Christianity and Related Topics

Door of the Theses in Wittenberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

Protestantism

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The Trinity is the belief that God is one God in three persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit

A Lutheran depiction of the Last Supper by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1547

Spread of Lollardy in medieval England and medieval Scotland

Distribution of Protestantism and Catholicism in Central Europe on the eve of the Thirty Years' War (1618)

1839 Methodist camp meeting during the Second Great Awakening in the U.S.

Dissatisfaction with the outcome of a disputation in 1525 prompted Swiss Brethren to part ways with Huldrych Zwingli

Glass window in the town church of Wiesloch (Stadtkirche Wiesloch) with Martin Luther and John Calvin commemorating the 1821 union of Lutheran and Reformed churches in the Grand Duchy of Baden

Historical chart of the main Protestant branches

Indonesian Reformed Evangelical Church megachurch

Links between interdenominational movements and other developments within Protestantism

Hillsong Church Konstanz, Germany, an evangelical charismatic church

Jacobus Arminius was a Dutch Reformed theologian, whose views influenced parts of Protestantism. A small Remonstrant community remains in the Netherlands.

Karl Barth, often regarded as the greatest Protestant theologian of the twentieth century

Columbia University, established by the Church of England

Enlightenment philosopher John Locke argued for individual conscience, free from state control

St. Peter's Church (1612), the oldest surviving Protestant church in the "New World" (the Americas and certain Atlantic Ocean islands), the first of nine Parish churches established in Bermuda by the Church of England. Bermuda also has the oldest Presbyterian church outside the British Isles, the Church of Scotland's Christ Church (1719).

James Springer White and his wife, Ellen G. White founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

An Adventist pastor baptizes a young man in Mozambique.

Loma Linda University Seventh-day Adventist Church in Loma Linda, California, United States.

Dirk Willems saves his pursuer. This act of mercy led to his recapture, after which he was burned at the stake.

An Amish family in a horse-drawn square buggy.

Alexanderwohl Mennonite Church in rural Goessel, Kansas, United States.

Thomas Cranmer, one of the most influential figures in shaping Anglican theology and self-identity.

The various editions of the Book of Common Prayer contain the words of structured services of worship in the Anglican Church.

British coronations are held in Westminster Abbey, a royal peculiar under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch.

Roger Williams was an early proponent of religious freedom and the separation of church and state.

Baptists subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers.

The First Baptist Church in America. Baptists are roughly one-third of U.S. Protestants.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/appendix-b-classification-of-protestant-denominations/|title=Appendix B: Classification of Protestant Denominations|date=12 May 2015}}</ref>

John Calvin's theological thought influenced a variety of Congregational, Continental Reformed, United, Presbyterian, and other Reformed churches.

The Ordination of Elders in a Scottish Kirk, by John Henry Lorimer, 1891.

A Congregational church in Cheshire, Connecticut, United States.

Luther's rose seal, a symbol of Lutheranism

Luther composed hymns still used today, including "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"

Moses and Elijah direct the sinner looking for salvation to the cross in this painting illustrating Luther's Theology of the Cross (as opposed to a Theology of Glory).

John Wesley, the primary founder of the Methodism.

A United Methodist elder celebrating the Eucharist.

Methodist Central Hall in Westminster, London.

Charles Fox Parham, who associated glossolalia with the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Contemporary Christian worship in Rock Harbor Church, Costa Mesa, United States.

A Pentecostal church in Ravensburg, Germany.

George Fox was an English dissenter and a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends.

Friedensthal Moravian Church Christiansted, St Croix, USVI founded in 1755.

A night shelter of The Salvation Army in Geneva, Switzerland.

William Wilberforce, a British evangelical abolitionist.

Billy Graham, a prominent evangelical revivalist, preaching in Duisburg, Germany in 1954.

Worship service at Église Nouvelle vie, an evangelical Pentecostal church in Longueuil, Canada.

An Evangelical Protestant church in Hämeenlinna, Finland.

Philipp Jakob Spener, German pioneer and founder of Pietism.

Pietism has been a strong cultural influence in Scandinavia.

The Broad and the Narrow Way, a popular German Pietist painting, 1866.

John Cotton, who sparked the Antinomian Controversy with his free grace theology.

Pilgrim Fathers landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620.

Built in 1681, the Old Ship Church in Hingham, Massachusetts is the oldest church in America in continuous ecclesiastical use.<ref>{{Cite news|last = Butterfield|first = Fox|title = The Perfect New England Town|url = https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/14/travel/the-perfect-new-england-village.html?sec=&spon=|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 14 May 1989|access-date = 30 May 2010}}</ref>

Luther Monument in Worms, which features some of the Reformation's crucial figures.

The International Monument to the Reformation in Geneva, Switzerland.

The Adoration of the Trinity by Albrecht Dürer.

The Crucifixion of Christ by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

The Adam and Eve by Lucas Cranach the Younger.

A Huguenot, on St. Bartholomew's Day, Refusing to Shield Himself from Danger by Wearing the Roman Catholic Badge by John Everett Millais.

The Return of the Prodigal Son, detail, c. 1669 by Rembrandt.

The Church at Auvers, 1890. Musée d'Orsay, Paris. By Vincent van Gogh.

Protestantism as state religion:
Lutheranism
Anglicanism
Calvinism
Methodism

A Moravian diener serves bread to fellow members of her congregation during the celebration of a lovefest (2015).

A hymnal of the Free Methodist Church, a Methodist denomination aligned with the holiness movement.

Protestantism is a form of Christianity that follows the tenets of the Protestant Reformation: a major movement within Western Christianity that began in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to be errors, abuses, innovations, discrepancies, and theological novums within the medieval Catholic Church.

Funerary stele of Licinia Amias on marble, in the National Roman Museum. One of the earliest Christian inscriptions found, it comes from the early 3rd century Vatican necropolis area in Rome. It contains the text ΙΧΘΥϹ ΖΩΝΤΩΝ ("fish of the living"), a predecessor of the Ichthys symbol.

History of Christianity

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The eastern Mediterranean region in the time of Paul the Apostle

Christ Jesus, the Good Shepherd, 3rd century

St. Lawrence (martyred 258) before Emperor Valerianus by Fra Angelico

A folio from Papyrus 46, an early-3rd-century collection of Pauline epistles

Virgin and Child. Wall painting from the early Roman catacombs, 4th century.

Icon depicting the Emperor Constantine (centre) and the bishops of the First Council of Nicaea (325) holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381.

Imagined portrait of Arius; detail of a Cretan School icon, c. 1591, depicting the First Council of Nicaea.

The ceiling mosaic of the Arian Baptistery, built in Ravenna by the Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great.

An Eastern Roman mosaic showing a basilica with towers, mounted with Christian crosses, 5th century, Louvre

The Church of the East during the Middle Ages

Coptic icon of St. Anthony the Great, father of Christian monasticism and early anchorite. The Coptic inscription reads ‘Ⲡⲓⲛⲓϣϯ Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ⲁⲛⲧⲱⲛⲓ’ ("the Great Father Anthony").

A mosaic of Justinian I in the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy

Roderick is venerated as one of the Martyrs of Córdoba

Raid on the Monastery of Zobe and the death of hegumenos Michael and his 36 brothers, depicted in the Menologion of Basil II.

"Hospitality of Abraham", icon by Andrei Rublev; the three angels represent the Godhead according to Trinitarian Christians.

Western Europe, the Holy Roman Empire, Kievan Rus', and the Byzantine Empire in the Middle Ages (year 1000)

The spread of Cistercians from their original sites in Western-Central Europe during the Middle Ages

Henry IV, the Holy Roman Emperor at the gate of Canossa Castle in 1077, during the Investiture controversy.

The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Crusader states with their strongholds in the Holy Land at their height, between the First and the Second Crusade (1135)

St. Cyril and St. Methodius monument on Mt. Radhošť

Christianization of Kievan Rus', the first unified federation of Slavic tribes

Christianization of Moravia under the rule of Rastislav

Jan Hus defending his theses at the Council of Constance (1415), painting by the Czech artist Václav Brožík

Michelangelo's Pietà (1498–99) in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City

American Discovery Viewed by Native Americans (Thomas Hart Benton, 1922). European discovery and colonization had disastrous effects on the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and their societies.

The Council in Santa Maria Maggiore church; Museo Diocesiano Tridentino, Trento

Galileo before the Holy Office, a 19th-century painting by Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury

Churches of the Moscow Kremlin, as seen from the Balchug

Demolition of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow on the orders of Joseph Stalin, 5 December 1931, consistent with the doctrine of state atheism in the USSR

Laying on of hands during a service in a neo-charismatic church in Ghana

The history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, Christian countries, and the Christians with their various denominations, from the 1st century to the present.

Jesus

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Jesus (c.

Counter-clockwise from top-right: Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Latin, and English transcriptions of the name Jesus

A 3rd-century Greek papyrus of the Gospel of Luke

Adoration of the Shepherds by Gerard van Honthorst, 1622

The Circumcision by Giovanni Bellini, ~1500. The work depicts the circumcision of Jesus.

The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple, by William Holman Hunt, 1860

The Baptism of Christ by John the Baptist, by José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior, 1895

Sermon on the Mount, by Carl Bloch, 1877, depicts Jesus' important discourse

The Exhortation to the Apostles, by James Tissot, portrays Jesus talking to his 12 disciples

Jesus and the rich young man by Heinrich Hofmann, 1889

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Pompeo Batoni depicts the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Jesus told many parables during his ministry.

Jesus cleansing a leper, medieval mosaic from the Monreale Cathedral, late 12th to mid-13th centuries

The Transfiguration of Jesus, depicted by Carl Bloch, 19th century

A painting of Jesus' final entry into Jerusalem, by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1897

The Last Supper, depicted by Juan de Juanes, c. 1562

A depiction of the kiss of Judas and arrest of Jesus, by Caravaggio, c. 1602

Ecce homo! Antonio Ciseri's 1871 depiction of Pontius Pilate presenting Jesus to the public

Pietro Perugino's depiction of the Crucifixion as Stabat Mater, 1482

Appearance of Jesus Christ to Maria Magdalena by Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov, 1835

A 3rd century depiction of Jesus as the Good Shepherd

Judea, Galilee and neighboring areas at the time of Jesus

A 1640 edition of the works of Josephus, a 1st-century Roman-Jewish historian who referred to Jesus.

Baptism in the Jordan River, the river where Jesus was baptized

The Resurrection of Christ from a 16th-century manuscript of La Passion de Nostre Seigneur

The ethnicity of Jesus in art has been influenced by cultural settings.

The Trinity is the belief in Christianity that God is one God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is depicted with the Alpha and Omega letters in the catacombs of Rome from the 4th century.

The name Jesus son of Mary written in Islamic calligraphy followed by Peace be upon him

The Druze maqam of Al-masih (Jesus) in As-Suwayda Governorate.

Enthroned Jesus image on a Manichaean temple banner from c. 10th-century Qocho

Jesus healing a paralytic in one of the first known images of Jesus from Dura Europos in the 3rd century

The Shroud of Turin, Italy, is the best-known claimed relic of Jesus and one of the most studied artifacts in human history.

Jesus depicted as the liberator of Black slaves, on the masthead of the Abolitionist paper "The Liberator".

He is the central figure of Christianity, the world's largest religion.

Door of the Schlosskirche (castle church) in Wittenberg to which Luther is said to have nailed his 95 Theses on 31st October 1517, sparking the Reformation

Christian denomination

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A 6th-century Nestorian church, St. John the Arab, in the Assyrian village of Geramon

A Christian denomination is a distinct religious body within Christianity that comprises all church congregations of the same kind, identifiable by traits such as a name, particular history, organization, leadership, theological doctrine, worship style and sometimes a founder.

Thomas Aquinas from Valle Romita Polyptych by Gentile da Fabriano

Christian theology

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Rembrandt's The Evangelist Matthew Inspired by an Angel, 1661

Christ in Gethsemane, Heinrich Hofmann, 1890

"Holy Trinity" from the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, by Andrei Rublev, c. 1400, but more properly known as the "Hospitality of Abraham." The three angels symbolize the Trinity.

The various Christological positions, and their names

Jesus, believed to be both man and God, painting by Carl Heinrich Bloch

A depiction of Jesus and Mary, the Theotokos of Vladimir (12th century)

Holy Doors from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai, depicting the Annunciation, c. 12th century

The Resurrection of Christ by Carl Heinrich Bloch, 1875.

Statue of the Fallen Angel, Retiro Park (Madrid, Spain).

Dante and Beatrice gaze upon the highest heavens; from Gustave Doré's illustrations to the Divine Comedy.

Hell as depicted in Hieronymus Bosch's triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights (c. 1504).

A Sistine Chapel fresco depicts the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden for their sin of eating from the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Augustine of Hippo wrote that original sin is transmitted by concupiscence and enfeebles freedom of the will without destroying it.

Christ with the Eucharist by Vicente Juan Masip, 16th century.

Detail from the Last Judgement by Michelangelo

Christian theology is the theology of Christian belief and practice.

Saint George's Cathedral, Istanbul, Turkey

Eastern Orthodox Church

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Second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members.

Christ Pantocrator, sixth century, Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai; the oldest known icon of Christ, in one of the oldest monasteries in the world

Emperor Constantine presents a representation of the city of Constantinople as tribute to an enthroned Mary and baby Jesus in this church mosaic (Hagia Sophia, c. 1000)

An icon of Saint John the Baptist, 14th century, North Macedonia

Icon depicting the Emperor Constantine and the bishops of the First Council of Nicaea (325) holding the Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381.

Hagia Sophia, the largest church in the world and patriarchal basilica of Constantinople for nearly a thousand years, later converted into a mosque, then a museum, then back to a mosque.

The baptism of Princess Olga in Constantinople, a miniature from the Radzivill Chronicle

Latin Crusaders sacking the city of Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Orthodox controlled Byzantine Empire, in 1204.

Timeline showing the main autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Churches, from an Eastern Orthodox point of view, up to 2021

Canonical territories of the main autocephalous and autonomous Eastern Orthodox jurisdictions as of 2020

Percentage distribution of Eastern Orthodox Christians by country

Our Lady of Tinos is the major Marian shrine in Greece.

The Theotokos of Vladimir, one of the most venerated of Orthodox Christian icons of the Virgin Mary

Last Judgment: 12th-century Byzantine mosaic from Torcello Cathedral

David glorified by the women of Israel from the Paris Psalter, example of the Macedonian art (Byzantine) (sometimes called the Macedonian Renaissance)

Chanters singing on the kliros at the Church of St. George, Patriarchate of Constantinople

An illustration of the traditional interior of an Orthodox church.

Shards of pottery vases on the street, after being thrown from the windows of nearby houses. A Holy Saturday tradition in Corfu.

Eucharistic elements prepared for the Divine Liturgy

The wedding of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

Eastern Orthodox subdeacon being ordained to the diaconate. The bishop has placed his omophorion and right hand on the head of the candidate and is reading the Prayer of Cheirotonia.

The consecration of the Rt Rev. Reginald Heber Weller as an Anglican bishop at the Cathedral of St. Paul the Apostle in the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac, with the Rt. Rev. Anthony Kozlowski of the Polish National Catholic Church and Saint Tikhon, then Bishop of the Aleutians and Alaska (along with his chaplains Fr. John Kochurov and Fr. Sebastian Dabovich) of the Russian Orthodox Church present

Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew I in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, 2014

The Constantinople Massacre of April 1821: a religious persecution of the Greek population of Constantinople under the Ottomans. Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople was executed.

The Pan-Orthodox Council, Kolymvari, Crete, Greece, June 2016

Patriarchate of Peć in Kosovo, the seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church from the 14th century when its status was upgraded into a patriarchate

Traditional Paschal procession by Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church

Greek Orthodox massacred during the Greek Genocide in Smyrna in 1922.

In 2007, Metropolitan Alfeyev expressed the possibility of peaceful coexistence between Islam and Christianity in Russia, as the two religions have never had religious wars in Russia.

Eucharist

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A Kremikovtsi Monastery fresco (15th century) depicting the Last Supper celebrated by Jesus and his disciples. The early Christians too would have celebrated this meal to commemorate Jesus' death and subsequent resurrection.

Eucharistic window (1898–1900) by Józef Mehoffer

Christ with the Eucharist, Vicente Juan Masip, 16th century.

Early Christian painting of an Agape feast.

At a Solemn Tridentine Mass, the Host is displayed to the people before Communion.

Eucharistic celebration at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima.

The serving of elements individually, to be taken in unison, is common among Baptists.

Table set for the Eucharist in an ELCA service

Many Presbyterian churches historically used communion tokens to provide entrance to the Lord's Supper.

A United Methodist minister consecrating the elements

Communion elements: matzo is sometimes used for bread, emphasising the "re-creation" of the Last Supper.

In the Western Catholic Church, the administration of the Eucharist to children requires that they have sufficient knowledge and careful preparation to receive the body of Christ with faith and devotion.

Worshippers kneel and bow in the street during the Eucharist Procession, London, England.

The Eucharist displayed in a monstrance, flanked by candles

Illuminated title of "The Holy Communion" from the 1845 illustrated Book of Common Prayer.

The Eucharist, also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper among other names, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others.

Baptism

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Catacombs of San Callisto: baptism in a 3rd-century painting

Al-Maghtas ruins on the Jordanian side of the Jordan River are the location for the Baptism of Jesus and the ministry of John the Baptist.

Christening photograph in Orthodox Church. The moment of Catechism.

Baptism by submersion in the Eastern Orthodox Church (Sophia Cathedral, 2005)

Men lined up to be baptized by immersion in the River Jordan

Fresco of a baptism from the Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter.

Long laced gown worn at a typical Lutheran baptism in Sweden in 1948

Baptism of Augustine of Hippo as represented in a sculptural group in Troyes cathedral (1549)

The baptistry at St. Raphael's Cathedral, Dubuque, Iowa. This particular font was expanded in 2005 to include a small pool to provide for immersion baptism of adults. Eight-sided font architectures are common symbology of the day of Christ's Resurrection: the "Eighth Day".

Russian Orthodox priest greeting an infant and its godparents on the steps of the church at the beginning of the Sacred Mystery of Baptism.

A river baptism in North Carolina at the turn of the 20th century. Full-immersion (submersion) baptism continues to be a common practice in many African-American Christian congregations today.

Engraving from William G. Brownlow's book The Great Iron Wheel Examined, showing a Baptist minister changing clothes in front of horrified women after administering a baptism by immersion.

Syro-Malabar Major Archbishop crowning a baby after baptism

Mandaeans undergoing baptism (masbuta) in the Karun River, Ahvaz, Iran

Baptism (from βάπτισμα) is a Christian sacrament of admission and adoption, almost invariably with the use of water, into Christianity.

Judaica (clockwise from top): Shabbat candlesticks, handwashing cup, Chumash and Tanakh, Torah pointer, shofar and etrog box

Judaism

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Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people.

A painting of Moses decorates the Dura-Europos synagogue dating from 244 CE

The Western Wall in Jerusalem is a remnant of the wall encircling the Second Temple. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism.

Aleppo Codex, a Tanakh produced in Tiberias in the 10th century

A man holds up a Sephardi-style torah at the Western Wall, Jerusalem

A Yemenite Jew at morning prayers, wearing a kippah skullcap, prayer shawl and tefillin

An Israeli female soldier prays at the Western Wall

Jewish boys wearing tzitzit and kippot play soccer in Jerusalem

Men wearing tallitot pray at the Western Wall

Two braided Shabbat challahs placed under an embroidered challah cover at the start of the Shabbat meal

Jews in Mumbai break the Yom Kippur fast with roti and samosas

Jewish personnel of the US Navy light candles on Hanukkah

The Sarajevo Synagogue in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

18th-century circumcision chair Museum of Jewish Art and History

Two boys wearing tallit at a bar mitzvah. The torah is visible in the foreground.

The Bereavement (Yahrtzeit) Hasidic tish, Bnei Brak, Israel

Jewish students with their teacher in Samarkand, Uzbekistan c. 1910.

A Yemeni sofer writing a torah in the 1930s

Judaism is practiced around the world. This is an 1889 siddur published in Hebrew and Marathi for use by the Bene Israel community

The 12th century Synagogue of Santa María la Blanca in Toledo, Spain was converted to a church shortly after anti-Jewish pogroms in 1391

The bimah of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt

Judaism's texts, traditions, and values strongly influenced later Abrahamic religions, including Christianity and Islam.

Statue representing Europa at Palazzo Ferreria, in Valletta, Malta

Europe

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Landmass, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere.