For the past two thousand years, Christian traditions that trace their teachings back to the life of Jesus have expanded and spread. Contemporary Christianity consists of three major branches (the Catholic Church, Orthodox Christian churches, and Protestantism) and claims more followers than any other religion—including just over 70% of the American population.... Read more about A Worldwide Tradition

The Christian Bible’s New Testament includes the Gospels, four different chronicles of the life of Jesus.  These books are foundational for Christian belief and practice, sharing the story of Jesus' birth, baptism and revolutionary teachings, as well as affirming him as the Messiah.... Read more about Life and Teachings of Jesus

According to the Gospels, Jesus was resurrected three days after his execution by crucifixion at the hands of Roman authorities. For Christians, this event affirms the divinity of Jesus and stands as a sign of God’s continued presence in the world.... Read more about Death and Resurrection of Jesus

After Jesus’ death, his followers traveled to spread his teachings as a burgeoning religion. The apostle Paul made the radical shift to proselytize to Gentiles (non-Jews) which advanced  the global spread of Christianity as more people joined the Christian community of the church.... Read more about Birth of the Church

Statements of belief unite Christians in their articulation of shared commitments. While the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed are the oldest and most universal creeds of the church, the process of articulating what it means to give one’s heart to Christ has continued to the present. ... Read more about Credo: “I Believe. . .”

The Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches are rooted in Greece, the Middle East, North Africa, and India. While Christianity may have started as one communion, these churches are theologically and liturgically distinct from those in the Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions, and have weathered centuries of challenge and change.... Read more about Orthodox Christian Churches

The Church of Rome traces its roots to the apostles Peter and Paul, whose lineage continues through the papacy. Despite the Church of Rome’s separation from the Orthodox churches in 1054, and then with Protestant reformers in 1521, Catholics account for half of the world’s Christians today.... Read more about The Roman Catholic Church and the Catholic Communion

Martin Luther, a 16th century German monk with great frustration over the authority of the Roman Catholic Church and an insistence on the gift of salvation through God’s grace, began a process of Christian reform that eventually moved beyond Catholicism. Anabaptists, English reformers, and evangelical Christians have all continued to change Christian doctrine and the ways that Christians churches are internally organized.... Read more about The Protestant Movement

For all of Christian history, missionaries have traveled across the world with the goal of creating a global church. Following the routes of empire and trade, new Christian traditions arose. Some served the interests of colonizing powers while others, influenced by diverse indigenous cultures and identities, opposed European imperialism.... Read more about Mission to the World

Since the 17th century, Christians have disagreed about how to interpret the Bible, relate religious faith to scientific discovery, and incorporate broader social changes into church structure. The Second Vatican Council in the 1960s led to Roman Catholic ecclesiastical change, while Protestant churches have offered diverse, sometime ecumenical, and sometimes conflicting answers to these questions. In more recent years, the world has seen a resurgence of evangelical Christianity as well as an increase in pentecostalism, particularly in Latin America, Africa, and the U.S. ... Read more about The Modern Era

The European colonization of North America created a range of Christian societies along the Atlantic coast. From the Puritans of Massachusetts, to the Dutch Calvinists in New York, to the Spanish Catholics across the Southwest, Christian towns and communities emerged across the land that is now the United States.... Read more about Christian Settlements

The 18th century brought a series of religious revivals to the American colonies. Preachers traveled through Congregationalist, Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist communities, speaking to large crowds, urging renewed piety and personal conversions, and infusing American Protestantism with a lasting individualistic spirit.... Read more about American Protestant Awakening

Enlightenment ideals of rationalism and intellectual and religious freedom pervaded the American colonial religious landscape, and these values were instrumental in the American Revolution and the creation of a nation without an established religion.... Read more about Enlightenment and Revolution

In the early 19th century, many so-called “mainstream Protestants”—Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and Anglicans—understood themselves to be responsible for the future of the fledgling United States. Although they founded interchurch agencies that worked toward social reform, some religious alliances eventually split as denominations took either “liberal” or “fundamentalist” stances.... Read more about The Protestant Mainstream

In the first decades of the 1800s, a coalition of Protestants made arguments grounded in scripture for the abolition of slavery. This group laid the foundation for later social movements, including the women’s rights movement. Although cooperation between churches gave momentum to these campaigns, political and religious arguments led to internal divisions, often along racial and geographic lines. ... Read more about Abolition and Women’s Rights

The First Great Awakening led many enslaved people in the United States to convert to Christianity. Through the 18th and 19th centuries, distinct black churches emerged, seeking autonomy from white Christians. These denominations grew and now thrive in the present day. They are historically influenced by various political and religious movements, including black nationalism and liberation theology.... Read more about African American Christianity

American Catholicism was defined by waves of immigration: older populations in Maryland and the Southwest were joined in the 19th and 20th centuries by immigrants from Italy, Ireland, and Poland, among other countries. Tension between various nationalities, in addition to a dialectic between assimilation and the preservation of devotional practices, defined 20th century Catholic religious existence. The 20th century also saw the election of a Catholic president of the United States.... Read more about American Catholicism

The ecclesiastical authority of Eastern Orthodox churches, which lack universal leaders comparable to the Pope in Roman Catholicism, resulted in the relatively independent organization of Eastern Orthodox churches in the United States, where congregations are often drawn together by a shared national origin.... Read more about The Growth of Eastern Orthodoxy

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known for many years as the Mormon Church, is the largest movement descended from the prophetic claims of Joseph Smith. In the mid-19th century, the Church moved from upstate New York, Smith’s home, to the West, eventually reaching Utah where Mormons founded Salt Lake City. Through the present day, members of the church continue to negotiate their place within Christianity and American society.... Read more about Latter Day Saints Movement

Proponents of the “social gospel” connected social reform to scriptural ideals, calling for regulation of the rapidly industrializing, vastly unequal society that emerged in the early 1900s. The following decades, characterized by war and social unrest, saw a series of Christian movements—notably those organized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—and intellectual positions, including liberation theology, a new and progressive theology that emerged from Latin American Catholicism.... Read more about The Social Gospel

American evangelicalism dates back to the New England Puritans. Today, the term references a diverse group of Christians who often prioritize spiritual rebirth, proselytizing, and spiritual piety. Fundamentalism emerged in the 20th century as a particular theology characterized most notably by biblical literalism. Pentecostalism refers to Christian denominations who prioritize the spirit and whose worship services may include speaking in tongues, faith healings, and other charismatic expressions.... Read more about Fundamentalism, Evangelicalism, and Pentecostalism

The Immigration Act of 1965 allowed entry of greater numbers of Asian and Hispanic immigrants who transformed the American religious landscape, bringing their own forms of worship and expression. One physical change is the emergence of “nesting churches,” buildings that house multiple congregations with different religious identities.... Read more about New Immigrant Christianity

For Christians, the word “church” refers both to Christian communities (ranging from single congregations to all of the religion’s worldwide adherents) and to the buildings where they gather to worship, pray, and spend time together. These structures also vary in size; some are single-room sanctuaries, while others are immense megachurches.... Read more about Church: Space and Spirit

The shape of the cross informs the architecture of many churches, and the symbol’s frequent appearance in the decoration of Christian spaces stands for the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus. For Orthodox Christians, other important images include icons, figurative representations of Christ, the Virgin Mary or saints, which adorn worship spaces, are placed in homes, and are carried throughout everyday life.... Read more about The Cross and the Icon

The central Christian rite is the Eucharist, a shared meal of bread and wine. For some Christians, the bread and wine, consecrated by a priest, are the real body and blood of Jesus; for others, the sacraments are powerful symbolic reminders of the meal Jesus shared with his disciples before his crucifixion.... Read more about Sharing the Bread of Life

The biblical book of Psalms contains texts that serve as the basis for many Christian songs of praise. Musical traditions based on monastic chants accompany these verses when they are sung during worship services.... Read more about Psalms and Songs of Praise

Some Christians understand their faith to be a call to action for social justice. As members of a “mission” community, these Christians go into the world to create new church communities, address political and social issues, and meet immediate human needs, providing food, housing, and healthcare.... Read more about Service and Mission

Lent, a period of forty days (excluding Sundays) from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, is a time of penitence and preparation for Christians, many of whom strengthen their faith through study, prayer, fasting or abstinence. Its restriction and solemnity contrast the joys of Easter, the Sunday celebration of Christ’s resurrection from the dead.... Read more about Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday

Modeled on Christ’s baptism by John the Baptist in the River Jordan, the rite of baptism involves the partial or full immersion of a person into water as a sign of her rebirth into Christianity. Some denominations baptize infants, while others require that the subject has undergone a conversion experience marking their acceptance of Jesus as savior.... Read more about Baptism by Water and Spirit

Many of the global expressions of devotion to Jesus’s mother, the Virgin Mary, include shrines across the world. For American and particularly Hispanic Catholics, special reverence is often afforded to the Virgin of Guadelupe, Mary’s manifestation as an indigenous Madonna on the hill of Tepeyac in Mexico, who is now considered Patroness of all the Americas.... Read more about Devotion to the Virgin Mary

Santuario de Chimayó is a church north of Santa Fe that draws tens of thousands of penitentes, penitential pilgrims, in the week before Easter. The pilgrims seek to participate in Christ’s journey to Calvary, and often take dirt from the church’s miraculous ground, all in a hope of growing closer to God.... Read more about Easter Pilgrimage to Chimayó

The Bible is used by Christians with different theological and political beliefs as textual support for their positions. Questions of interpretation have high stakes and include whether to take the Bible as literally true and eternally relevant, or as a text that is situated within a particular historical context and should be read allegorically.... Read more about Fighting for the Bible

Protestant women across many denominations fought for, and slowly gained, a share of ministerial authority over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries; in Eastern Orthodox and, especially, in Roman Catholic churches, proponents of women’s ordination still fight official opposition.... Read more about Women’s Ministry in the Church

The Christian churches in America are scarred by their violent legacies of settler colonialism and slavery yet are filled with remarkable diversity; across denominations, Christians create communities and traditions informed by their racial and ethnic identities, and many see their faith as an imperative to reckon with racism in the country today.... Read more about Race and Ethnicity

The ever-increasing religious diversity of the United States necessitates that Christians in cities across the country relate to and interact with people of other faith backgrounds. Though some Christians maintain that evangelization is the only appropriate interaction with non-Christians, many others seek to find common ground across religious lines, creating organizations and spaces designed to facilitate open dialogue.... Read more about Interfaith Dialogue

The changing political and social status of LGBTQ Americans has forced Christian churches to choose whether to recognize the marriages of gay and lesbian couples and whether to ordain openly gay or lesbian clergy. Many LGBTQ Christians embrace both their sexual and gender identities and their religious commitments, but other Christians, claiming to uphold biblical values of a Christian understanding of gender, have formed advocacy groups opposing LGBTQ civic and religious rights.... Read more about Homosexuality

After Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States, religious groups that supported abortion rights, like the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Rights, have faced opponents of abortion, notably Catholics supported by papal statements against abortion, in a highly-charged political and religious argument. Despite the polemics, some Americans on both sides have made efforts at open conversation.... Read more about The Ethics of Abortion

Members of the Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, and Mormon churches all call themselves Christians—yet they also maintain significantly divergent theologies and practices. Ecumenical movements attempt to bridge those differences, although such efforts remain controversial. The World Council of Churches consists of more than 300 Protestant and Orthodox churches, but the Roman Catholic Church, the largest group of Christians globally, is not a member.... Read more about The Ecumenical Movement