The Great Schism of 1054
... The result of the 1054 Schism is the
division between the Roman Catholic and
Eastern Orthodox Church.
The word Orthodox means dedication to
...
Christian Denominations
... Christianity has divided into three major branches over the centuries. Over the
centuries, Christianity has divided into numerous denominations. Each denomination
has its own distinctive beliefs or practices, but they are generally considered a branch
of mainstream Christianity if they agree on core ...
Christian denomination
A denomination in Christianity is a distinct religious body identified by traits such as a common name, structure, leadership and doctrine. Individual bodies, however, may use alternative terms to describe themselves, such as church or sometimes fellowship. Divisions between one group and another are defined by doctrine and church authority; issues such as the nature of Jesus, the authority of apostolic succession, eschatology, and papal primacy often separate one denomination from another. Groups of denominations often sharing broadly similar beliefs, practices, and historical ties are known as branches of Christianity.Individual Christian groups vary widely in the degree to which they recognize one another. Several groups claim to be the direct and sole authentic successor of the church founded by Jesus Christ in the 1st century AD. Others, however, believe in denominationalism, where some or all Christian groups are legitimate churches of the same religion regardless of their distinguishing labels, beliefs, and practices. Because of this concept, some Christian bodies reject the term ""denomination"" to describe themselves, to avoid implying equivalency with other churches or denominations.The Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination with over 1.2 billion members—over half of all Christians worldwide—making it the world's second largest religious denomination after Sunni Islam. However, the Catholic Church does not view itself as a denomination, but as the original pre-denominational church. Protestant denominations account for roughly forty percent of Christians worldwide. Together, Catholicism, Protestantism, Anglicanism, and other denominations sharing historical ties comprise Western Christianity. Western Christian denominations prevail in Western, Northern, Central and Southern Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas and Oceania.The Eastern Orthodox Church, with an estimated 225–300 million adherents, is the second largest Christian organization in the world and also considers itself the original pre-denominational church. Unlike the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church is itself a communion of fully independent autocephalous churches (or ""jurisdictions"") that mutually recognize each other to the exclusion of others. The Eastern Orthodox Church, together with Oriental Orthodoxy and the Assyrian Church of the East, constitutes Eastern Christianity. Eastern Christian denominations are represented mostly in Eastern Europe, North Asia, the Middle East and Northeast Africa.Christians have various doctrines about the Church, the body of faithful that they believe was established by Jesus Christ, and how the divine church corresponds to Christian denominations. Both the Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox consider each of themselves solely to faithfully represent the One Holy catholic and Apostolic Church to the exclusion of the other. Protestants separated from the Catholic Church because of theologies and practices that they considered to be in violation of their interpretation. Generally, members of the various denominations acknowledge each other as Christians, at least to the extent that they have mutually recognized baptisms and acknowledge historically orthodox views including the Divinity of Jesus and doctrines of sin and salvation, even though doctrinal and ecclesiological obstacles hinder full communion between churches.Since the reforms surrounding Vatican II, the Catholic Church has referred to Protestant communities as ""denominations"", while reserving the term ""church"" for apostolic churches, including the Eastern Orthodox (see subsistit in and branch theory). There are however some non-denominational Christians who do not follow any particular branch, though sometimes regarded as Protestants.