Talk:List of Christian denominations by number of members

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Please source.

[edit] Pentecostalism

Before my edits Pentecostalism listed only 105 million adherents and Orthodoxy about 260 million. But Pentecostalism was listed before Orthodoxy. I think this is misleading. Pentecostalism only has a tenuous connection to Protestantism anymore (Methodist by way of the Holiness Movement), having rejected in principle the creeds and confessions of the Protestant Reformation. They are closer to a Restorationist Movement church like the Campbelites or Millerites who have similar histories. Both began in interdenominational revivals and believe they have restored some primitive Christian norm from the Apostolic era.

Another Question is whether the Anglican Communion aught to have its own section rather than being subordinated under Protestantism? It is a middle way between Protestantism and Catholicism.

I think not. Evangelical Anglicans would class themselves as Protestant. High Church Anglicans call themselves Anglo-Catholic. It is a broad-church but a product of the Reformation and thus Protestant.

[edit] Questions about the Restoration Movement

Aren't Anabaptist, Brethren, Quakers restorationists. They just aren't Campbelites or Millerites.

And Baptists are evenly divided between those who refuse to call themselves Protestant and others who identify with Protestants, sometimes called Reformed Baptists or Particular Baptists. The First group insist that they were never part of the Catholic Church to begin with and are thus not protesting anything nor reforming anything simply continuing the apostalic doctrine and early church. So shouldn't they be grouped as Restorationists while the Reformed Baptists should be catagorized as decending from the British Particular Baptist / Puritan Independent movement.

And Jahovah's Whitnesses are Restorationists also acording to every other page on Wikipedia.

Also, this page does not give denominations by number of adherants rather denominational families acording to number. I suggest expanding this page. To look at this page it would look like Methodists less influencial than Presbyterians when the UMC is actualy larger, I think.

[edit] Mistake?

Why is Presbyterianism listed under Pentacostalism in the article? Further, why does Presbyterianism not have a membership number?

[edit] adherents of protestantism

the number of protestants is mentioned as 500 million

however adding up the various protestant constituents - the figure comes to less than 375 million - where does the other 125 million come from?

I can't speak for where the original author or other editors got their numbers. I'm personally astonished how little backup for its numbers this article provides. However, I would guess that the source of the difference would come from one of two factors (neither of which I'm defending!):

• (a) the original source having included in the Protestant heading various small groups and independent churches around the world or
• (b) the original source having included as Protestant the various families that this article chose to break out separately. For example, the Restorationist and Nontrinitarian groups are classed as Protestant under some systems that mostly break it down into Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant (everybody else). After all, if you break it down that way, then Protestant naturally becomes the default category — and again, I'm not defending this — because the Catholic and Orthodox families are clearly defined by the member churches' overt affiliation, whereas you'd be hard-pressed to find many Protestant churches that use that name in their official title. Lawikitejana 02:06, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] adherents of denominations in history

Is there any figures available of how the number of adherents to each branch of christianity grown/reduced over time?

For example is there any data about how many catholics, orthodox, protestants were there in the 16th century, 17th century, 18th century, 19th century etc?

[edit] Unitarian Universalism

Unitarianism probably shouldn't be listed here, since, as the article on that faith puts it: Today, most Unitarian Universalists do not consider themselves Christians, even if they share some beliefs quite similar to those of mainstream Christians. Chonak 03:12, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

The Church originated out of a Christian milieu - it's "post-Christian" perhaps. It seems silly not to list it. john k 10:34, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Hi, john k. Religious movements sometimes do develop into religions distinct from the movements from which they started. Christianity originated out of a Jewish milieu, but became distinct over time. Unitarianism has been around for 300+ years, and no longer self-identifies as Christian. The World Council of Churches, IIRC, does not include the Unitarian Universalist Association as a member, so there seems to be mutual agreement from the two sides. By the way, in a move to stand back from Christian terminology, the UUA doesn't even use the term "Church" to describe itself (although some individual Unitarian congregations do use the word.) Chonak 15:38, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Surely being a member of the World Council of Churches is not required to be considered Christian - the Southern Baptist Convention isn't a member either, as far as I can tell. I will agree I should not have called it a "Church". Otherwise, I'm not sure we disagree on the substance - the UUA is not explicitly Christian. Historically, however, Unitarianism was considered a Christian movement. We don't say that John Adams was the first non-Christian President of the United States, or that Neville Chamberlain was the first non-Christian Prime Minister of the UK. We should be careful about how we describe unitarianism, but I see no good that would come out of simply excluding it from the article. We should list it, note that it developed out of the Christian tradition but that it no longer self-identifies as Christian, and leave it at that. john k 22:30, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

Sorry I have been to a Unitarian Church, sang hymns, listened to a sermon and prayed. They referred to themselves as Christians. It should definately be considered Christian.

[edit] Church of the East "not Orthodox"?

John Kenney's edit on 2006-09-10 brings up a difficulty in the use of the term Orthodox. His edit replaces the header Orthodox Christianity by Eastern Christianity because, he summarizes: "The Church of the East is surely not "Orthodox" by any reasonable standard". The difficulty is that the article Orthodox Christianity explicitly includes the Church of the East.

If Orthodox is used in two senses: a broader one and a more restrictive one, changing the header to Eastern Christianity to avoid the ambiguity is a good idea. IMHO the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches should be listed under Eastern Christianity. Chonak 07:39, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

The article "Orthodox Christianity" is a mess, and so shouldn't be a model. Eastern Rite Catholicism is confusing - it should be listed under both Catholicism and Eastern Christianity. I would say that in most cases "Orthodox Christianity" is used as a synonym for "Eastern Orthodoxy." Given that the Oriental Orthodox Churches call themselves "Orthodox," one might include them as well, but the fact is that what makes Eastern Orthodoxy "Orthodox" would make Oriental Orthodoxy "Heterodox," and vice versa - the idea that they have some kind of common "Orthodoxy" is just silly - Eastern Orthodoxy is arguably doctrinally closer to Catholicism. "Orthodox Christianity" is basically a meaningless term, except insofar as it means "Eastern Christianity", and such usage is misleading. john k 10:34, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Figures

I think that it is important for the figures exposed in this article to be the same as those exposed in Major religious groups. Now they are different. Can someone solve this problem? --Checco 20:54, 4 March 2007 (UTC)