Catholicity / Catholic Church / Roman Catholic Church

Catholicity (from Ancient Greek: καθολικός, romanized: katholikós, lit. ‘general’, ‘universal’, via Latin: catholicus)[1] is a concept pertaining to beliefs and practices widely accepted across numerous Christian denominations, most notably those that describe themselves as Catholic in accordance with the Four Marks of the Church, as expressed in the Nicene Creed of the First Council of Constantinople in 381: “[I believe] in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.” The Catholic Church is also known as

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Protestantism

Protestantism is a form of Christianity that originated with the 16th-century Reformation,[a] a movement against what its followers perceived to be errors in the Catholic Church.[1] Protestants originating in the Reformation reject the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal supremacy, but disagree among themselves regarding the number of sacraments, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and matters of ecclesiastical polity and apostolic succession.[2][3] They emphasize the priesthood of all believers; justification by faith alone (sola fide)

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Esoteric Christianity

Esoteric Christianity is an approach to Christianity which features “secret traditions” that require an initiation to learn or understand.[1] The term esoteric was coined in the 17th century and derives from the Greek ἐσωτερικός (esôterikos, “inner”).[2] These spiritual currents share some common features, such as heterodox or heretical Christian theology; the canonical gospels, various apocalyptic literature, and some New Testament apocrypha as sacred

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Messianic Judaism

Messianic Judaism (Hebrew: יהדות משיחית ; יַהֲדוּת מְשִׁיחִית‎, romanized: yahadút mešiḥít ; Yahadut Meshikhit) is a modern syncretic[1] Christian[2][3] religious movement that incorporates some elements of Judaism and Jewish tradition[4][5][6][7] with Evangelical Christianity. The movement emerged in the 1960s and 1970s from the Hebrew Christian movement[8] and the Baptist[9] organization Jews for Jesus[10][11] founded in 1973 by Conservative Baptist minister Martin Rosen.[12] Messianic Jews believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and that the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and New Testament are the authoritative

Oriental Orthodox Churches

The Oriental Orthodox Churches are a group of Eastern Christian churches adhering to Miaphysite Christology,[1][2] with a total of approximately 60 million members worldwide.[3][4] The Oriental Orthodox Churches are broadly part of the trinitarian Nicene Christian tradition shared by today’s mainstream churches, and represent one of its oldest branches.[5] As some of the oldest religious institutions in the world, the Oriental Orthodox Churches have played a

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Assyrian Church of the East

The Assyrian Church of the East,[c] officially the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East,[18][d] is an Eastern Christian church that follows the traditional Christology and ecclesiology of the historical Church of the East.[20] It belongs to the eastern branch of Syriac Christianity, and employs the Divine Liturgy of Saints Addai and Mari belonging to the East Syriac Rite. Its main liturgical language is Classical Syriac, a dialect of Eastern Aramaic, and the majority

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Restorationism

Restorationism (or Christian primitivism) is the belief that Christianity has been or should be restored along the lines of what is known about the apostolic early church, which restorationists see as the search for a purer and more ancient form of the religion.[1][2][3] Fundamentally, “this vision seeks to correct faults or deficiencies (in the church) by appealing to the primitive

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Old Catholic Church

The term Old Catholic Church has been used from the 1850s by communions separated from the Roman Catholic Church over certain doctrines, primarily concerned with papal authority and infallibility. Some of these groups, especially in the Netherlands, had already existed long before the term. These churches are not in full communion with the Holy See. Member churches of the Union of Utrecht of the Old

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Doukhobors

The Doukhobours or Dukhobors (Russian: Духоборы, Dukhobory, also Dukhobortsy, Russian: Духоборцы; literally “Spirit-Warriors / Wrestlers“)[2][3][4] are a Spiritual Christian ethnoreligious group of Russian origin. They are one of many non-Orthodox ethno-confessional faiths in Russia, often categorized as “folk-Protestants”, Spiritual Christians, sectarians, or heretics. They are distinguished as pacifists who lived in their own villages, rejected personal materialism, worked together, and developed a tradition of oral history and memorizing and singing hymns and verses (the “Book of Life“).

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Molokan

A Molokan (Russian: молокан, IPA: [məlɐˈkan] or молоканин, “dairy-eater”) is a member of various Spiritual Christian religion that evolved from Eastern Christianity in the East Slavic lands. Their traditions—especially dairy consumption during Christian fasts—did not conform to those of the Russian Orthodox Church, and they were regarded as heretics (sektanty). The term Molokan is an exonym used by their Orthodox neighbors; they tend to identify themselves as Spiritual Christians (духовные христиане : dukhovnye khristiane). There are almost as many different

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Confucius

Confucius was a famous thinker and social philosopher of China whose teachings have deeply influenced East Asia for twenty centuries. Living in times of trouble, he was convinced of his ability to restore the world’s order but he failed. Considered as a “Throneless King”, he eventually became involved in teaching disciples. His philosophy emphasized

Confucianism

Confucianism, also known as Ruism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or simply a way of life,[1] Confucianism developed from what was later called the Hundred Schools of Thought from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius (551–479 BCE). Confucius

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Guru Nanak

Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism and the first of the ten Gurus of the Sikhs, was born in the village of Talwandi, now called Nankana Sahib, near Lahore in present-day Pakistan. His parents, Kalu Mehta and Matta Tripat, were Hindus and belonged to the Kshatriya(Kings and Warriors) caste. Even as a boy, Nanak

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Hinduism

Hinduism (commonly called Sanatana Dharma, roughly translated as ‘Perennial Faith’) is an umbrella term for native Indian religions. It is characterized by a diverse array of belief systems, practices and scriptures. It has its origin in the ancient Indo-Aryan Vedic culture, giving it claim to be among the oldest major world religions, predating the

Yoga

Yoga (/ˈjoʊ.ɡə/ (listen);[1] Sanskrit: योग, lit. ‘yoke’ or ‘union’ pronounced [joːɡɐ]) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated in ancient India, aimed at controlling (‘yoking’) and stilling the mind, and recognizing the detached ‘witness-consciousness’ as untouched by the activities of the mind (Citta) and mundane suffering (Duḥkha). There are a broad variety of the schools of yoga, practices, and goals[2] in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism,[3][4][5] and traditional forms and modern methods

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Dharma

Dharma (/ˈdɑːrmə/;[7] Sanskrit: धर्म, romanized: dharma, pronounced [dʱɐrmɐ] (listen) (Pali: dhamma) (Tamil: aṟam)) is a key concept with multiple meanings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and others.[8] Although there is no direct single-word translation for dharma in Western languages,[9] it is commonly translated as “righteousness”, “merit” or “religious and moral duties” governing individual conduct.[10][11] In Hinduism, dharma is one of the four components of the Puruṣārtha, the aims of life, and signifies behaviours that are

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Bhakti

Bhakti (Sanskrit: भक्ति) literally means “attachment, participation, fondness for, homage, faith, love, devotion, worship, purity”.[1] It was originally used in Hinduism, referring to devotion and love for a personal god or a representational god by a devotee.[2][3] In ancient texts such as the Shvetashvatara Upanishad, the term simply means participation, devotion and love for any endeavor, while in the Bhagavad Gita, it connotes

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Śrauta

Śrauta is a Sanskrit word that means “belonging to śruti”, that is, anything based on the Vedas of Hinduism.[1][2] It is an adjective and prefix for texts, ceremonies or person associated with śruti.[3] The term, for example, refers to Brahmins who specialise in the śruti corpus of texts,[4] and Śrauta Brahmin traditions in modern times can be seen in Kerala and Coastal Andhra.[5] Śrauta is a Sanskrit word that means

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Vedanta

Vedānta (/vɪˈdɑːntə/; Sanskrit: वेदान्त, IAST: Vedānta; also Uttara Mīmāṃsā) is one of the six (āstika) schools of Hindu philosophy. Literally meaning “end of the Vedas”, Vedanta reflects ideas that emerged from, or were aligned with, the speculations and philosophies contained in the Upanishads, specifically, knowledge and liberation. Vedanta contains many sub-traditions on the basis of a common textual connection called the Prasthanatrayi: the Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and

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Advaita Vedanta

Advaita Vedānta (/ʌðˈvaɪtə vɛˈðɑːntə/; Sanskrit: अद्वैत वेदान्त, IAST: Advaita Vedānta) is a school of Hindu philosophy and “spiritual experience.”[1] The term Advaita (literally, “non-duality”) refers to the idea that Brahman alone, pure consciousness, is ultimately real, while the transient phenomenal world is an illusory appearance (maya) of Brahman, and the true self, atman, which is self-luminous pure awareness, is identical with Brahman.[2][3][4] In this view, jivanatman or individual self is a mere reflection of singular Atman in a multitude