Thursday, January 08, 2009

List of Denominations and Their Beliefs

According to Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, there exist roughly 39,000 Christian denominations worldwide in 2008. That is up from 500 Christian denominations in 1800, and the number is expected to grow to 55,000 by 2025.

Currently, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary estimates that a new Christian denomination is formed every 12 hours.

Wikipedia does a great job listing the largest denominations. Religion Facts compares the major denominations. And the Hartford Institute for Religion Research has links to hundreds of official denominational websites.

Here is a mashup of some their data. Since Church Relevance focuses primarily on Protestantism, I will elaborate on that data.

Catholicism - (1,200,000,000 adherents) Click for beliefs.

Protestantism - (699,000,000 adherents) Click for beliefs.

Eastern Orthodoxy - (260,000,000 adherents) Click for beliefs.

Oriental Orthodox Church - (81,000,000 adherents) Click for beliefs.

Anglicanism - (77,000,000 adherents) Click for beliefs.

Nontrinitarianism - (36,000,000 adherents) Click for beliefs.

Nestorianism - (1,000,000 adherents) Click for beliefs.

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