What is Christianity

Ask any Muslim 'What is Islam' and there will be a remarkable agreement on the answer. The centrality of the final prophet of God, the divine dictation of the Qu'ran and the obligations on a Muslim will be a matter of common agreement. There may be some disagreement on the Hadith (the sayings of the Prophet) and on the role of his immediate successors between Sunni and Shi'i but across all the many sects in Islam (and there are many) the essentials will be held in common.

In the case of Judaism the situation is more complex — Reformed and Orthodox Jews will differ on the status and role of the Torah and Talmud and what it means to be a faithful Jew and, indeed, there may be questions as to whether being a Jew is a matter of religion or lineal descent. This partly is reflected in the contemporary debate as to whether anti-semitic comments today are religious or racial in nature.

However when it comes to Christianity, the answer to the question 'What is Christianity?' will provoke such a wide spread of responses that, to be an observer, any unity beneath the diversity may be debatable. Of course Christians will agree that 'Jesus is Lord' and that the role of Jesus is central but, beyond this, divisions will be more common than agreement.

Some Protestants will question whether Catholics are Christians at all. Some Catholics will still hold that there is no salvation outside the one (Catholic) Church. Anglicans from Sydney send missionaries to convert other Anglicans to the truth (as they see it) and have little time for Anglo-Catholics. Orthodox Christians will focus on the teaching of the early Church fathers reading names that would be foreign to most in the West while, in the West, St Augustine's dominant legacy is profound.

Lutherans, Calvinists, Baptists, Methodists, Mennonites, Quakers, members of the Uniting Church and other groups all differ in ways which they consider to be central to Christianity. Black Pentecostal Churches owe much to the personality of individual charismatic Church leaders, and their attitude to matters that a member of Opus Dei might consider essential would be, at the very best, sceptical.

There is no agreement as to the attitude to the Bible and the authority of any central Church body. Some would argue that, following the search (and 'new search') for the historical Jesus almost nothing can be known about Jesus' life and ministry while, to others, every word of the Bible is literally true.

The attitudes to moral issues such as abortion, contraception, IVF, stem cell research, warfare, euthanasia, genetic engineering or other issues allows for no single 'Christian' response. So what is Christianity?

This question matters today at many levels. We live in a post-Christian society. Many young people in the Western world are bored with Christianity — they feel they have moved beyond it. It is a legacy of the past, still kept alive in sometimes anachronistic buildings which may be attractive to tourists but of little relevance beyond a private hobby that has little apparent relevance in the wider community.

This boredom does not come from those with a profound knowledge of Christianity who have decided to reject it — it stems, generally, from ignorance and from a culture that resists engaging with complexity and does not understand that which it sees itself as having outgrown.

There is a second and related issue which is that it is not clear to non-Christians what Christianity is. The category of non-Christians can relate to both generation Y but also to the non-Christians who may wish to understand Christianity.

Four years ago a charity called The Coexist Foundation brought together Muslims, Jews and Christians to seek to foster understanding between the three great Abrahamic religions. They sponsored various initiatives including supporting Heythrop College, the Jesuit run specialist philosophy and theology College of the University of London, to launch the first degree in Europe focusing on the three religions — the BA in Abrahamic Religions. This is now to be followed by a similar MA.

As a separate initiative Coexist sponsored Chris Hewer to write a book entitled Understanding Islam. This is now being turned into an advanced and innovative online course on Islam which will be available to be taken by those interested in Islam and seeking a balanced and clear introduction.

Coexist have now asked me to write Understanding Christianity but this seems an increasing challenge as any such account must explain Christianity in a way that can be understood by and identified with by those belonging to a wide range of Churches and to very different position from within these churches.

This article is intended partly to set out the challenge of making the essentials of Christianity clear in the modern world but, also, to ask for help. If readers would be willing to write a one page summary of what they consider Christianity to be they could send it to natureofchristianity@yahoo.co.uk and this could assist in the process of trying to clarify the issues, remembering that any account that is satisfactory to just one group of Christians is not going to meet the challenge.