A Guide to the Different Christian Denominations

“Going to church” is not as simple as it sounds. Even small towns in America can have as six or seven different churches in different denominations. This quick and easy guide to the different Christian denominations will give you a better understanding of the many approaches to one religion.

Roman Catholicism

The oldest denomination of Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church traces its lineage back to the apostle Peter. Even after many divisions, it remains the largest denomination of Christianity in the world. The Catholic Church has maintained many of its traditions—the seven Sacraments, unmarried priests, salvation through works, the belief in literal transformation of bread and wine—through the centuries. In North America, Catholics live predominant in the Northeastern United States, the Great Lakes cities, Quebec, and throughout the state of Louisiana.

Eastern Orthodoxy

Years of simmering tensions within the Catholic Church led to the Great Schism of 1054, when Christians in eastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean region began looking not to Rome for leadership but to Constantinople (now Istanbul). Orthodox Christianity is distinguished by the sights, sounds, and smells of its services, employing Byzantine art, chanting, and incense. Today, Greek and Russian branches of the Orthodox Church are most prominent in America.

Protestantism

Martin Luther began the Protestant Reformation in 1517 when he published his Ninety-Five Theses against the Roman Catholic Church. Since then, numerous Protestant denominations have arisen, all with different approaches to worship. The most important distinction between Catholics and Protestants concerns salvation: Catholics believe one must do good works to be saved, while Protestants maintain that faith alone is sufficient. Lutherans—predominant in Germany, Scandinavia, and areas of North America where those people settled—are known for their chorales and for twining traditional services with more contemporary presentations. Presbyterians grew from the teachings of John Calvin and the Church of Scotland, and its church architecture reflects an austerity unlike that of Catholic churches. Baptists are known for their insistence on full-immersion baptism as a sacrament, hence the name. Perhaps the most ascendant of Protestants are evangelical Christians, who place an emphasis on the experience of being reborn within the faith.

Anglicanism (Episcopalian)

The Catholic Church experienced another major separation in 1534 when King Henry VIII, wishing to divorce Catherine of Aragon, could not gain the approval of Pope Clement VII to do so. Rather than stay in his marriage or defy the Pope, Henry VIII withdrew England from Rome’s oversight and established a separate Church of England. It was initially quite similar to its parent church, but it took on a more English character in 1611, when the King James Bible was published as the first readily available version written not in Latin but in the English language. Anglicans, known as Episcopalians outside Europe, still maintain a church that seeks a “middle way” between Catholicism and Protestantism, and “high church” Episcopalian services are as close to a Catholic Mass as a Protestant service can be.

A guide to the different Christian denominations could go on for pages and pages into deep detail on the differences that set the denominations apart. However, this summary should begin to acquaint you with the differences, big and small, that exist in Christianity today.