Faith at a glance:

Christianity

Origins

• Christianity has its roots in the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth whom Christians believe to be the Messiah / Christ promised to the Jewish people through the prophets, and the incarnate Word of God.

• As it developed and spread, Christianity increasingly included those of a non-Jewish background; Christians suffered persecution under a number of Roman Emperors, until the Emperor Constantine in the 4th century made it  the official religion of the Roman Empire.

• From the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries onwards, Christianity developed missionary movements which, at their peak in the nineteenth century, led to Christian Churches being established throughout the world.

• This, in turn, laid the basis for the modern ecumenical movement towards the unity of global Christianity in which the global profile of Christianity has shifted to Africa and Latin America.

Creation and Salvation

• Christianity affirms that the creative intention of God is for a world of peace and unity, and that the purpose of human life is to glorify and enjoy God and God’s creation.

• Christianity also teaches that human beings have turned away from God and become enslaved by sin, characterised by pride and self- centredness, and that the world, nature, is mired in sin with them.  Human beings are set free from sin by the salvific life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, in whom all creation is renewed.

• Responding in faith to the grace of God, men and women may overcome sin and receive salvation, by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in their lives.

•  This power is also at work in all that God has made, and no person who sincerely seeks God and desires what is good is excluded from salvation 'in Christ'.

Christianity teaches that the fruits of the Spirit are:

• love
• joy
• peace
• patience
• kindness
• goodness
• faithfulness
• humility
• self-discipline

 Scriptures, Creeds and Tradition

• The Bible consists of two sections, the Old Testament or  Hebrew Scriptures which are common to Jews and Christians, and the New Testament, which includes four accounts of the life and teaching of Jesus, and of his passion and death, and a collection of letters and other early Christian writings.

• The creeds, the most important of which are the Apostle's Creed and the Nicene Creed, are summaries of orthodox faith which were formulated in the early years of Christianity.

• For Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Anglican Christians, the teachings of the early Church Fathers are also an important source of authority.

 The Church

The Church is the community of Christian believers. It includes several traditions. The Orthodox Churches originated in the Eastern, Greek-speaking areas of the later Roman Empire, while the Catholic Church has its roots in the Latin-speaking West. The Evangelical churches broke away from the Catholic Church in the 16th century ce. Pentecostal churches and free or independent churches are a modern development and are especially strong in Africa and Latin America.

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called God’s sons and God’s daughters.