Originally posted by eider
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Originally posted by eider
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Basically the tens of thousands of different denominations claim is a myth that keeps growing with the telling, and to say that number is grossly inflated is an understatement and the methodology employed to arrive at these figures is ridiculous. It is based on a radically open definition of what "denomination" is. For instance under the definition used to arrive at that number if there two independent Baptist churches on each side of the street, each one of them is considered a different denomination. In fact every independent Baptist church is deemed to be a different denomination by the definition used to arrive at this figure.
The numbers for the World Christian Encyclopedia list was supplied by the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and it is telling how they arrived at their claims which can be found in the Methodology from the Atlas of Global Christianity resource ( smiley hat tip.gif to Adrift)
So they count as a different denomination for each country they are in. IOW, Catholics in the U.S. are a different denomination than those in Mexico. And both are different denominations from those in Spain. And the Catholics in France are a separate denomination than the Catholics in the U.S., Mexico and Spain. And on and on. A case can definitely be made for this regarding some Orthodox churches but definitely not with the RCC.
Further, within Roman Catholicism there are claimed to be a number of different "denominations" since those that cobble together these lists tend to call the various orders within it separate denominations. They all follow Roman Catholic teachings but have differences that could almost be called cosmetic. That's like going to two Southern Baptist, or Methodist or Lutheran churches across town from one another and noticing the differences in how they do things and then declaring them separate denominations.
Moreover, every single Bible society or church club is also considered to be a different denomination than the church or churches that it is affiliated with.
Further, many groups that aren't even Christian often get added in to help inflate the number. Some are Christian denominations in the same way that Islam is a Christian or Jewish denomination.
As an example, take a look at the Google entry List of Lutheran denominations.
FWIU, most of those Lutheran "denominations" are anything but. Instead many are "Associations" -- some of which have members from different Lutheran denominations (the Missouri Synod and ECLA) and some consisting of a single denomination.
Most Lutherans I know (most of my family) will tell you there are two denominations (those mentioned) -- at least as far as the U.S. goes -- although there used to be three, but the ECLA was formed when two of them merged in the late 80s.
And it looks like Wikipedia is separating Lutheran Churches into different denominations based upon country or language. For example, the Apostolic Lutheran Church of America is for Finnish speaking Americans being unofficially linked to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland. If you spoke Finnish you would be pretty hard pressed to find any difference between them and the ECLA
Finally, if you want to understand just how ridiculous these figures are, try naming just twenty Christian denominations from memory alone. If there were ten thousands of them someone shouldn't have any difficulty rattling off a hundred so a mere twenty ought to be a real breeze.
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