Christian History/schism

The argument

A Christian denomination is a religious organization (an association or fellowship) that unites local congregations in a single, legal and administrative body. Christian denominations differ in what they use for the basis of their doctrines and beliefs. Starting as one church founded by St Peter after Jesus' ascension into heaven, the first schism in the early church was between Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. The two traditions began to divide, as the Roman Empire fragmented, after the seventh Ecumenical Council in 787 CE and is commonly believed to have finally split over the conflict with Rome in the so called Great Schism in 1054. The next biggest split was between Catholicism and the denominations that have roots in the Protestant Reformation. The main denominations today are Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Orthodox, but each has many sub-denominations. In 1980, 20,800 Christian denominations in the world had been identified with more than 1,000 different Christian branches in the US. These can be classified into seven major alliances and 156 ecclesiastical traditions. Christian denominations can also be categorised by whether they are fundamentalist or conservative, mainline or liberal groups. Fundamentalist/conservative/evangelical Christian groups can generally be characterized as believing that salvation is a free gift of God. It is received by repenting and asking for forgiveness of sin and trusting Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Christian denominations also differ in what they use for the basis of their doctrines and beliefs. The biggest split is between Catholicism and the denominations that have roots in the Protestant Reformation. All denominations views their own as the ‘true doctrine’.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Several details in this entry are inaccurate, and it also states one tradition's claims in a voice reserved for neutral history. The chronology is wrong at its most important point. The first lasting divisions in the church came centuries before 1054: the Church of the East separated after the Council of Ephesus in 431, and the Oriental Orthodox churches — Coptic, Armenian, Syriac, Ethiopian, among others — after Chalcedon in 451. These are ancient communions with millions of members today, and an account in which 'the first schism in the early church was between Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy' omits them entirely. The 1054 excommunications are conventional shorthand rather than the split itself; historians generally treat them as one episode in a long estrangement, with the sack of Constantinople by a crusading army in 1204 doing more than anything to make the breach permanent. 'Starting as one church founded by St Peter after Jesus' ascension' states a specifically Catholic claim about Petrine primacy as though it were agreed fact. Orthodox and Protestant accounts of the church's founding differ precisely here, which makes it an odd sentence to place in an entry about beliefs held in common. The denomination count is a well-known artefact. The figure derives from a survey that enumerates each national body of each denomination separately, so a single worldwide communion contributes dozens of entries; it does not represent distinct doctrinal traditions, and it is routinely quoted as though it did. Two further claims overreach. That every denomination regards its own as the sole true doctrine is contradicted by the ecumenical commitments many churches have formally adopted, including mutual recognition of baptism and of orders. And the account of salvation offered as characterising fundamentalist and evangelical groups — a free gift received through repentance and faith — is the broad Protestant position, shared far beyond them. Finally, the entry is filed under beliefs held in common, but its subject is institutional history and division.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The chronology is inaccurate: the earliest lasting divisions came centuries before 1054, when the Church of the East separated after Ephesus (431) and the Oriental Orthodox churches after Chalcedon (451). The 1054 excommunications are conventionally treated as one episode in a long estrangement, with 1204 doing more to make it permanent, and 'founded by St Peter' states a specifically Catholic claim about primacy as neutral history. [Rejecting P2] The denomination figure comes from a survey enumerating each national body separately and so does not count distinct doctrinal traditions. The claim that every denomination regards its own as the sole true doctrine is contradicted by the formal ecumenical commitments many churches have adopted, and the account of salvation given as characterising fundamentalists is the broad Protestant position shared far beyond them.