(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
By the late 20th century, Christianity had become the most widely disseminated
faith on Earth. Virtually no nation has remained unaffected by the activities
of Christian missionaries, although in many countries Christians are only
a small fraction of the total population. There are over 34,000 different
denominations of Christianity found on the planet today. Currently there
are over 12,000 in North America alone. Most of the countries of Asia and
Africa have Christian minorities, some of which, as in India and even China,
number several million members.
The concentration of Christians are still
found in Western cultures. Each major division of Christianity—Eastern
Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism and Protestantism are covered in this section
of the course. Christianity covers the full spectrum of religious traditions,
from the Amish who have chosen to withdraw from the world, setting aside
modern conveniences such as electricity and automobiles, to the Unitarians
who most Christians don’t even consider Christians because they do not
believe in either the concept of Jesus being the son of God or part of
the trinity. From January18th through the 25th, each year, however, a revival
is happening in Christianity with a “Week of Universal Prayer of Christians
for Christian Unity.” Anglicans, Catholics, Orthodox, Protestants, Lutheran
and Calvinist, all pray in the spirit of St. Paul. It would take a great
book to cover all the branches of the Christianity tree today.
The information
for the 12 denominations covered here in some cases is provided verbatim
from the Ontario Consultants On Religious Tolerance website (www.religioustolerance.org).
It is possibly the most comprehensive site today for researching different
denominations of Christianity. On it’s index page it states that this site
is “dedicated to promoting religious freedom, tolerance and diversity as
positive cultural values.” The url is provided for your future studies
if you would like to know more about the various denominations of Christianity.