Daniel’s Blog

Introduction

Its quite rare that I manage to get the chance to do a more personal blog post, but I really wanted to clarify the following blog post to people who aren’t Christian.

There are many many different denominations (aka groups) of Christianity, and within those you get varying amounts of variety.

For example I am a: Liberal Catholic Anglican with Mystic and Contemplative thoughts and practices.

So I have summarised my understanding of the categories of Christianity/Churches. Note that I am note summarising the denominations, for example I am Anglican, meaning that I am a communicant member of the Church Of England and I am welcomed into full communion with all Churches in the Anglican Communion, Old Catholic Communion and Porvoo Communion (and some other Churches).

Every Church is different, and almost every Christian has different views. So it is hard to classify a particular Church or person, and its certainly not right to stereotype a Christian (or someone of any religion). For example, I am almost entirely different from the Christians that you find on the High Street saying “You must be born again”, these tend to be Conservative Evangelical (and sometimes Charismatic) Christians. As a Christian I feel that I should accept that there are different types of Christianity and religions, and I will always try my best to understand why different people have different views (I am a advocate of Interfaith/Interreligious dialogue).

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Liberal

A liberal Christian will tend to be quite accepting of the fact that other people have different faiths. Liberal Christians may see various bits of the bible entirely allegorical/symbolic and other bits more historical/literal. Some Liberal Christians will see the Bible as entirely symbolic. Liberal is seen as the opposite to Conservative, a Church cannot really be both.

Pluralist

Pluralist Christians say that everybody that has faith in a divine entity will receive salvation/entry in to heaven. This is often seen as a sub-belief of Liberal Christians.

Universalist

Universalist Christians say that everybody will receive salvation/entry into heaven. This is often seen as a belief of Liberal Christians.

Conservative

A Conservative Christian will say that the only way to God is through faith in Jesus Christ, and can only happen if you are born again (i.e. baptised and fully acknowledge the presence of God and His gifts in this world). Conservative Christians also tend to understand the Bible as entirely literal, historic and factual. Conservative is seen as the opposite to Literal, a Church cannot really be both.

Evangelical

An Evangelical Church puts emphasis on “mission”. This “mission” is one to let everybody know about the works of Jesus Christ and His apostles. This sometimes goes hand in hand with Conservative Christianity to form Fundamentalist Christianity.

Charismatic

A Charismatic Church puts emphasis on the spiritual gifts provided by God to Humans. Examples of these gifts include Speaking in Tongues (aka glossolalia) and spiritual healing. Charismatic Churches tend to be very energetic and say that the spiritual gifts are visible.

Catholic

Catholic means universal, and is usually understood by a shared set of rituals. Catholic Churches will tend to be Eucharistic in nature, in other words the breaking of bread and drinking of wine will be done at least once a week. There is a set order of rituals during services, weeks and years. Catholic Churches also tend to honour the Saints, have a hierarchy of Church organisation and have more than the central two Sacraments (Baptism and Communion).

Trinitarian

A Trinitarian believes that God/Divine is whole, but made up of three parts: The Father, the Son (aka Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit (aka Holy Ghost). This is to say that Jesus Christ was part of a whole God, and as is the Holy Spirit. A Trinitarian may believe that Jesus Christ was physical form of the Holy Spirit. This is seen as the opposite of Unitarian.

Unitarian

A Unitarian believes that God/Divine is distinct from Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. This is seen as the opposite of Trinitarian.

Inclusive

An Inclusive Church (or Christian) is inclusive if it (or he/she) accepts:

• Female ordination (and to be part of the clergy)
• Allows anyone into their service no matter what their race, gender, age or sexual orientation.

Mystic

A Mystic Christian is one who tries to experience God, this is usually done using thought, meditation and understanding philosophy, ones self and the world. This is done usually because a belief that there is a spark of divine (aka Inner Light) in each and every one of us, and its possible to get to know it. Mystic Christianity tends to be quite a personal voyage, and you don’t really tend to find Mystic Churches (although the closest are probably the members of the Religious Society of Friends (aka Quakers)).

Contemplative

This type usually goes hand in hand with Catholic Christianity. Contemplative Christianity emphasises the use of quiet meditation and prayer, this may include the use of Rosaries (aka Prayer Beads) or Prayer Ropes.

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Finally, everybody should respect other peoples beliefs. Everybody is on their own spiritual and life voyage, I’m certainly not out to convert anyone, I’m just here mentioning what Christianity is like. It doesn’t bother me if you are of another religion or even atheist/non-theist or agnostic, I believe that there should still be peace (and friendship) between all humanity and that we can learn from each other.

(it was quite nice doing a non-technical blog post… theres a lot more to me than the Semantic Web)

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