Religions of the World Final

World Religions Final Report

HUM/130

October 22, 2011
Pastor Philip Engleman

      Society consists of various forms of organized religion. No matter what the religion, the groundwork remains the same: people believing in a power greater than them and living for a specific purpose. Each religion contains a set of life guidelines that the person lives by.   All too often, religions are misunderstood by outsiders because they do not have the knowledge required to understand the opposing religion. Ignorance has often led to violence between organized religions of the world.

      The Catholic religion consists of different groups including Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Anglican. The church is the largest and possibly the oldest organized religion in the world. Catholic worshipers make up over half of all Christians. The bishop of Rome has stated the Catholic Church has origins dating back to Jesus Christ and his 12 disciples ("Our Catholic Faith.” 2002).

    The origins of the Roman Catholic Church originate straight from knowledge of Jesus along with his disciples, similar to all sects of organized Christianity. Jesus directed his disciples out to the outside world, and Paul welcomed Gentiles into the church. In a way Catholic Christianity is a result of Jesus’ plans in conjunction with Paul’s tremendous efforts. In 313 A.D. Constantine became the first Christian Roman emperor. When this happened Christianity could break away from oppression and eventually came to be the sanctioned belief to the Roman Empire.
          However, this was also the informal demise of the united church because politics in addition to various power plays became an important division of the church, almost as important as the gospel itself. The Eastern Orthodox Church divided in 1054 from the united Church because of the contrasting opinion of ultimate authority by the Bishop of Rome. During this period, the Roman Catholic Church furthermore... [continues]

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