Christianity Summary

Christianity Summary

Rituals
Lifetime individual/group: Baptism – Introduced in the Old Testament, this ritual symbolizes the cleansing of the soul. Some believe that it is an act of literally washing away the sins or demons, while others believe it to be more of an act of faith or devotion to God.

Worship: Prayer – Prayer is viewed as sacred in that it involves humans directly communicating with God. Ideally, rather then simply petitioning God for personal needs, prayer should be about spending time to feel connected with God, and also to understand one’s place with God.

Festivals/holy days:
Easter: Pagan/Christian. Celebrates the equinox and Jesus’ resurrection three days after his crucifixion

Sabbath: day when the tomb where Jesus laid was empty and the day was changed from Saturday to Sunday to separate Christians from Jews. Paul gathered Christians and began the first service.

Gender: Genesis: Eve was tricked by the serpent to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree, while Adam followed her example. God punished:
Women: pain of child labor and to be ruled over by man
Man: work the land for food
Both: will die and return to earth
Women gained a lower status than men

Sacred Texts:
Key texts: Bible (old testament and new testament. Catholic and Orthodox Bibles include the Apocrypha, while most Protestant Bibles do not. The Apocrypha is a set of Jewish texts that come between the testaments.

Composition (how written): The bible is divided into books, and the books are then divided into sections each pertaining to a part of the biblical story.

Development/history of the text:
The Bible is a combination of the Jewish Scriptures and the New Testament (story of Jesus and growth of Christian faith)

Language/versions: Original-Hebrew, Aramic, Greek. New: English, German, Latin, Chinese

Doctrines/Beliefs:
3 founding beliefs –
1. There is one God who created the world and all things in it. This God is a personal God who cares for the well being of humanity and gives us guidelines of how to conduct ourselves.
2. Jesus was an incarnation of God, both human and God. Jesus led the perfect Christian life and through following his teachings, one can do what God truly wants of humans.
3. The Holy Spirit is a force that connects all of mankind to God. This concept emphasizes Jesus’ analogies of God being a tree and all Christians being branches of that tree. Christianity is very focused on the group/community aspect of faith.

Eschatology (nature of God/creation) – The teachings in the bible of what happens in the future. Mainly focused on rapture (God’s judgment) and the second coming of Christ. Some believe that it is not beneficial to dwell on this, as it can be interpreted as predicting God’s plan and believing yourself capable of thinking like God.

Authority (who is in control)
Family: Children obey parents, wife obeys husband, husband obeys Christ
State: Obey laws of land and Government officials
Church: obey Christ and Church laws
God is the ultimate authority and the Bible is His word
Priest
Preacher
Schools of thought (denominations/divisions)
Catholic, Anglican, Baptist, Lutheran main divisions

Religious Experience:

Specific actions -
Conversion: Foundational experience of Christian life
Belief in God, repentance of sin, confession of Jesus Christ as the Savior
Can be just the personal conversion to Christianity or converted through an act
Baptize-Catholic
Meditation/worship/prayer
Can be through songs of worship
Bowing down before God
Word and Sacraments: Two main parts of a service
Word: read the Bible, sing songs to help understand passages and apply to personal life
Sacraments: Actions done to show “inward grace” rituals (baptize, communion etc.)

Ethics and Moral Authority:

What/who are main authority – God is the ultimate moral authority. Although many do, humans do not have the right to claim any sort of authority due to our many flaws. So it follows that the Bible and the teachings of Jesus are also part of the central authority as they are direct teachings from God.

Ethical/legal issues (old and modern)
Abortion: violation of the 5th commandment “Thou shall not kill”
Cloning: Humans are made in the image of God, we cannot create each other to be in the image of God
Homosexuality: God says it is wrong because the same sex cannot conceive
Marriage in the Bible is defined as being “between a man and a woman”