The Christian Family Tree

The Rev. Epke VanderBerg

Protestant minister, member of the Episcopal family and of the Grand Rapids Interfaith Dialogue Association

We present here short portraits of main families and communities within Christianity, particularly those in The Middle East, Europe, and North America. The descriptions provide some primary characteristics and a method of categorizing Christianity into fifteen families. A major resource for this summary was the work of J. Gordon Melton in The Encyclopedia of American Religions (Triumph Books, 1989, New York). Readers are encouraged to explore Melton's detailed and fascinating work.

Looking back down the many branches of Christianity, we see a tree called Jesus the Christ. Beyond this trunk, Christianity is rooted in God's call to Abraham in the land of Ur. From the time of Jesus into the 20th century, the roots divided and multiplied, dipping into soils and water foreign to its beginning, affecting its color and character. Throughout its history, however, it never forgot its beginning, even though its memories of who Jesus was and what he taught, waxed and waned through time and place.

Western Liturgical Family: The four oldest Christian families are the following: the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the non-Chalcedonian Orthodox tradition, the Western Catholic tradition and the Anglican tradition. A strong liturgical life characterizes these Christian families, along with true-creeds, sacraments, language and culture, which find their expression in their liturgy. Most of these families observe seven sacraments: baptism, eucharist, holy orders, unction, marriage, confirmation and penance. Two other characteristics mark these churches: allegiance to creeds, and belief in Apostolic succession. Even though these churches evolved from one common beginning, they unfolded into separate entities with Christianity's spread into other cultures.

The Eastern Orthodox family, its authority centered in the cities of Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople, split from the Western Catholic tradition in 1054 AD. The Western Catholic tradition, based in Rome and entrenched in Western Europe, exercised strong political and religious authority. The Anglican tradition in England broke with Rome in the 16th century when Henry VIII saw opportunity for an independent church that would give him his desired divorce and financial freedom for battle. The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion and The Book of Common Prayer established it as a separate liturgical tradition. In the immigration to North America and after the American Revolutionary War, the Anglican Church became known, in 1787, as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.

Eastern Liturgical Family: Political, cultural and doctrinal differences separated the Eastern Orthodox churches from the Roman churches in 1054. Thereafter, and not having a Pope, this family was governed by Patriarchs who have equal authority and are in communion with each other. Even though the family does not demand celibacy of its priests (as long as they are married before their ordination), monks, who are celibate, are the only members who attain the office of bishop. This family does not recognize the authority of the Bishop in Rome, nor that part of the Chalcedonian Creed that says that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son.

A number of groups fall into this family:

Nestorians: This group, recognizing Christ's two natures, does not believe that Christ had two equal natures and that Mary bore only the human nature of Christ—she did not bear God (Mary is not theotikos).

Monophysites: This group believes that Christ is of one person (mono) and of one nature (physis); it rejects the two-nature position of the Nestorians.

The Armenians: Established in Armenia as a bishopric in 260, this group customarily celebrates Holy Communion only on Sunday, using pure wine [without water] and unleavened bread. Infants are served immediately after baptism. Under persecution by the Turks in 1890, many moved to North America. Controversy soon followed: would the pro-Soviet dominance of Armenia govern or would the Armenian nationalists?

Syrian Churches: under the leadership of Jacob Baradeus (followers were often called Jacobites), who was a monophysite, the Syrian churches spread throughout the Mediterranean region and beyond.

Coptic Churches of Egypt and Ethiopia: Formerly one of the largest Christian groups in the world, this group diminished through persecution. Today, found mainly in Egypt, its numbers are increasing. The Ethiopian Church differs from the Coptic on several points: 1) accepts Apocrypha as Scripture, 2) venerates the Sabbath along with Sunday, 3) recognizes Old Testament figures as saints, and 4) observes many Old Testament regulations on food and purification.

Lutheran Family: Martin Luther, in cooperation with German princes, brought about the first successful breach with the Roman Catholic Church. Even though October 31, 1517, is often thought to be the start of the Lutheran Church, a more persuasive argument may be made for the year 1530, in which the Augsburg Confession was published. This confession became the standard that congregations used to justify their independent existence and distinguished the churches that used written confessions as confessing churches. Luther taught that salvation is by grace through faith, rather than works and faith, and that the Bibleis the rule of faith and sole authority for doctrine. Luther, in distinction from other Reformation churches, placed greater emphasis on the sacramental liturgy and understood the eucharist as consubstantiation (Christ present but elements not changed) in distinction from the Roman Catholic tradition of transubstantiation (elements changed into Christ's essence). Luther's translation of the Bible into the German vernacular (1532-34) became the standard for the German language and sparked the use of the vernacular in the Lutheran liturgy. Through Luther, many new hymns came into use and changed the complexion of the liturgy.

Reformed-Presbyterian Family: The force behind this family is John Calvin, who established the Reformed church in Geneva, Switzerland, in the 1540s. The Reformed churches distinguish themselves from the other Christian families by their theology (Reformed) and the church government (Presbyterian). Calvin derived his Reformed theology from the major premise of God's sovereignty in creation and salvation. He taught that God predestined some to salvation and that atonement is limited to those whom God has elected. Today, a strict or lenient interpretation of predestination separates many Reformed churches. On the continent, the churches were known as Reformed; in the British Isles they came to be known as Presbyterian. The Reformed churches were one with other Protestant churches in adherence to the authority of the early Christian creeds and believing in the Trinity, salvation by grace through faith, and that the Bibleis the sole authority for faith and doctrine (in opposition to the Roman Catholics' position of salvation by faith and works, and of authority in the Bibleand tradition). These churches did not concern themselves with apostolic succession, but with the pure preaching of the Gospel (predominantly a teaching function) and in the pure administration of the sacraments (baptism and eucharist). In the eucharist, God, who is present, can be apprehended by faith; this is in opposition to the Lutherans and Roman Catholics who maintain God's special presence in the elements.

Pietist-Methodist Family: Three groups of churches fall under this category: the Moravian Church, the Swedish Evangelical churches and the Methodist (Wesleyan) churches. As a movement of pietism, these churches reacted to Protestantism as practiced in the late 17th century. They reacted to the rigidity and systematic doctrine of the scholastic Lutheran and Calvinist theologians. Not wishing to leave their established churches, they wanted a shift from scholasticism to spiritual experience. They advocated a Bible-centered faith, the experience of the Christian life, and giving free expression of faith in hymns, testimony and evangelical zeal. Through the early work of Philip Jacob Spener and August Hermann Francke, and using home studies, their work rejuvenated the Moravian Church in 1727, influenced John Wesley and helped establish the Swedish Evangelical Church. In their work they were open to traditional practices and beliefs and sought life within the forms of the traditional churches.

Methodists are characterized by their dissent from the Calvinist teachings on predestination and irresistible grace. In 1784, at a Christmas conference, the Methodists in America formed the Methodist Episcopal Church. Its history in North America reflects the history of other denominations, including their relationships to Old World governments, ecclesiastical affiliations, and changing North American political patterns.

Holiness Family: Through the influence of John Wesley's teaching of perfection, the holiness movement uses Matthew 5:48 as its theme: "Be ye perfect as my Father is perfect." It is distinct from modern Wesleyism and other Protestant churches by how it understands the framework of holiness and perfection. These believers have traditionally separated themselves from Christians who did not strive high enough for perfection. Wesley, however, seeing the practical problems with perfection or sinlessness, then stressed love as the primary theme for Christians, while the holiness movement continued to stress sinlessness. Holiness, or the sanctification experience, is the end work of a process that starts with accepting Christ as one's personal savior (being "born again"). Having accepted Christ, one then grows in grace with the help of the Holy Spirit. The second work of grace comes when the Holy Spirit cleanses the heart of sin and provides the power for living the Christian life. Living the life of holiness results in banning certain forms of behavior as inappropriate for the Christian. This tendency resulted in the adoption of a strict set of codes of behavior. However, groups of churches, depending upon their understanding of holiness -- whether it comes instantaneously or later—established their own independent churches.

Pentecostal Family: Today's Pentecostal family is usually traced back to the work of Rev. Charles Parham and his experience at Bethel Bible College in 1901. However, the movement has also had a long history replete with the experiences usually associated with it. What makes this family distinct from other Protestant churches is not their doctrinal differences; it is their form of religious experience and their practice of speaking in tongues—called glossolalia. Tongue speaking is a sign of baptism by the Holy Spirit, a baptism that often is accompanied by other forms of spiritual gifts such as healing, prophecy, wisdom, and discernment of spirits. Pentecostals seek the experience, interpret events from within it, and work to have others share in it. Those who do not manifest the experience are thought often to be less than full of the Spirit. Pentecostal worship services appear to be more spontaneous than the traditional churches; however, Pentecostal services repeat a pattern of seeking the experience and showing the desire to talk about it. Because it is shaped by cultural forces, Pentecostalism appears in different forms, emphasizes different gifts, yet collects similar minds into its community. Neo-Pentecostalism, however, is a recent phenomenon, and has occurred predominantly in established churches that have found room for this movement.

European Free-Church Family: While Luther and Calvin advocated a fairly close relationship with the state, 16th century radical reformers from within the Roman Catholic Church advocated a complete break with the state church. Their doctrines resembled many of the Protestant doctrines, but their ecclesiology differed. They thought the visible Church to be a free-association of adults who had been baptized as believers (as opposed to being baptized as infants) and who avoided worldly ways. The free-church family is thought to have started on December 25, 1521, when one of the leaders celebrated the first Protestant communion service, a service format that is followed by much of Protestantism. From this group evolved the Mennonites, the Amish, the Brethren, the Quakers and the Free Church of Brethren. Because many of them shunned allegiance to the government, they suffered persecution. Suffering persecution, many of them moved to North America and established congregations there.

Many members of these groups, particularly Quakers and Mennonites, are pacifists in their response to war; at the same time, they are highly active in their work to prevent war and in their relief efforts worldwide.

Baptist Family: As a free association of adult believers, Baptists make up the second largest religious family on the American landscape. Though they may also be related to the continental free-church family, American Baptists seem more related to British Puritanism. In general, they teach that the creeds have a secondary place to Scripture, that baptism is by immersion and administered only to believing and confessing adults, that the Lord's supper (not understood as a sacrament, but as an ordinance) is a memorial, that salvation is a gift of God's grace, and that people must exercise their free will to receive salvation. Even though they are a free association, they have organized themselves into various groupings, depending upon emphases of creed and the necessity for control, and at times by differences in theological perspectives due to the American phenomenon of regionalism (e.g., Southern and Northern Baptist conventions).

Independent Fundamentalist Family: Following the lead of Englishman John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), Independent Fundamental families distinguish themselves from Baptists by their belief in dispensationalism. The Fundamentalists believe the Bibleis a history of God's actions with people in different periods. Because of apparent Biblical contradictions, they resolve those differences by assigning Biblical passages to different dispensations. By failing to meet God's commands, God's economy establishes new paths to follow, which in the present dispensation, leads to the final dispensation in which Christ is recog<->nized as the supreme universal authority. This dispensational framework has resulted in much speculation about prophecy of the Last Times. Another distinguishing feature of this family is the belief that the Church is only a unity of the Spirit, and not of organ<->ization. The Fundamentalist family frequently uses the Scofield Reference Bible as a major source for doctrine.

Adventist Family: The feature that distinguishes the Adventist family from other Christian groups is their belief in the expectation or imminent return of Christ when Christ will replace the old order of the world with an order of joy and goodness. When Christ comes again, he will establish a millennial (a thousand-year) reign in which unbelievers will have a second chance to accept Christ's Lordship. Even though a belief in the imminent return has long roots, it was heightened with the work of William Miller, a poor New York farmer. He believed that Biblical chronology could be deciphered, a belief that prompted him to predict Christ's return between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844. The 50,000 people who followed these teachings, and who experienced the non-return, retrenched. Rather than seeing a literal return of Christ that failed, one group advocated a spiritualized return—following the teachings of Charles Taze Russell—in which the event is understood as a "heavenly or internal event." The Adventist Family shares many of the Baptist teachings, from which much of the family has its genesis. Some of the more distinctive teachings of the family (but not all) are the following: 1)the imminent return of Christ, 2) denial of a person's immortality, 3) Old Testament laws are effective, including the observance of the Sabbath (Saturday), 4) rejection of the belief in a Hell, 5) Christ's death counters the death penalty of Adam passed to his children by inheritance, 6) that the Church is the suffering body of Christ and offers a spiritual sacrifice of atonement to God, and 7) that God's name is Yahweh.

Some of the more well-known families that have evolved from the millennial expectation are the Seventh Day Adventists, Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, the Jehovah's Witnesses, British Israel Movement, and the WorldWide Church of God.

Jehovah's Witnesses, who trace their roots to Charles Taze Russell, mentioned above, prefer to separate themselves from the Christendom that was founded nearly 300 years after Jesus' death, believing that its beliefs deviate greatly from what Jesus taught. For instance, they do not accept Christendom's belief in the doctrine of the Trinity, which teaches that Jesus is God, though he is identified as God's Son. They do not use the cross as a symbol; yet Jesus was the promised Messiah and did provide the legal means of rescuing mankind from the consequences of Adams's sin, thus fulfilling the requirements for the new covenant which would bring faithful people into the promised earthly Paradise. Today, Jehovah's Witnesses form a large international organization, well-known for its door-to-door evangelistic methods and its belief that many who are now living will survive when God's Kingdom brings an end to all present governments. Watch Tower, the denominational publishing company, provides Bible-study and educational materials.

The Liberal Family: Because yesterday's liberal may be today's conservative, the word liberal can be somewhat ambiguous. Most often, however, members of this family are identified as being against the mainstream theistic position of the dominant culture in Western society. The Liberal family, depending upon orientation, finds itself somewhere among the three positions of unitarianism, universalism and atheism. Unitarianists think that God is one, that the Trinity does not exist; the universalists think that all will be saved, that Hell does not exist; the atheists reject the idea of a transcendental God. Liberalism's American origins developed in reaction to New England's Calvinism. However, the genesis of Liberalism is most often thought to rest in the work of Michael Servetus, martyred by John Calvin in Geneva. Liberals have championed human rights, the need for education and the high worth of every person. By removing God from cosmic calculations, life's answers could only come from two other sources: human intuition—as in the position of Transcendentalists—and human reason—as in the Rationalist position. Early 18th century liberals advocated that people could improve the world through reason. Nineteenth century liberalism, seeing the results of scientific thought, expanded the above with evolution, science and materialism, seen as necessary for uncovering the essential (monotheistic) laws of the universe.

Latter-Day Saints Family: Joseph Smith, in the fervor of revivalist movements sweeping New York in the early 19th century, received at the hands of an angel in 1827 gold plates written in what he described as a reformed Egyptian language. By means of two crystal-like stones, the Urim and Thummim, this translation has been become known as the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon claims to be the history of two tribes, the Jeredites and the Israelites. The Jeredites moved to North America after the Tower of Babel; the Israelites moved to North America after the destruction of Jerusalem in the 6th century BC. Joseph Smith published a number of other works including the Book of Moses, the Book of Abraham and the Book of Commandments (now called the Doctrine and Covenants). The early history of Mormonism includes persecution, schisms and violence, culminating in the murder of Joseph Smith in Carthage, Illinois, June 27, 1844. In the ensuing power struggle, Brigham Young moved his group to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he established the dominant branch of Mormonism. Another branch, which resides in Independence, Missouri, claiming Joseph Smith III as successor to his father, is known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Several major Mormon beliefs are the following: 1) affirmation of a trinitheism (not Christian trinity) of the Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit; 2) denial of original sin and the necessity of obedience to certain articles of faith for salvation; 3) a specific church hierarchy; 4) the Word of God consists of the Bible, the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price; 5) revelation is open and added to the Doctrine and Covenants when received; and 6) the future Kingdom of Zion will be established in North America—either in Independence, Missouri, or Salt Lake City, Utah.

Communal Family: Citing references to the early Christian Church, the communal family desires to share all its worldly possessions with other members of the group. Communalism made a serious start in the fourth century with the development of monasticism, a movement that thought the Western Catholic tradition brought everyone into the church rather than seeing the Church as the body of true believers. Monasticism thought the principle of equality could be achieved through poverty and renunciation of the world. Francis of Assisi, thinking that monasticism did not represent true poverty (monastic orders had become very wealthy), advocated poverty of use as a method of reform. The Roman Catholic Church did not accept his vision, but saw it as a threat. The Taborites and the Munsterites, shortly after the Reformation, set up several communities, but, for a variety of reasons, failed. After 1860, visionaries and reformists began the most active era in the building of communities. In North America, the most famous and successful of these is the Hutterite community. Having a similar background to Russian Mennonites, today these people have established and maintain well over 300 communities.

Christian Science-Metaphysical Family: Concerned with the role of the Mind in the healing process, the Christian Science and the New Thought movement drew on the metaphysical traditions of the 19th century that suggested the presence of spiritual powers operating on the mind and body. Swedenborg, a prolific writer, suggested the priority of the spiritual world over the material and that the material becomes real in its correspondence to the spiritual. The Christian Bible, he also taught, must be interpreted spiritually.

In the late 1800s, Mary Baker Eddy (the founder of Christian Science) and Emma Curtis Hopkins (the founder of New Thought) built on the methodology of Swedenborg. Disease, they taught, is the result of disharmony between mind and matter. New Thought, however, is distinct from Christian Science. New Thought governs itself through ordained ministers (most of whom are women), developed a decentralized movement, emphasized prosperity (poverty is as unreal as disease), and emphasized the universal position that all religions have value. Christian Science is itself a major religion founded on American soil over 100 years ago. Its primary text, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, has sold over eight million copies worldwide.

Unity School of Christianity: This is another religious organization with metaphysical inclinations. Founded more than 100 years ago and based on the teachings of Jesus Christ, Unity offers a practical approach to Christianity that helps people lead happier, healthier, more productive lives and find deeper spiritual meaning for their lives. Unity serves millions of people worldwide through its 24-hour prayer, publishing and education ministries. Through its publishing ministry, Unity produces a variety of inspirational resources for personal study and growth; Unity is a metaphysical journal and Daily Word is a devotional publication. Unity's educational ministry is designed to train and prepare Unity ministers and teachers for pastoral service and to foster personal spiritual growth.