How Many?

Just curious, how many different branches (Catholic, Lutheran, etc.) are there within the Christian religion?

Originally posted by Zander 88
Just curious, how many different branches (Catholic, Lutheran, etc.) are there within the Christian religion?

Two.

True Christians, and the rest.

Originally posted by DoctorScribbles
Two.

True Christians, and the rest.

lol

Originally posted by Zander 88
Just curious, how many different branches (Catholic, Lutheran, etc.) are there within the Christian religion?

Where 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.
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.

Are there any studies on growth or decline of religious denominations, or on the general religions themselves?

Originally posted by Zander 88
Just curious, how many different branches (Catholic, Lutheran, etc.) are there within the Christian religion?

I'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.

Originally posted by Zander 88
Are there any studies on growth or decline of religious denominations, or on the general religions themselves?

The 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.