Fact or Fiction: 33,000 Christian Denominations

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I’ve read in some Catholic apologetic literature that a recent study found that there were over **33,000 ** Christian denominations (2001 World Christian Encyclopedia).

You often find that Protestants hotly contest this number. And for good reason, for it is a big, fat ugly number that Catholic apologists use to drive home the impracticality of sola scriptura.

Common objections include:

(1) The number is wrong.
(2) You can consider Protestant “orthodoxy” as a single entity (i.e. akin in many respects to Catholicism), that number is greatly reduced.
(3) The study counted every non-denomination branch which is not fair for comparing the number of Protestant denominations to Catholicism
(4) I even heard a radio talk show where a caller claimed that fully 25,000 of those denominations were “Catholic” variants.

I have a few brief questions regarding each objection. If there is anyone in the know, Catholic or otherwise, I would sure like some clarity:

(1) Is the number wrong and if so how? How was the number derived and how reliable is it?
(2) Protestant orthodoxy is a nice concept but is it real? Take core doctrines like the Eucharist. Even if you discard the Catholic position and only consider the Protestant perspectives you have a minimum of 3 mutually exclusive takes: (i) consubstantiation, (ii) reformed “real” presence i.e. spiritual presence only, and (iii) fundamentalist symbolic only.
(3) Even if you eliminate every non-denomination faith group, you’d still be left with a big number. How big? Has anyone every tried to document how many Protestant faiths there are?
(4) How many Catholic variants are there? I guess technically speaking, all Christian sects are Catholic variants but ideally I think you would have to limit the Catholic variants to schismatic groups. How many of those are there? Pope Pious X organization, the Catholic Patriotic Association (China), etc. How many are there?
 
From a note I left at Steve Ray’s board a few weeks ago…

I’ve seen the 20,000 (or more) figure from a couple sources. I believe an original source for that is Barrett’s World Christian Encyclopedia which listed 20,000+ in the early 1980s…but he includes Catholicism and Orthodox “denominations” in his total figure of 20,000+, and the book has been updated. Haven’t checked the latest figure, could be 40,000 by now.

This site breaks Protestantism down to about 10 major branches:

Baptist, Methodist / Wesleyan, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Pentecostal / Charismatic, Episcopal/Anglican, Churches of Christ, Congregational, and Assemblies of God. So there are at least 9 or 10. 😃

The book Handbook of Denominations edited by Mead contains hundreds.

You get the “thousands” figure by breaking these down quite a bit, and adding all the cults, sects, and independent Fundy and Evangelical churches as separate and distinct denominations. Svendsen (evangelical) and Derksen (traditionalist Catholic) went back and forth on this a few years back.

Phil P
 
Whether 3,000 or 33,000 the problem is a MOVING theology. They have the uncanny ability to change their doctrinal beliefs in midstream. And Sola Scriptura gives them this legal right.

I’ve listened to a radio pastor preach one way about a scriptural passage, and then weeks later, use this same passage to basically contradict what he said before. (Of course, no one remembers what he said before, so no one catches him contradicting himself).

Why do they do this? Simple. It gives them incredible flexibility in dealing with biblical and moral issues. They can’t be pinned into a corner. Like trying to hold onto to a slippery fish. They always get away!

Thanks
 
One problem is that honest research can’t just not count the “non-denoms” and “inter-denoms” since if they grow and survive more than a few years they start budding off “daughter churches” like growing monastic houses breed “daughter houses.” There’s an example of non-denom fellowship becoming denomination right in my backyard.

30 or so years ago, it started. The fellowship called itself “Elmbrook” because it was on the line between the suburbs Elm Grove and Brookfield. They had an excellent preacher and they grew and grew. They were filling their hall to overflowing repeatedly every Sunday. Soon they birthed “Eastbrook” for the people who lived on the East side of Milwaukee, so they wouldnt have to travel all the way across the county every Sunday. Then “Northbrook” for the people out by Holy Hill, then “Westbrook” halfway to Madison, and “Centrobrook” here in the Milwaukee barrio, and so on.

It seems that now we have a Xbrook denomination…

karen marie
 
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