Would it be better if there were no Christian denominations?

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Rozellelily

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Sometimes it seems to me that the existence of denominations has done much more harm that good.
Instead of the Christians focusing on their similarities, instead there has been continued fighting, both in words and literally as in wars.

Everyone says their one is right. For example, I believe that Catholic has a greater fullness of truth, but I probably only believe that due to being born/baptised as a Catholic.
So I imagine that the other denoms (Orthodox etc) likely think the same thing too.

And then non-believers lol at Christianity and think “you guys can’t even stop fighting within yourself, you all have your version of the fairytale etc”… and it puts them offreligion.

Jesus didn’t create a bunch of denoms… I can say that I believe Protestant is incorrect and it broke away in 1500 etc, but then a non-believer can say “well there was no Roman Catholic originally, they broke away” and you know what, they are actually right!

So instead of being unified, Christianity can look like to an outsider of people in discord.
 
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I’ve got the solution!

All the denominations should give up their denominationalism, and return to the common denominator:

Catholicism.

In all seriousness, OP, could you explain specifically what you’d hope for someone to take away from your post? Like, what specific action step are you recommending? Do you think Catholics should abandon the pope and sacraments? Do you think protestants should abandon their resistance to the pope?

It’s descriptively true that division between Christians is bad, and we all want unity. So what’s your specific proposal about how to go about unifying? Keeping in mind that unity must take place within the bounds of whatever Christ intends, given that the Church is his body and bride and all. We can’t just do our ‘own thing’ and try only to have unity with each other – unity with Christ has primacy. And it’s that very effort that has brought so many converts (like me) to Catholicism. Seeking to obey Jesus by joining the one, united, universal (Catholic) Church he personally, specifically founded. Whether other people choose to be unified in the way Christ told us to unify, is beyond my ability to control. I can only control my own part in the unity, and my own choice to come home to the place Jesus brought me home to.

Unity will organically take place if everyone follows Jesus into the Church he built and shares His body with in Communion: Catholicism.

I know of no other form of meaningful unity, beyond that which God grants to those who die in invincible ignorance of the objective fact that they were supposed to unify under Catholicism.
 
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Of course it would be better and for about a thousand years it was.
 
MNathaniel said:
I know of no other form of meaningful unity
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The Pope and Catholic bishops could formulate an agreement for intercommunion with the Orthodox Churches and the high Anglican Churches. Many Lutherans are also pretty close to Catholics and it should not be difficult to achieve intercommunion there also. Accepting mutually interdependent currents of Christian theological thought under a Catholic - Orthodox umbrella could serve to strengthen and promote the growth of worldwide Christianity . This should be given serious consideration because the current growth rate of Islam is about twice that of Catholicism.
 
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Perhaps I am being unrealistic:)
But if at least if the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church could unite it would be better.

What I find hard to understand, is that the original Church was one, and then it split into Orthodox and Catholic, and then after somehow Catholic itself split into a “further group” of Roman Catholic (or the history goes something along those lines)?

Personally I believe in the Pope as the head of Christianity even though I am primarily a quite cultural Catholic myself. It is strange, I don’t even know myself why I believe him to be, and it’s not just from being told to as a Catholic to believe this, for some strange reason I just sense it.

But at the same time, if Roman Catholic was the one that originally did the “splitting” then does that not mean that they split from “Christs true original Church”?
Because then, Protestants could make this same reasoning. I.e., that they split because they were teaching the truth.

I think there was talk about something like this in May:

 
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If there were only one religion and one denomination I might have thought - hey, there might be something to this.

But there isn’t, so I didn’t.
 
Thanks for your thoughts Freddy!

And I hope you are having fun there at Bondi. It is the perfect weather for it today.
I wish I could be down at the beach…but always work work work 😑
 
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AlNg said:
The Pope and Catholic bishops could formulate an agreement for intercommunion with the Orthodox Churches and the high Anglican Churches. Many Lutherans are also pretty close to Catholics and it should not be difficult to achieve intercommunion there also.
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Oh, it should not be difficult?

I’m sure all the Catholics and Orthodox and Anglicans and Lutherans who have been working on this for years and years will be relieved to hear that.
 
Rozellelily said:
Perhaps I am being unrealistic:)
But if at least if the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church could unite it would be better.
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I agree with you in that I’d love to see reunification of East and West in my lifetime. I genuinely hope for it.

At the same time, I do think it’s important to acknowledge the real world limitations and challenges that are the reasons full Christian unity hasn’t happened already – especially with Protestants.

I’m afraid the problems can’t be whisked behind a curtain: When basically everyone at the table agrees that unity is a goal (and honestly, no real Christian of any denomination sits around thinking: “I’m glad there are denominations! Woohoo division, and down with unity!”) but substantial unity cannot be achieved? There are concrete and specific reasons that can’t be ignored. If we’re going to work through them, we have to honestly face and acknowledge them. And the reality is (unfortunately) that different denominations are fundamentally committed to fundamentally contradictory positions, such that we can currently only seem to achieve ecumenism, not actual intercommunion.
 
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Rozellelily said:
if Roman Catholic was the one that originally did the “splitting” then does that not mean that they split from “Christs true original Church”?
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Yes. It was a mistake for the Roman Church in 1054 to separate itself from the Catholic Churches of the East.
 
The Catholic Church is not a denomination. There may be several rites within the Catholic Church, but there are zero denominations. Christ only founded one Church.

All of the denominational churches were founded by men and each and every one of those churches can be traced back to individuals and dates. They can never be unified because they practice Sola Scriptura, each believes only they have the correct interpretations of Scripture. They do not practice what they preach, as they will say there is no human authority in Christ’s Church, only the Bible, yet each one of those churches has beliefs and worship set forth by their founders. The founders were the authority for each and every one of them. The traditions passed down by their human founders is what separates them from other denominations.

How can there ever be unity when the founders are deceased yet the members contrinue to follow the traditions set forth by their founders? You may have individuals leave, but a whole denomination giving up their founders traditions, that’s a much more difficult task.
 
Rozellelily said:
So instead of being unified, Christianity can look like to an outsider of people in discord
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I believe that “Catholic has a greater fullness of truth” because I left the Catholic Church for years, became Protestant later on only to return to the Catholic Church after seeking and studying the Christian faith and the Church’s teachings for myself. I learned that Mama knew best after all and I came to understand why.

Denominations, apart from the Church that Christ established that still exists as He said it would, in both the east and in the west, exist only because they broke away from that Church He established that traces its history all the way back to the beginning. You’re right, these extra denominations with their differing beliefs are not a good thing. There can only be one Church.
 
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Well, I wouldn’t say so. God allowed this for a reason: His greater glory. We will see how it worked out in the end…
 
By denomination I am not solely referring to Protestant Churches, but even with Catholic (all rites) and Orthodox arn’t they considered two denominations?
ReaderT said:
Yes. Become Orthodox.
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Reader- but is the Orthodox Church still considered a denomination, even it it considers itself the first/only “real” denomination?

I also find it hard to understand if Catholic and Orthodox were both one original Church at the birth of Christianity, then how come they differ in some beliefs now?
 
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Does this mean that Orthodox broke away from Eastern Catholic or the other way around?
 
Both the Eastern Orthodox and the Catholic Church are that Church that Christ established, as the Catholic Church teaches. Both sides were probably at fault for the split for one reason or another but they continue to be the Church.
 
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