Christianity has been around for roughly two millennia, so there has been ample time for its adherents to argue and disagree on one issue or another. These disagreements have come down to us in the modern era in the form of three branches of Christianity: Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant.
During the first few centuries of Christianity, divisions and disagreements amongst followers of what was known as The Way were far less formal. Some of the very earliest arguments were even written down and can be found within the letters of Saint Paul in the New Testament. But others came later on, and were eventually decided before the church councils of the late Roman Empire. Once Christianity was decriminalised and subsequently became a state religion under Emperor Constantine in the early fourth century, the power of religion was fused with the power of empire. Disagreements were solved more formally through these councils, the most famous of them being the Council of Nicaea in 325. This meeting of bishops from across the Roman Empire created the Nicene Creed, which is recited to this day in most Catholic, Anglican, Episcopalian, and other “high church” congregations. The creed lays out the basic tenets of the life of Jesus Christ and the Christian faith.
Until the mid-eleventh century, the Christian church was a singular unit with bishops spread all throughout the empire. The bishop of Rome was considered a “first among equals.” This was because tradition held that the Apostle Peter had been the first bishop of Rome, and Peter was the first of the twelve apostles, their leader who had been given the “keys to the kingdom of heaven” by Jesus himself in the Gospels. But in 1054, the Church of Rome was split from the Eastern churches over what has come to be known as the “filioque clause.” Filioque is Latin for “and the Son.” Part of the Nicene Creed states that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father.” The Roman church later added the phrase filioque to say that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son,” thus changing the meaning slightly without the agreement of the Eastern bishops. The Eastern Christian leaders thought that this diminished the equal status of the Holy Spirit, and also felt that this was the worst of a string of instances where the bishop of Rome misused his authority over them. In 1054, the Eastern churches formally broke with the Roman church, thus creating the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. To this day, Western Roman Catholics include the translation of filioque in their recitations of the Nicene Creed, whereas Orthodox Christians do not.
Roughly 500 years later, Martin Luther sparked the Protestant Reformation with his outrage over doctrinal heresies and hierarchal abuses within the Catholic Church. Apart from his 95 Theses, there were two main beliefs that Martin Luther introduced, or at least resuscitated, during his reforming of the Christian faith. The first is known as sola scriptura, which is Latin for only Scripture. Whereas the Catholic Church of the era put just as much emphasis on tradition and the authority of popes, bishops, and priests, Protestant Christianity largely did away with tradition in favour of a strong emphasis on truth from the Bible, and only the Bible. This is the main reason Protestant Christians do not believe in traditional Catholic doctrines such as the Assumption of Mary, the Immaculate Conception, and transubstantiation (the belief that the wine and bread of the Eucharist become the literal blood and body of Christ). Paintings, statues, and images of Christ, Mary, and the saints were done away with as idolatrous and even blasphemous by the stricter Protestant sects. If a doctrine or teaching was not clearly in the Bible, then Protestant Christians were far less likely to believe in it. The second of Martin Luther’s beliefs is known as sola fide, which is Latin for only faith. The Catholic Church taught that salvation was earned through both faith and good works, but Martin Luther believed that good works were not essential to salvation. Faith was all that was asked and required to earn a place in heaven. This teaching has come down to modern Protestants in the form of the “Sinner’s Prayer.” Most Protestant Christians believe that if a person genuinely recites this prayer, then they will become a born-again Christian and will go to heaven when they die, regardless of what good or evil deeds they might do throughout their life.
Beyond the main Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant branches, there are further divisions within each. The Eastern Orthodox Churches tend to be split up by language and nationality, so there are Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, and so on. They are the same church, just not quite as unified as their Roman Catholic brethren. The Roman Catholic Church is also divided, but their offshoots are less common, especially in the United States. There are 23 churches, usually referred to as Eastern Catholic, Oriental Catholic, or Eastern-rite Catholic churches, that have realigned with the Holy See, so they are Catholic, but not technically Roman. This means that some Catholic priests can marry and have children, but they must be from one of these Eastern-rite churches and have married before they took their vows. The Protestant Church has the most divisions of any of the three branches. The main divisions within Protestantism aren’t actually the denominations, but rather types of belief systems. The main ones are mainline, evangelical, pentecostal, and fundamentalist. Within those groups, there are thousands of denominations, as well as overlaps amongst them. The mainline denominations are the most traditional, so they would include Anglican/Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Methodist. Pentecostals believe in a “baptism of the Holy Spirit” and put a lot of emphasis on speaking in tongues and other “gifts of the spirit.” One of the largest pentecostal denominations worldwide is the Assembly of God. Evangelical is probably the most common subset of Protestantism within the United States, and there are thousands of denominations, even the non-denominational denomination. Evangelical Protestants believe in personal salvation through Jesus Christ, the Bible as God’s inspired Word, and seek to convert as many people as possible to their faith. Fundamentalist Protestantism holds to these tenets as well, but they also believe in the complete and factual inerrancy of the Bible, discount the findings of modern science, and believe in a literal End Times as described in the Book of Revelation. There can be a lot of overlap between these divisions, especially amongst evangelicals, fundamentalists, and pentecostals. In the United States, it really depends on the region of the country, how rural or urban the area, and the age of its congregants.
The Christian religion has always had internal divisions, as different members of the religion interpret Christ's teachings in different ways. The early Christian church was riven with disputes about the nature of Christ, God, the soul, and what man's duty on earth should be. As power and influence were consolidated in the papacy, various ecumenical councils were convened by the church to debate and settle points of doctrine. Those who disagreed with the councils' decisions were effectively in contempt of the Pope, and often considered heretical. There were dozens of "heresies" in the first thousand years of Christianity, some of which had a sufficient following to pose a threat to the centralized church. The central church went to great lengths to stamp out these heretical branches of the faith, up to and including mass executions, and over time, the church's power became firmly and formally entrenched.
The early church was based in Rome, and as the Roman Empire declined and the Byzantine Empire took its place, Christianity began to split along geographical lines. The "East-West Schism" of 1054 marked the formal parting of ways between what was now called "Roman" Catholicism and the Eastern Orthodox church. The Roman Catholic church was now the center of Christian power and doctrine in the West, and maintained that position for a few centuries.
Despite holding the reins of power, the Roman Catholic church was still subject to internal dissent, and the history of early Protestantism is one of Catholics attempting to reform Catholicism from within. This movement, which became known as The Reformation, coincided with the invention and spread of the printing press, which allowed mass distribution of the written word to the literate public. The early Protestant groups were intent on getting the Bible translated into "vulgate," that is, the ordinary language of each country, so that ordinary people (the "laity", as opposed to the clerics) could read and understand the word of God. Allowing people to read the Bible without having it filtered through the Catholic clergy resulted in a breakdown of the authority of the Catholic church, accelerated by the historic and cultural pressures across Europe in the sixteenth-century. Martin Luther's famous Ninety-Five Theses called for a complete overhaul of the Catholic church. Many other prominent thinkers agreed with him, and their ideas spread rapidly across the continent. In this context, King Henry VIII of England made his monumental decision to break away from the Catholic church and name himself the head of the Church of England. An entire country had divorced itself from Catholicism, and other countries followed suit. It was a time of tremendous religious energy and upheaval. All ideas were on the table again, the decisions of the ancient ecumenical councils were discarded and the concepts were once more fresh for debate.
A key tenet of Protestantism is "sola scriptura," which holds that Scripture is the ultimate authority, since it is the word of God, and no church can interpose itself between the faithful and the Lord. While this concept was essential in breaking the Catholic church's stranglehold on European religious thought, it contained within it the seeds of dissension that came to characterize Protestantism as a whole. There is no central Protestant authority, and the Bible is the sole source of truth, so any self-declared arbiter can interpret the Bible in whatever way they see fit. If sufficient people agree with their interpretation, they break away from their current group and form their own denomination of Christianity. This resulted in split after split after split, in a chain reaction that continues to this day.
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