Christianity
Christianity (/krɪstʃiˈænɪti/ or /krɪstiˈænɪti/) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.4 billion followers, comprising around 31.2% of the world population.[8] Its adherents, known as Christians, are estimated to make up a majority of the population in 157 countries and territories. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Hebrew Bible (called the Old Testament in Christianity) and chronicled in the New Testament.
Christianity remains culturally diverse in its Western and Eastern branches, and doctrinally diverse concerning justification and the nature of salvation, ecclesiology, ordination, and Christology. The creeds of various Christian denominations generally hold in common Jesus as the Son of God—the Logos incarnated—who ministered, suffered, and died on a cross, but rose from the dead for the salvation of humankind; and referred to as the gospel, meaning the "good news". The four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John describe Jesus's life and teachings, with the Old Testament as the gospels' respected background.
Christianity began in the 1st century after the birth of Jesus as a Judaic sect with Hellenistic influence, in the Roman province of Judea. The disciples of Jesus spread their faith around the Eastern Mediterranean area, despite significant persecution. The inclusion of Gentiles led Christianity to slowly separate from Judaism (2nd century). Emperor Constantine I decriminalized Christianity in the Roman Empire by the Edict of Milan (313), later convening the Council of Nicaea (325) where Early Christianity was consolidated into what would become the state religion of the Roman Empire (380). The Church of the East and Oriental Orthodoxy both split over differences in Christology (5th century), while the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church separated in the East–West Schism (1054). Protestantism split into numerous denominations from the Catholic Church in the Reformation era (16th century). Following the Age of Discovery (15th–17th century), Christianity expanded throughout the world via missionary work, extensive trade and colonialism. Christianity played a prominent role in the development of Western civilization, particularly in Europe from late antiquity and the Middle Ages.[9][10][11]
The six major branches of Christianity are Roman Catholicism (1.3 billion people), Protestantism (900 million),[note 2][13][14] Eastern Orthodoxy (220 million), Oriental Orthodoxy (60 million), Restorationism (35 million),[note 3] and the Church of the East (600 thousand). Smaller church communities number in the thousands despite efforts toward unity (ecumenism). In the West, Christianity remains the dominant religion even with a decline in adherence, with about 70% of that population identifying as Christian. Christianity is growing in Africa and Asia, the world's most populous continents. Christians remain greatly persecuted in many regions of the world, particularly in the Middle East, North Africa, East Asia, and South Asia.
Etymology
Early Jewish Christians referred to themselves as 'The Way' (Koinē Greek: τῆς ὁδοῦ, romanized: tês hodoû), probably coming from Isaiah 40:3, "prepare the way of the Lord".[note 4] According to Acts 11:26, the term "Christian" (Χρῑστῐᾱνός, Khrīstiānós), meaning "followers of Christ" in reference to Jesus's disciples, was first used in the city of Antioch by the non-Jewish inhabitants there.[22] The earliest recorded use of the term "Christianity/Christianism" (Χρῑστῐᾱνισμός, Khrīstiānismós) was by Ignatius of Antioch around 100 AD.[23] The name Jesus comes from Greek: Ἰησοῦς Iēsous, likely from Hebrew/Aramaic: יֵשׁוּעַ Yēšūaʿ.
Countries with 50% or more Christians are colored purple; countries with 10% to 50% Christians are colored pink.
Distribution of Catholics
Distribution of Protestants
Distribution of Eastern Orthodox
Distribution of Oriental Orthodox
Distribution of other Christians
With around 2.4 billion adherents according to a 2020 estimation by Pew Research Center,[276][277][8][278][279][280][281] split into three main branches of Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox, Christianity is the world's largest religion.[282] High birth rates and conversions in the global South were cited as the reasons for the Christian population growth.[283][284] For the last hundred years, the Christian share has stood at around 33% of the world population. This masks a major shift in the demographics of Christianity; large increases in the developing world have been accompanied by substantial declines in the developed world, mainly in Western Europe and North America.[285] According to a 2015 Pew Research Center study, within the next four decades, Christianity will remain the largest religion; and by 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion.[286]: 60
According to some scholars, Christianity ranks at first place in net gains through religious conversion.[288][289] As a percentage of Christians, the Catholic Church and Orthodoxy (both Eastern and Oriental) are declining in some parts of the world (though Catholicism is growing in Asia, in Africa, vibrant in Eastern Europe, etc.), while Protestants and other Christians are on the rise in the developing world.[290][291][292] The so-called popular Protestantism[note 9] is one of the fastest growing religious categories in the world.[293][294][295] Nevertheless, Catholicism will also continue to grow to 1.63 billion by 2050, according to Todd Johnson of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity.[296] Africa alone, by 2015, will be home to 230 million African Catholics.[297] And if in 2018, the U.N. projects that Africa's population will reach 4.5 billion by 2100 (not 2 billion as predicted in 2004), Catholicism will indeed grow, as will other religious groups.[298] According to Pew Research Center, Africa is expected to be home to 1.1 billion African Christians by 2050.[286]
In 2010, 87% of the world's Christian population lived in countries where Christians are in the majority, while 13% of the world's Christian population lived in countries where Christians are in the minority.[1] Christianity is the predominant religion in Europe, the Americas, Oceania, and Sub-Saharan Africa.[1] There are also large Christian communities in other parts of the world, such as Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent.[1] In Asia, it is the dominant religion in Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, East Timor, and the Philippines.[299] However, it is declining in some areas including the northern and western United States,[300] some areas in Oceania (Australia[301] and New Zealand[302]), northern Europe (including Great Britain,[303] Scandinavia and other places), France, Germany, Canada,[304] and some parts of Asia (especially the Middle East, due to the Christian emigration,[305][306][307] and Macau[308]).
The total Christian population is not decreasing in Brazil and the southern United States,[309] however, the percentage of the population identifying as Christian is in decline. Since the fall of communism, the proportion of Christians has been largely stable in Central Europe, except in the Czech Republic.[310] On the other hand, Christianity is growing rapidly in both numbers and percentages in Eastern Europe,[310][287] China,[311][282] other Asian countries,[282][312] Sub-Saharan Africa,[282][313] Latin America,[282] North Africa (Maghreb),[314][313] Gulf Cooperation Council countries,[282] and Oceania.[313]
Despite a decline in adherence in the West, Christianity remains the dominant religion in the region, with about 70% of that population identifying as Christian.[1][315] Christianity remains the largest religion in Western Europe, where 71% of Western Europeans identified themselves as Christian in 2018.[316] A 2011 Pew Research Center survey found that 76% of Europeans, 73% in Oceania and about 86% in the Americas (90% in Latin America and 77% in North America) identified themselves as Christians.[282][1] By 2010 about 157 countries and territories in the world had Christian majorities.[282]
There are many charismatic movements that have become well established over large parts of the world, especially Africa, Latin America, and Asia.[317][318][319][320][321][1] Since 1900, primarily due to conversion, Protestantism has spread rapidly in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Latin America.[322] From 1960 to 2000, the global growth of the number of reported Evangelical Protestants grew three times the world's population rate, and twice that of Islam.[323] According to the historian Geoffrey Blainey from the University of Melbourne, since the 1960s there has been a substantial increase in the number of conversions from Islam to Christianity, mostly to the Evangelical and Pentecostal forms.[324]
A study conducted by St. Mary's University estimated about 10.2 million Muslim converts to Christianity in 2015;[314][325] according to the study significant numbers of Muslim converts to Christianity can be found in Afghanistan,[314][326] Azerbaijan,[314][326] Central Asia (including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and other countries),[314][326] Indonesia,[314][326] Malaysia,[314][326] the Middle East (including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey,[327] and other countries),[314][326] North Africa (including Algeria, Morocco,[328][329] and Tunisia[330]),[314][326] Sub-Saharan Africa,[314][326] and the Western World (including Albania, Belgium, France, Germany, Kosovo, the Netherlands, Russia, Scandinavia, United Kingdom, the United States, and other western countries).[314][326] It is also reported that Christianity is popular among people of different backgrounds in Africa and Asia; according to a report by the Singapore Management University, more people in Southeast Asia are converting to Christianity, many of them young and having a university degree.[312] According to scholar Juliette Koning and Heidi Dahles of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam there is a "rapid expansion" of Christianity in Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and South Korea.[312] According to scholar Terence Chong from the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, since the 1980s Christianity is expanding in China, Singapore,[331] Indonesia, Japan,[332][333] Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea,[1] and Vietnam.[334]
In most countries in the developed world, church attendance among people who continue to identify themselves as Christians has been falling over the last few decades.[335] Some sources view this as part of a drift away from traditional membership institutions,[336] while others link it to signs of a decline in belief in the importance of religion in general.[337] Europe's Christian population, though in decline, still constitutes the largest geographical component of the religion.[338] According to data from the 2012 European Social Survey, around a third of European Christians say they attend services once a month or more.[339] Conversely, according to the World Values Survey, about more than two-thirds of Latin American Christians, and about 90% of African Christians (in Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Zimbabwe) said they attended church regularly.[339] According to a 2018 study by the Pew Research Center, Christians in Africa and Latin America and the United States have high levels of commitment to their faith.[340]
Christianity, in one form or another, is the sole state religion of the following nations: Argentina (Catholic),[341] Costa Rica (Catholic),[342] the Kingdom of Denmark (Lutheran),[343] England (Anglican),[344] Greece (Greek Orthodox),[345] Iceland (Lutheran),[346] Liechtenstein (Catholic),[347] Malta (Catholic),[348] Monaco (Catholic),[349] Norway (Lutheran),[350] Samoa,[351] Tonga (Methodist), Tuvalu (Reformed), and Vatican City (Catholic).[352]
There are numerous other countries, such as Cyprus, which although do not have an established church, still give official recognition and support to a specific Christian denomination.[353]
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