Churches, beliefs, and history
Read about churches, the questions they disagree on, and the events that shaped Christian history.
Start with a church, a belief, or a date. Each article links to the statements and records behind it. A church's published teaching may differ from what an individual member believes.
39 entries
The Catholic Church understands Christian life as communion with Christ through Scripture, apostolic tradition, the sacraments and a worldwide church united with the bishop of Rome. Its official teaching is more specific—and its worship more varied—than familiar arguments about “faith versus works” suggest.
Read more →Eastern Orthodoxy is a communion of historic churches whose shared life centers on the Trinity, the resurrection, sacramental worship and the transformation of human beings through union with Christ. Greek, Russian, Antiochian and other Orthodox identities name church histories, not different gods or competing versions of Christianity.
Read more →The Southern Baptist Convention is a voluntary cooperation of autonomous churches, not a hierarchy directing every local congregation. Its common convictions include the authority of Scripture, personal faith in Christ, believer’s baptism and a strong commitment to evangelism and missions.
Read more →United Methodism joins the Wesleyan emphasis on grace and personal holiness with a connectional church structure and a strong expectation of service to neighbors. Its approach to Christian growth is not simply “try harder”: it begins with God’s initiative and asks how that grace changes a life.
Read more →The Assemblies of God is a classical Pentecostal fellowship: evangelical in its teaching about Scripture and salvation, and distinctive in its expectation of baptism in the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, healing and Christ’s return. Its official teaching should not be confused with every claim made by a television preacher.
Read more →The LCMS is a confessional Lutheran church body. It places justification through faith in Christ at the center of its teaching while retaining a strongly sacramental understanding of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Those convictions make it different from both Roman Catholicism and many other Protestant traditions.
Read more →The PC(USA) belongs to the Reformed tradition and organizes its life through shared councils of elders. Scripture, a collection of historic confessions, covenantal sacraments and a strong connection between worship and public responsibility all shape its identity.
Read more →A worldwide family of self-governing churches with roots in the English Reformation, held together by Scripture, common prayer, the historic creeds, sacraments and episcopal ministry.
Read more →A Protestant Christian church known for seventh-day Sabbath observance, expectation of Christ’s return, whole-person ministry and a distinctive interpretation of biblical prophecy.
Read more →A historically African American Holiness-Pentecostal denomination that joins conversion, sanctified living, Spirit-empowered witness and a strong communal church life.
Read more →An Anabaptist denomination that emphasizes following Jesus in daily life, believers’ baptism, congregational discernment, mutual care and active peacemaking.
Read more →A Wesleyan-Holiness church whose distinctive concern is that God’s grace not only forgives sin but forms people in wholehearted love for God and neighbor.
Read more →A united Protestant denomination with Congregational, Reformed, Evangelical and Christian roots, combining local church freedom with covenantal relationships, shared mission and historic Christian testimony.
Read more →Oriental Orthodoxy includes the Coptic, Armenian, Syriac, Ethiopian, Eritrean and Indian Orthodox traditions. These ancient churches are neither Eastern Orthodox under another name nor churches that deny Christ’s humanity. Their common faith is expressed through distinctive liturgies, episcopal leadership and a deeply sacramental Christian life.
Read more →A Lutheran denomination formed in 1988, centered on justification by grace through faith, the ministry of Word and sacrament, and service to neighbors through an interdependent church structure.
Read more →An evangelical, Reformed Presbyterian denomination formed in 1973, subscribing to the Westminster Standards and governed through representative assemblies of elders.
Read more →Why Christian resurrection means the restoration of a person, not a succession of earthly lives, and where churches differ about death and the life to come.
Read more →The shared biblical language of baptism, and the different answers churches give about infants, faith, water, grace, and membership.
Read more →How Christians understand Christ’s presence, remembrance, sacrifice, fellowship, and the different rules surrounding the Lord’s Supper.
Read more →The Spirit’s place in Christian belief, worship, conversion, and holiness, including the differences behind familiar Pentecostal and sacramental language.
Read more →How churches relate the Bible to inherited teaching, church authority, creeds, reason, and the work of interpretation.
Read more →A guide to the language of grace, faith, justification, sanctification, and the disagreements that cannot be reduced to faith versus good behavior.
Read more →What the New Testament says gifts are for, how churches interpret tongues and prophecy, and why discernment and ordinary service belong in the same conversation.
Read more →Why Christians gather on different days, how Sabbath rest relates to Sunday worship, and what the disagreements mean in practice.
Read more →Christian approaches to enemy-love, nonviolence, legitimate defense, reconciliation, and the difficult work of protecting neighbors.
Read more →What Christians mean by one God in three persons, why the language developed, and how it shapes prayer without dividing God into three beings.
Read more →An introduction to the incarnation, Christ’s full humanity and divinity, and the language churches use to protect both without turning Jesus into two persons.
Read more →The biblical patterns of prayer, the place of written and spontaneous words, and the differences between asking God, trusting God, and trying to control an outcome.
Read more →Christianity began within Jewish life under Roman rule. Its earliest communities were connected by traveling teachers, letters, shared worship, and difficult arguments about belonging.
Read more →The council called by Constantine in 325 rejected Arius’s account of the Son and established a decisive doctrinal boundary. The familiar creed used in worship also reflects the later council of 381.
Read more →The rupture between Eastern and Western churches developed over centuries. The confrontations of 1054 became a powerful symbol, but political violence, theological disagreement, and failed reunions also shaped the separation.
Read more →The sixteenth-century Reformations reshaped Western Christianity through competing answers about salvation, Scripture, worship, and authority. Protestant movements differed from one another, while Catholic reform had its own roots and lasting institutions.
Read more →Chalcedon’s definition confessed one Christ, fully divine and fully human. Its reception also produced a lasting division, and the churches that rejected it should not be confused with those that denied Christ’s humanity.
Read more →Methodism grew from an eighteenth-century renewal movement into a worldwide family of churches. Its preaching, small groups, hymnody, and practical discipline connected conversion with a sustained life of holiness and service.
Read more →The Los Angeles revival associated with William J. Seymour became a major meeting place and communications hub for early Pentecostalism. Its importance includes interracial worship, women’s leadership, and a worldwide network—not a claim that all Pentecostal history began in one building.
Read more →The Seventh-day Adventist Church organized in 1863 after years of debate about cooperation and authority. Its roots lie in the Millerite movement and the aftermath of 1844, but those events are not the same as the denomination’s founding.
Read more →Constantinople strengthened the Nicene settlement and gave fuller expression to belief in the Holy Spirit. The creed associated with it became the familiar liturgical form, although its precise textual history requires care.
Read more →The Christian Bible emerged through the reading, copying, circulation, and recognition of texts over centuries. Nicaea did not choose its books, and agreement on the New Testament did not eliminate differences over the Old Testament.
Read more →From desert communities to medieval monasteries, Christians developed distinctive forms of shared prayer, work, and renunciation. The story includes women, regional diversity, learning, reform, and persistent tensions over wealth and power.
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