Not sure how accurate the claim of 38,000 denominations of Christianity is but whether you’re talking about 40, 400, 4000 or 40,000 denominations, the point remains the same.
(And that doesn’t even take into account other religions, major and minor, over the years.)
I started this blog in 2006 when I was doing my Master of Library Science degree at the University of Western Ontario.
I started this blog in 2006 when I was doing my Master of Library Science degree at the University of Western Ontario.
6,921 posts and 3,356 comments since 2006.
Comments 2
That’s an accurate statistic you’ve quoted, but you it’s not a bad idea to check your sources in case you totally misunderstand what they mean. I’ve written a short post about this, and it contains a link to some of the sources where you’ve got your information from, and you might be quite surprised and what it is actually there.
http://bensmart92.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/40000-denominations-worldwide-christianity-divided/
Cheers
Hey Ben,
Thanks for the comment and the link to your blog.
I don’t think I misunderstood the number quoted in the graphic as I mentioned my unease with the number in my post.
But like I went on to say, I think the main point isn’t that we need to know the exact number of denominations (in your post, I think you cite 300 major groupings and 6 mega groups within Christianity) but that, whatever the number – 4, 400, 4,000 or 40,000 – there’s a real problem in how these different denominations try to define things like morality, how they interpret the Bible, how they battle in ways overt and covert for followers, and so on.
Your point that there is a lot of commonality between the different sects is true to some degree of course.
But for me, I think the differences rather than the similarities, tell the true tale.
Just as one easy example – many people in Northern Ireland are a lot more focused on the differences between two brands of Christianity than the similarities – with all the well-known tragic consequences.
Maybe things would be better if they focused more on their similiarities but that’s not been the case for most of recent history.
And we haven’t even gotten into the similarities/differences argument when we start talking about Christianity and other major world religions where those differences (and tragic consequences) are even more pronounced.
Hope that clarifies my thoughts on this a bit – thanks again for your comment!