-building, in their quiet worship or their strenuous efforts to change the world, is to suggest even more of the variety.</p><!--[P5]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[AM5]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[MOD5]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span> <p style="max-width: 100%;">Given such complexity, it is natural that throughout Christian history both those in the tradition and those surrounding it have made attempts at simplification. Two ways to do this have been to concentrate on the “essence” of the faith, and thus on the ideas that are <a data-term="integral" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/integral" data-type="MW" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">integral</a> to it, or to be concerned with the “identity” of the tradition, and thus on the boundaries of its historical experience.</p><!--[P6]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[AM6]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[MOD6]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span> <p style="max-width: 100%;">Modern scholars have located the focus of this faith tradition in the context of <span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/monotheism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">monotheistic</a> religions. Christianity addresses the historical figure of Jesus Christ against the background of, and while seeking to remain faithful to, the experience of one God. It has consistently rejected <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/polytheism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">polytheism</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/atheism" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">atheism</a>.</p><!--[P7]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[AM7]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[MOD7]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span> <p style="max-width: 100%;">A second element of the faith tradition of Christianity, with rare exceptions, is a plan of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/salvation-religion" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">salvation</a> or redemption. That is to say, the believers in the church picture themselves as in a <a data-term="plight" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/plight" data-type="EB" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">plight</a> from which they need rescue. For whatever <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/reason" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">reason</a>, they have been distanced from God and need to be saved. Christianity is based on a particular experience or scheme directed to the act of saving—that is, of bringing or “buying back,” which is part of what redemption means, these creatures of God to their source in God. The agent of that redemption is Jesus Christ.</p><!--[P8]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[AM8]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[MOD8]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span> <p style="max-width: 100%;">It is possible that through the centuries the vast majority of believers have not used the term <em style="max-width: 100%;">essence</em> to describe the central focus of their faith. The term is itself of Greek origin and thus represents only one part of the tradition, one element in the terms that have gone into making up Christianity. <em style="max-width: 100%;">Essence</em> refers to those qualities that give something its identity and are at the centre of what makes that thing different from everything else. To Greek philosophers it meant something <a data-term="intrinsic" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intrinsic" data-type="MW" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">intrinsic</a> to and <a data-term="inherent" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inherent" data-type="MW" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">inherent</a> in a thing or category of things, which gave it its character and thus separated it from everything of different character. Thus, Jesus Christ belongs to the essential character of Christianity and gives it a unique identity.</p><!--[P9]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[AM9]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[MOD9]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span> <p style="max-width: 100%;">If most people are not concerned with defining the essence of Christianity, in practice they must come to terms with what the word <em style="max-width: 100%;">essence</em> implies. Whether they are engaged in being saved or redeemed on the one hand, or thinking and speaking about that redemption, its agent, and its meaning on the other, they are concentrating on the essence of their experience. Those who have concentrated from within the faith tradition have also helped to give it its identity. It is not possible to speak of the essence of a historical tradition without referring to how its ideal qualities have been discussed through the ages. <a data-term="Yet" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/Yet" data-type="EB" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">Yet</a> one can take up the separate subjects of essence and identity in sequence, being always aware of how they interrelate.</p><!--[P10]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[AM10]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span><!--[MOD10]--><span style="max-width: 100%;"></span> </div></div></div><br><br><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone greetings Ohio communities of faith, A resource to some and education to others.</div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Blessings…</div></body></html>