Cultural Intelligence:

World Cultures

Christianity

Key Beliefs and Key Concepts

Origins and Beliefs

Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as presented in the New Testament.

The first Christians were Jewish Christians. Through missionary work and colonization, Christianity spread firstly in the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and parts of India and subsequently throughout the entire world.

Christians believe that, as the Messiah, Jesus was anointed by God as ruler and savior of humanity, and hold that Jesus' coming was the fulfillment of messianic prophecies of the Old Testament.

The Trinity is often regarded as an essential doctrine of mainstream Christianity. The common understanding of the Holy Trinity, espoused in the Nicene Creed, is one God who exists in three Persons – Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – who are coequal, co-eternal, of the same substance.

Christians generally believe in the immortality of the soul. Forgiveness of sins is one of the key marks of Christianity.

Jesus

Jesus Christ also known as Jesus of Nazareth, is the central figure of Christianity. Jesus is revered by Christians as the incarnation of God. Muslims consider him a prophet, and several other religions also consider him an important figure.

Christians profess that Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament, who, through his life, death, and resurrection, restored humanity's communion with God in the blood of the New Covenant.

His death on a cross is understood as the redemptive sacrifice: the source of humanity's salvation and the atonement for sin which had entered human history through the sin of Adam.

The Bible's four canonical gospels are the main sources for the traditional Christian biography of Jesus' life. According to Matthew and Luke, Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea to Mary, a virgin, by a miracle of the Holy Spirit. Jesus' childhood home is identified as the town of Nazareth in Galilee. The Gospels state that Jesus, as Messiah, came to "give his life as a ransom for many" and "preach the good news of the Kingdom of God." Over the course of his ministry, Jesus is said to have performed various miracles, including healings, exorcisms, walking on water, turning water into wine, and raising several people, such as Lazarus, from the dead. At the height of his ministry, Jesus attracted huge crowds numbering in the thousands.

In Jerusalem, high priests and elders condemned Jesus for blasphemy. Jesus was crucified Golgotha. According to the Gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. Christians consider the resurrection of Jesus to be the cornerstone of their faith and the most important event in human history.

Jesus promised to come again to fulfill the remainder of Messianic prophecy.

Christian Love

The motivating force behind the Christian life is love. Love is the foundation for all relationships.

Jesus' teachings are largely a description of what love means:

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Jesus summarized the law as love for God and for our neighbor. Thus much of Christian practice is focused on finding ways to show love for our fellows.

Christianity is characterized by helping people. This ranges from the personal to the institutional. At the personal level, Christians should help others. At the institutional level, Christians have been active in creating hospitals, schools, and other institutions to help people.

Jesus on Love

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments... More

The Moral Law

The moral law is often summarized in the "Ten Commandments", which the Bible says were given by God to Moses.

Afterlife and Eschaton

Most Christians believe that upon bodily death the soul experiences the particular judgment and is either rewarded with eternal heaven or condemned to an eternal hell. The elect are called "saints" and the process of being made holy is called sanctification. At the second coming of Christ at the end of time, all who have died will be resurrected bodily from the dead for the Last Judgment, whereupon Jesus will fully establish the Kingdom of God in fulfillment of scriptural prophecies.