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What constitutes a Christian denomination?

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  • Roy
    replied
    Originally posted by Boxing Pythagoras View Post
    I'm more curious as to why he listed the Dominicans, Franciscans, Trappists, and other Roman Catholic religious orders as if they were denominations separate from Roman Catholicism.
    Mainly because although they are subsets of the Catholic church there are differences in their beliefs and teachings. For example, Franciscans follow the teachings of Francis of Assisi, but mainstream Catholics may not.

    Roy

    Leave a comment:


  • Roy
    replied
    Originally posted by lilpixieofterror View Post
    Many of those are cult groups. Which shows your understanding of religion to be quite lacking. Try again...
    Really? Which ones are cults? I'll grant you the Branch Davidians and Westboro Baptists are cults, but that's only two, not many. Even if you include the Albigensians and Jehovah's witnesses, it's still not many.

    So which ones are cults? Or is it your own knowledge of religion that is lacking? I'd be extremely surprised if you even recognised all the names, let alone knew anything about them.

    Not that it really matters whether they're cults or not, they're still Christian denominations - and one person's cult is another person's religion.

    Roy

    Leave a comment:


  • JonathanL
    replied
    Originally posted by Boxing Pythagoras View Post
    Whether or not they are "cult groups," they're still denominations of Christianity.
    I would hardly call Mormons, Unitarians or Jehovah's witnesses Christian denominations. And I have a hard time believing any orthodox denomination would accept them as such either.

    Leave a comment:


  • lilpixieofterror
    replied
    Originally posted by Cow Poke View Post
    TBF, I think the point was that there's nowhere NEAR the 30,000 that was claimed.
    And to even reach close to that amount, you have to so loosely define 'denomination', that you have to count cult groups, groups that self identify as Christian (but don't identify as a denomination), fringe nutters, etc. People who make such claims about 'thousands of denominations' need to actually first define what a 'denomination' is and understand what makes a separate denomination (sometimes the only difference is focus or cultural group and no real difference between these groups actually exist).

    Leave a comment:


  • lilpixieofterror
    replied
    Originally posted by Boxing Pythagoras View Post
    Whether or not they are "cult groups," they're still denominations of Christianity.
    Ummm, only because they try to pretend they are. Christian Science is about as Christian as you are (have you ever read their theology?), the Mormons have an entire book and a prophet that makes 'new' revelations, WBC's theology is well... unique (to say the least), and the Jehovah's Witnesses also have written their own book and have their own 'unique theology'. If somebody is going to name off 'Christian Groups' (IE groups because many on the list are also not denominations, but groups), they might want to first define who they are calling 'Christian' and what they are defining as a 'denomination' because The Knight's Templar are about as much of a 'denomination' as the Masons are.

    I'm more curious as to why he listed the Dominicans, Franciscans, Trappists, and other Roman Catholic religious orders as if they were denominations separate from Roman Catholicism.
    Only people who don't understand the difference between orders and denominations, would say things like that.

    Leave a comment:


  • Cow Poke
    replied
    Originally posted by lilpixieofterror View Post


    Many of those are cult groups. Which shows your understanding of religion to be quite lacking. Try again...
    TBF, I think the point was that there's nowhere NEAR the 30,000 that was claimed.

    Leave a comment:


  • Boxing Pythagoras
    replied
    Originally posted by lilpixieofterror View Post


    Many of those are cult groups. Which shows your understanding of religion to be quite lacking. Try again...
    Whether or not they are "cult groups," they're still denominations of Christianity.

    I'm more curious as to why he listed the Dominicans, Franciscans, Trappists, and other Roman Catholic religious orders as if they were denominations separate from Roman Catholicism.

    Leave a comment:


  • lilpixieofterror
    replied
    Originally posted by Roy View Post
    I can rarely resist a challenge.

    Greek Orthodox
    Church of England, Anglican
    Church of Scotland
    Baptist
    Southern Baptist
    Methodist
    Roman Catholic
    7th Day Adventists
    Church of Jesus Christ of the latter day saints
    Unitarians
    Tai-ping (starting to scrape the barrel here)
    Westboro baptist
    Russian Orthodox
    Lutheran
    Christian Scientists
    Jehovah's witnesses
    Albigensians
    Dominicans
    Franciscans
    Trappists
    Knights Templar
    Order of St Stephen
    Dutch Protestant
    Church of Christ Computer Programmer
    Marcionites
    Revivalists
    Order of St Titus
    Mennonites
    Branch Davidians


    That's 29, but several of them are historical, and two are fictional. Still, I think I managed 20 from memory.

    It was hard.

    However, finding a few hundred shouldn't be a problem. Opening Brewer's at "Monk" immediately reminded me of the Benedictine order, as well as the Carthusians and Cistercians, and linked to the Augustinians and Carmelites, which led to the Catholic and Apostolic Church. Wikipedia lists dozens and dozens of them. It wouldn't surprise me if there actually were many thousands altogether.

    Roy


    Many of those are cult groups. Which shows your understanding of religion to be quite lacking. Try again...

    Leave a comment:


  • Roy
    replied
    Originally posted by rogue06 View Post
    If you want to understand just how ridiculous this figure is try to name just twenty Christian denominations from memory alone. If there were tens of thousands of them you shouldn't have any difficulty rattling off a hundred so a mere twenty ought to be a real breeze.
    I can rarely resist a challenge.

    Greek Orthodox
    Church of England, Anglican
    Church of Scotland
    Baptist
    Southern Baptist
    Methodist
    Roman Catholic
    7th Day Adventists
    Church of Jesus Christ of the latter day saints
    Unitarians
    Tai-ping (starting to scrape the barrel here)
    Westboro baptist
    Russian Orthodox
    Lutheran
    Christian Scientists
    Jehovah's witnesses
    Albigensians
    Dominicans
    Franciscans
    Trappists
    Knights Templar
    Order of St Stephen
    Dutch Protestant
    Church of Christ Computer Programmer
    Marcionites
    Revivalists
    Order of St Titus
    Mennonites
    Branch Davidians


    That's 29, but several of them are historical, and two are fictional. Still, I think I managed 20 from memory.

    It was hard.

    However, finding a few hundred shouldn't be a problem. Opening Brewer's at "Monk" immediately reminded me of the Benedictine order, as well as the Carthusians and Cistercians, and linked to the Augustinians and Carmelites, which led to the Catholic and Apostolic Church. Wikipedia lists dozens and dozens of them. It wouldn't surprise me if there actually were many thousands altogether.

    Roy

    Leave a comment:


  • rogue06
    replied
    Originally posted by phank View Post
    The vision of 30,000+ Christian sects in the US alone, all pointing at all the others and saying they aren't Christian enough, is illuminating. There is only one Truth, but over 30,000 disputing parties each have it, while all the others do not.
    To say that number is grossly inflated is an understatement. 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. In fact, IIRC, even within Catholicism, there are a number of "denominations."

    Further, every single Bible society or church club is considered to be a different denomination than the church or churches that it is affiliated with.

    If you want to understand just how ridiculous this figure is try to name just twenty Christian denominations from memory alone. If there were tens of thousands of them you shouldn't have any difficulty rattling off a hundred so a mere twenty ought to be a real breeze.

    Leave a comment:


  • JonathanL
    replied
    Originally posted by phank View Post
    The vision of 30,000+ Christian sects in the US alone, all pointing at all the others and saying they aren't Christian enough, is illuminating. There is only one Truth, but over 30,000 disputing parties each have it, while all the others do not.
    Yeah, no. This is such a grossly misleading statement that I can't help but point it out, even though several people already commented on it.

    Leave a comment:


  • Irate Canadian
    replied
    Originally posted by phank View Post
    The vision of 30,000+ Christian sects in the US alone, all pointing at all the others and saying they aren't Christian enough, is illuminating. There is only one Truth, but over 30,000 disputing parties each have it, while all the others do not.

    no, just no...

    Leave a comment:


  • Cow Poke
    replied
    Originally posted by phank View Post
    The vision of 30,000+ Christian sects in the US alone, all pointing at all the others and saying they aren't Christian enough, is illuminating.
    IF that were true.

    There is only one Truth, but over 30,000 disputing parties each have it, while all the others do not.
    There's a whole bunch of us that focus on the essentials, and don't worry about the non-essentials.

    Leave a comment:


  • phank
    started a topic What constitutes a Christian denomination?

    What constitutes a Christian denomination?

    The vision of 30,000+ Christian sects in the US alone, all pointing at all the others and saying they aren't Christian enough, is illuminating. There is only one Truth, but over 30,000 disputing parties each have it, while all the others do not.
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