{"id":74,"date":"2019-05-20T20:59:32","date_gmt":"2019-05-20T20:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.anthrocervone.org\/worldreligions\/?page_id=74"},"modified":"2022-07-06T02:51:49","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T02:51:49","slug":"global-christianity","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.anthrocervone.org\/worldreligions\/global-christianity\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Christianity"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.anthrocervone.org\/worldreligions\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/2000px-Christianity_percent_population_in_each_nation_World_Map_Christian_data_by_Pew_Research.svg_-1024x526.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-83\" width=\"324\" height=\"166\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.anthrocervone.org\/worldreligions\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/2000px-Christianity_percent_population_in_each_nation_World_Map_Christian_data_by_Pew_Research.svg_-1024x526.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.anthrocervone.org\/worldreligions\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/2000px-Christianity_percent_population_in_each_nation_World_Map_Christian_data_by_Pew_Research.svg_-300x154.png 300w, https:\/\/www.anthrocervone.org\/worldreligions\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/2000px-Christianity_percent_population_in_each_nation_World_Map_Christian_data_by_Pew_Research.svg_-768x394.png 768w, https:\/\/www.anthrocervone.org\/worldreligions\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/2000px-Christianity_percent_population_in_each_nation_World_Map_Christian_data_by_Pew_Research.svg_.png 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 324px) 100vw, 324px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Over two thousands of years, a diverse range of different Christian traditions and  communities developed in different areas of the world. As Christianity spread around the world (usually through European imperial expansion), different communities experienced unique circumstances that resulted in distinctive histories, languages, religious practices, customs, and culture. This lesson will draw from theoretical frameworks introduced in the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.anthrocervone.org\/worldreligions\/introduction\/\">Globalization &amp; Diaspora<\/a>&nbsp;lesson to address diversity&nbsp;<em>within<\/em>&nbsp;global Christianity today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Objectives:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>identify different Christian communities worldwide<\/li><li>recognize modern Christianity as a global collection of different Christian communities<\/li><li>situate a contemporary Christian community within its unique social and historical context using terms and concepts from Globalization &amp; Diaspora Studies.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>There are approximately 2.2 billion believers in Christianity comprising 25,000 denominations within 156 traditions organized into seven major branches. Ethnic and cultural diversity in Christianity reflects a wide geographic distribution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Catholicism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<em>Roman Catholic Church<\/em>, also known as the Latin curch or Western Church, is the&nbsp;largest Christian church, with approximately 1.3&nbsp;billion&nbsp;baptised&nbsp;Catholics worldwide.  It is the world&#8217;s oldest continuously functioning international institution, and it has played a prominent role in the history and development of&nbsp;Western European civilization.&nbsp;The church is&nbsp;headed&nbsp;by the&nbsp;Bishop of Rome, known as the&nbsp;pope. Its central administration is in the&nbsp;Vatican City within the city of Rome in Italy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <em>Eastern Catholic Churches<\/em>, also called Oriental Catholic Churches, Eastern-rite Catholic Churches,&nbsp;or Uniate Churches, are twenty-three&nbsp;Eastern Churches in&nbsp;full communion&nbsp;with the&nbsp;Pope&nbsp;in&nbsp;Rome, and they are considered part of the worldwide&nbsp;Catholic Church. The Eastern Catholic Churches are governed in accordance with the&nbsp;Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, although each church also has its own canons and laws, and the preservation of unique traditions is explicitly encouraged. The total membership of the various churches accounts for about 18 million, making up about 1.5 percent of the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eastern<\/strong> <strong>Orthodox<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> The&nbsp;Eastern Orthodox Church, also known as the <em>Orthodox Catholic Church<\/em>, is the&nbsp;second-largest Christian church, with approximately 200\u2013260 million baptised members. It is comprised of a collection of churches that are each governed by bishops in local&nbsp;synods. The church has no central doctrinal or governmental authority analogous to the&nbsp;Bishop of Rome. As one of the oldest surviving religious institutions in the world, the Eastern Orthodox Church has played a prominent role in the history and culture of&nbsp;Eastern&nbsp;and&nbsp;Southeastern Europe, the&nbsp;Caucasus, and the&nbsp;Near East. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Greek Orthodoxy<\/em> refers to the body of several&nbsp;Churches within Eastern Orthodox Christianity whose&nbsp;liturgy&nbsp;is or was traditionally conducted in&nbsp;Koine Greek,&nbsp;the original language of the&nbsp;Septuagint&nbsp;and the&nbsp;New Testament. Greek Orthodoxy is rooted in the early&nbsp;Church and the culture of the&nbsp;Byzantine Empire with a heavy emphasis on Eastern Orthodox monasticism&nbsp;with origins in&nbsp;Early Christianity&nbsp;in the&nbsp;Near East&nbsp;and in Byzantine&nbsp;Anatolia.  Visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goarch.org\/\">Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America<\/a> website for more information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Russian Orthodoxy<\/em>  is one of the largest&nbsp;ecclesiastically independent Eastern Orthodox churches in the world. Its membership is estimated at more than 90 million, roughly half of the Eastern Orthodox Christian population.  <em>Syrian Orthodoxy<\/em> is an Eastern Orthodox&nbsp;church&nbsp;established by&nbsp;Severus of Antioch&nbsp;in&nbsp;Antioch&nbsp;in 518 A.D. Several smaller orthodox churches includes Eastern European (Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian) and Ethiopian Orthodoxy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To learn more about Eastern Orthodox Beliefs and Practices and how they differ with roman Catholicism, watch this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ovovideo.com\/en\/eastern-orthodox-christianity\/\">Ovo Video<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Aescetic Communities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aescetic communities observe highly structured religious discipline that oftentimes consist of vows of poverty, celibacy and obedience. <em>Monastic <\/em>monks (male) and nuns (female) play an important part in Latin and Greek traditions. Unlike priests who are considered &#8216;secular&#8217; clergy who tended to the affairs of the secular world, monks primarily consisted of laymen dedicated to prayer and worship. A wide range of monastic orders emerged in the middle ages and persist into the present such as Cluniac Fathers, Cisternians and Carthusians in France. <em>Medicant Communities<\/em><strong> <\/strong>consist of <em>friars<\/em> who were dedicated to pastoral work, and who either worked or begged for a living without being bound to a particular convent. Modern medicant orders include Franciscans, Capuchins, Domincans and Carmalites. The emergence of women&#8217;s communities occurred during the development of the early church. Female monastic communities began to separate from the secular world in the 13th century, and church-imposed &#8216;cloistering&#8217;  or seclusion in convents, became the primary role for women in the church well into  the 19th century. A wide variety of convents persist into the present. To learn more, listen to the NPR radio story below about the lives of modern american nuns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/player\/embed\/111780954\/111780952\" width=\"100%\" height=\"290\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Protestant Churches<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> The&nbsp;<em>Reformed churches<\/em>,  also called the&nbsp;Reformed tradition,&nbsp;Reformed Christianity,&nbsp;Reformed Protestantism, or the&nbsp;Reformed faith, &nbsp;are a group of&nbsp;Protestant Christian&nbsp;denominations connected by a Calvinist&nbsp;system of doctrine which differ from&nbsp;Lutherans&nbsp;on the&nbsp;real presence of Christ in the Eucharist,&nbsp;theories of worship, and the&nbsp;use of God&#8217;s law for believers, among other things.&nbsp;As declared in the&nbsp;Westminster&nbsp;and&nbsp;Second Helvetic&nbsp;confessions, the core doctrines are predestination and election.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <em>Anglican Church<\/em>&nbsp;is a&nbsp;Western&nbsp;Christian tradition&nbsp;which has developed from the practices,&nbsp;liturgy, and identity of the&nbsp;Church of England&nbsp;following the&nbsp;English Reformation. The international&nbsp;Anglican Communion forms the third-largest Christian&nbsp;communion&nbsp;in the world, after the&nbsp;Roman Catholic Church&nbsp;and the&nbsp;Eastern Orthodox Church. TO learn more about the history of the Anglican church, watch the video below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8oa2Po4Lw60\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Sixteenth Century: Lutheran, Presbyterian, Anabaptist<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seventeenth &amp; Eighteenth Century: Pietist, Congregationalist, Baptist, Methodist<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Marginal Protestant: Unitarian, Mormon, Jehovah Witness<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nineteenth Century: Pentacostal, United Churches<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apostolic church<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<strong>Apostolic Church<\/strong>&nbsp;is a&nbsp;Christian denomination&nbsp;that came from the&nbsp;Pentecostal&nbsp;movement. The term &#8220;Apostolic&#8221; represents the denomination&#8217;s belief that it follows the teachings of the twelve&nbsp;Apostles&nbsp;who followed&nbsp;Christ. With roots in the&nbsp;1904\u20131905 Welsh Revival, it seeks to stand for&nbsp;first-century Christianity&nbsp;in its faith, practices, and government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The purpose of the denomination is summed up by one prominent Apostolic writer as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>to make known world-wide the forgiveness of sins through the atoning death of Christ; the baptism in water by immersion; the baptism of the Holy Ghost with signs following; the nine gifts of the Holy Ghost; the five gifts of our Ascended Lord; and the vision referred to in the New Testament as &#8220;the Church which is His Body&#8221;.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The largest national church is&nbsp;The Apostolic Church Nigeria, with over 4.5 million members and a national convention center that seats over 100,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Syncretic<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Chrislam<\/em> is a blend of Christianity and Islam primarily in Nigeria<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The&nbsp;<em>Unification Church<\/em>, founded by religious leader&nbsp;Sun Myung Moon&nbsp;in&nbsp;South Korea&nbsp;in 1954. Its teachings are based on the&nbsp;Bible, but include new interpretations not found in mainstream Judaism and Christianity and incorporates Asian traditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Caodaism<\/em>&nbsp;blends elements of&nbsp;Buddhism,&nbsp;Catholicism&nbsp;and&nbsp;Taoism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>African-initiated church&nbsp;(AIC)<\/em> is a&nbsp;Christian church&nbsp;independently started in&nbsp;Africa&nbsp;by Africans rather than by&nbsp;missionaries&nbsp;from another continent. The oldest of these is the&nbsp;Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church&nbsp;which dates from the 4th century and was one of the first Christian churches in the world.&nbsp;These churches are often classified as&nbsp;Protestant&nbsp;or other Christian, but there are&nbsp;Eastern Orthodox&nbsp;churches located in&nbsp;Ethiopia&nbsp;and&nbsp;Eritrea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Catholicism in Central and South America has been integrated with&nbsp;indigenous&nbsp;and African cultures.    African diasporic religions, <em>Candombl\u00e9<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>Vodou<\/em>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<em>Santer\u00eda<\/em> analogize various&nbsp;Yor\u00f9b\u00e1&nbsp;and other&nbsp;African deities&nbsp;to the&nbsp;Roman Catholic saints. The image of&nbsp;<em>Our Lady of Guadalupe<\/em>&nbsp;and the subsequent&nbsp;devotion&nbsp;to her are seen as assimilating some elements of native&nbsp;Mexican culture&nbsp;into Christianity. To learn about Voodou (Voodoo) watch the video below,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QPuAJzB425I\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Santo Daime<\/em>, founded in Brazil, incorporates elements of several religious or spiritual traditions including&nbsp;Folk Catholicism,&nbsp;Kardecist Spiritism, African&nbsp;animism&nbsp;and&nbsp;indigenous&nbsp;South American&nbsp;shamanism, including&nbsp;<em>vegetalismo<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Situating Christian Communities in their Social and historical Context<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This lesson addressed different Christian communities worldwide and presented modern Christianity as a global collection of different Christian communities. The information presented here sheds light on diversity within the global Christian community, and this makes it important to situate a contemporary  Christian communities within their unique social and historical contexts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>References and Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu\/module-fourteen-activity-four\/\">Christianity in Africa<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/chapter\/10.1057\/9780230390805_4\">Glocalizations of Christianity in Europe<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/003776800047001013\">The Rise of Cultural Religion in European Christianity<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/chapter\/10.1057\/9780230390805_4\">Glocalization and Christianity in Early Modern Asia<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.annualreviews.org\/doi\/abs\/10.1146\/annurev-soc-081715-074427\">Religious Studies in Latin America<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Writing Assignment:<\/strong>&nbsp;To analyze and understand diversity within contemporary Christianity, select a contemporary Christian community and use terms and concepts from the Globalization &amp; Diaspora lesson to situate it within its unique social and historical circumstances in order to contextualize how the community is different from others. The community can be a local church or religious group, a political association, a cultural group, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Select a unique Christian community (ie Amish in Lancaster, Coptic Christians in Ethiopia, Westboro Baptist Church, Santeria, etc.)<\/li><li>Locate scholarly sources about the community<\/li><li>Identify how the community is different from other Christian communities<\/li><li>Review the history of the community to determine how the unique characteristics emerged (ie diaspora, ideological movements, interactions with other religions and cultures, etc. )<\/li><li>Develop a thesis statement<\/li><li>Organize data and write body paragraphs to support the statement (cite in-text)<\/li><li>Write Introduction and Conclusion<\/li><li>Format sources.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>(700 words and at least two scholarly sources properly formatted and cited in text; post in discussion, and respond to at least two other student posts)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over two thousands of years, a diverse range of different Christian traditions and communities developed in different areas of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-74","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anthrocervone.org\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anthrocervone.org\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anthrocervone.org\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anthrocervone.org\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anthrocervone.org\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.anthrocervone.org\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":847,"href":"https:\/\/www.anthrocervone.org\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74\/revisions\/847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anthrocervone.org\/worldreligions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}