Originally posted by Zander 88Where I come from (Livingstone, Zambia) a town of about 100,000 people there are approximately 150 Christian denominations. You may call denominations twigs not branches though.
Just curious, how many different branches (Catholic, Lutheran, etc.) are there within the Christian religion?
The truth is that the majority of the members of any given denomination do not agree with every single belief officially promoted by that denomination but if everyone refused to go to Church with anyone with slightly different view points then everyone would go to church alone.
A large part of the differences between denominations is traditions not beliefs.
Originally posted by Zander 88I've heard there are thousands, but as already posted, most are "twigs," in the sense that they might have only one or two ideas about which they disagree with in other sects.
Just curious, how many different branches (Catholic, Lutheran, etc.) are there within the Christian religion?
Originally posted by Zander 88The Shakers in the U.S. were a very interesting group. They achieved their popularity in the early 1800's. As they believed in the imminent return of Christ, there was no need for marriage and procreation. The sexes remained separate. They evenually died out, but left some really good furniture as that seemed to be how they sublimated their sexual energies. Plus a whole lot of shakin.
Are there any studies on growth or decline of religious denominations, or on the general religions themselves?