The Christian Canon Series Post 1: An Introduction

 Christianity is the dominant faith to have ever existed in the history of our world. With over 2.4 billion followers worldwide it is hard not to marvel at the faith's ability to spread and continue for over two-thousand years.

Christianity has several doctrines established in the definition of the faith. The central constructs are that the faith was founded by Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the religion's deified founder who was believed to be the son of/God. The faith concludes that Christ was truly human and truly God, that he died for our sins via crucifixion; that he resurrected from the dead three days later; that he ascended into heaven and that he will return to judge the living and the dead. Christianity is also a monotheistic religion, believing in one God whom Christ is in human form; that the church is the body of Christ on earth and that the Bible is the inherent word of God. These tenets were established via the Nicene creed in the fourth century, when Christianity was given an official definition for the faith.

While these tenets are the commonality for Christianity, they are the only commonalities. Indeed, Christianity has undergone vast iterations and differences in interpretation and central tenets of belief. These groups who possess a different cosmology are traditionally referred to as “denominations.” Indeed, Christian groups are of such abundance that denominations are a ubiquitous feature, presenting with tens of thousands in this one faith alone, depending on one’s definition.

While over 2.4 billion people believe in Christianity, this post will not serve as a philosophical inquiry into the validity of Christianity. Instead, I wish to present a series where I examine the central denominations of Christianity and attempt to deduce which denomination is the official “canon” of the religion. While many Christians will disagree that there is a correct denomination, citing that all have imperfections, this project is merely for intellectual curiosity and entertainment purposes. The conclusion of an “objectively correct” denomination is not the intention and readers are free to disagree with the final conclusion.

With this established, this post serves as an introduction to the Christian canon series. I do not plan to explore all denominations as the quantity makes this a nigh-impossible task. Instead I plan to simply examine some of the central denominations that differ substantially in cosmology, beliefs, rituals, opinions on salvation and Christology. I shall examine the pros and cons of each denomination in accordance with scripture and the religions history and assign the denomination a concluding rank. After each exploration, I will finalize the series with a concluding post assigning a winning denomination and explaining my arguments for its canonization.

While this will likely be a long series, I shall continue to publish content of other topics to keep the content flow relatively consistent. As this is a reality encyclopedia, other topics of interest for my readers and myself shall not be ignored. While I am uncertain how many posts this series will have, I shall announce when I have published my finalizing post.