How many Protestant denominations are there?

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AugustTherese said:
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Wannano:
You are trying to emphasize the magnitude of division within Protestantism
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Of course! Do you want me to lie and say that Protestantism is perfectly united?! Just because you and others may get offended at the fact that Protestantism is divided, that does not make me a lying and polemical person.
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You know full well that by stating this over and over again and arguing it each time that it is a polemical statement you love to employ. To state you didn’t know it was polemical is untrue. You know better.
 
Wannano said:
You know full well that by stating this over and over again and arguing it each time that it is a polemical statement you love to employ
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I made one comment regarding this number, one! Then about three to four people jumped all over me and this oh-so-taboo number. Quit exaggerating and projecting, please.
 
Exactly! But, that doesn’t inherently mean there are less than 33,000. For all we know, there could be many thousand more that are unaccounted for.
 
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AugustTherese said:
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Wannano:
You know full well that by stating this over and over again and arguing it each time that it is a polemical statement you love to employ
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I made one comment regarding this number, one! Then about three to four people jumped all over me and this oh-so-taboo number. Quit exaggerating and projecting, please.
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Anybody interested in seeing where this particular thread originated from should go to the non-Catholic category and read under the headline of Protestant teaching of Mary.
 
AugustTherese said:
Sure, and I am asking what number should we use to prevent offending anyone? Or what estimation should we use?
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You shouldn’t use any number, as it doesn’t serve a purpose to do so. No one really knows how many denominations there are, and there can never be an agreement on it.

Since the discussion seems pointless, dropping it is the best solution.

Suppose you say there are 40,000 and someone else say 30,000 and some else says 3 dozen. Why is the argument important?
 
AlNg said:
There are 42000 Christian denominations and 242 Roman Catholic denominations,and 781 Orthodox denominations according to the Oxford World Christian Encyclopedia.
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I believe that’s where these numbers come from. When I was able to access their data tables years ago there were six major groups listed Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant, Independent and one other (I can’t remember, possibly Reformed). Since then, three more groups have been added. Personally, once you get past the Anglicans I don’t see a lot of difference. Denominations with members fewer than 100 weren’t considered. On the table that listed the number of denominations per country, of those there was only one Roman Catholic ‘denomination’ listed for each of the 242 countries listed, hence the 242 Roman Catholic ‘denominations’. In other words, there’s only one Roman Catholic ‘denomination’ in the US or any other country in the world. How awesome is that.

From where I sit, there’s a dozen non-Catholic ecclesial assemblies within a ten minute drive. The phone book, on last examination had 90+ protestant denominations listed and that’s being generous. With the advent of House Church as well as the modern phenomena of ‘denominations of one’ the number of protestant denominations in my view isn’t in the 10’s of thousands, but more probably in the millions. The charitable thing to do would be to ask the protestants themselves how many denominations they have, but I don’t believe it’s a knowable number.
 
Augustinian said:
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AugustTherese:
Sure, and I am asking what number should we use to prevent offending anyone? Or what estimation should we use?
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You shouldn’t use any number, as it doesn’t serve a purpose to do so. No one really knows how many denominations there are, and there can never be an agreement on it.

Since the discussion seems pointless, dropping it is the best solution.

Suppose you say there are 40,000 and someone else say 30,000 and some else says 3 dozen. Why is the argument important?
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The arguement is only important if one desires to emphasize the magnitude of division that may exist within Protestantism. His attitude and approach does not convince me that he is genuinely concerned about that division in a helpful manner.
 
Wannano said:
The arguement is only important if one desires to emphasize the magnitude of division that may exist within Protestantism
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Those were my exact words on the other thread!

“The number is hyperbolic to emphasize the thousands of different denominations. Why do people get so bent out of shape over the precise accuracy of one number? What difference does it make if the number is 26,798 or 40,000?”

Post #309
 
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A better question is how many doctrinal distinctive groups there are. For instance, United Methodist, Congregational Methodist and Church of the Nazarene all have Wesleyan Theology. The differences are in church government and organization. But you can’t find a dimes worth of difference in the doctrinal statements of each group. Most non-denominational Pentecostal churches also have the same doctrinal beliefs and they are pretty much the same as the Assembly of God.

My point is that it is easy to bash American Evangelicalism by saying they have x number of thousand denominations. But when you look at the doctrine taught by all those denominations it is not near as fragmented. Basically they vast majority of American Evangelicalism is made up of Reformed churches, Wesleyan Churches, Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches, Baptist Churches (which have elements of reformed and Wesleyan theology), and Restorationist churches. Then there are Episcopal churches which are much closer to Catholic than they are American Evangelical churches.
 
lanman87 said:
My point is that it is easy to bash American Evangelicalism by saying they have x number of thousand denominations
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Or, is it possible that we are charitably stating a fact to induce a desire to return to the unity in the Catholic Church?
 
It is more interesting to discuss why this number is so hard to pin down, whatever it is. What drove me from evangelicalism back to the church was the lack of any authoritative interpreter of absolute truth. Without sacred tradition or the magisterium anchoring them, each theological disagreement can lead to a new church. They mean so well and try so hard but division is endemic in a world with no real authority. The divisiveness flies in the face of Jesus’ impassioned prayer before going to the cross in John 14 “that they might be one”. It breaks my heart.
 
AugustTherese said:
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Wannano:
Exactly my friend, that is why I had the courage to challenge you about your innocence .
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I don’t follow?
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Ok, your stated desire to emphasize the magnitude of the division within Protestantism feels like it is coming from a desire to dominate or put down non-Catholics. That is polemical and was pointed out to you by even members of your own Church. To state you did not know this is polemical does not sit well with me as an observer. I have trouble processing how that can be possibly true.
 
AugustTherese said:
Or, is it possible that we are charitably stating a fact to induce a desire to return to the unity in the Catholic Church?
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I don’t think that pointing out an easily discernible fact that there are lots of different Protestant groups will convince anyone, particularly if you point out a very large number.
 
Do the following groups fall within that category:

The People’s Temple?

The Branch Davidians?

LDS (Mormon)?

Christ Scientists?

Jehovah’s Witnesses (Watchtower Society)?

BNP?

Iglesia Ni Cristo?

Harold Camping’s Family Radio?

To name a few…
 
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