Posted by Dr. Anthony ADRIAN
January 11, 2010 -
1,218 views
Lost in Christian Translations…
I believe everything must have balance to function correctly. Anything new must be broken in. About 2k years ago…this new and edgy religion called Christianity came to be, which has spread like wild fire both in population and new denominations. The one problem I see at the moment, the denomination is speeding up while the population is decreasing? This puzzles me. Christianity history has always been very exciting in my theologian studies due to the thousands of layers it can be sliced in to explorer and learn from our world history. Let’s just take for instance its denominations.
Some of its groups are large (e.g.
Catholics,
Lutherans,
Anglicans or
Baptists), while others are just a few small churches, and in most cases the relative size is not evident in any list due to the size compared to the ones I just mentioned. Also, modern movements such as
Fundamentalist Christianity,
Pietism,
Evangelicalism,
Pentecostalism and the
Holiness movement sometimes cross denominational lines, or in some cases create new denominations out of two or more continuing groups, (as is the case for many
United and uniting churches, for example). Such subtleties and complexities are not clearly depicted and would require abit more research in my hand.
Additionally, some groups viewed by non-adherents as denominational actively resist being called a "denomination" and do not have any formal denominational structure, authority, or record-keeping beyond the local congregation; several groups within Restorationism fall into this category.Through a few reports I have gone through I have noted that there is no complete list, but aims to provide a comprehensible overview of the diversity among denominations of Christianity. As there are reported to be approximately 38,000 Christian denominations, many of which cannot be verified to be significant, only those denominations with “credible” internet articles can be listed in order to ensure that all entries on any list are notable and verifiable.
Between denominations, theologians, and comparative religionists there are considerable disagreements about which groups can be properly called Christian, disagreements arising primarily from doctrinal differences between groups. For the purpose of simplicity, I decided not to get into what group is more Christian than that group. This usually falls under human perception law...which brings the crazy out of individuals who are “really” in their beliefs.
There is no official recognition in most parts of the world for religious bodies, and there is no official clearinghouse which could determine the status or respectability of religious bodies. Often there is considerable disagreement between various churches about whether other churches should be labeled with pejorative terms such as "cult", or about whether this or that group enjoys some measure of respectability. Such considerations often vary from place to place, where one religious group may enjoy majority status in one region, but be widely regarded as a "dangerous cult" in another part of the world.
With this small slice of information, can YOU truly see why we can get lost in Christian Translations? If you have any input on this, please share. I would love to get your perspective on this...
