1.1 What Is Christianity?

Christianity is a religion centered on the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

At its most basic level, Christianity teaches that there is one God, that God created the world, that human beings are morally accountable to Him, and that God has acted in history to rescue humanity from sin, evil, and death. Christians believe this rescue comes through Jesus Christ, whom they understand to be the Son of God, the Messiah, and the Savior of the world.

The word Christianity comes from the title Christ, which means “Anointed One.” It is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah. When Christians call Jesus “Christ,” they are not using “Christ” as His last name. They are making a claim about who He is. They are saying that Jesus is the promised one sent by God to fulfill His purposes, reveal His character, and bring salvation.

Christianity began in the first century within a Jewish setting. Jesus, His earliest followers, and the apostles were Jewish. They read the Hebrew Scriptures, worshiped the God of Israel, and understood Jesus in relation to Jewish hopes about the Messiah, God’s kingdom, covenant, judgment, and restoration. Over time, Christianity spread beyond its Jewish origins into the wider Roman world and eventually became a global religion.

The central text of Christianity is the Bible. Christians usually divide the Bible into two major parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament contains the sacred writings of ancient Israel, while the New Testament focuses on Jesus Christ, His earliest followers, and the formation of the early Christian church. Different Christian traditions may disagree about the exact contents of the biblical canon, but all major Christian traditions treat Scripture as foundational.

Christianity is not only a set of private beliefs. It is also a way of worship, a moral tradition, a community, and a historical movement. Christians gather in churches, read Scripture, pray, worship God, practice baptism and Communion/the Eucharist, care for the poor, teach doctrine, confess sins, celebrate holy days, and seek to live according to the teachings of Christ.

At the same time, Christianity is internally diverse. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Protestants, Anglicans, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Oriental Orthodox Christians, and many other groups all identify as Christian, but they do not agree on every issue. They may differ on church authority, sacraments, worship style, biblical interpretation, salvation, saints, Mary, icons, clergy, spiritual gifts, and the relationship between church and state.

Even with those differences, historic Christianity has usually been organized around several core claims: that there is one God; that Jesus Christ is uniquely central to God’s work of salvation; that Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead; that human beings need forgiveness and reconciliation with God; that the Holy Spirit is active in the life of believers and the church; and that history is moving toward final judgment and restoration.

Christianity is the faith tradition that claims God has revealed Himself and acted to save humanity through Jesus Christ. It is a religion rooted in Jewish history, centered on the person of Jesus, shaped by the Bible, practiced in churches, and spread across the world through centuries of worship, teaching, conflict, reform, mission, and cultural influence.

In section 1.2, we will compare faith-based and academic approaches to studying Christianity.