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CHRISTIANITY

Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, professing that Jesus was raised from the dead and is the Son of God,^[7]^[8]^[9]^{[note 2]} whose coming as the Messiah (Christ) was prophesied in the Hebrew Bible (called the Old Testament in Christianity) and chronicled in the New Testament. It is the world’s largest and most widespread religion with over 2.38 billion followers, comprising around 31.2% of the world population.^[10] Its adherents, known as Christians, are estimated to make up a majority of the population in 157 countries and territories.

Christianity remains culturally diverse in its Western and Eastern branches, and doctrinally diverse concerning justification and the nature of salvation, ecclesiology, ordination, and Christology. The creeds of various Christian denominations generally hold in common Jesus as the Son of God^{[note 2]}—the Logos incarnated—who ministered, suffered, and died on a cross, but rose from the dead for the salvation of humankind; and referred to as the gospel, meaning the “good news”. The four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John describe Jesus’s life and teachings as preserved in the early Christian tradition, with the Old Testament as the gospels’ respected background.

Christianity began in the 1st century, after the death of Jesus, as a Judaic sect with Hellenistic influence in the Roman province of Judaea. The disciples of Jesus spread their faith around the Eastern Mediterranean area, despite significant persecution. The inclusion of Gentiles led Christianity to slowly separate from Judaism (2nd century). Emperor Constantine I decriminalized Christianity in the Roman Empire by the Edict of Milan (313), later convening the Council of Nicaea (325) where Early Christianity was consolidated into what would become the state religion of the Roman Empire (380). The Church of the East and Oriental Orthodoxy both split over differences in Christology (5th century), while the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church separated in the East–West Schism (1054). Protestantism split into numerous denominations from the Catholic Church in the Reformation era (16th century). Following the Age of Discovery (15th–17th century), Christianity expanded throughout the world via missionary work, evangelism, immigration, and extensive trade. Christianity played a prominent role in the development of Western civilization, particularly in Europe from late antiquity and the Middle Ages.^[11]^[12]^[13]

The three main branches of Christianity are Roman Catholicism (1.3 billion people), Protestantism (625 million-900 million),^{[note 3]}^[15]^[16]^[17] and Eastern Orthodoxy (230 million) while other prominent branches include Oriental Orthodoxy (60 million), Restorationism (35 million),^{[note 4]} and the Church of the East (600,000).^[20] Smaller church communities number in the thousands despite efforts toward unity (ecumenism). In the West, Christianity remains the dominant religion even with a decline in adherence, with about 70% of that population identifying as Christian. Christianity is growing in Africa and Asia, the world’s most populous continents. Christians are persecuted in some regions of the world, particularly where they are in the minority in the Middle East, North Africa, East Asia, and South Asia.

Etymology

Early Jewish Christians referred to themselves as ‘The Way’ (Koinē Greek: τῆς ὁδοῦ, romanized: tês hodoû), probably coming from Isaiah 40:3, “prepare the way of the Lord”.^{[note 5]} According to Acts 11:26, the term “Christian” (Χρῑστῐᾱνός, Khrīstiānós), meaning “followers of Christ” about Jesus’s disciples, was first used in the city of Antioch by the non-Jewish inhabitants there.^[26] The earliest recorded use of the term “Christianity/Christianism” (Χρῑστῐᾱνισμός, Khrīstiānismós) was by Ignatius of Antioch around 100 AD.^[27] The name Jesus comes from Ancient Greek: Ἰησοῦς Iēsous, likely from Hebrew/Aramaic: יֵשׁוּעַ Yēšūaʿ.

History

Main article: History of Christianity

For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Christianity.

Early Christianity

Main article: Early Christianity

Apostolic Age

Main article: Christianity in the 1st century

Christianity developed during the 1st century AD as a Jewish Christian sect with Hellenistic influence^[28] of Second Temple Judaism.^[29]^[30] An early Jewish Christian community was founded in Jerusalem under the leadership of the three Pillars of the Church, namely James the Just, Peter, and John.^[31]

Jewish Christianity soon attracted Gentile God-fearers, posing a problem for its Jewish religious outlook, which insisted on close observance of the Jewish commandments. Paul the Apostle solved this by insisting that salvation by faith in Christ, and participation in his death and resurrection by their baptism, sufficed.^[32] At first he persecuted the early Christians, but after a conversion experience he preached to the gentiles, and is regarded as having had a formative effect on the emerging Christian identity as separate from Judaism. Eventually, his departure from Jewish customs would result in the establishment of Christianity as an independent religion.^[33]

Ante-Nicene period

Main articles: Christianity in the ante-Nicene period and Great Church

A folio from Papyrus 46, an early-3rd-century collection of Pauline epistles

This formative period was followed by the early bishops, whom Christians consider the successors of Christ’s apostles. From the year 150, Christian teachers began to produce theological and apologetic works aimed at defending the faith. These authors are known as the Church Fathers, and the study of them is called patristics. Notable early Fathers include Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria and Origen.

Persecution of Christians occurred intermittently and on a small scale by both Jewish and Roman authorities, with Roman action starting at the time of the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD. Examples of early executions under Jewish authority reported in the New Testament include the deaths of Saint Stephen^[34] and James, son of Zebedee.^[35] The Decian persecution was the first empire-wide conflict,^[36] when the edict of Decius in 250 AD required everyone in the Roman Empire (except Jews) to perform a sacrifice to the Roman gods. The Diocletianic Persecution beginning in 303 AD was also particularly severe. Roman persecution ended in 313 AD with the Edict of Milan.

While Proto-orthodox Christianity was becoming dominant, heterodox sects also existed at the same time, which held radically different beliefs. Gnostic Christianity developed a duotheistic doctrine based on illusion and enlightenment rather than forgiveness of sin. With only a few scriptures overlapping with the developing orthodox canon, most Gnostic texts and Gnostic gospels were eventually considered heretical and suppressed by mainstream Christians. A gradual splitting off of Gentile Christianity left Jewish Christians continuing to follow the Law of Moses, including practices such as circumcision. By the fifth century, they and the Jewish–Christian gospels would be largely suppressed by the dominant sects in both Judaism and Christianity.

Spread and acceptance in Roman Empire

Main article: Christianity in late antiquity

Further information: First Council of Nicaea and Edict of Thessalonica

The Monastery of St. Matthew, located atop Mount Alfaf in northern Iraq, is recognized as one of the oldest Christian monasteries in existence.^[37]

Christianity spread to Aramaic-speaking peoples along the Mediterranean coast and also to the inland parts of the Roman Empire and beyond that into the Parthian Empire and the later Sasanian Empire, including Mesopotamia, which was dominated at different times and to varying extents by these empires.^[38] The presence of Christianity in Africa began in the middle of the 1st century in Egypt and by the end of the 2nd century in the region around Carthage. Mark the Evangelist is claimed to have started the Church of Alexandria in about 43 AD; various later churches claim this as their own legacy, including the Coptic Orthodox Church.^[39]^[40]^[41] Important Africans who influenced the early development of Christianity include Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen of Alexandria, Cyprian, Athanasius, and Augustine of Hippo.

The 7th-century Khor Virap monastery in the shadow of Mount Ararat; Armenia was the first state to adopt Christianity as the state religion in the early 4th century AD.^[42]^[43]

King Tiridates III made Christianity the state religion in Armenia in the early 4th century AD, making Armenia the first officially Christian state.^[42]^[43] It was not an entirely new religion in Armenia, having penetrated into the country from at least the third century, but it may have been present even earlier.^[44]

Constantine I was exposed to Christianity in his youth, and throughout his life his support for the religion grew, culminating in baptism on his deathbed.^[45] During his reign, state-sanctioned persecution of Christians was ended with the Edict of Toleration in 311 and the Edict of Milan in 313. At that point, Christianity was still a minority belief, comprising perhaps only 5% of the Roman population.^[46] Influenced by his adviser Mardonius, Constantine’s nephew Julian unsuccessfully tried to suppress Christianity.^[47] On 27 February 380, Theodosius I, Gratian, and Valentinian II established Nicene Christianity as the State church of the Roman Empire.^[48] As soon as it became connected to the state, Christianity grew wealthy; the Church solicited donations from the rich and could now own land.^[49]

Constantine was also instrumental in the convocation of the First Council of Nicaea in 325, which sought to address Arianism and formulated the Nicene Creed, which is still used by in Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and many other Protestant churches.^[50]^[51] Nicaea was the first of a series of ecumenical councils, which formally defined critical elements of the theology of the Church, notably concerning Christology.^[52] The Church of the East did not accept the third and following ecumenical councils and is still separate today by its successors (Assyrian Church of the East).

In terms of prosperity and cultural life, the Byzantine Empire was one of the peaks in Christian history and Christian civilization,^[53] and Constantinople remained the leading city of the Christian world in size, wealth, and culture.^[54] There was a renewed interest in classical Greek philosophy, as well as an increase in literary output in vernacular Greek.^[55] Byzantine art and literature held a preeminent place in Europe, and the cultural impact of Byzantine art on the West during this period was enormous and of long-lasting significance.^[56] The later rise of Islam in North Africa reduced the size and numbers of Christian congregations, leaving in large numbers only the Coptic Church in Egypt, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in the Horn of Africa and the Nubian Church in the Sudan (Nobatia, Makuria and Alodia).

Middle Ages

Main article: Christianity in the Middle Ages

Early Middle Ages

Christendom by AD 600 after its spread to Africa and Europe from the Middle East

With the decline and fall of the Roman Empire in the West, the papacy became a political player, first visible in Pope Leo‘s diplomatic dealings with Huns and Vandals.^[57] The church also entered into a long period of missionary activity and expansion among the various tribes. While Arianists instituted the death penalty for practicing pagans (see the Massacre of Verden, for example), Catholicism also spread among the Hungarians, the Germanic,^[57] the Celtic, the Baltic and some Slavic peoples.^[58]

Around 500, Christianity was thoroughly integrated into Byzantine and Kingdom of Italy culture^[59] and Benedict of Nursia set out his Monastic Rule, establishing a system of regulations for the foundation and running of monasteries.^[57] Monasticism became a powerful force throughout Europe,^[57] and gave rise to many early centers of learning, most famously in Ireland, Scotland, and Gaul, contributing to the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century.

In the 7th century, Muslims conquered Syria (including Jerusalem), North Africa, and Spain, converting some of the Christian population to Islam, including some of the Christian populations in pre-Islamic Arabia, and placing the rest under a separate legal status. Part of the Muslims’ success was due to the exhaustion of the Byzantine Empire in its decades long conflict with Persia.^[60] Beginning in the 8th century, with the rise of Carolingian leaders, the Papacy sought greater political support in the Frankish Kingdom.^[61]

The Middle Ages brought about major changes within the church.^[62]^[63]^[64]^[65] Pope Gregory the Great dramatically reformed the ecclesiastical structure and administration.^[66] In the early 8th century, iconoclasm became a divisive issue, when it was sponsored by the Byzantine emperors. The Second Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (787) finally pronounced in favor of icons.^[67] In the early 10th century, Western Christian monasticism was further rejuvenated through the leadership of the great Benedictine monastery of Cluny.^[68]

High and Late Middle Ages

An example of Byzantine pictorial art, the Deësis mosaic at the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople

In the West, from the 11th century onward, some older cathedral schools became universities (see, for example, University of Oxford, University of Paris and University of Bologna). Previously, higher education had been the domain of Christian cathedral schools or monastic schools (Scholae monasticae), led by monks and nuns. Evidence of such schools dates back to the 6th century AD.^[69] These new universities expanded the curriculum to include academic programs for clerics, lawyers, civil servants, and physicians.^[70] The university is generally regarded as an institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian setting.^[71]^[72]^[73]

Accompanying the rise of the “new towns” throughout Europe, mendicant orders were founded, bringing the consecrated religious life out of the monastery and into the new urban setting. The two principal mendicant movements were the Franciscans^[74] and the Dominicans,^[75] founded by Francis of Assisi and Dominic, respectively. Both orders made significant contributions to the development of the great universities of Europe. Another new order was the Cistercians, whose large, isolated monasteries spearheaded the settlement of former wilderness areas. In this period, church building and ecclesiastical architecture reached new heights, culminating in the orders of Romanesque and Gothic architecture and the building of the great European cathedrals.^[76]

Christian nationalism emerged during this era in which Christians felt the desire to recover lands in which Christianity had historically flourished.^[77] From 1095 under the pontificate of Urban II, the First Crusade was launched.^[78] These were a series of military campaigns in the Holy Land and elsewhere, initiated in response to pleas from the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I for aid against Turkish expansion. The Crusades ultimately failed to stifle Islamic aggression and even contributed to Christian enmity with the sacking of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade.^[79]

The Christian Church experienced internal conflict between the 7th and 13th centuries that resulted in a schism between the Latin Church of Western Christianity branch, the now-Catholic Church, and an Eastern, largely Greek, branch (the Eastern Orthodox Church). The two sides disagreed on a number of administrative, liturgical and doctrinal issues, most prominently Eastern Orthodox opposition to papal supremacy.^[80]^[81] The Second Council of Lyon (1274) and the Council of Florence (1439) attempted to reunite the churches, but in both cases, the Eastern Orthodox refused to implement the decisions, and the two principal churches remain in schism to the present day. However, the Catholic Church has achieved union with various smaller eastern churches.

In the thirteenth century, a new emphasis on Jesus’ suffering, exemplified by the Franciscans’ preaching, had the consequence of turning worshippers’ attention towards Jews, on whom Christians had placed the blame for Jesus’ death. Christianity’s limited tolerance of Jews was not new—Augustine of Hippo said that Jews should not be allowed to enjoy the citizenship that Christians took for granted—but the growing antipathy towards Jews was a factor that led to the expulsion of Jews from England in 1290, the first of many such expulsions in Europe.^[82]^[83]

Beginning around 1184, following the crusade against Cathar heresy,^[84] various institutions, broadly referred to as the Inquisition, were established with the aim of suppressing heresy and securing religious and doctrinal unity within Christianity through conversion and prosecution.^[85]

Modern era

Main article: Christianity in the modern era

Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation

Main articles: Reformation and Counter-Reformation

The 15th-century Renaissance brought about a renewed interest in ancient and classical learning. During the Reformation, Martin Luther posted the Ninety-five Theses 1517 against the sale of indulgences.^[86] Printed copies soon spread throughout Europe. In 1521 the Edict of Worms condemned and excommunicated Luther and his followers, resulting in the schism of the Western Christendom into several branches.^[87]

Other reformers like Zwingli, Oecolampadius, Calvin, Knox, and Arminius further criticized Catholic teaching and worship. These challenges developed into the movement called Protestantism, which repudiated the primacy of the pope, the role of tradition, the seven sacraments, and other doctrines and practices.^[86] The Reformation in England began in 1534, when King Henry VIII had himself declared head of the Church of England. Beginning in 1536, the monasteries throughout England, Wales and Ireland were dissolved.^[88]

Thomas Müntzer, Andreas Karlstadt and other theologians perceived both the Catholic Church and the confessions of the Magisterial Reformation as corrupted. Their activity brought about the Radical Reformation, which gave birth to various Anabaptist denominations.

Partly in response to the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Church engaged in a substantial process of reform and renewal, known as the Counter-Reformation or Catholic Reform.^[92] The Council of Trent clarified and reasserted Catholic doctrine. During the following centuries, competition between Catholicism and Protestantism became deeply entangled with political struggles among European states.^[93]

Meanwhile, the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492 brought about a new wave of missionary activity. Partly from missionary zeal, but under the impetus of colonial expansion by the European powers, Christianity spread to the Americas, Oceania, East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Throughout Europe, the division caused by the Reformation led to outbreaks of religious violence and the establishment of separate state churches in Europe. Lutheranism spread into the northern, central, and eastern parts of present-day Germany, Livonia, and Scandinavia. Anglicanism was established in England in 1534. Calvinism and its varieties, such as Presbyterianism, were introduced in Scotland, the Netherlands, Hungary, Switzerland, and France. Arminianism gained followers in the Netherlands and Frisia. Ultimately, these differences led to the outbreak of conflicts in which religion played a key factor. The Thirty Years’ War, the English Civil War, and the French Wars of Religion are prominent examples. These events intensified the Christian debate on persecution and toleration.^[94]

In the revival of neoplatonism Renaissance humanists did not reject Christianity; quite the contrary, many of the greatest works of the Renaissance were devoted to it, and the Catholic Church patronized many works of Renaissance art.^[95] Much, if not most, of the new art was commissioned by or in dedication to the Church.^[95] Some scholars and historians attribute Christianity to having contributed to the rise of the Scientific Revolution.^[96] Many well-known historical figures who influenced Western science considered themselves Christian such as Nicolaus Copernicus,^[97] Galileo Galilei,^[98] Johannes Kepler,^[99] Isaac Newton^[100] and Robert Boyle.^[101]

Post-Enlightenment

In the era known as the Great Divergence, when in the West, the Age of Enlightenment and the scientific revolution brought about great societal changes, Christianity was confronted with various forms of skepticism and with certain modern political ideologies, such as versions of socialism and liberalism.^[102] Events ranged from mere anti-clericalism to violent outbursts against Christianity, such as the dechristianization of France during the French Revolution,^[103] the Spanish Civil War, and certain Marxist movements, especially the Russian Revolution and the persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union under state atheism.^[104]^[105]^[106]^[107]

Especially pressing in Europe was the formation of nation states after the Napoleonic era. In all European countries, different Christian denominations found themselves in competition to greater or lesser extents with each other and with the state. Variables were the relative sizes of the denominations and the religious, political, and ideological orientation of the states. Urs Altermatt of the University of Fribourg, looking specifically at Catholicism in Europe, identifies four models for the European nations. In traditionally Catholic-majority countries such as Belgium, Spain, and Austria, to some extent, religious and national communities are more or less identical. Cultural symbiosis and separation are found in Poland, the Republic of Ireland, and Switzerland, all countries with competing denominations. Competition is found in Germany, the Netherlands, and again Switzerland, all countries with minority Catholic populations, which to a greater or lesser extent identified with the nation. Finally, separation between religion (again, specifically Catholicism) and the state is found to a great degree in France and Italy, countries where the state actively opposed itself to the authority of the Catholic Church.^[108]

The combined factors of the formation of nation states and ultramontanism, especially in Germany and the Netherlands, but also in England to a much lesser extent,^[109] often forced Catholic churches, organizations, and believers to choose between the national demands of the state and the authority of the Church, specifically the papacy. This conflict came to a head in the First Vatican Council, and in Germany would lead directly to the Kulturkampf.^[110]

Christian commitment in Europe dropped as modernity and secularism came into their own,^[111] particularly in the Czech Republic and Estonia,^[112] while religious commitments in America have been generally high in comparison to Europe. Changes in worldwide Christianity over the last century have been significant, since 1900, Christianity has spread rapidly in the Global South and Third World countries.^[113] The late 20th century has shown the shift of Christian adherence to the Third World and the Southern Hemisphere in general,^[114]^[115] with the West no longer the chief standard bearer of Christianity. Approximately 7 to 10% of Arabs are Christians,^[116] most prevalent in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon.^[117]

Beliefs

While Christians worldwide share basic convictions, there are differences of interpretations and opinions of the Bible and sacred traditions on which Christianity is based.^[118]

Creeds

Main articles: Christian creed and List of Christian creeds

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Apostles’ Creed

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Nicene Creed

Concise doctrinal statements or confessions of religious beliefs are known as creeds. They began as baptismal formulae and were later expanded during the Christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries to become statements of faith. “Jesus is Lord” is the earliest creed of Christianity and continues to be used, as with the World Council of Churches.^[119]

The Apostles’ Creed is the most widely accepted statement of the articles of Christian faith. It is used by a number of Christian denominations for both liturgical and catechetical purposes, most visibly by liturgical churches of Western Christian tradition, including the Latin Church of the Catholic Church, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, and Western Rite Orthodoxy. It is also used by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists.

This particular creed was developed between the 2nd and 9th centuries. Its central doctrines are those of the Trinity and God the Creator. Each of the doctrines found in this creed can be traced to statements current in the apostolic period. The creed was apparently used as a summary of Christian doctrine for baptismal candidates in the churches of Rome.^[120] Its points include:

Belief in God the Father, Jesus Christ as the Son of God,^{[note 2]} and the Holy Spirit
The death, descent into hell, resurrection and ascension of Christ
The holiness of the Church and the communion of saints
Christ’s second coming, the Day of Judgement and salvation of the faithful

The Nicene Creed was formulated, largely in response to Arianism, at the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople in 325 and 381 respectively,^[121]^[122] and ratified as the universal creed of Christendom by the First Council of Ephesus in 431.^[123]

The Chalcedonian Definition, or Creed of Chalcedon, developed at the Council of Chalcedon in 451,^[124] though rejected by the Oriental Orthodox,^[125] taught Christ “to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably”: one divine and one human, and that both natures, while perfect in themselves, are nevertheless also perfectly united into one person.^[126]

The Athanasian Creed, received in the Western Church as having the same status as the Nicene and Chalcedonian, says: “We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance“.^[127]

Most Christians (Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Protestant alike) accept the use of creeds and subscribe to at least one of the creeds mentioned above.^[51]

Certain Evangelical Protestants, though not all of them, reject creeds as definitive statements of faith, even while agreeing with some or all of the substance of the creeds. Also rejecting creeds are groups with roots in the Restoration Movement, such as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada, and the Churches of Christ.^[128]^[129]^: 14–15^[130]^: 123

Jesus

Main articles: Jesus in Christianity and Christ (title)

The central tenet of Christianity is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God^{[note 2]} and the Messiah (Christ).^[131]^[132] Christians believe that Jesus, as the Messiah, was anointed by God as savior of humanity and hold that Jesus’s coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. The Christian concept of messiah differs significantly from the contemporary Jewish concept. The core Christian belief is that through belief in and acceptance of the death and resurrection of Jesus, sinful humans can be reconciled to God, and thereby are offered salvation and the promise of eternal life.^[133]

While there have been many theological disputes over the nature of Jesus over the earliest centuries of Christian history, generally, Christians believe that Jesus is God incarnate and “true God and true man” (or both fully divine and fully human). Jesus, having become fully human, suffered the pains and temptations of a mortal man, but did not sin. As fully God, he rose to life again. According to the New Testament, he rose from the dead,^[134] ascended to heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father,^[135] and will ultimately return^[136] to fulfill the rest of the Messianic prophecy, including the resurrection of the dead, the Last Judgment, and the final establishment of the Kingdom of God.

According to the canonical gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born from the Virgin Mary. Little of Jesus’s childhood is recorded in the canonical gospels, although infancy gospels were popular in antiquity.^[137] In comparison, his adulthood, especially the week before his death, is well documented in the gospels contained within the New Testament, because that part of his life is believed to be most important. The biblical accounts of Jesus’s ministry include: his baptism, miracles, preaching, teaching, and deeds.

Death and resurrection

Main articles: Crucifixion of Jesus and Resurrection of Jesus

Christians consider the resurrection of Jesus to be the cornerstone of their faith (see 1 Corinthians 15) and the most important event in history.^[138] Among Christian beliefs, the death and resurrection of Jesus are two core events on which much of Christian doctrine and theology is based.^[139] According to the New Testament, Jesus was crucified, died a physical death, was buried within a tomb, and rose from the dead three days later.^[140]

The New Testament mentions several post-resurrection appearances of Jesus on different occasions to his twelve apostles and disciples, including “more than five hundred brethren at once”,^[141] before Jesus’s ascension to heaven. Jesus’s death and resurrection are commemorated by Christians in all worship services, with special emphasis during Holy Week, which includes Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

The death and resurrection of Jesus are usually considered the most important events in Christian theology, partly because they demonstrate that Jesus has power over life and death and therefore has the authority and power to give people eternal life.^[142]

Christian churches accept and teach the New Testament account of the resurrection of Jesus with very few exceptions.^[143] Some modern scholars use the belief of Jesus’s followers in the resurrection as a point of departure for establishing the continuity of the historical Jesus and the proclamation of the early church.^[144] Some liberal Christians do not accept a literal bodily resurrection,^[145]^[146] seeing the story as richly symbolic and spiritually nourishing myth. Arguments over death and resurrection claims occur at many religious debates and interfaith dialogues.^[147] Paul the Apostle, an early Christian convert and missionary, wrote, “If Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless”.^[148]^[149]

Salvation

Main article: Salvation in Christianity

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”.

— John 3:16, NIV^[150]

Paul the Apostle, like Jews and Roman pagans of his time, believed that sacrifice can bring about new kinship ties, purity, and eternal life.^[151] For Paul, the necessary sacrifice was the death of Jesus: Gentiles who are “Christ’s” are, like Israel, descendants of Abraham and “heirs according to the promise”^[152]^[153] The God who raised Jesus from the dead would also give new life to the “mortal bodies” of Gentile Christians, who had become with Israel, the “children of God”, and were therefore no longer “in the flesh”.^[154]^[151]

Modern Christian churches tend to be much more concerned with how humanity can be saved from a universal condition of sin and death than the question of how both Jews and Gentiles can be in God’s family. According to Eastern Orthodox theology, based upon their understanding of the atonement as put forward by Irenaeus’ recapitulation theory, Jesus’ death is a ransom. This restores the relation with God, who is loving and reaches out to humanity, and offers the possibility of theosis c.q. divinization, becoming the kind of humans God wants humanity to be. According to Catholic doctrine, Jesus’ death satisfies the wrath of God, aroused by the offense to God’s honor caused by human’s sinfulness. The Catholic Church teaches that salvation does not occur without faithfulness on the part of Christians; converts must live in accordance with principles of love and ordinarily must be baptized.^[155] In Protestant theology, Jesus’ death is regarded as a substitutionary penalty carried by Jesus, for the debt that has to be paid by humankind when it broke God’s moral law.^[156]

Christians differ in their views on the extent to which individuals’ salvation is pre-ordained by God. Reformed theology places distinctive emphasis on grace by teaching that individuals are completely incapable of self-redemption, but that sanctifying grace is irresistible.^[157] In contrast Catholics, Orthodox Christians, and Arminian Protestants believe that the exercise of free will is necessary to have faith in Jesus.^[158]

Trinity

Main article: Trinity

Trinity refers to the teaching that the one God^[160] comprises three distinct, eternally co-existing persons: the Father, the Son (incarnate in Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit. Together, these three persons are sometimes called the Godhead,^[161]^[162]^[163] although there is no single term in use in Scripture to denote the unified Godhead.^[164] In the words of the Athanasian Creed, an early statement of Christian belief, “the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods but one God”.^[165] They are distinct from another: the Father has no source, the Son is begotten of the Father, and the Spirit proceeds from the Father. Though distinct, the three persons cannot be divided from one another in being or in operation. While some Christians also believe that God appeared as the Father in the Old Testament, it is agreed that he appeared as the Son in the New Testament and will still continue to manifest as the Holy Spirit in the present. But still, God still existed as three persons in each of these times.^[166] However, traditionally there is a belief that it was the Son who appeared in the Old Testament because, for example, when the Trinity is depicted in art, the Son typically has the distinctive appearance, a cruciform halo identifying Christ, and in depictions of the Garden of Eden, this looks forward to an Incarnation yet to occur. In some Early Christian sarcophagi, the Logos is distinguished with a beard, “which allows him to appear ancient, even pre-existent”.^[167]

The Trinity is an essential doctrine of mainstream Christianity. From earlier than the times of the Nicene Creed (325) Christianity advocated^[168] the triune mystery-nature of God as a normative profession of faith. According to Roger E. Olson and Christopher Hall, through prayer, meditation, study and practice, the Christian community concluded “that God must exist as both a unity and trinity”, codifying this in ecumenical council at the end of the 4th century.^[169]^[170]

According to this doctrine, God is not divided in the sense that each person has a third of the whole; rather, each person is considered to be fully God (see Perichoresis). The distinction lies in their relations, the Father being unbegotten; the Son being begotten of the Father; and the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and (in Western Christian theology) from the Son. Regardless of this apparent difference, the three “persons” are each eternal and omnipotent. Other Christian religions including Unitarian Universalism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Mormonism, do not share those views on the Trinity.

The Greek word trias^[171]^{[note 6]} is first seen in this sense in the works of Theophilus of Antioch; his text reads: “of the Trinity, of God, and of His Word, and of His Wisdom”.^[175] The term may have been in use before this time; its Latin equivalent,^{[note 6]} trinitas,^[173] appears afterwards with an explicit reference to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in Tertullian.^[176]^[177] In the following century, the word was in general use. It is found in many passages of Origen.^[178]

Trinitarianism

Main article: Trinitarianism

Trinitarianism denotes Christians who believe in the concept of the Trinity. Almost all Christian denominations and churches hold Trinitarian beliefs. Although the words “Trinity” and “Triune” do not appear in the Bible, beginning in the 3rd century theologians developed the term and concept to facilitate apprehension of the New Testament teachings of God as being Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Since that time, Christian theologians have been careful to emphasize that Trinity does not imply that there are three gods (the antitrinitarian heresy of Tritheism), nor that each hypostasis of the Trinity is one-third of an infinite God (partialism), nor that the Son and the Holy Spirit are beings created by and subordinate to the Father (Arianism). Rather, the Trinity is defined as one God in three persons.^[179]

Nontrinitarianism

Main article: Nontrinitarianism

Nontrinitarianism (or antitrinitarianism) refers to theology that rejects the doctrine of the Trinity. Various nontrinitarian views, such as adoptionism or modalism, existed in early Christianity, leading to disputes about Christology.^[180] Nontrinitarianism reappeared in the Gnosticism of the Cathars between the 11th and 13th centuries, among groups with Unitarian theology in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century,^[181] in the 18th-century Enlightenment, among Restorationist groups arising during the Second Great Awakening of the 19th century, and most recently, in Oneness Pentecostal churches.

Eschatology

Main article: Christian eschatology

The end of things, whether the end of an individual life, the end of the age, or the end of the world, broadly speaking, is Christian eschatology; the study of the destiny of humans as it is revealed in the Bible. The major issues in Christian eschatology are the Tribulation, death and the afterlife, (mainly for Evangelical groups) the Millennium and the following Rapture, the Second Coming of Jesus, Resurrection of the Dead, Heaven, (for liturgical branches) Purgatory, and Hell, the Last Judgment, the end of the world, and the New Heavens and New Earth.

Christians believe that the second coming of Christ will occur at the end of time, after a period of severe persecution (the Great Tribulation). All who have died will be resurrected bodily from the dead for the Last Judgment. Jesus will fully establish the Kingdom of God in fulfillment of scriptural prophecies.^[182]^[183]

Death and afterlife

Most Christians believe that human beings experience divine judgment and are rewarded either with eternal life or eternal damnation. This includes the general judgement at the resurrection of the dead as well as the belief (held by Catholics,^[184]^[185] Orthodox^[186]^[187] and most Protestants) in a judgment particular to the individual soul upon physical death.

In the Catholic branch of Christianity, those who die in a state of grace, i.e., without any mortal sin separating them from God, but are still imperfectly purified from the effects of sin, undergo purification through the intermediate state of purgatory to achieve the holiness necessary for entrance into God’s presence.^[188] Those who have attained this goal are called saints (Latin sanctus, “holy”).^[189]

Some Christian groups, such as Seventh-day Adventists, hold to mortalism, the belief that the human soul is not naturally immortal, and is unconscious during the intermediate state between bodily death and resurrection. These Christians also hold to Annihilationism, the belief that subsequent to the final judgement, the wicked will cease to exist rather than suffer everlasting torment. Jehovah’s Witnesses hold to a similar view.^[190]

Practices

Main articles: Christian worship and Church service

Depending on the specific denomination of Christianity, practices may include baptism, the Eucharist (Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper), prayer (including the Lord’s Prayer), confession, confirmation, burial rites, marriage rites and the religious education of children. Most denominations have ordained clergy who lead regular communal worship services.^[192]

Christian rites, rituals, and ceremonies are not celebrated in one single sacred language. Many ritualistic Christian churches make a distinction between sacred language, liturgical language and vernacular language. The three important languages in the early Christian era were: Latin, Greek and Syriac.^[193]^[194]^[195]

Communal worship

Services of worship typically follow a pattern or form known as liturgy.^{[note 7]} Justin Martyr described 2nd-century Christian liturgy in his First Apology (c. 150) to Emperor Antoninus Pius, and his description remains relevant to the basic structure of Christian liturgical worship:

And Sundays, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need.^[197]

Thus, as Justin described, Christians assemble for communal worship typically on Sunday, the day of the resurrection, though other liturgical practices often occur outside this setting. Scripture readings are drawn from the Old and New Testaments, but especially the gospels.^{[note 8]}^[198] Instruction is given based on these readings, in the form of a sermon or homily. There are a variety of congregational prayers, including thanksgiving, confession, and intercession, which occur throughout the service and take a variety of forms including recited, responsive, silent, or sung.^[192] Psalms, hymns, worship songs, and other church music may be sung.^[199]^[200] Services can be varied for special events like significant feast days.^[201]

Nearly all forms of worship incorporate the Eucharist, which consists of a meal. It is reenacted in accordance with Jesus’ instruction at the Last Supper that his followers do in remembrance of him as when he gave his disciples bread, saying, “This is my body”, and gave them wine saying, “This is my blood”.^[202] In the early church, Christians and those yet to complete initiation would separate for the Eucharistic part of the service.^[203] Some denominations such as Confessional Lutheran churches continue to practice ‘closed communion‘.^[204] They offer communion to those who are already united in that denomination or sometimes individual church. Catholics further restrict participation to their members who are not in a state of mortal sin.^[205] Many other churches, such as Anglican Communion and the Methodist Churches (such as the Free Methodist Church and United Methodist Church), practice ‘open communion‘ since they view communion as a means to unity, rather than an end, and invite all believing Christians to participate.^[206]^[207]^[208]

Sacraments or ordinances

Main article: Sacrament

Further information: Rite (Christianity) and Pre-Tridentine Mass

2nd-century description of the Eucharist

And this food is called among us Eukharistia [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Savior, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.

Justin Martyr^[197]

In Christian belief and practice, a sacrament is a rite, instituted by Christ, that confers grace, constituting a sacred mystery. The term is derived from the Latin word sacramentum, which was used to translate the Greek word for mystery. Views concerning both which rites are sacramental, and what it means for an act to be a sacrament, vary among Christian denominations and traditions.^[209]

The most conventional functional definition of a sacrament is that it is an outward sign, instituted by Christ, that conveys an inward, spiritual grace through Christ. The two most widely accepted sacraments are Baptism and the Eucharist; however, the majority of Christians also recognize five additional sacraments: Confirmation (Chrismation in the Eastern tradition), Holy Orders (or ordination), Penance (or Confession), Anointing of the Sick, and Matrimony (see Christian views on marriage).^[209]

Taken together, these are the Seven Sacraments as recognized by churches in the High Church tradition—notably Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Independent Catholic, Old Catholic, some Lutherans and Anglicans. Most other denominations and traditions typically affirm only Baptism and Eucharist as sacraments, while some Protestant groups, such as the Quakers, reject sacramental theology.^[209] Certain denominations of Christianity, such as Anabaptists, use the term “ordinances” to refer to rites instituted by Jesus for Christians to observe.^[210] Seven ordinances have been taught in many Conservative Mennonite Anabaptist churches, which include “baptism, communion, footwashing, marriage, anointing with oil, the holy kiss, and the prayer covering”.^[191]

In addition to this, the Church of the East has two additional sacraments in place of the traditional sacraments of Matrimony and the Anointing of the Sick. These include Holy Leaven (Melka) and the sign of the cross.^[211] The Schwarzenau Brethren Anabaptist churches, such as the Dunkard Brethren Church, observe the agape feast (lovefeast), a rite also observed by Moravian Church and Methodist Churches.^[212]

Liturgical calendar

Main article: Liturgical year

Symbols

Main article: Christian symbolism

Most Christian denominations have not generally practiced aniconism,^[216] the avoidance or prohibition of devotional images, even if early Jewish Christians, invoking the Decalogue’s prohibition of idolatry, avoided figures in their symbols.^[217]

The cross, today one of the most widely recognized symbols, was used by Christians from the earliest times.^[218]^[219] Tertullian, in his book De Corona, tells how it was already a tradition for Christians to trace the sign of the cross on their foreheads.^[220] Although the cross was known to the early Christians, the crucifix did not appear in use until the 5th century.^[221]

Among the earliest Christian symbols, that of the fish or Ichthys seems to have ranked first in importance, as seen on monumental sources such as tombs from the first decades of the 2nd century.^[222] Its popularity seemingly arose from the Greek word ichthys (fish) forming an acrostic for the Greek phrase Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter (Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ),^{[note 9]} (Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior), a concise summary of Christian faith.^[222]

Other major Christian symbols include the chi-rho monogram, the dove and olive branch (symbolic of the Holy Spirit), the sacrificial lamb (representing Christ’s sacrifice), the vine (symbolizing the connection of the Christian with Christ) and many others. These all derive from passages of the New Testament.^[221]

Baptism

Main article: Baptism

Infant baptism by effusion in a Catholic Church in Venezuela

Believer’s baptism of adult by immersion, Northolt Park Baptist Church, in Greater London, Baptist Union of Great Britain

Baptism is the ritual act, with the use of water, by which a person is admitted to membership of the Church. Beliefs on baptism vary among denominations. Differences occur firstly on whether the act has any spiritual significance. Some, such as the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, as well as Lutherans and Anglicans, hold to the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, which affirms that baptism creates or strengthens a person’s faith, and is intimately linked to salvation. Baptists and Plymouth Brethren view baptism as a purely symbolic act, an external public declaration of the inward change which has taken place in the person, but not as spiritually efficacious. Secondly, there are differences of opinion on the methodology (or mode) of the act. These modes are: by immersion; if immersion is total, by submersion; by affusion (pouring); and by aspersion (sprinkling). Those who hold the first view may also adhere to the tradition of infant baptism;^[223]^[224]^[225]^[226] the Orthodox Churches all practice infant baptism and always baptize by total immersion repeated three times in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.^[227]^[228] The Lutheran Church and the Catholic Church also practice infant baptism,^[229]^[230]^[231] usually by affusion, and using the Trinitarian formula.^[232] Anabaptist Christians practice believer’s baptism, in which an adult chooses to receive the ordinance after making a decision to follow Jesus.^[233] Anabaptist denominations such as the Mennonites, Amish and Hutterites use pouring as the mode to administer believer’s baptism, whereas Anabaptists of the Schwarzenau Brethren and River Brethren traditions baptize by immersion.^[234]^[235]^[236]^[237]

Prayer

Main article: Christian prayer

“… ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’”.

— The Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6:9–13, EHV^[238]

In the Gospel of Saint Matthew, Jesus taught the Lord’s Prayer, which has been seen as a model for Christian prayer.^[239] The injunction for Christians to pray the Lord’s prayer thrice daily was given in the Didache and came to be recited by Christians at 9 am, 12 pm, and 3 pm.^[240]^[241]

In the second century Apostolic Tradition, Hippolytus instructed Christians to pray at seven fixed prayer times: “on rising, at the lighting of the evening lamp, at bedtime, at midnight” and “the third, sixth and ninth hours of the day, being hours associated with Christ’s Passion”.^[242] Prayer positions, including kneeling, standing, and prostrations have been used for these seven fixed prayer times since the days of the early Church.^[243] Breviaries such as the Shehimo and Agpeya are used by Oriental Orthodox Christians to pray these canonical hours while facing in the eastward direction of prayer.^[244]^[245]

The Apostolic Tradition directed that the sign of the cross be used by Christians during the minor exorcism of baptism, during ablutions before praying at fixed prayer times, and in times of temptation.^[246]

Intercessory prayer is prayer offered for the benefit of other people. There are many intercessory prayers recorded in the Bible, including prayers of the Apostle Peter on behalf of sick persons^[247] and by prophets of the Old Testament in favor of other people.^[248] In the Epistle of James, no distinction is made between the intercessory prayer offered by ordinary believers and the prominent Old Testament prophet Elijah.^[249] The effectiveness of prayer in Christianity derives from the power of God rather than the status of the one praying.^[250]

The ancient church, in both Eastern and Western Christianity, developed a tradition of asking for the intercession of (deceased) saints, and this remains the practice of most Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, and some Lutheran and Anglican churches.^[251] Apart from certain sectors within the latter two denominations, other Churches of the Protestant Reformation, however, rejected prayer to the saints, largely on the basis of the sole mediatorship of Christ.^[252] The reformer Huldrych Zwingli admitted that he had offered prayers to the saints until his reading of the Bible convinced him that this was idolatrous.^[253]

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God”.^[254] The Book of Common Prayer in the Anglican tradition is a guide which provides a set order for services, containing set prayers, scripture readings, and hymns or sung Psalms.^[255] Frequently in Western Christianity, when praying, the hands are placed palms together and forward as in the feudal commendation ceremony. At other times the older orans posture may be used, with palms up and elbows in.

Scriptures

Main articles: Bible, Biblical canon, Development of the Christian biblical canon, and Religious text

Christianity, like other religions, has adherents whose beliefs and biblical interpretations vary. Christianity regards the biblical canon, the Old Testament and the New Testament, as the inspired word of God. The traditional view of inspiration is that God worked through human authors so that what they produced was what God wished to communicate. The Greek word referring to inspiration in 2 Timothy 3:16 is theopneustos, which literally means “God-breathed”.^[256]

Some believe that divine inspiration makes present Bibles inerrant, while others claim inerrancy for the Bible in its original manuscripts, although none of those are extant. Still others maintain that only a particular translation is inerrant, such as the King James Version.^[257]^[258]^[259] Another closely related view is biblical infallibility or limited inerrancy, which affirms that the Bible is free of error as a guide to salvation, but may include errors on matters such as history, geography, or science.

The canon of the Old Testament accepted by Protestant churches, which is only the Tanakh (the canon of the Hebrew Bible), is shorter than that accepted by the Orthodox and Catholic churches which also include the deuterocanonical books which appear in the Septuagint, the Orthodox canon being slightly larger than the Catholic;^[260] Protestants regard the latter as apocryphal, important historical documents which help to inform the understanding of words, grammar, and syntax used in the historical period of their conception. Some versions of the Bible include a separate Apocrypha section between the Old Testament and the New Testament.^[261] The New Testament, originally written in Koine Greek, contains 27 books which are agreed upon by all major churches.

Some denominations have additional canonical holy scriptures beyond the Bible, including the standard works of the Latter Day Saints movement and Divine Principle in the Unification Church.^[262]

Catholic interpretation

Main article: Catholic theology of Scripture

St. Peter’s Basilica viewed from the Tiber; the Vatican Hill in the back and Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome to the right. Both the basilica and the hill are part of the sovereign state of Vatican City, the Holy See of the Catholic Church.

In antiquity, two schools of exegesis developed in Alexandria and Antioch. The Alexandrian interpretation, exemplified by Origen, tended to read Scripture allegorically, while the Antiochene interpretation adhered to the literal sense, holding that other meanings (called theoria) could only be accepted if based on the literal meaning.^[263]

Catholic theology distinguishes two senses of scripture: the literal and the spiritual.^[264]

The literal sense of understanding scripture is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture. The spiritual sense is further subdivided into:

The allegorical sense, which includes typology. An example would be the parting of the Red Sea being understood as a “type” (sign) of baptism.^[265]
The moral sense, which understands the scripture to contain some ethical teaching.
The anagogical sense, which applies to eschatology, eternity and the consummation of the world.

Regarding exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation, Catholic theology holds:

The injunction that all other senses of sacred scripture are based on the literal^[266]^[267]
That the historicity of the Gospels must be absolutely and constantly held^[268]
That scripture must be read within the “living Tradition of the whole Church”^[269] and
That “the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome“.^[270]

Protestant interpretation

Qualities of Scripture

Many Protestant Christians, such as Lutherans^[271] and the Reformed, believe in the doctrine of sola scriptura—that the Bible is a self-sufficient revelation, the final authority on all Christian doctrine, and revealed all truth necessary for salvation;^[272]^[273] other Protestant Christians, such as Methodists and Anglicans, affirm the doctrine of prima scriptura which teaches that Scripture is the primary source for Christian doctrine, but that “tradition, experience, and reason” can nurture the Christian religion as long as they are in harmony with the Bible.^[272]^[274] Protestants characteristically believe that ordinary believers may reach an adequate understanding of Scripture because Scripture itself is clear in its meaning (or “perspicuous”). Martin Luther believed that without God’s help, Scripture would be “enveloped in darkness”.^[275] He advocated for “one definite and simple understanding of Scripture”.^[275] John Calvin wrote, “all who refuse not to follow the Holy Spirit as their guide, find in the Scripture a clear light”.^[276] Related to this is “efficacy”, that Scripture is able to lead people to faith; and “sufficiency”, that the Scriptures contain everything that one needs to know to obtain salvation and to live a Christian life.^[277]

Original intended meaning of Scripture

Protestants stress the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture, the historical-grammatical method.^[278] The historical-grammatical method or grammatico-historical method is an effort in Biblical hermeneutics to find the intended original meaning in the text.^[279] This original intended meaning of the text is drawn out through examination of the passage in light of the grammatical and syntactical aspects, the historical background, the literary genre, as well as theological (canonical) considerations.^[280] The historical-grammatical method distinguishes between the one original meaning and the significance of the text. The significance of the text includes the ensuing use of the text or application. The original passage is seen as having only a single meaning or sense. As Milton S. Terry said: “A fundamental principle in grammatico-historical exposition is that the words and sentences can have but one significance in one and the same connection. The moment we neglect this principle we drift out upon a sea of uncertainty and conjecture”.^[281] Technically speaking, the grammatical-historical method of interpretation is distinct from the determination of the passage’s significance in light of that interpretation. Taken together, both define the term (Biblical) hermeneutics.^[279] Some Protestant interpreters make use of typology.^[282]

Demographics

Main articles: Christianity by country and Christian population growth

See also: Christendom and Christian state

With around 2.8 billion adherents according to a 2022 estimation by World History Encyclopedia,^[283]^[284]^[10]^[285]^[286]^[287]^[288] split into three main branches of Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox, Christianity is the world’s largest religion.^[289] High birth rates and conversions in the global South were cited as the reasons for the Christian population growth.^[290]^[291] For the last hundred years, the Christian share has stood at around 33% of the world population. This masks a major shift in the demographics of Christianity; large increases in the developing world have been accompanied by substantial declines in the developed world, mainly in Western Europe and North America.^[292] According to a 2015 Pew Research Center study, within the next four decades, Christianity will remain the largest religion; and by 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion.^[293]^: 60

According to some scholars, Christianity ranks at first place in net gains through religious conversion.^[295]^[296] As a percentage of Christians, the Catholic Church and Orthodoxy (both Eastern and Oriental) are declining in some parts of the world (though Catholicism is growing in Asia, in Africa, vibrant in Eastern Europe, etc.), while Protestants and other Christians are on the rise in the developing world.^[297]^[298]^[299] The so-called popular Protestantism^{[note 10]} is one of the fastest growing religious categories in the world.^[300]^[301]^[302] Nevertheless, Catholicism will also continue to grow to 1.63 billion by 2050, according to Todd Johnson of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity.^[303] Africa alone, by 2015, will be home to 230 million African Catholics.^[304] And if in 2018, the U.N. projects that Africa’s population will reach 4.5 billion by 2100 (not 2 billion as predicted in 2004), Catholicism will indeed grow, as will other religious groups.^[305] According to Pew Research Center, Africa is expected to be home to 1.1 billion African Christians by 2050.^[293]

In 2010, 87% of the world’s Christian population lived in countries where Christians are in the majority, while 13% of the world’s Christian population lived in countries where Christians are in the minority.^[1] Christianity is the predominant religion in Europe, the Americas, Oceania, and Sub-Saharan Africa.^[1] There are also large Christian communities in other parts of the world, such as Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent.^[1] In Asia, it is the dominant religion in Armenia, Cyprus, Georgia, East Timor, and the Philippines.^[306] However, it is declining in some areas including the northern and western United States,^[307] some areas in Oceania (Australia^[308] and New Zealand^[309]), northern Europe (including Great Britain,^[310] Scandinavia and other places), France, Germany, Canada,^[311] and some parts of Asia (especially the Middle East, due to the Christian emigration,^[312]^[313]^[314] and Macau^[315]).

The total Christian population is not decreasing in Brazil and the southern United States,^[316] however, the percentage of the population identifying as Christian is in decline. Since the fall of communism, the proportion of Christians has been largely stable in Central Europe, except in the Czech Republic.^[317] On the other hand, Christianity is growing rapidly in both numbers and percentages in Eastern Europe,^[317]^[294] China,^[318]^[289] other Asian countries,^[289]^[319] Sub-Saharan Africa,^[289]^[320] Latin America,^[289] North Africa (Maghreb),^[321]^[320] Gulf Cooperation Council countries,^[289] and Oceania.^[320]

Despite a decline in adherence in the West, Christianity remains the dominant religion in the region, with about 70% of that population identifying as Christian.^[1]^[322] Christianity remains the largest religion in Western Europe, where 71% of Western Europeans identified themselves as Christian in 2018.^[323] A 2011 Pew Research Center survey found that 76% of Europeans, 73% in Oceania and about 86% in the Americas (90% in Latin America and 77% in North America) identified themselves as Christians.^[289]^[1] By 2010 about 157 countries and territories in the world had Christian majorities.^[289]

There are many charismatic movements that have become well established over large parts of the world, especially Africa, Latin America, and Asia.^[324]^[325]^[326]^[327]^[328]^[1] Since 1900, primarily due to conversion, Protestantism has spread rapidly in Africa, Asia, Oceania, and Latin America.^[329] From 1960 to 2000, the global growth of the number of reported Evangelical Protestants grew three times the world’s population rate, and twice that of Islam.^[330] According to the historian Geoffrey Blainey from the University of Melbourne, since the 1960s there has been a substantial increase in the number of conversions from Islam to Christianity, mostly to the Evangelical and Pentecostal forms.^[331] A study conducted by St. Mary’s University estimated about 10.2 million Muslim converts to Christianity in 2015;^[321]^[332] according to the study significant numbers of Muslim converts to Christianity can be found in Afghanistan,^[321]^[333] Azerbaijan,^[321]^[333] Central Asia (including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and other countries),^[321]^[333] Indonesia,^[321]^[333] Malaysia,^[321]^[333] the Middle East (including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey,^[334] and other countries),^[321]^[333] North Africa (including Algeria, Morocco,^[335]^[336] and Tunisia^[337]),^[321]^[333] Sub-Saharan Africa,^[321]^[333] and the Western World (including Albania, Belgium, France, Germany, Kosovo, the Netherlands, Russia, Scandinavia, United Kingdom, the United States, and other western countries).^[321]^[333] It is also reported that Christianity is popular among people of different backgrounds in Africa and Asia; according to a report by the Singapore Management University, more people in Southeast Asia are converting to Christianity, many of them young and having a university degree.^[319] According to scholar Juliette Koning and Heidi Dahles of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam there is a “rapid expansion” of Christianity in Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and South Korea.^[319] According to scholar Terence Chong from the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, since the 1980s Christianity is expanding in China, Singapore,^[338] Indonesia, Japan,^[339]^[340] Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea,^[1] and Vietnam.^[341]

In most countries in the developed world, church attendance among people who continue to identify themselves as Christians has been falling over the last few decades.^[342] Some sources view this as part of a drift away from traditional membership institutions,^[343] while others link it to signs of a decline in belief in the importance of religion in general.^[344] Europe’s Christian population, though in decline, still constitutes the largest geographical component of the religion.^[345] According to data from the 2012 European Social Survey, around a third of European Christians say they attend services once a month or more.^[346] Conversely, according to the World Values Survey, about more than two-thirds of Latin American Christians, and about 90% of African Christians (in Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Zimbabwe) said they attended church regularly.^[346] According to a 2018 study by the Pew Research Center, Christians in Africa and Latin America and the United States have high levels of commitment to their faith.^[347]

Christianity, in one form or another, is the sole state religion of the following nations: Argentina (Catholic),^[348] Costa Rica (Catholic),^[349] the Kingdom of Denmark (Lutheran),^[350] England (Anglican),^[351] Greece (Greek Orthodox),^[352] Iceland (Lutheran),^[353] Liechtenstein (Catholic),^[354] Malta (Catholic),^[355] Monaco (Catholic),^[356] Norway (Lutheran),^[357] Samoa,^[358] Tonga (Methodist), Tuvalu (Reformed), and Vatican City (Catholic).^[359]

There are numerous other countries, such as Cyprus, which although do not have an established church, still give official recognition and support to a specific Christian denomination.^[360]

Tradition	Followers	% of the Christian population	% of the world population	Follower dynamics	Dynamics in- and outside Christianity
Roman Catholic Church	1,329,610,000	50.1	15.9	Growing	Growing
Protestantism	900,640,000	36.7	11.6	Growing	Growing
Eastern Orthodox Church	220,380,000	11.9	3.8	Growing	Declining
Other Christianity	28,430,000	1.3	0.4	Growing	Growing
Christianity	2,382,750,000	100	31.7	Growing	Stable

Region	Christians	% Christian
Europe	558,260,000	75.2
Latin America–Caribbean	531,280,000	90.0
Sub-Saharan Africa	517,340,000	62.9
Asia–Pacific	286,950,000	7.1
North America	266,630,000	77.4
Middle East–North Africa	12,710,000	3.7
World	2,173,180,000	31.5

	Christian median age in region (years)	Regional median age (years)
World	30	29
Sub-Saharan Africa	19	18
Latin America–Caribbean	27	27
Asia–Pacific	28	29
Middle East–North Africa	29	24
North America	39	37
Europe	42	40

Countries with 50% or more Christians are colored purple; countries with 10% to 50% Christians are colored pink.
Nations with Christianity as their state religion are in blue.
Distribution of Catholics
Distribution of Protestants
Distribution of Eastern Orthodox
Distribution of Oriental Orthodox
Distribution of other Christians

Churches and denominations

Further information: List of Christian denominations, List of Christian denominations by number of members, and Schism in Christianity

Catholic Church

Main article: Catholic Church

The Catholic Church consists of those particular Churches, headed by bishops, in communion with the pope, the bishop of Rome, as its highest authority in matters of faith, morality, and church governance.^[370]^[371] Like Eastern Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church, through apostolic succession, traces its origins to the Christian community founded by Jesus Christ.^[372]^[373] Catholics maintain that the “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church” founded by Jesus subsists fully in the Catholic Church, but also acknowledges other Christian churches and communities^[374]^[375] and works towards reconciliation among all Christians.^[374] The Catholic faith is detailed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.^[376]^[377]

Of its seven sacraments, the Eucharist is the principal one, celebrated liturgically in the Mass.^[378] The church teaches that through consecration by a priest, the sacrificial bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. The Virgin Mary is venerated in the Catholic Church as Mother of God and Queen of Heaven, honoured in dogmas and devotions.^[379] Its teaching includes Divine Mercy, sanctification through faith and evangelization of the Gospel as well as Catholic social teaching, which emphasizes voluntary support for the sick, the poor, and the afflicted through the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The Catholic Church operates thousands of Catholic schools, universities, hospitals, and orphanages around the world, and is the largest non-government provider of education and health care in the world.^[380] Among its other social services are numerous charitable and humanitarian organizations.

Canon law (Latin: jus canonicum)^[381] is the system of laws and legal principles made and enforced by the hierarchical authorities of the Catholic Church to regulate its external organisation and government and to order and direct the activities of Catholics toward the mission of the church.^[382] The canon law of the Latin Church was the first modern Western legal system,^[383] and is the oldest continuously functioning legal system in the West.^[384]^[385] while the distinctive traditions of Eastern Catholic canon law govern the 23 Eastern Catholic particular churches sui iuris.

As the world’s oldest and largest continuously functioning international institution,^[386] it has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization.^[387] The 2,834 sees^[388] are grouped into 24 particular autonomous Churches (the largest of which being the Latin Church), each with its own distinct traditions regarding the liturgy and the administering of sacraments.^[389] With more than 1.1 billion baptized members, the Catholic Church is the largest Christian church and represents 50.1%^[1] of all Christians as well as 16.7% of the world’s population.^[390]^[391]^[392] Catholics live all over the world through missions, diaspora, and conversions.

Eastern Orthodox Church

Main article: Eastern Orthodox Church

The Eastern Orthodox Church consists of those churches in communion with the patriarchal sees of the East, such as the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.^[394] Like the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church also traces its heritage to the foundation of Christianity through apostolic succession and has an episcopal structure, though the autonomy of its component parts is emphasized, and most of them are national churches.

Eastern Orthodox theology is based on holy tradition which incorporates the dogmatic decrees of the seven Ecumenical Councils, the Scriptures, and the teaching of the Church Fathers. The church teaches that it is the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission,^[395] and that its bishops are the successors of Christ’s apostles.^[396] It maintains that it practises the original Christian faith, as passed down by holy tradition. Its patriarchates, reminiscent of the pentarchy, and other autocephalous and autonomous churches reflect a variety of hierarchical organisation. It recognizes seven major sacraments, of which the Eucharist is the principal one, celebrated liturgically in synaxis. The church teaches that through consecration invoked by a priest, the sacrificial bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. The Virgin Mary is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Theotokos, meaning God-bearer, and is honoured in devotions.

Eastern Orthodoxy is the second largest single denomination in Christianity, with an estimated 230 million adherents, although Protestants collectively outnumber them, substantially.^[1]^[397] As one of the oldest surviving religious institutions in the world, the Eastern Orthodox Church has played a prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe, the Caucasus, and the Near East.^[398] The majority of Eastern Orthodox Christians live mainly in Southeast and Eastern Europe, Cyprus, Georgia, and parts of the Caucasus region, Siberia, and the Russian Far East. Over half of Eastern Orthodox Christians follow the Russian Orthodox Church, while the vast majority live within Russia.^[399] There are also communities in the former Byzantine regions of Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean, and in the Middle East. Eastern Orthodox communities are also present in many other parts of the world, particularly North America, Western Europe, and Australia, formed through diaspora, conversions, and missionary activity.^[400]

Oriental Orthodoxy

Main article: Oriental Orthodoxy

The Oriental Orthodox Churches (also called “Old Oriental” churches) are those eastern churches that recognize the first three ecumenical councils—Nicaea, Constantinople, and Ephesus—but reject the dogmatic definitions of the Council of Chalcedon and instead espouse a Miaphysite christology.

The Oriental Orthodox communion consists of six groups: Syriac Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, Eritrean Orthodox, Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (India), and Armenian Apostolic churches.^[401] These six churches, while being in communion with each other, are completely independent hierarchically.^[402] These churches are generally not in communion with the Eastern Orthodox Church, with whom they are in dialogue for erecting a communion.^[403] Together, they have about 62 million members worldwide.^[404]^[405]^[406]^[407]^[397]

As some of the oldest religious institutions in the world, the Oriental Orthodox Churches have played a prominent role in the history and culture of Armenia, Egypt, Turkey, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Iran, Azerbaijan and parts of the Middle East and India.^[408]^[409]^[410] An Eastern Christian body of autocephalous churches, its bishops are equal by virtue of episcopal ordination, and its doctrines can be summarized in that the churches recognize the validity of only the first three ecumenical councils.^[411]

Some Oriental Orthodox Churches such as the Coptic Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, Eritrean Orthodox, places a heavier emphasis on Old Testament teachings than one might find in other Christian denominations, and its followers adhere to certain practices: following dietary rules that are similar to Jewish Kashrut,^[412] require that their male members undergo circumcision,^[413] and observes ritual purification.^[414]^[415]

Church of the East

Further information: Assyrian Church of the East and Ancient Church of the East

The Church of the East, which was part of the Great Church,^[416] shared communion with those in the Roman Empire until the Council of Ephesus condemned Nestorius in 431. Continuing as a dhimmi community under the Rashidun Caliphate after the Muslim conquest of Persia (633–654), the Church of the East played a major role in the history of Christianity in Asia. Between the 9th and 14th centuries, it represented the world’s largest Christian denomination in terms of geographical extent. It established dioceses and communities stretching from the Mediterranean Sea and today’s Iraq and Iran, to India (the Saint Thomas Syrian Christians of Kerala), the Mongol kingdoms in Central Asia, and China during the Tang dynasty (7th–9th centuries). In the 13th and 14th centuries, the church experienced a final period of expansion under the Mongol Empire, where influential Church of the East clergy sat in the Mongol court.

The Assyrian Church of the East, with an unbroken patriarchate established in the 17th century, is an independent Eastern Christian denomination which claims continuity from the Church of the East—in parallel to the Catholic patriarchate established in the 16th century that evolved into the Chaldean Catholic Church, an Eastern Catholic church in full communion with the Pope. It is an Eastern Christian church that follows the traditional christology and ecclesiology of the historical Church of the East. Largely aniconic and not in communion with any other church, it belongs to the eastern branch of Syriac Christianity, and uses the East Syriac Rite in its liturgy.^[417]

Its main spoken language is Syriac, a dialect of Eastern Aramaic, and the majority of its adherents are ethnic Assyrians, mostly living in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, India (Chaldean Syrian Church), and in the Assyrian diaspora.^[418] It is officially headquartered in the city of Erbil in northern Iraqi Kurdistan, and its original area also spreads into south-eastern Turkey and north-western Iran, corresponding to ancient Assyria. Its hierarchy is composed of metropolitan bishops and diocesan bishops, while lower clergy consists of priests and deacons, who serve in dioceses (eparchies) and parishes throughout the Middle East, India, North America, Oceania, and Europe (including the Caucasus and Russia).^[419]

The Ancient Church of the East distinguished itself from the Assyrian Church of the East in 1964. It is one of the Assyrian churches that claim continuity with the historical Church of the East, one of the oldest Christian churches in Mesopotamia.^[420] It is officially headquartered in the city of Baghdad, Iraq.^[421] The majority of its adherents are ethnic Assyrians.^[421]

Protestantism

Main articles: Protestantism and Proto-Protestantism

Restorationism

Main article: Restorationism

A 19th-century drawing of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery receiving the Aaronic priesthood from John the Baptist. Latter Day Saints believe that the Priesthood ceased to exist after the death of the apostles and therefore needed to be restored.

The Second Great Awakening, a period of religious revival that occurred in the United States during the early 1800s, saw the development of a number of unrelated churches. They generally saw themselves as restoring the original church of Jesus Christ rather than reforming one of the existing churches.^[444] A common belief held by Restorationists was that the other divisions of Christianity had introduced doctrinal defects into Christianity, which was known as the Great Apostasy.^[445] In Asia, Iglesia ni Cristo is a known Restorationist denomination that was established during the early 1900s. Other examples of Restorationist denominations include Irvingianism and Swedenborgianism.^[446]^[19]

Some of the churches originating during this period are historically connected to early 19th-century camp meetings in the Midwest and upstate New York. One of the largest churches produced from the movement is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.^[447] American Millennialism and Adventism, which arose from Evangelical Protestantism, influenced the Jehovah’s Witnesses movement and, as a reaction specifically to William Miller, the Seventh-day Adventists. Others, including the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Evangelical Christian Church in Canada,^[448]^[449] Churches of Christ, and the Christian churches and churches of Christ, have their roots in the contemporaneous Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement, which was centered in Kentucky and Tennessee. Other groups originating in this time period include the Christadelphians and the previously mentioned Latter Day Saints movement. While the churches originating in the Second Great Awakening have some superficial similarities, their doctrine and practices vary significantly.^[450]

Other

Within Italy, Poland, Lithuania, Transylvania, Hungary, Romania, and the United Kingdom, Unitarian Churches emerged from the Reformed tradition in the 16th century;^[451] the Unitarian Church of Transylvania is an example of such a denomination that arose in this era.^[452] They adopted the Anabaptist doctrine of credobaptism.^[453]

Various smaller Independent Catholic communities, such as the Old Catholic Church,^[454] include the word Catholic in their title, and arguably have more or less liturgical practices in common with the Catholic Church but are no longer in full communion with the Holy See.^[455]

Spiritual Christians, such as the Doukhobors and Molokans, broke from the Russian Orthodox Church and maintain close association with Mennonites and Quakers due to similar religious practices; all of these groups are furthermore collectively considered to be peace churches due to their belief in pacifism.^[456]^[457]

Messianic Judaism (or the Messianic Movement) is the name of a Christian movement comprising a number of streams, whose members may consider themselves Jewish. The movement originated in the 1960s and 1970s, and it blends elements of religious Jewish practice with evangelical Christianity. Messianic Judaism affirms Christian creeds such as the messiahship and divinity of “Yeshua” (the Hebrew name of Jesus) and the Triune Nature of God, while also adhering to some Jewish dietary laws and customs.^[458]

Esoteric Christians, such as The Christian Community,^[459] regard Christianity as a mystery religion^[460]^[461] and profess the existence and possession of certain esoteric doctrines or practices,^[462]^[463] hidden from the public and accessible only to a narrow circle of “enlightened”, “initiated”, or highly educated people.^[464]^[465]

Nondenominational Christianity or non-denominational Christianity consists of churches which typically distance themselves from the confessionalism or creedalism of other Christian communities^[442] by not formally aligning with a specific Christian denomination.^[466] Nondenominational Christianity first arose in the 18th century through the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement, with followers organizing themselves as “Christians” and “Disciples of Christ“,^{[note 11]}^[466]^[467] but many typically adhere to evangelical Christianity.^[468]^[469]^[470]

Cultural influence

Main articles: Christian culture and Role of Christianity in civilization

Further information: Protestant culture and Christian influences in Islam

Christian culture

Clockwise from top: Sistine Chapel ceiling, Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, Eastern Orthodox wedding, Christ the Redeemer statue, Nativity scene

The history of the Christendom spans about 1,700 years and includes a variety of socio-political developments, as well as advances in the arts, architecture, literature, science, philosophy, and technology.^[471]^[472]^[473] Since the spread of Christianity from the Levant to Europe and North Africa during the early Roman Empire, Christendom has been divided in the pre-existing Greek East and Latin West. Consequently, different versions of the Christian cultures arose with their own rites and practices, centered around the cities of Rome (Western Christianity) and Carthage, whose communities were called Western or Latin Christendom,^[474] and Constantinople (Eastern Christianity), Antioch (Syriac Christianity), Kerala (Indian Christianity) and Alexandria (Coptic Christianity), whose communities were called Eastern or Oriental Christendom.^[475]^[476]^[477] The Byzantine Empire was one of the peaks in Christian history and Eastern Christian civilization.^[53] From the 11th to 13th centuries, Latin Christendom rose to the central role of the Western world.

The Bible has had a profound influence on Western civilization and on cultures around the globe; it has contributed to the formation of Western law, art, texts, and education.^[478]^[479]^[480] With a literary tradition spanning two millennia, the Bible is one of the most influential works ever written. From practices of personal hygiene to philosophy and ethics, the Bible has directly and indirectly influenced politics and law, war and peace, sexual morals, marriage and family life, toilet etiquette, letters and learning, the arts, economics, social justice, medical care and more.^[480]

Christians have made a myriad of contributions to human progress in a broad and diverse range of fields, including philosophy,^[481] science and technology,^[482]^[483]^[484]^[485] medicine,^[486] fine arts and architecture,^[487] politics, literatures, music,^[488] and business.^[489]^[490] According to 100 Years of Nobel Prizes a review of the Nobel Prizes award between 1901 and 2000 reveals that (65.4%) of Nobel Prizes Laureates, have identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference.^[491]

Outside the Western world, Christianity has had an influence on various cultures, such as in Africa, the Near East, Middle East, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent.^[492]^[493] Eastern Christian scientists and scholars of the medieval Islamic world (particularly Jacobite and Nestorian Christians) contributed to the Arab Islamic civilization during the reign of the Ummayyads and the Abbasids, by translating works of Greek philosophers to Syriac and afterwards, to Arabic.^[494]^[495]^[496] They also excelled in philosophy, science, theology, and medicine.^[497]^[498]^[499] Scholars and intellectuals agree Christians in the Middle East have made significant contributions to Arab and Islamic civilization since the introduction of Islam, and they have had a significant impact contributing the culture of the Mashriq, Turkey, and Iran.^[500]^[492]

Influence on Western culture

Western culture, throughout most of its history, has been nearly equivalent to Christian culture, and a large portion of the population of the Western Hemisphere can be described as practicing or nominal Christians. The notion of “Europe” and the “Western World” has been intimately connected with the concept of “Christianity and Christendom”. Many historians even attribute Christianity for being the link that created a unified European identity.^[501]

Though Western culture contained several polytheistic religions during its early years under the Greek and Roman Empires, as the centralized Roman power waned, the dominance of the Catholic Church was the only consistent force in Western Europe.^[502] Until the Age of Enlightenment,^[502] Christian culture guided the course of philosophy, literature, art, music and science.^[502]^[471] Christian disciplines of the respective arts have subsequently developed into Christian philosophy, Christian art, Christian music, Christian literature, and so on.

Christianity has had a significant impact on education, as the church created the bases of the Western system of education,^[503] and was the sponsor of founding universities in the Western world, as the university is generally regarded as an institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian setting.^[71] Historically, Christianity has often been a patron of science and medicine; many Catholic clergy,^[504] Jesuits in particular,^[505]^[506]^[507] have been active in the sciences throughout history and have made significant contributions to the development of science.^[508]^[509] Some scholars state that Christianity contributed to the rise of the Scientific Revolution.^[510] Protestantism also has had an important influence on science. According to the Merton Thesis, there was a positive correlation between the rise of English Puritanism and German Pietism on the one hand, and early experimental science on the other.^[511]^[512]^[513] The civilizing influence of Christianity includes social welfare,^[503] contribution to the medical and health care,^[514] founding hospitals,^[503] economics (as the Protestant work ethic),^[503]^[515]^[516] architecture,^[517] literature,^[518] personal hygiene (ablution),^[519]^[520] and family life.^[503]^[521] Historically, extended families were the basic family unit in the Christian culture and countries.^[522]

Cultural Christians are secular people with a Christian heritage who may not believe in the religious claims of Christianity, but who retain an affinity for the popular culture, art, music, and so on related to the religion.^[523]

Postchristianity is the term for the decline of Christianity, particularly in Europe, Canada, Australia, and to a minor degree the Southern Cone, in the 20th and 21st centuries, considered in terms of postmodernism. It refers to the loss of Christianity’s monopoly on values and world view in historically Christian societies.^[524]

Ecumenism

Main article: Ecumenism

Bishop John M. Quinn of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Winona and Bishop Steven Delzer of Evangelical Lutheran Southeastern Minnesota Synod leading a Reformation Day service (2017)

Christian groups and denominations have long expressed ideals of being reconciled, and in the 20th century, Christian ecumenism advanced in two ways.^[525]^[526]^[527] One way was greater cooperation between groups, such as the World Evangelical Alliance founded in 1846 in London or the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of Protestants in 1910, the Justice, Peace and Creation Commission of the World Council of Churches founded in 1948 by Protestant and Orthodox churches, and similar national councils like the National Council of Churches in Australia, which includes Catholics.^[526]

The other way was an institutional union with united churches, a practice that can be traced back to unions between Lutherans and Calvinists in early 19th-century Germany. Congregationalist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches united in 1925 to form the United Church of Canada,^[528] and in 1977 to form the Uniting Church in Australia. The Church of South India was formed in 1947 by the union of Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, Congregationalist, and Presbyterian churches.^[529]

The Christian Flag is an ecumenical flag designed in the early 20th century to represent all of Christianity and Christendom.^[530]

The ecumenical, monastic Taizé Community is notable for being composed of more than one hundred brothers from Protestant and Catholic traditions.^[531] The community emphasizes the reconciliation of all denominations and its main church, located in Taizé, Saône-et-Loire, France, is named the “Church of Reconciliation”.^[531] The community is internationally known, attracting over 100,000 young pilgrims annually.^[532]

Steps towards reconciliation on a global level were taken in 1965 by the Catholic and Orthodox churches, mutually revoking the excommunications that marked their Great Schism in 1054;^[533] the Anglican Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) working towards full communion between those churches since 1970;^[534] and some Lutheran and Catholic churches signing the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999 to address conflicts at the root of the Protestant Reformation. In 2006, the World Methodist Council, representing all Methodist denominations, adopted the declaration.^[535]

Criticism, persecution, and apologetics

Main articles: Criticism of Christianity, Persecution of Christians, and Christian apologetics

Criticism

Criticism of Christianity and Christians goes back to the Apostolic Age, with the New Testament recording friction between the followers of Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes (e.g., Matthew 15:1–20 and Mark 7:1–23).^[536] In the 2nd century, Christianity was criticized by the Jews on various grounds, e.g., that the prophecies of the Hebrew Bible could not have been fulfilled by Jesus, given that he did not have a successful life.^[537] Additionally, a sacrifice to remove sins in advance, for everyone or as a human being, did not fit the Jewish sacrifice ritual; furthermore, God in Judaism is said to judge people on their deeds instead of their beliefs.^[538]^[539] One of the first comprehensive attacks on Christianity came from the Greek philosopher Celsus, who wrote The True Word, a polemic criticizing Christians as being unprofitable members of society.^[540]^[541]^[542] In response, the church father Origen published his treatise Contra Celsum, or Against Celsus, a seminal work of Christian apologetics, which systematically addressed Celsus’s criticisms and helped bring Christianity a level of academic respectability.^[543]^[542]

By the 3rd century, criticism of Christianity had mounted. Wild rumors about Christians were widely circulated, claiming that they were atheists and that, as part of their rituals, they devoured human infants and engaged in incestuous orgies.^[544]^[545] The Neoplatonist philosopher Porphyry wrote the fifteen-volume Adversus Christianos as a comprehensive attack on Christianity, in part building on the teachings of Plotinus.^[546]^[547]

By the 12th century, the Mishneh Torah (i.e., Rabbi Moses Maimonides) was criticizing Christianity on the grounds of idol worship, in that Christians attributed divinity to Jesus, who had a physical body.^[548] In the 19th century, Nietzsche began to write a series of polemics on the “unnatural” teachings of Christianity (e.g. sexual abstinence), and continued his criticism of Christianity to the end of his life.^[549] In the 20th century, the philosopher Bertrand Russell expressed his criticism of Christianity in Why I Am Not a Christian, formulating his rejection of Christianity.^[550]

Criticism of Christianity continues to date, e.g. Jewish and Muslim theologians criticize the doctrine of the Trinity held by most Christians, stating that this doctrine in effect assumes that there are three gods, running against the basic tenet of monotheism.^[551] New Testament scholar Robert M. Price has outlined the possibility that some Bible stories are based partly on myth in The Christ Myth Theory and its problems.^[552]

Persecution

Christians are one of the most persecuted religious groups in the world, especially in the Middle-East, North Africa and South and East Asia.^[554]^[555]^[556] In 2017, Open Doors estimated approximately 260 million Christians are subjected annually to “high, very high, or extreme persecution”^[557] with North Korea considered the most hazardous nation for Christians.^[558]^[559] In 2019, a report^[560]^[561] commissioned by the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to investigate global persecution of Christians found persecution has increased, and is highest in the Middle East, North Africa, India, China, North Korea, and Latin America, among others, and that it is global and not limited to Islamic states.^[562]^[561] This investigation found that approximately 80% of persecuted believers worldwide are Christians.^[556]

Apologetics

A copy of the *Summa Theologica* by Thomas Aquinas

Christian apologetics aims to present a rational basis for Christianity. The word “apologetic” (Greek: ἀπολογητικός apologētikos) comes from the Greek verb ἀπολογέομαι apologeomai, meaning “(I) speak in defense of”.^[563] Christian apologetics has taken many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul the Apostle. The philosopher Thomas Aquinas presented five arguments for God’s existence in the Summa Theologica, while his Summa contra Gentiles was a major apologetic work.^[564]^[565] Another famous apologist, G. K. Chesterton, wrote in the early twentieth century about the benefits of religion and, specifically, Christianity. Famous for his use of paradox, Chesterton explained that while Christianity had the most mysteries, it was the most practical religion.^[566]^[567] He pointed to the advance of Christian civilizations as proof of its practicality.^[568] The physicist and priest John Polkinghorne, in his Questions of Truth, discusses the subject of religion and science, a topic that other Christian apologists such as Ravi Zacharias, John Lennox, and William Lane Craig have engaged, with the latter two men opining that the inflationary Big Bang model is evidence for the existence of God.^[569] Creationist apologetics is apologetics that aims to defend creationism.

March 11, 2025

CHRISTMAS

Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25^[a] as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A liturgical feast central to Christianity, Christmas preparation begins on the First Sunday of Advent and it is followed by Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many countries, is observed religiously by a majority of Christians, as well as celebrated culturally by many non-Christians, and forms an integral part of the annual holiday season.

The traditional Christmas narrative recounted in the New Testament, known as the Nativity of Jesus, says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in accordance with messianic prophecies. When Joseph and Mary arrived in the city, the inn had no room, and so they were offered a stable where the Christ Child was soon born, with angels proclaiming this news to shepherds, who then spread the word.

There are different hypotheses regarding the date of Jesus’s birth. In the early fourth century, the church fixed the date as December 25, the date of the winter solstice in the Roman Empire. It is nine months after Annunciation on March 25, also the Roman date of the spring equinox. Most Christians celebrate on December 25 in the Gregorian calendar, which has been adopted almost universally in the civil calendars used in countries throughout the world. However, part of the Eastern Christian Churches celebrate Christmas on December 25 of the older Julian calendar, which currently corresponds to January 7 in the Gregorian calendar. For Christians, celebrating that God came into the world in the form of man to atone for the sins of humanity is more important than knowing Jesus’s exact birth date.

The customs associated with Christmas in various countries have a mix of pre-Christian, Christian, and secular themes and origins. Popular holiday traditions include gift giving; completing an Advent calendar or Advent wreath; Christmas music and caroling; watching Christmas movies; viewing a Nativity play; an exchange of Christmas cards; attending church services; a special meal; and displaying various Christmas decorations, including Christmas trees, Christmas lights, nativity scenes, poinsettias, garlands, wreaths, mistletoe, and holly. Additionally, several related and often interchangeable figures, known as Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, and Christkind, are associated with bringing gifts to children during the Christmas season and have their own body of traditions and lore. Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival involve heightened economic activity, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. Over the past few centuries, Christmas has had a steadily growing economic effect in many regions of the world.

Etymology

Other names

The holiday has had various other English names throughout its history. The Anglo-Saxons referred to the feast as “midwinter”,^[13]^[14] or, more rarely, as Nātiuiteð (from the Latin nātīvitās below).^[13]^[15] Nativity, meaning ‘birth’, is from the Latin nātīvitās.^[16] In Old English, Gēola (‘Yule‘) referred to the period corresponding to December and January, which was eventually equated with Christian Christmas.^[17] ‘Noel’ (also ‘Nowel’ or ‘Nowell’, as in “The First Nowell“) entered English in the late 14th century and is from the Old French noël or naël, itself ultimately from the Latin nātālis (diēs) meaning ‘birth (day)’.^[18]

Koleda is the traditional Slavic name for Christmas and the period from Christmas to Epiphany or, more generally, to Slavic Christmas-related rituals, some dating to pre-Christian times.^[19]

Nativity

Main article: Nativity of Jesus

The gospels of Luke and Matthew describe Jesus as being born in Bethlehem to the Virgin Mary. In the Gospel of Luke, Joseph and Mary travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem in order to be counted for a census, and Jesus is born there and placed in a manger.^[20] Angels proclaim him a savior for all people, and three shepherds come to adore him. In the Gospel of Matthew, by contrast, three magi follow a star to Bethlehem to bring gifts to Jesus, born the king of the Jews. King Herod orders the massacre of all the boys less than two years old in Bethlehem, but the family flees to Egypt and later returns to Nazareth.^[21]

History

Early and medieval era

In the 2nd century, the “earliest church records” indicate that “Christians were remembering and celebrating the birth of the Lord”, an “observance [that] sprang up organically from the authentic devotion of ordinary believers”; although “they did not agree upon a set date”.^[22] The earliest document to place Jesus’s birthday on December 25 is the Chronograph of 354 (also called the Calendar of Filocalus), which also names it as the birthday of Sol Invictus (the ‘Invincible Sun’).^[23]^[24]^[25]^[26]

Liturgical historians generally agree that this part of the text was written in Rome in AD 336.^[24] This is consistent with the assertion that the date was formally set by Pope Julius I, bishop of Rome from 337 to 352.^[27] Though Christmas did not appear on the lists of festivals given by the early Christian writers Irenaeus and Tertullian,^[6] the early Church Fathers John Chrysostom, Augustine of Hippo, and Jerome attested to December 25 as the date of Christmas toward the end of the fourth century.^[22] December 25 was the traditional date of the winter solstice in the Roman Empire,^[28] where most Christians lived, and the Roman festival Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of Sol Invictus) had been held on this date since 274 AD.^[29]

In the East, the birth of Jesus was celebrated in connection with the Epiphany on January 6.^[30]^[31] This holiday was not primarily about Christ’s birth, but rather his baptism.^[32] Christmas was promoted in the East as part of the revival of Orthodox Christianity that followed the death of the pro-Arian Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. The feast was introduced in Constantinople in 379, in Antioch by John Chrysostom towards the end of the fourth century,^[31] probably in 388, and in Alexandria in the following century.^[33] The Georgian Iadgari demonstrates that Christmas was celebrated in Jerusalem by the sixth century.^[34]

In the Early Middle Ages, Christmas Day was overshadowed by Epiphany, which in western Christianity focused on the visit of the magi. However, the medieval calendar was dominated by Christmas-related holidays. The forty days before Christmas became the “forty days of St. Martin” (which began on November 11, the feast of St. Martin of Tours), now known as Advent.^[35] In Italy, former Saturnalian traditions were attached to Advent.^[35] Around the 12th century, these traditions transferred again to the Twelve Days of Christmas (December 25 – January 5); a time that appears in the liturgical calendars as Christmastide or Twelve Holy Days.^[35]

In 567, the Council of Tours put in place the season of Christmastide, proclaiming “the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany as a sacred and festive season, and established the duty of Advent fasting in preparation for the feast”.^[36] This was done in order to solve the “administrative problem for the Roman Empire as it tried to coordinate the solar Julian calendar with the lunar calendars of its provinces in the east”.^[37]

The prominence of Christmas Day increased gradually after Charlemagne was crowned Emperor on Christmas Day in 800.^[38] King Edmund the Martyr was anointed on Christmas in 855 and King William I of England was crowned on Christmas Day 1066.^[39]

By the High Middle Ages, the holiday had become so prominent that chroniclers routinely noted where various magnates celebrated Christmas. King Richard II of England hosted a Christmas feast in 1377 at which 28 oxen and 300 sheep were eaten.^[35] The Yule boar was a common feature of medieval Christmas feasts. Caroling also became popular, and was originally performed by a group of dancers who sang. The group was composed of a lead singer and a ring of dancers that provided the chorus. Various writers of the time condemned caroling as lewd, indicating that the unruly traditions of Saturnalia and Yule may have continued in this form.^[35] “Misrule“—drunkenness, promiscuity, gambling—was also an important aspect of the festival. In England, gifts were exchanged on New Year’s Day (a custom at the royal court), and there was special Christmas ale.^[35]

Christmas during the Middle Ages was a public festival that incorporated ivy, holly, and other evergreens.^[40] Christmas gift-giving during the Middle Ages was usually between people with legal relationships, such as tenant and landlord.^[40] The annual indulgence in eating, dancing, singing, sporting, and card playing escalated in England, and by the 17th century the Christmas season featured lavish dinners, elaborate masques, and pageants. In 1607, King James I insisted that a play be acted on Christmas night and that the court indulge in games.^[41] It was during the Reformation in 16th–17th-century Europe that many Protestants changed the gift bringer to the Christ Child or Christkindl, and the date of giving gifts changed from December 6 to Christmas Eve.^[42]

17th and 18th centuries

Following the Protestant Reformation, many of the new denominations, including the Anglican Church and Lutheran Church, continued to celebrate Christmas.^[45] In 1629, the Anglican poet John Milton penned On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity, a poem that has since been read by many during Christmastide.^[46] Donald Heinz, a professor at California State University, Chico, states that Martin Luther “inaugurated a period in which Germany would produce a unique culture of Christmas, much copied in North America”.^[47] Among the congregations of the Dutch Reformed Church, Christmas was celebrated as one of the principal evangelical feasts.^[48]

However, in 17th century England, some groups such as the Puritans strongly condemned the celebration of Christmas, considering it a Catholic invention and the “trappings of popery” or the “rags of the Beast“.^[49] In contrast, the established Anglican Church “pressed for a more elaborate observance of feasts, penitential seasons, and saints’ days. The calendar reform became a major point of tension between the Anglican party and the Puritan party”.^[50] The Catholic Church also responded, promoting the festival in a more religiously oriented form. King Charles I of England directed his noblemen and gentry to return to their landed estates in midwinter to keep up their old-style Christmas generosity.^[41] Following the Parliamentarian victory over Charles I during the English Civil War, England’s Puritan rulers banned Christmas in 1647.^[49]^[51]

Protests followed as pro-Christmas rioting broke out in several cities and for weeks Canterbury was controlled by the rioters, who decorated doorways with holly and shouted royalist slogans.^[49] Football, among the sports the Puritans banned on a Sunday, was also used as a rebellious force: when Puritans outlawed Christmas in England in December 1647 the crowd brought out footballs as a symbol of festive misrule.^[52] The book, The Vindication of Christmas (London, 1652), argued against the Puritans, and makes note of Old English Christmas traditions, dinner, roast apples on the fire, card playing, dances with “plow-boys” and “maidservants”, old Father Christmas and carol singing.^[53] During the ban, semi-clandestine religious services marking Christ’s birth continued to be held, and people sang carols in secret.^[54]

*The Examination and Tryal of Old Father Christmas*, (1686), published after Christmas was reinstated as a holy day in England

It was restored as a legal holiday in England with the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660 when Puritan legislation was declared null and void, with Christmas again freely celebrated in England.^[54] Many Calvinist clergymen disapproved of Christmas celebration. As such, in Scotland, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland discouraged the observance of Christmas, and though James VI commanded its celebration in 1618, attendance at church was scant.^[55] The Parliament of Scotland officially abolished the observance of Christmas in 1640, claiming that the church had been “purged of all superstitious observation of days”.^[56] Whereas in England, Wales and Ireland Christmas Day is a common law holiday, having been a customary holiday since time immemorial, it was not until 1871 that it was designated a bank holiday in Scotland.^[57] Following the Restoration of Charles II, Poor Robin’s Almanack contained the lines: “Now thanks to God for Charles return, / Whose absence made old Christmas mourn. / For then we scarcely did it know, / Whether it Christmas were or no”.^[58] The diary of James Woodforde, from the latter half of the 18th century, details the observance of Christmas and celebrations associated with the season over a number of years.^[59]

As in England, Puritans in Colonial America staunchly opposed the observation of Christmas.^[60] The Pilgrims of New England pointedly spent their first December 25 in the New World working normally.^[60] Puritans such as Cotton Mather condemned Christmas both because scripture did not mention its observance and because Christmas celebrations of the day often involved boisterous behavior.^[61]^[62] Many non-Puritans in New England deplored the loss of the holidays enjoyed by the laboring classes in England.^[63] Christmas observance was outlawed in Boston in 1659.^[60] The ban on Christmas observance was revoked in 1681 by English governor Edmund Andros, but it was not until the mid-19th century that celebrating Christmas became fashionable in the Boston region.^[64]

At the same time, Christian residents of Virginia and New York observed the holiday freely. Pennsylvania Dutch settlers, predominantly Moravian settlers of Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Lititz in Pennsylvania and the Wachovia settlements in North Carolina, were enthusiastic celebrators of Christmas. The Moravians in Bethlehem had the first Christmas trees in America as well as the first Nativity Scenes.^[65] Christmas fell out of favor in the United States after the American Revolution, when it was considered an English custom.^[66] George Washington attacked Hessian (German) mercenaries on the day after Christmas during the Battle of Trenton on December 26, 1776, Christmas being much more popular in Germany than in America at this time.

With the atheistic Cult of Reason in power during the era of Revolutionary France, Christian Christmas religious services were banned and the three kings cake was renamed the “equality cake” under anticlerical government policies.^[67]

19th century

In the early 19th century, Christmas festivities and services became widespread with the rise of the Oxford Movement in the Church of England that emphasized the centrality of Christmas in Christianity and charity to the poor,^[68] along with Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, and other authors emphasizing family, children, kind-heartedness, gift-giving, and Santa Claus (for Irving),^[68] or Father Christmas (for Dickens).^[69]

In the early-19th century, writers imagined Tudor-period Christmas as a time of heartfelt celebration. In 1843, Charles Dickens wrote the novel A Christmas Carol, which helped revive the “spirit” of Christmas and seasonal merriment.^[70]^[71] Its instant popularity played a major role in portraying Christmas as a holiday emphasizing family, goodwill, and compassion.^[68]

Dickens sought to construct Christmas as a family-centered festival of generosity, linking “worship and feasting, within a context of social reconciliation”.^[72] Superimposing his humanitarian vision of the holiday, in what has been termed “Carol Philosophy”,^[73] Dickens influenced many aspects of Christmas that are celebrated today in Western culture, such as family gatherings, seasonal food and drink, dancing, games, and a festive generosity of spirit.^[74] A prominent phrase from the tale, “Merry Christmas”, was popularized following the appearance of the story.^[75] This coincided with the appearance of the Oxford Movement and the growth of Anglo-Catholicism, which led a revival in traditional rituals and religious observances.^[76]

19th-century lithograph showing the *Christkindlesmarkt* (Christmas market) in Nuremberg, Germany

The term Scrooge became a synonym for miser, with the phrase “Bah! Humbug!” becoming emblematic of a dismissive attitude of the festive spirit.^[77] In 1843, the first commercial Christmas card was produced by Sir Henry Cole.^[78] The revival of the Christmas Carol began with William Sandys‘s Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern (1833), with the first appearance in print of “The First Noel“, “I Saw Three Ships“, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” and “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen“, popularized in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.

In Britain, the Christmas tree was introduced in the early 19th century by the German-born Queen Charlotte. In 1832, the future Queen Victoria wrote about her delight at having a Christmas tree, hung with lights, ornaments, and presents placed round it.^[79] After her marriage to her German cousin Prince Albert, by 1841 the custom became more widespread throughout Britain.^[80] An image of the British royal family with their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle created a sensation when it was published in the Illustrated London News in 1848. A modified version of this image was published in Godey’s Lady’s Book, Philadelphia in 1850.^[81]^[82] By the 1870s, putting up a Christmas tree had become common in America.^[81]

In America, interest in Christmas had been revived in the 1820s by several short stories by Washington Irving which appear in his The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. and “Old Christmas”. Irving’s stories depicted harmonious warm-hearted English Christmas festivities he experienced while staying in Aston Hall, Birmingham, England, that had largely been abandoned,^[83] and he used the tract Vindication of Christmas (1652) of Old English Christmas traditions, that he had transcribed into his journal as a format for his stories.^[41]

In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore wrote the poem A Visit From St. Nicholas (popularly known by its first line: Twas the Night Before Christmas).^[84] The poem helped popularize the tradition of exchanging gifts, and seasonal Christmas shopping began to assume economic importance.^[85] This also started the cultural conflict between the holiday’s spiritual significance and its associated commercialism that some see as corrupting the holiday. In her 1850 book The First Christmas in New England, Harriet Beecher Stowe includes a character who complains that the true meaning of Christmas was lost in a shopping spree.^[86]

While the celebration of Christmas was not yet customary in some regions in the U.S., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow detected “a transition state about Christmas here in New England” in 1856. “The old puritan feeling prevents it from being a cheerful, hearty holiday; though every year makes it more so”.^[87] In Reading, Pennsylvania, a newspaper remarked in 1861, “Even our presbyterian friends who have hitherto steadfastly ignored Christmas—threw open their church doors and assembled in force to celebrate the anniversary of the Savior’s birth.”^[87]

The First Congregational Church of Rockford, Illinois, “although of genuine Puritan stock”, was ‘preparing for a grand Christmas jubilee’, a news correspondent reported in 1864.^[87] By 1860, fourteen states including several from New England had adopted Christmas as a legal holiday.^[88] In 1875, Louis Prang introduced the Christmas card to Americans. He has been called the “father of the American Christmas card”.^[89] On June 28, 1870, Christmas was formally declared a United States federal holiday.^[90]

20th and 21st centuries

During the First World War and particularly (but not exclusively) in 1914,^[91] a series of informal truces took place for Christmas between opposing armies. The truces, which were organised spontaneously by fighting men, ranged from promises not to shoot (shouted at a distance in order to ease the pressure of war for the day) to friendly socializing, gift giving and even sport between enemies.^[92] These incidents became a well known and semi-mythologised part of popular memory.^[93] They have been described as a symbol of common humanity even in the darkest of situations and used to demonstrate to children the ideals of Christmas.^[94]

Under the state atheism of the Soviet Union, after its foundation in 1917, Christmas celebrations—along with other Christian holidays—were prohibited in public.^[95] During the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the League of Militant Atheists encouraged school pupils to campaign against Christmas traditions, such as the Christmas tree, as well as other Christian holidays, including Easter; the League established an antireligious holiday to be the 31st of each month as a replacement.^[96] At the height of this persecution, in 1929, on Christmas Day, children in Moscow were encouraged to spit on crucifixes as a protest against the holiday.^[97] Instead, the importance of the holiday and all its trappings, such as the Christmas tree and gift-giving, was transferred to the New Year.^[98] It was not until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 that the persecution ended and Orthodox Christmas became a state holiday again for the first time in Russia after seven decades.^[99]

In 1991, the Gubbio Christmas Tree, in Italy, 650 meters high and decorated with over 700 lights, entered the Guinness Book of Records as the tallest Christmas tree in the world.^[100] European History Professor Joseph Perry wrote that likewise, in Nazi Germany, “because Nazi ideologues saw organized religion as an enemy of the totalitarian state, propagandists sought to deemphasize—or eliminate altogether—the Christian aspects of the holiday” and that “Propagandists tirelessly promoted numerous Nazified Christmas songs, which replaced Christian themes with the regime’s racial ideologies”.^[101]

As Christmas celebrations began to spread globally even outside traditional Christian cultures, several Muslim-majority countries began to ban the observance of Christmas, claiming it undermined Islam.^[102] In 2023, public Christmas celebrations were cancelled in Bethlehem, the city synonymous with the birth of Jesus. Palestinian leaders of various Christian denominations cited the ongoing Israel–Hamas war in their unanimous decision to cancel celebrations.^[103]

Observance and traditions

Further information: Christmas traditions and Observance of Christmas by country

Christmas Day is celebrated as a major festival and public holiday in countries around the world, including many whose populations are mostly non-Christian. In some non-Christian areas, periods of former colonial rule introduced the celebration (e.g. Hong Kong); in others, Christian minorities or foreign cultural influences have led populations to observe the holiday. Countries such as Japan, where Christmas is popular despite there being only a small number of Christians, have adopted many of the cultural aspects of Christmas, such as gift-giving, decorations, and Christmas trees. A similar example is in Turkey, being Muslim-majority and with a small number of Christians, where Christmas trees and decorations tend to line public streets during the festival.^{[citation needed]}

Many popular customs associated with Christmas developed independently of the commemoration of Jesus’s birth, with some claiming that certain elements are Christianized and have origins in pre-Christian festivals that were celebrated by pagan populations who were later converted to Christianity; other scholars reject these claims and affirm that Christmas customs largely developed in a Christian context.^[105]^[106] The prevailing atmosphere of Christmas has also continually evolved since the holiday’s inception, ranging from a sometimes raucous, drunken, carnival-like state in the Middle Ages,^[35] to a tamer family-oriented and children-centered theme introduced in a 19th-century transformation.^[70]^[71] The celebration of Christmas was banned on more than one occasion within certain groups, such as the Puritans and Jehovah’s Witnesses (who do not celebrate birthdays in general), due to concerns that it was too unbiblical.^[49]^[60]^[107] Celtic winter herbs such as mistletoe and ivy, and the custom of kissing under a mistletoe, are common in modern Christmas celebrations in the English-speaking countries.^[108]

The pre-Christian Germanic peoples—including the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse—celebrated a winter festival called Yule, held in the late December to early January period, yielding modern English yule, today used as a synonym for Christmas.^[109] In Germanic language-speaking areas, numerous elements of modern Christmas folk custom and iconography may have originated from Yule, including the Yule log, Yule boar, and the Yule goat.^[110]^[109] Often leading a ghostly procession through the sky (the Wild Hunt), the long-bearded god Odin is referred to as “the Yule one” and “Yule father” in Old Norse texts, while other gods are referred to as “Yule beings”.^[111] On the other hand, as there are no reliable existing references to a Christmas log prior to the 16th century, the burning of the Christmas block may have been an early modern invention by Christians unrelated to the pagan practice.^[112]

Among countries with a strong Christian tradition, a variety of Christmas celebrations have developed that incorporate regional and local cultures. For example, in eastern Europe Christmas celebrations incorporated pre-Christian traditions such as the Koleda,^[113] which shares parallels with the Christmas carol.

Church attendance

Christmas Day (inclusive of its vigil, Christmas Eve), is a Festival in the Lutheran Churches, a solemnity in the Roman Catholic Church, and a Principal Feast of the Anglican Communion. Other Christian denominations do not rank their feast days but nevertheless place importance on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day, as with other Christian feasts like Easter, Ascension Day, and Pentecost.^[114] As such, for Christians, attending a Christmas Eve or Christmas Day church service plays an important part in the recognition of the Christmas season. Christmas, along with Easter, is the period of highest annual church attendance. A 2010 survey by LifeWay Christian Resources found that six in ten Americans attend church services during this time.^[115] In the United Kingdom, the Church of England reported an estimated attendance of 2.5 million people at Christmas services in 2015.^[116]

Decorations

Main article: Christmas decoration

Further information: Hanging of the greens

Nativity scenes are known from 10th-century Rome. They were popularised by Saint Francis of Assisi from 1223, quickly spreading across Europe.^[117] Different types of decorations developed across the Christian world, dependent on local tradition and available resources, and can vary from simple representations of the crib to far more elaborate sets – renowned manger scene traditions include the colourful Kraków szopka in Poland,^[118] which imitate Kraków‘s historical buildings as settings, the elaborate Italian presepi (Neapolitan^[it], Genoese^[it] and Bolognese^[it]),^[119]^[120]^[121]^[122] or the Provençal crèches in southern France, using hand-painted terracotta figurines called santons.^[123] In certain parts of the world, notably Sicily, living nativity scenes following the tradition of Saint Francis are a popular alternative to static crèches.^[124]^[125]^[126] The first commercially produced decorations appeared in Germany in the 1860s, inspired by paper chains made by children.^[127] In countries where a representation of the Nativity scene is very popular, people are encouraged to compete and create the most original or realistic ones. Within some families, the pieces used to make the representation are considered a valuable family heirloom.^[128]

The traditional colors of Christmas decorations are red, green, and gold.^[129]^[130] Red symbolizes the blood of Jesus, which was shed in his crucifixion; green symbolizes eternal life, and in particular the evergreen tree, which does not lose its leaves in the winter; and gold is the first color associated with Christmas, as one of the three gifts of the Magi, symbolizing royalty.^[131]

The Christmas tree was first used by German Lutherans in the 16th century, with records indicating that a Christmas tree was placed in the Cathedral of Strassburg in 1539, under the leadership of the Protestant Reformer, Martin Bucer.^[132]^[133] In the United States, these “German Lutherans brought the decorated Christmas tree with them; the Moravians put lighted candles on those trees”.^[134]^[135] When decorating the Christmas tree, many individuals place a star at the top of the tree symbolizing the Star of Bethlehem, a fact recorded by The School Journal in 1897.^[136]^[137] Professor David Albert Jones of Oxford University writes that in the 19th century, it became popular for people to also use an angel to top the Christmas tree in order to symbolize the angels mentioned in the accounts of the Nativity of Jesus.^[138] Additionally, in the context of a Christian celebration of Christmas, the Christmas tree, being evergreen in colour, is symbolic of Christ, who offers eternal life; the candles or lights on the tree represent the Light of the World—Jesus—born in Bethlehem.^[139]^[140] Christian services for family use and public worship have been published for the blessing of a Christmas tree, after it has been erected.^[141]^[142] The Christmas tree is considered by some as Christianisation of pagan tradition and ritual surrounding the Winter Solstice, which included the use of evergreen boughs, and an adaptation of pagan tree worship;^[143] according to eighth-century biographer Æddi Stephanus, Saint Boniface (634–709), who was a missionary in Germany, took an ax to an oak tree dedicated to Thor and pointed out a fir tree, which he stated was a more fitting object of reverence because it pointed to heaven and it had a triangular shape, which he said was symbolic of the Trinity.^[144] The English language phrase “Christmas tree” is first recorded in 1835^[145] and represents an importation from the German language.^[143]^[146]^[147]

Since the 16th century, the poinsettia, a native plant from Mexico, has been associated with Christmas carrying the Christian symbolism of the Star of Bethlehem; in that country it is known in Spanish as the Flower of the Holy Night.^[148]^[149] Other popular holiday plants include holly, mistletoe, red amaryllis, and Christmas cactus. Along with a Christmas tree, the interior of a home may be decorated with these plants, along with garlands and evergreen foliage. The display of Christmas villages has also become a tradition in many homes this season. The outside of houses may be decorated with lights and sometimes with illuminated sleighs, snowmen, and other Christmas figures. Mistletoe features prominently in European myth and folklore (for example, the legend of Baldr); it is an evergreen parasitic plant that grows on trees, especially apple and poplar, and turns golden when it is dried. It is customary to hang a sprig of mistletoe in the house at Christmas, and anyone standing underneath it may be kissed.

Other traditional decorations include bells, candles, candy canes, stockings, wreaths, and angels. The wreaths and candles in each window are a more traditional Christmas display. The concentric assortment of leaves, usually from an evergreen, make up Christmas wreaths. Candles in each window are meant to demonstrate that Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the ultimate light of the world.^[150]

Christmas lights and banners may be hung along streets, music played by speakers, and Christmas trees placed in prominent places.^[151] It is common in many parts of the world for town squares and consumer shopping areas to sponsor and display decorations. Rolls of brightly colored paper with secular or religious Christmas motifs are manufactured to wrap gifts. In some countries, Christmas decorations are traditionally taken down on Twelfth Night.

Nativity play

Main article: Nativity play

The tradition of the Nativity scene comes from Italy. One of the earliest representation in art of the nativity was found in the early Christian Roman catacomb of Saint Valentine.^[152] It dates to about AD 380.^[153] Another, of similar date, is beneath the pulpit in Sant’Ambrogio, Milan.

For the Christian celebration of Christmas, the viewing of the Nativity play is one of the oldest Christmastime traditions, with the first reenactment of the Nativity of Jesus taking place in A.D. 1223 in the Italian town of Greccio.^[154] In that year, Francis of Assisi assembled a Nativity scene outside of his church in Italy and children sang Christmas carols celebrating the birth of Jesus.^[154]

Each year, this grew larger, and people travelled from afar to see Francis’ depiction of the Nativity of Jesus that came to feature drama and music.^[154] Nativity plays eventually spread throughout all of Europe, where they remain popular. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day church services often came to feature Nativity plays, as did schools and theatres.^[154] In France, Germany, Mexico, and Spain, Nativity plays are often reenacted outdoors in the streets.^[154]

Music and carols

Main article: Christmas music

The earliest extant specifically Christmas hymns appear in fourth-century Rome. Latin hymns such as “Veni redemptor gentium“, written by Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, were austere statements of the theological doctrine of the Incarnation in opposition to Arianism. “Corde natus ex Parentis“ (“Of the Father’s love begotten”) by the Spanish poet Prudentius (died 413) is still sung in some churches today.^[155] In the 9th and 10th centuries, the Christmas “Sequence” or “Prose” was introduced in North European monasteries, developing under Bernard of Clairvaux into a sequence of rhymed stanzas. In the 12th century the Parisian monk Adam of St. Victor began to derive music from popular songs, introducing something closer to the traditional Christmas carol. Christmas carols in English appear in a 1426 work of John Awdlay who lists twenty five “caroles of Cristemas”, probably sung by groups of ‘wassailers‘, who went from house to house.^[156]

The songs now known specifically as carols were originally communal folk songs sung during celebrations such as “harvest tide” as well as Christmas. It was only later that carols began to be sung in church. Traditionally, carols have often been based on medieval chord patterns, and it is this that gives them their uniquely characteristic musical sound. Some carols like “Personent hodie“, “Good King Wenceslas“, and “In dulci jubilo“ can be traced directly back to the Middle Ages. They are among the oldest musical compositions still regularly sung. “Adeste Fideles“ (O Come all ye faithful) appeared in its current form in the mid-18th century.

The singing of carols increased in popularity after the Protestant Reformation in the Lutheran areas of Europe, as the Reformer Martin Luther wrote carols and encouraged their use in worship, in addition to spearheading the practice of caroling outside the Mass.^[157] The 18th-century English reformer Charles Wesley, a founder of Methodism, understood the importance of music to Christian worship. In addition to setting many psalms to melodies, he wrote texts for at least three Christmas carols. The best known was originally entitled “Hark! How All the Welkin Rings”, later renamed “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing“.^[158]

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Duration: 1 minute and 52 seconds.1:52

Performed by the U.S. Army Band Chorus

Problems playing this file? See media help.

Christmas seasonal songs of a secular nature emerged in the late 18th century. The Welsh melody for “Deck the Halls” dates from 1794, with the lyrics added by Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant in 1862, and the American “Jingle Bells” was copyrighted in 1857. Other popular carols include “The First Noel“, “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen“, “The Holly and the Ivy“, “I Saw Three Ships“, “In the Bleak Midwinter“, “Joy to the World“, “Once in Royal David’s City” and “While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks“.^[159] In the 19th and 20th centuries, African American spirituals and songs about Christmas, based in their tradition of spirituals, became more widely known. An increasing number of seasonal holiday songs were commercially produced in the 20th century, including jazz and blues variations. In addition, there was a revival of interest in early music, from groups singing folk music, such as The Revels, to performers of early medieval and classical music.

One of the most ubiquitous festive songs is “We Wish You a Merry Christmas“, which originates from the West Country of England in the 1930s.^[160] Radio has covered Christmas music from variety shows from the 1940s and 1950s, as well as modern-day stations that exclusively play Christmas music from late November through December 25.^[161] Hollywood movies have featured new Christmas music, such as “White Christmas” in Holiday Inn and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.^[161] Traditional carols have also been included in Hollywood films, such as “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), and “Silent Night” in A Christmas Story.^[161]

Traditional cuisine

Cards

Main article: Christmas card

Christmas cards are illustrated messages of greeting exchanged between friends and family members during the weeks preceding Christmas Day. The traditional greeting reads “wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”, much like that of the first commercial Christmas card, produced by Sir Henry Cole in London in 1843.^[167] The custom of sending them has become popular among a wide cross-section of people with the emergence of the modern trend towards exchanging E-cards.^[168]^[169]

Christmas cards are purchased in considerable quantities and feature artwork, commercially designed and relevant to the season. The content of the design might relate directly to the Christmas narrative, with depictions of the Nativity of Jesus, or Christian symbols such as the Star of Bethlehem, or a white dove, which can represent both the Holy Spirit and Peace on Earth. Other Christmas cards are more secular and can depict Christmas traditions, figures such as Santa Claus, objects directly associated with Christmas such as candles, holly, and baubles, or a variety of images associated with the season, such as Christmastide activities, snow scenes, and the wildlife of the northern winter.^[170]

Commemorative stamps

Main article: Christmas stamp

A number of nations have issued commemorative stamps at Christmastide.^[171] Postal customers will often use these stamps to mail Christmas cards, and they are popular with philatelists.^[172] These stamps are regular postage stamps, unlike Christmas seals, and are valid for postage year-round. They usually go on sale sometime between early October and early December and are printed in considerable quantities.

Christmas seals

Main article: Christmas seals

Christmas seals were first issued to raise funding to fight and bring awareness to tuberculosis. The first Christmas seal was issued in Denmark in 1904, and since then other countries have issued their own Christmas seals.^[173]

Gift giving

Main article: Christmas gift

The exchanging of gifts is one of the core aspects of the modern Christmas celebration, making it the most profitable time of year for retailers and businesses throughout the world. On Christmas, people exchange gifts based on the Christian tradition associated with Saint Nicholas,^[174] and the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh which were given to the baby Jesus by the Magi.^[175]^[176] The practice of gift giving in the Roman celebration of Saturnalia may have influenced Christian customs, but on the other hand the Christian “core dogma of the Incarnation, however, solidly established the giving and receiving of gifts as the structural principle of that recurrent yet unique event”, because it was the Biblical Magi, “together with all their fellow men, who received the gift of God through man’s renewed participation in the divine life”.^[177] However, Thomas J. Talley holds that the Roman Emperor Aurelian placed the alternate festival on December 25 in order to compete with the growing rate of the Christian Church, which had already been celebrating Christmas on that date first.^[178]

Gift-bearing figures

Main article: List of Christmas and winter gift-bringers by country

A number of figures are associated with Christmas and the seasonal giving of gifts. Among these are Father Christmas, also known as Santa Claus (derived from the Dutch for Saint Nicholas), Père Noël, and the Weihnachtsmann; Saint Nicholas or Sinterklaas; the Christkind; Kris Kringle; Joulupukki; tomte/nisse; Babbo Natale; Saint Basil; and Ded Moroz. The Scandinavian tomte (also called nisse) is sometimes depicted as a gnome instead of Santa Claus.

The best known of these figures today is red-dressed Santa Claus, of diverse origins. The name ‘Santa Claus’ can be traced back to the Dutch Sinterklaas (‘Saint Nicholas’). Nicholas was a 4th-century Greek bishop of Myra, a city in the Roman province of Lycia, whose ruins are 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from modern Demre in southwest Turkey.^[180]^[181] Among other saintly attributes, he was noted for the care of children, generosity, and the giving of gifts. His feast day, December 6, came to be celebrated in many countries with the giving of gifts.^[42]

Saint Nicholas traditionally appeared in bishop’s attire, accompanied by helpers, inquiring about the behaviour of children during the past year before deciding whether they deserved a gift or not. By the 13th century, Saint Nicholas was well known in the Netherlands, and the practice of gift-giving in his name spread to other parts of central and southern Europe. At the Reformation in 16th- and 17th-century Europe, many Protestants changed the gift bringer to the Christ Child or Christkindl, corrupted in English to ‘Kris Kringle’, and the date of giving gifts changed from December 6 to Christmas Eve.^[42]

The modern popular image of Santa Claus, however, was created in the United States, and in particular in New York. The transformation was accomplished with the aid of notable contributors including Washington Irving and the German-American cartoonist Thomas Nast (1840–1902). Following the American Revolutionary War, some of the inhabitants of New York City sought out symbols of the city’s non-English past. New York had originally been established as the Dutch colonial town of New Amsterdam and the Dutch Sinterklaas tradition was reinvented as Saint Nicholas.^[182]

Current tradition in several Latin American countries (such as Venezuela and Colombia) holds that while Santa makes the toys, he then gives them to the Baby Jesus, who is the one who actually delivers them to the children’s homes, a reconciliation between traditional religious beliefs and the iconography of Santa Claus imported from the United States.

In Italy’s South Tyrol, Austria, the Czech Republic, Southern Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Slovakia, and Switzerland, the Christkind (Ježíšek in Czech, Jézuska in Hungarian and Ježiško in Slovak) brings the presents. Greek children get their presents from Saint Basil on New Year’s Eve, the eve of that saint’s liturgical feast.^[183] The German St. Nikolaus is not identical with the Weihnachtsmann (who is the German version of Santa Claus / Father Christmas). St. Nikolaus wears a bishop’s dress and still brings small gifts (usually candies, nuts, and fruits) on December 6 and is accompanied by Knecht Ruprecht. Although many parents around the world routinely teach their children about Santa Claus and other gift bringers, some have come to reject this practice, considering it deceptive.^[184]

Multiple gift-giver figures exist in Poland, varying between regions and individual families. St Nicholas (Święty Mikołaj) dominates Central and North-East areas, the Starman (Gwiazdor) is most common in Greater Poland, Baby Jesus (Dzieciątko) is unique to Upper Silesia, with the Little Star (Gwiazdka) and the Little Angel (Aniołek) being common in the South and the South-East. Grandfather Frost (Dziadek Mróz) is less commonly accepted in some areas of Eastern Poland.^[185]^[186] It is worth noting that across all of Poland, St Nicholas is the gift giver on Saint Nicholas Day on December 6.

Sport

Christmas during the Middle Ages was a public festival with annual indulgences included the sporting.^[42] When Puritans outlawed Christmas in England in December 1647 the crowd brought out footballs as a symbol of festive misrule.^[52] The Orkney Christmas Day Ba’ tradition continues.^[187] In the former top tier of English football, home and away Christmas Day and Boxing Day double headers were often played guaranteeing football clubs large crowds by allowing many working people their only chance to watch a game.^[188] Champions Preston North End faced Aston Villa on Christmas Day 1889^[189] and the last December 25 fixture was in 1965 in England, Blackpool beating Blackburn Rovers 4–2.^[188] One of the most memorable images of the Christmas truce during World War I was the games of football played between the opposing sides on Christmas Day 1914.^[190]

More recently, in the United States, both NFL and NBA have held fixtures on Christmas Day.^[191]

Christmas in China

During the late Qing dynasty the Shanghai News referred to Christmas by a variety of terms. In 1872 it initially called Christmas “Jesus’ birthday” (Chinese: 耶穌誕日; pinyin: yēsū dànrì), but from 1873 to 1881 it used terms such as “Western countries’ Winter Solstice” (Chinese: 西國冬至; pinyin: xīguó dōngzhì) and “Western peoples’ Winter Solstice” (Chinese: 西人冬節; pinyin: xīrén dōngjiē), before finally settling on “Foreign Winter Solstice” (Chinese: 外國冬至; pinyin: wàiguó dōngzhì) from 1882 onwards. This term was gradually replaced by the now standard term “Festival of the birth of the Holy One” (Chinese: 聖誕節; pinyin: shèngdàn jiē) during the early years of the twentieth century.^[192]

Scandinavia and the Nordics

Main articles: Yule and Christmas in Denmark, Christmas in Norway, and Christmas in Sweden

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In Scandinavia—Denmark, Norway, Sweden—where Lutheranism is dominant, Christmas (jul) is celebrated on 24 December.In Sweden, it is traditional for companies to host a Christmas buffet lunch (julbord or jullunch) for their employees a week before Christmas. To prevent food poisoning during the holiday season, Swedish newspapers annually publish reports and laboratory tests warning the public to avoid leaving cold cuts, mayonnaise, and other perishable foods at room temperature to prevent spoilage. Christmas in Sweden is a time to indulge in festive meals, with roasted ham being the centerpiece of the feast. However, the exact day for enjoying this treat varies across regions, with each area having its own traditions. Another well-established custom in Sweden is tuning in to watch a special Disney television program at precisely 3 p.m. on December 24.

In Norway, the Christmas feast is held on December 24, with each region offering its own special dishes for Christmas dinner. After the meal, “Julenissen” (where “jule” means Christmas and “nissen” refers to a mythical elf in Norwegian folklore) brings gifts to well-behaved children. Following a quiet family gathering on December 25, another grand celebration takes place on Boxing Day, December 26, where children go door-to-door visiting neighbors and receiving treats.

Choice of date

A mosaic dated to around 300 AD in the Tomb of the Julii, an apparently Christian tomb in the Vatican Necropolis. Most scholars believe it depicts Jesus as the sun god Sol / Helios.^[193]^[194]

Theories

Main article: Date of the birth of Jesus § Day of birth

There are several theories as to why December 25 was chosen as the date for Christmas. However, theology professor Susan Roll notes that “no liturgical historian […] goes so far as to deny that it has any sort of relation with the sun, the winter solstice and the popularity of solar worship in the later Roman Empire”.^[195] The early Church linked Jesus Christ to the Sun and referred to him as the ‘Sun of Righteousness’ (Sol Justitiae) prophesied by Malachi.^[196]^[197] In the early fifth century, Augustine of Hippo and Maximus of Turin preached that it was fitting to celebrate Christ’s birth at the winter solstice, because it marked the point when the hours of daylight begin to grow.^[198]^[199]

The ‘history of religions’ or ‘substitution’ theory suggests that the Church chose December 25 as Christ’s birthday (dies Natalis Christi)^[200] to appropriate the Roman winter solstice festival dies Natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of Sol Invictus, the ‘Invincible Sun’), held on this date since 274 AD; before the earliest evidence of Christmas on that date.^[28]^[29] Gary Forsythe, Professor of Ancient History, says that the Natalis Solis Invicti followed “the seven-day period of the Saturnalia (December 17–23), Rome’s most joyous holiday season since Republican times, characterized by parties, banquets, and exchanges of gifts”.^[28] Roll says that “the specific nature of the relation” between Christmas and the Natalis Solis Invicti has not yet been “conclusively proven from extant texts”.^[195]

The ‘calculation theory’^[29] suggests that December 25 was calculated as nine months after a date chosen for Jesus’s conception: 25 March, the Roman date of the spring equinox, which later became the Feast of the Annunciation.^[29]^[201]

Date according to Julian calendar

Some jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodox Church, including those of Russia, Georgia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Jerusalem, mark feasts using the older Julian calendar. As of 2024, there is a difference of 13 days between the Julian calendar and the modern Gregorian calendar, which is used internationally for most secular purposes. As a result, December 25 on the Julian calendar currently corresponds to January 7 on the calendar used by most governments and people in everyday life. Therefore, the aforementioned Orthodox Christians mark December 25 (and thus Christmas) on the day that is internationally considered to be January 7.^[202]

However, following the Council of Constantinople in 1923,^[203] other Orthodox Christians, such as those belonging to the jurisdictions of Constantinople, Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Antioch, Alexandria, Albania, Cyprus, Finland, and the Orthodox Church in America, among others, began using the Revised Julian calendar, which at present corresponds exactly to the Gregorian calendar.^[204] Therefore, these Orthodox Christians mark December 25 (and thus Christmas) on the same day that is internationally considered to be December 25.

A further complication is added by the fact that the Armenian Apostolic Church continues the original ancient Eastern Christian practice of celebrating the birth of Christ not as a separate holiday, but on the same day as the celebration of his baptism (Theophany), which is on January 6. This is a public holiday in Armenia, and it is held on the same day that is internationally considered to be January 6, because since 1923 the Armenian Church in Armenia has used the Gregorian calendar.^[205]

However, there is also a small Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which maintains the traditional Armenian custom of celebrating the birth of Christ on the same day as Theophany (January 6), but uses the Julian calendar for the determination of that date. As a result, this church celebrates “Christmas” (more properly called Theophany) on the day that is considered January 19 on the Gregorian calendar in use by the majority of the world.^[206]

Following the 2022 invasion of its territory by Russia, Ukraine officially moved its Christmas date from January 7 to December 25, to distance itself from the Russian Orthodox Church that had supported Russia’s invasion.^[207]^[208] This followed the Orthodox Church of Ukraine formally adopting the Revised Julian calendar for fixed feasts and solemnities.^[209]

Table of dates

There are four different dates used by different Christian groups to mark the birth of Christ, given in the table below.

Church or section	Calendar	Date	Gregorian date	Note
Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem	Julian calendar	January 6	January 19	Correspondence between Julian January 6 and Gregorian January 19 holds until 2100; in the following century the difference will be one day more.
Armenian Apostolic Church, Armenian Evangelical Church	Gregorian calendar	January 6	January 6
Eastern Orthodox Church jurisdictions, including those of Constantinople, Bulgaria, Ukraine^[210] (state holiday, Orthodox and Greek Catholic), Greece, Romania, Antioch, Alexandria, Albania, Cyprus, Finland, the Orthodox Church in America.Also, the Ancient Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox Church, Indian Orthodox Church.	Revised Julian calendar	December 25	December 25	Revised Julian calendar was agreed at the 1923 Council of Constantinople.^[203]Although it follows the Julian calendar, the Ancient Church of the East decided on 2010 to celebrate Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar date.
Other Eastern Orthodox: Russia, Georgia, Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), North Macedonia, Belarus, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Jerusalem.Also, some Byzantine Rite Catholics and Byzantine Rite Lutherans.	Julian calendar	December 25	January 7	Correspondence between Julian December 25 and Gregorian January 7 of the following year holds until 2100; from 2101 to 2199 the difference will be one day more.^{[citation needed]}
Coptic Orthodox Church	Coptic calendar	Koiak 29 or 28 (December 25)	January 7	After the Coptic insertion of a leap day in what for the Julian calendar is August (September in Gregorian), Christmas is celebrated on Koiak 28 in order to maintain the exact interval of nine 30-day months and 5 days of the child’s gestation.^{[citation needed]}
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (sole date), Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church (sole date), and P’ent’ay (Ethiopian-Eritrean Evangelical) Churches (primary date)	Ethiopian calendar	Tahsas 29 or 28 (December 25)	January 7	Further information: Ethiopian ChristmasAfter the Ethiopian and Eritrean insertion of a leap day in what for the Julian calendar is August (September in Gregorian), Christmas (also called Liddet or Gena, also Ledet or Genna)^[211] is celebrated on Tahsas 28 in order to maintain the exact interval of nine 30-day months and 5 days of the child’s gestation.^[212]Most Protestants (P’ent’ay/Evangelicals) in the diaspora have the option of choosing the Ethiopian calendar (Tahsas 29/January 7) or the Gregorian calendar (December 25) for religious holidays, with this option being used when the corresponding eastern celebration is not a public holiday in the western world (with most diaspora Protestants celebrating both days).^{[citation needed]}
Most Western Christian churches, most Eastern Catholic churches and civil calendars; also the Assyrian Church of the East.	Gregorian calendar	December 25	December 25	The Assyrian Church of the East adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1964.

Economy

Main article: Economics of Christmas

Christmas is typically a peak selling season for retailers in many nations around the world; sales increase dramatically during this time as people purchase gifts, decorations, and supplies to celebrate. In the United States, the “Christmas shopping season” starts as early as October.^[213] In Canada, merchants begin advertising campaigns before Halloween (October 31) and step up their marketing following Remembrance Day on November 11. In the UK and Ireland, the Christmas shopping season starts from mid-November, around the time when high street Christmas lights are turned on.^[214]^[215] A concept devised by retail entrepreneur David Lewis, the first Christmas grotto opened in Lewis’s department store in Liverpool, England in 1879.^[216] In the United States, it has been calculated that a quarter of all personal spending takes place during the Christmas/holiday shopping season.^[217] Figures from the US Census Bureau reveal that expenditure in department stores nationwide rose from $20.8 billion in November 2004 to $31.9 billion in December 2004, an increase of 54 percent. In other sectors, the pre-Christmas increase in spending was even greater, there being a November–December buying surge of 100 percent in bookstores and 170 percent in jewelry stores. In the same year employment in American retail stores rose from 1.6 million to 1.8 million in the two months leading up to Christmas.^[218] Industries completely dependent on Christmas include Christmas cards, of which 1.9 billion are sent in the United States each year, and live Christmas trees, of which 20.8 million were cut in the US in 2002.^[219] In the UK in 2010, up to £8 billion was expected to be spent online at Christmas, approximately a quarter of total retail festive sales.^[215]

In most Western nations, Christmas Day is the least active day of the year for business and commerce; almost all retail, commercial and institutional businesses are closed, and almost all industries cease activity (more than any other day of the year), whether laws require such or not. In England and Wales, the Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004 prevents all large shops from trading on Christmas Day. Similar legislation was approved in Scotland in 2007. Film studios release many high-budget movies during the holiday season, including Christmas films, fantasy movies or high-tone dramas with high production values to hopes of maximizing the chance of nominations for the Academy Awards.^[220]

One economist’s analysis calculates that despite increased overall spending, Christmas is a deadweight loss under orthodox microeconomic theory, because of the effect of gift-giving. This loss is calculated as the difference between what the gift giver spent on the item and what the gift receiver would have paid for the item. It is estimated that in 2001, Christmas resulted in a $4 billion deadweight loss in the US alone.^[221]^[222] Because of complicating factors, this analysis is sometimes used to discuss possible flaws in current microeconomic theory. Other deadweight losses include the effects of Christmas on the environment and the fact that material gifts are often perceived as white elephants, imposing cost for upkeep and storage and contributing to clutter.^[223]

Christmas decorations at the Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris, France. The Christmas season is the busiest trading period for retailers.
Christmas market in Jena, Germany
Each year (most notably 2000) money supply in US banks is increased for Christmas shopping.

Controversies

Main article: Christmas controversies

Further information: Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union, Kirchenkampf, and Antireligious campaigns of the Chinese Communist Party

Christmas has been the subject of controversy and attacks from various sources, both Christian and non-Christian. Historically, it was prohibited by Puritans during their ascendency in the Commonwealth of England (1647–1660) and in Colonial New England where the Puritans outlawed the celebration of Christmas in 1659 on the grounds that Christmas was not mentioned in Scripture and therefore violated the Reformed regulative principle of worship.^[225]^[226] The Parliament of Scotland, which was dominated by Presbyterians, passed a series of acts outlawing the observance of Christmas between 1637 and 1690; Christmas Day did not become a public holiday in Scotland until 1871.^[57]^[227]^[228] Today, some conservative Reformed denominations such as the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America likewise reject the celebration of Christmas based on the regulative principle and what they see as its non-Scriptural origin.^[229]^[230] Celebrating Christmas is banned in the Jehovah’s Witnesses, as the Governing Body believes that Christmas is originally pagan and again that it is without basis in Scripture.^[231] Christmas celebrations have also been prohibited by atheist states such as the Soviet Union^[232] and more recently majority Muslim states such as Somalia, Tajikistan and Brunei.^[233]

Some Christians and organizations such as Pat Robertson‘s American Center for Law and Justice cite alleged attacks on Christmas (dubbing them a “war on Christmas”).^[234] Such groups claim that any specific mention of the term “Christmas” or its religious aspects is being increasingly censored, avoided, or discouraged by a number of advertisers, retailers, government (prominently schools), and other public and private organizations. One controversy is the occurrence of Christmas trees being renamed Holiday trees.^[235] In the U.S. there has been a tendency to replace the greeting Merry Christmas with Happy Holidays, which is considered inclusive at the time of the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah.^[236] In the U.S., and Canada, where the use of the term “Holidays” is most prevalent, opponents have denounced its usage and avoidance of using the term “Christmas” as being politically correct.^[237]^[238]^[239] In 1984, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Lynch v. Donnelly that a Christmas display (which included a Nativity scene) owned and displayed by the city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, did not violate the First Amendment.^[240] American Muslim scholar Abdul Malik Mujahid has said that Muslims must treat Christmas with respect, even if they disagree with it.^[241]

The government of the People’s Republic of China officially espouses state atheism,^[242] and has conducted antireligious campaigns to this end.^[243] In December 2018, officials raided Christian churches prior to Christmastide and coerced them to close; Christmas trees and Santa Clauses were also forcibly removed.^[244]^[245]

March 11, 2025