Western Christianity

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Not to be confused with Latin Church.
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Jesus represented as the Lamb of God (Agnus Dei), a common practice in Western Christianity[1]
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Timeline of the evolution of the church, beginning with early Christianity

Western Christianity is one of two subdivisions of Christianity (Eastern Christianity being the other). Western Christianity is composed of the Latin Church and Western Protestantism, together with their offshoots such as the Old Catholic Church, Independent Catholicism and Restorationism.

The large majority of the world's 2.3 billion Christians are Western Christians (about 2 billion – 1.2 billion Latin Catholic and 800 million Protestant).

communion or religious denomination
, but is applied to distinguish all these denominations collectively from Eastern Christianity.

The establishment of the distinct Latin Church, a

Eastern Christians.[4]

Western Christianity has

Early Modern era, the Latin Church, in time along with its Protestant secessions, spread throughout the Americas, much of the Philippines, Southern Africa, pockets of West Africa, and throughout Australia and New Zealand
. Thus, when used for historical periods after the 16th century, the term "Western Christianity" does not refer to a particular geographical area, but is rather used as a collective term for all these.

Today, the geographical distinction between Western and Eastern Christianity is not nearly as absolute as in Antiquity or the Middle Ages, due to the spread of

globalisation. As such, the adjectives "Western Christianity" and "Eastern Christianity" are typically used to refer to historical origins and differences in theology and liturgy, rather than present geographical locations.[citation needed
]

While the Latin Church maintains the use of the Latin liturgical rites, Protestant denominations and Independent Catholicism use a wide variety of liturgical practices.

The earliest concept of Europe as a cultural sphere (instead of simply a geographic term) appeared during the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century, which included territories which practiced Western Christianity at the time.[9]

History

Main article:
History of Western Christianity
Title page of the Lutheran Swedish Gustav Vasa Bible, translated by the Petri brothers, along with Laurentius Andreae
Adam Schaal and Ferdinand Verbiest (1623–88); Bottom: Paul Siu (Xu Guangqi)
, Colao or Prime Minister of State, and his granddaughter Candide Hiu

For much of its history, the Christian church has been

schism.[10]

Like

Roman province of Africa.[11] There is evidence of a Latin translation of the Bible as early as the 2nd century (see also Vetus Latina
).

With the

Pentarchy, "the proposed government of universal Christendom by five patriarchal sees under the auspices of a single universal empire. Formulated in the legislation of the emperor Justinian I (527–565), especially in his Novella 131, the theory received formal ecclesiastical sanction at the Council in Trullo (692), which ranked the five sees as Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem."[12]

Over the centuries, disagreements separated Western Christianity from the various forms of Eastern Christianity: first from

East-West Schism of 1054. With the last-named form of Eastern Christianity, reunion agreements were signed at the Second Council of Lyon (1274) and the Council of Florence
(1439), but these proved ineffective.

Historian Paul Legutko of Stanford University said the Catholic Church is "at the center of the development of the values, ideas, science, laws, and institutions which constitute what we call Western civilization".[13] The rise of Protestantism led to major divisions within Western Christianity, which still persist, and wars—for example, the Anglo-Spanish War of 1585–1604 had religious as well as economic causes.

In and after the Age of Discovery, Europeans spread Western Christianity to the New World and elsewhere. Roman Catholicism came to the Americas (especially South America), Africa, Asia, Australia and the Pacific. Protestantism, including Anglicanism, came to North America, Australia-Pacific and some African locales.

Today, the geographical distinction between Western and Eastern Christianity is much less absolute, due to the great migrations of Europeans across the globe, as well as the work of missionaries worldwide over the past five centuries.

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Features

Map of Europe showing the largest religions by region. Eastern Christianity is represented in blue, Islam in green, and the other colors represent branches of Western Christianity.
Saint Thomas Aquinas
was one of the great Western scholars of the Medieval period.

Original sin

collective guilt, referred to as a "sin nature", to something as drastic as total depravity or automatic guilt of all humans through collective guilt.[19]

Filioque clause

See also: Filioque

Most Western Christians use a version of the

Latin: Deum de Deo), which was in the Creed as adopted by the First Council of Nicaea
, but which was dropped by the First Council of Constantinople.

Date of Easter

Main article: Easter controversy

The date of Easter usually differs between Eastern and Western Christianity, because the calculations are based on the Julian calendar and Gregorian calendar respectively. However, before the Council of Nicea, various dates including Jewish Passover were observed. Nicea "Romanized" the date for Easter and anathematized a "Judaized" (i.e. Passover date for) Easter. The date of observance of Easter has only differed in modern times since the promulgation of the Gregorian calendar in 1582; and further, the Western Church did not universally adopt the Gregorian calendar at once, so that for some time the dates of Easter differed between the Eastern Church and the Roman Catholic Church, but not necessarily as between the Eastern Church and the Western Protestant churches. For example, the Church of England continued to observe Easter on the same date as the Eastern Church until 1753.

Even the dates of other Christian holidays differ between Eastern and Western Christianity.

Lack of essence–energies distinction

Further information: Essence–energies distinction

Eastern Christianity, and particularly the Eastern Orthodox Church, has traditionally held a distinction between God's essence, or that which He is, with God's energies, or that which He does. They hold that while God is unknowable in His essence, He can be known (i.e. experienced) in His energies. This is an extension of Eastern Christianity's apophatic theology, while Western Christians tend to prefer a view of divine simplicity, and claim that God's essence can be known by its attributes.

Western denominations

See also: Western Rite Orthodoxy

Today, Western Christianity makes up close to 90% of Christians worldwide with the Catholic Church accounting for over half and various Protestant denominations making up another 40%.

Reformed tradition
.

Major branches and movements within Protestantism

Major figures

Bishop of Rome or the pope

Further information: Pope

Relevant figures:

  • Clement of Rome
    (fl. c. 96), one of the apostolic fathers of the church.
  • Pope Leo I
  • Gregory the Great

The Reformers

Further information: Protestant Reformers

Relevant figures:

Archbishop of Canterbury and primate of all England

Further information: Primacy of Canterbury

Relevant figures:

Archbishop of Lyon and primate of the Gauls

Further information: Primate of the Gauls

Relevant figures:

Patriarch of Aquileia

Further information:
Patriarch of Aquileia

Relevant figures:

See also

References

  1. ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Agnus Dei (In Liturgy)". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  2. ^ Centre, UNESCO World Heritage. "Vatican City". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  3. ^ Center, Pew Research (19 December 2011). "Global Christianity - A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Christian Population". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  4. ^ "Distinguishing the terms: Latins and Romans". Orbis Latinus.
  5. ISBN 978-1-111-83169-1 – via Google Books
    .
  6. ^ "Roman Catholicism". Encyclopædia Britannica. 11 August 2023. Roman Catholicism, Christian church that has been the decisive spiritual force in the history of Western civilization.
  7. ^ Hayas, Caltron J.H. (1953). Christianity and Western Civilization. Stanford University Press. p. 2. That certain distinctive features of our Western civilization—the civilization of western Europe and of America—have been shaped chiefly by Judaeo – Graeco – Christianity, Catholic and Protestant.
  8. ^ Orlandis, José (1993). A Short History of the Catholic Church. Four Courts Press.
  9. ^ Dr. Sanjay Kumar (2021). A Handbook of Political Geography. K.K. Publications. p. 127.
  10. ^ "General Essay on Western Christianity", Overview Of World Religions. Division of Religion and Philosophy, University of Cumbria. © 1998/9 ELMAR Project. Accessed 1 April 2012.
  11. ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3
    .
  12. ^ "Pentarchy | Byzantine Empire, Justinian I & Justinian Code | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  13. ^ "Review of How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization by Thomas Woods, Jr". National Review Book Service. Archived from the original on 22 August 2006. Retrieved 16 September 2006.
  14. ISBN 978-0-88141-144-7 – via Google Books
    .
  15. ISBN 978-0-8262-1567-3
    .
  16. ISBN 978-0-9833480-1-6 – via Google Books
    .
  17. ISBN 978-1-4681-2984-7 – via Google Books
    .
  18. ^ Cross 1966, p. 994.
  19. ISBN 978-0-88489-725-5
    .
  20. ^ "Trubar Primož". Slovenian Biographical Lexicon. Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
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