HOME / FAQ /

Christianity

Pentecostalism in Nigeria

Pentecostalism is a charismatic Protestant Christian movement that emphasizes a personal encounter with Jesus Christ as savior and healer, with the potential for converts to be “born again” as Christians. Nigerian Pentecostalism emerged in the 1970s as university-educated, charismatic youth began creating their own spaces for worship. Its roots are in the African Initiated Churches (such as the Aladura) and especially in American and British Evangelical and Pentecostal of the 1960s,...

Read more about Pentecostalism in Nigeria

Peter

Believed by Christians to be one of the original twelve disciples and, for Roman Catholics, considered the first pope based on the “rock of my church” passage in the Gospel of Matthew (16:18). 

Prophet

A Hebrew word meaning “called by God”. There are several prophets in the Hebrew Bible who are interpreted by most Jews, Christians, and Muslims as speaking the word of God to the people. Examples include Abraham, Moses, and David.

Prosperity Gospel, The

The Prosperity Gospel (PG) is a fast-growing theologically conservative movement frequently associated with Pentecostalism, evangelicalism, and charismatic Christianity that emphasizes believers’ abilities to transcend poverty and/or illness through devotion and positive confession. The PG is popular among impoverished communities, where at best it is considered to offer the poor a means of imagining and reaching for better lives (at times accompanied by sound financial advice), and at worst is criticized as predatory and manipulative, particularly when churches or pastors require heavy...

Read more about Prosperity Gospel, The

Protestant Christianity in France

Roughly 3% of the French are Protestant, and though a small minority, they are well represented in business and politics, particularly on the left. France’s history of Protestantism is best known for the emergence of the Huguenots in the 1520s, followers of the Protestant thinker John Calvin (d. 1564). Calvin was born in France but fled to Geneva in 1536, and continued to support the French Protestant community and send trained pastors to France.

Tensions between growing numbers of Protestants and ...

Read more about Protestant Christianity in France

Protestant Christianity in Syria

American Protestant missionaries arrived in Syria in 1848 drawn to the Levant by the emotional resonance of the Holy Land, which figured prominently in American Protestant thought, and by a belief that the spread of American ideals could contribute to social progress in other nations. The early 19th century saw the Great Awakening, a Protestant American revivalist movement that spurred missionary work under the aegis of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM).

Protestant missionaries in Syria were met with hostility from other...

Read more about Protestant Christianity in Syria

Protestant Christianity in the Philippines

Protestant Christians make up nearly 6% of the Filipino population and include a wide variety of Pentecostal, Evangelical, and independent churches. Protestant influence and missionary activity began in the early 20th century with the advent of American imperialism in the Philippines.

American leadership was strongly Protestant and guided by Protestant values, as well as by Protestant-Catholic cultural conflicts taking place in the United States during the late 19...

Read more about Protestant Christianity in the Philippines

Sabbath

“Repose” in Hebrew. In Judaism, the Sabbath is the last day of the week (beginning Friday at sundown until Saturday at sundown) and traditionally observed as a day to refrain from work while focusing on prayer, study, and family. For Christians, the Sabbath marks the first day of the week (Sunday) and is also traditionally observed as a time for prayer and spiritual renewal. 

Sacraments

In Christianity, sacraments are rituals used as vehicles for believers to enter into relationship with God. There are disputes among differing traditions about the number of recognized sacraments but the two most accepted among traditions are baptism and communion, or the Eucharist. Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians affirm seven sacraments: baptism, confirmation, reconciliation (also known as confession), the Eucharist, ordination, matrimony, and the anointing of the sick. 

Read more about Sacraments

Scopes Trial

The formal name for this 1925 trial is The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes. Scopes was a substitute high school biology teacher in Dayton, Tennessee who taught the theory of human evolution to his students in violation of the Butler Act which made it illegal to teach human evolution in any state funded school. The trial is also known as the Monkey Trial. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100 but the verdict was overturned on a technicality. 

Pages