Religion, page 5

Christianity

The world’s largest religion, sorted honestly: what is wise, what is questionable or story, and what has caused harm.

Christianity at a glance

Started inRoman Judea (now Israel) about 2,000 years ago. About 2.3 billion followers, nearly one in three people on earth.

Christianity began with Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish teacher who traveled the villages of Galilee teaching about love, forgiveness, and the kingdom of God. After he was crucified by the Roman authorities, his followers proclaimed that he had risen from the dead and was the Son of God. His teachings spread across the Roman Empire, largely through the travels and letters of the apostle Paul, and in the year 380 Christianity became the empire’s official religion.

Historians broadly agree that Jesus lived and was crucified. The Gospels, the four accounts of his life, were written roughly forty to seventy years after his death, and they are works of faith as well as of memory.

Today Christianity is not one church but many. As our page on religion in general notes, its branches often disagree sharply, so it helps to know the three main families:

Catholic

The largest branch, about 1.3 billion members, led by the Pope in Rome. Rich in sacraments, saints, and tradition.

Eastern Orthodox

Separated from Rome in 1054. Strong in Greece, Russia, and Eastern Europe, known for its icons, ancient liturgy, and mystical prayer.

Protestant

Began with Martin Luther in 1517. Thousands of denominations, from Lutherans and Baptists to Methodists, Pentecostals, and Quakers, emphasizing the Bible and personal faith.

A traveler kneeling on a rocky road to tend a wounded stranger, a donkey waiting nearby in warm evening light — Image to come: Breath-Images/good-samaritan.png

What is wise

Teachings that hold up, and that anyone, of any faith or none, can test in their own life.

Love your neighbor

Asked for the greatest commandment, Jesus named two: love God with all your heart, and “thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” And with the golden rule he summed up all ethics in one line: treat others as you would want to be treated.

Everyone is your neighbor

In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the man who stops to help the wounded traveler is a Samaritan, someone Jesus’ listeners despised. The lesson is that love crosses every line of tribe, nation, and religion.

Love your enemies

“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you.” Perhaps the hardest teaching in any religion, and one that inspired Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.

Forgiveness

Asked how often to forgive, Jesus answered seventy times seven, meaning without limit. In the parable of the prodigal son, a father runs to welcome home the son who wasted everything. Forgiveness frees the one who forgives as much as the one forgiven.

Care for the least

Feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick and the prisoner. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” This teaching built many of the world’s first hospitals, orphanages, and charities.

Humility and peace

The Sermon on the Mount blesses the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers. It turns the world’s values upside down: greatness is found in serving, not in ruling.

Grace

A person’s worth is not earned. It is given. The idea that each of us is loved before we have done anything to deserve it has healed countless people crushed by guilt or a sense of failure.

The contemplative tradition

Christianity has a deep tradition of silent prayer: the Desert Fathers of Egypt, the 14th-century Cloud of Unknowing, Brother Lawrence’s practice of the presence of God in the kitchen, and today’s centering prayer. Julian of Norwich, a medieval mystic, heard these words in prayer: “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”

“Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.”

1 Corinthians 13:4, King James Version. “Charity” here means love.

The heart of it

Love your neighbor, and know that everyone is your neighbor. Love even your enemies, forgive without limit, care for the least, live humbly, and know that your worth is a gift. And in silence, rest in the presence of God.

What are questionable stories

Beliefs held on faith, and stories best enjoyed as stories. Some may be true; none can be tested.

The miracles

Walking on water, turning water into wine, feeding five thousand with a few loaves. Many Christians take them literally, and many others read them as signs pointing to a deeper truth: that love multiplies when it is shared.

The virgin birth and the resurrection

These are the central claims of Christian faith. They cannot be proven or disproven, and they belong among the beliefs people hold for meaning. Read as symbols, they speak of new life breaking into the world, and of love stronger than death.

The Trinity

The belief that God is one being in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, was defined by church councils in the 300s, centuries after Jesus. Christians themselves call it a mystery.

Creation, Adam and Eve, and the flood

Taken literally, a six-day creation a few thousand years ago conflicts with everything science has learned. Read as story, Genesis speaks powerfully of a good creation, human temptation, and responsibility. Many churches read it this way.

The end of the world

Predictions of the end times and the rapture have been made again and again. In 1844, thousands sold their possessions and waited for Christ’s return on a date a preacher had calculated. Every such date has passed.

Christmas and the saints

The shepherds, the star, the wise men, and the manger; the saints and their miracles. Some of the most beloved stories in the world, full of warmth, and best enjoyed as the beautiful stories they are.

The heart of it

The miracles, the virgin birth, the resurrection, and the Trinity are matters of faith. A literal creation and end-times predictions conflict with what we know. Read as story and symbol, many carry real meaning.

What is harmful

Where Christian teaching has been used to hurt people.

Violence in the name of Christ

The Crusades, the Inquisition, and the religious wars between Catholics and Protestants, which devastated Europe in the 1600s. The witch hunts of the 1500s and 1600s killed tens of thousands of people, most of them women.

Hatred of the Jews

For centuries, Jews were blamed as “Christ-killers,” expelled, and attacked in Christian lands. This long history helped prepare the ground for the Holocaust. The Catholic Church formally rejected the charge in 1965.

Slavery and conquest

Many churches defended slavery using the Bible, and European colonizers often forced conversion on conquered peoples. In the United States and Canada, church-run boarding schools took Native children from their families, and many suffered abuse. The Pope apologized for this in 2022.

Women held back

Scriptures telling wives to submit to their husbands and women to keep silent in church have long been used to limit women. The Catholic and Orthodox churches still do not allow women to become priests.

Abuse and cover-up

In recent decades, the sexual abuse of children by clergy, and the covering up of that abuse by church leaders, has been exposed in many countries and in many denominations.

Control through fear

The threat of eternal hell, heavy guilt, and shunning have been used to keep people from asking questions or leaving. Science has been resisted too: Galileo was forced to deny that the earth moves around the sun.

Double-speak

Christianity offers some of the clearest examples of a religion saying one thing and doing another. “Love your enemies,” alongside centuries of holy wars. “God is love,” alongside the teaching that God will torment most of humanity forever. “Blessed are the poor,” alongside preachers who promise wealth to believers and fly in private jets. And with thousands of denominations, “Christianity teaches” can mean opposite things, from full welcome to harsh exclusion, depending on which church is speaking.

The other side of the ledger

It is only fair to add that Christians have also led many of the fights against these harms. Quakers and evangelicals such as William Wilberforce led the movement to end slavery. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister, and Desmond Tutu an Anglican archbishop. Many churches have apologized for their past and changed their ways. The harm comes from the Parent that demands obedience; the reform often comes from Christians who took Jesus at his word.

The heart of it

Holy wars, persecution of Jews, slavery, the silencing of women, abuse, and control through fear have all been done in Christ’s name, often in direct contradiction of his teaching. Christians who took that teaching seriously have led the way in healing these harms.

People of all ages holding lit candles in a softly glowing church on a winter night — Image to come: Breath-Images/candlelight-service.png

Being a friend of Christianity

You do not need to settle questions of belief to be a friend of Christianity. You can read the Sermon on the Mount as some of the finest moral wisdom ever spoken. You can sit in a cathedral and let its silence settle you, sing carols on Christmas Eve by candlelight, or be lifted by Handel’s Messiah. You can say the Lord’s Prayer with a grieving friend, volunteer at a church food pantry, or learn centering prayer from a monk. And you can do all of this while being honest about what you believe and what you do not.

For a deeper look at the wisdom of the Bible, explored in its own words and in the light of the ideas on this site, visit our companion site.

Visit MyDeeperBible.com

The heart of it

Borrow Christianity’s wisdom, join in its beauty, and share in its good works, with honesty and respect, whatever you believe.

Continue

The next page turns to the world’s second-largest religion, Islam, with its daily rhythm of prayer, its mystical heart in Sufism, and the hard questions raised where its ancient laws are enforced today.