Most Christian groups use or have used art to some extent, although some have had strong objections to some forms of religious image, and there have been major periods of iconoclasm within Christianity.

Most Christian groups use or have used art to some extent, although some have had strong objections to some forms of religious image, and there have been major periods of iconoclasm within Christianity.

Yang clashed with Hong over the rebellion's policies and views toward Confucianism and iconoclasm ; Yang believed that Confucian morality was essentially positive and that its basic tenets were compatible with the rebellion's interpretation of Christianity and that images of dragons were not sacrilegious.

Colonialism alone would have been able to make these difficulties serious, for Christianity is so closely tied to colonialism in the minds of these people that repudiation of the one has tended automatically toward the repudiation of the other.

has since accepted the Law of Thelema, a religion which claims to supersede Christianity, it is no longer concerned with apostolic succession deriving from Jesus.

* Christianity has evolved out of previous religions ;

During the early centuries of Christianity the title " pope " was applied generally to all bishops ; it now has more specific meanings that vary between churches.

The contents are correspondingly varied: a confession of sin and a plea to God not to maintain his anger forever ( ch. 63: 7 – 64: 11 ); a poem on the theme that God has no need of a temple because Heaven is his throne and Earth his footstool ( Isaiah 66: 1 – 2 ); verses setting out conditions for admission to the community ; complaints of sin, incompetence and paganism ; and distinctions between the " righteous " and the " sinners ", foreshadowing the categories used in much later Judaism and early Christianity.

Because it was a minority church of widely differing traditions in a non-Christian culture ( except in Kerala, where Christianity has a long history ), practice varied wildly.

As of the early 21st century, Christianity has approximately 2. 2 billion adherents.

Christianity has played a prominent role in shaping of Western civilization.

Like the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church also traces its heritage to the foundation of Christianity through Apostolic succession and has an episcopal structure, though the autonomy of the individual, mostly national churches is emphasized.

It has been described as the single most important and influential work in the West on Medieval and early Renaissance Christianity, and is also the last great Western work that can be called Classical.

A more secular meaning can denote that the term Christendom refers to Christians considered as a group, the " Political Christian World ", as an informal cultural hegemony that Christianity has traditionally enjoyed in the West.

Antisemitism has been described as primarily hatred against Jews as a race with its modern expression rooted in 19th century racial theories, while anti-Judaism is described as hostility to Jewish religion, but in Western Christianity it effectively merged into antisemitism during the 12th century.

The position that " Christian theological anti-Judaism is a phenomenon distinct from modern antisemitism, which is rooted in economic and racial thought, so that Christian teachings should not be held responsible for antisemitism " has been articulated, among other places, by Pope John Paul II in ' We Re member: A Reflection on the Shoah ,' and the Jewish declaration on Christianity, Dabru Emet .. Several scholars, including Susannah Heschel, Gavin I Langmuir and Uriel Tal the General Synod has affirmed that " the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ is for all and must be shared with all including people from other faiths or of no faith and that to do anything else would be to institutionalize discrimination ".

Like many of the Eastern Fathers, he has an essentially moralistic conception of Christianity.

However, Judeo-Christian thought also makes an " innovation of the first importance ", Eliade says, because it embraces the notion of linear, historical time ; in Christianity, " time is no longer the circular Time of the Eternal Return ; it has become linear and irreversible Time ".

Christianity is characterized by its claim to universality, which marks a significant break from current Jewish identity and thought, but has its roots in Hellenistic Judaism.

Some Christians believe that the Law was " completed " by Jesus and has become irrelevant to " faith life ", for details see Biblical law in Christianity.

Therefore, just as Christianity does not accept that Mosaic Law has any authority over Christians, Judaism does not accept that the New Testament has any religious authority over Jews.

The Chabad-Lubavitch branch of Hasidic Judaism has been an exception to this non-proselytizing standard, since in recent decades it has been actively promoting Noahide Laws for Gentiles as an alternative to Christianity.

Although noting in the introduction to ' The Protestors ' that ' Some recorded herein perhaps did not have " all the truth " — so the writer has been reminded ', Eyre nevertheless claimed that the purpose of the work was to ' tell how a number of little-known individuals, groups and religious communities strove to preserve or revive the original Christianity of apostolic times ', and that ' In faith and outlook they were far closer to the early springing shoots of first century Christianity and the penetrating spiritual challenge of Jesus himself than much that has passed for the religion of the Nazarene in the last nineteen centuries '.

Supporters of this view believe that “ to a hypothetical outside reader, presents Christianity as enlightened, harmless, even beneficent .” Some believe that through this work, Luke intended to show the Roman Empire that the root of Christianity is within Judaism so that the Christians “ may receive the same freedom to practice their faith that the Roman Empire afforded the Jews .” Those who support the view of Luke ’ s work as political apology generally draw evidence from the facts that Christians are found innocent of committing any political crime ( Acts 25: 25 ; 19: 37 ; 19: 40 ) and that Roman officials ’ views towards Christians are generally positive.

Pervo sees Luke ’ s work as a “ legitimizing narrative ” because it makes “ a case by telling a story ( or stories )” and serves to legitimate either “ Pauline Christianity ( possibly in rivalry to other interpretations ) or generally as the claim of the Jesus-movement to possess the Israelite heritage .” On the other hand, some scholars greatly disagree with the view of legitimation because they believe that it “ mirror-reads ” Luke ’ s work attempting to uncover the circumstances surrounding Luke ’ s work by over-arguing something that may not be that valid.

Although Christians generally believe their religion to be very inclusive ( since not only Jews but all gentiles can be Christian ), Jews see Christianity as highly exclusive, because some denominations view non-Christians ( such as Jews and Pagans ) as having an incomplete or imperfect relationship with God, and therefore excluded from grace, salvation, heaven, or eternal life.

In contrast, most Christian denominations actively seek converts, following the Great Commission, and conversion to Christianity is generally a declaration of faith ( although some denominations view it specifically as adoption into a community of Christ, and orthodox Christian tradition views it as being a literal joining together of the members of Christ's body ).

Most branches of Christianity have historically held abortion to be generally wrong, referring to Old Testament passages such as Psalm 139 and Jeremiah 1, as well as New Testament passages concerning both Jesus and John the Baptist while they were in utero.

Christian fundamentalists, who generally consider the term to be pejorative when used to refer to themselves, often object to the placement of themselves and Islamist groups into a single category given that the fundamentals of Christianity are different from the fundamentals of Islam.

In the past many scholars believed that gnosticism pre-dated Christianity, but now it is generally accepted that gnosticism developed into a coherent movement only in the second century CE.

It generally resonates better with existing Muslim views than with Christianity: it foretells the coming of Muhammad by name ; rather than describing the crucifixion of Jesus, it describes him being raised up into heaven, similar to the description of Elijah in 2 Kings, Chapter 2 ; and it calls Jesus a " prophet " whose mission was restricted to the " house of Israel ".

In Eastern Christianity and other icon-painting Christian traditions, the icon is generally a flat panel painting depicting a holy being or object such as Jesus, Mary, saints, angels, or the cross.

Comparable images from Western Christianity are generally not described as " icons ", although " iconic " may be used to describe a static style of devotional image.

The Eastern Orthodox view of the origin of icons is generally quite different from that of most secular scholars and from some in contemporary Roman Catholic circles: " The Orthodox Church maintains and teaches that the sacred image has existed from the beginning of Christianity ", Léonid Ouspensky has written.

He knows of a division among the orthodox only on the question of the millennium and on the attitude toward the milder Jewish Christianity, which he personally is willing to tolerate as long as its professors in their turn do not interfere with the liberty of the Gentile converts ; his millenarianism seems to have no connection with Judaism, but he believes firmly in a millennium, and generally in the Christian eschatology.

Machiavelli is generally seen as being critical of Christianity as it existed in his time, specifically its effect upon politics, and also everyday life.

In medieval Christianity, Noah's three sons were generally considered as the founders of the populations of the three known continents, Japheth / Europe, Shem / Asia, and Ham / Africa, although a rarer variation held that they represented the three classes of medieval society – the priests ( Shem ), the warriors ( Japheth ), and the peasants ( Ham ).

Ancient Greek thought and Islam affirm pre-existence, but it is generally denied in Judaism and Christianity.

The most liberal elements in the church are typically known as progressive Adventists ( progressive Adventists generally do not identify with liberal Christianity ).

He greatly expanded Hungarian control over the Carpathian Basin during his lifetime, broadly established Christianity in the region, and is generally regarded as the founder of the Kingdom of Hungary.

Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant creeds generally insist on Trinitarian belief as an essential aspect of Christianity and basic to a group's continuity of identity with the historical Christian faith.

It spread rapidly to other regions in the Roman Empire at a time before Christianity was generally tolerated or legal.

The term is generally used in Western Christianity to describe all Christian traditions that did not develop in Western Europe.