Curated playlist

Christian terminology

PentecostalismPentecostalism began when Bible school students in Topeka spoke in tongues on January 1, 1901.
EucharistDoes the bread in the Eucharist actually become Christ's body? Christians have argued over it for centuries.
Western SchismIn 1378, French cardinals elected a second pope while one already sat in Rome. This began the Western Schism.
BaptistsBaptists hold that faith must come before baptism, so no infant should be baptized.
Pauline epistlesOne of the Pauline epistles never names Paul, yet it traveled with his letters for centuries.
SacramentHow many Christian sacraments are there? Churches disagree. Catholics count seven and most Protestants two.
MethodismMethodism began when John Wesley felt his heart "strangely warmed." It happened at a London church service in 1738.
Confession (religion)Confession in Islam needs no priest at all. Believers seek forgiveness directly from God, in a prayer called Istighfar.
BaptismChristian baptism comes from a Greek word once used for dyeing cloth and sinking ships.
EvangelicalismEvangelicalism may have begun with one sermon series in Massachusetts.
UnitarianismIn 1556, a Polish student stood up at a church synod and spoke against the Trinity. His dissent led to Unitarianism.
Apostles in the New TestamentThe apostles in the New Testament, and above all the Twelve, set out on their first mission with very strange travel instructions. They were told to "take nothing for their journey, except a staff only: no bread, no wallet, no money in…
Investiture ControversyIn 1076, King Henry IV called Pope Gregory VII a false monk in a letter. It began a fight over who appoints bishops.
PresbyterianismPresbyterianism is named for a word meaning elder, not for a creed or a founder.
Epiphany (holiday)Epiphany, a Christian feast day, brings drums and bagpipes into the freezing Tundzha river at Kalofer in Bulgaria. Musicians play a traditional horo in the icy water before the priest throws the cross and young men race to retrieve it. The…
AntichristIn 1988, the Evangelical minister Ian Paisley accused Pope John Paul II of being the Antichrist, and he did it while the pope was speaking to the European Parliament. Paisley, founder of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, sat in that…
Grace in ChristianityIf God's favor alone saves a person, how much do humans contribute? That question split Christian churches.
Cenobitic monasticismCenobitic monasticism, a religious tradition built on shared life, took its name from a group of philosophers in Crotone, Italy. The word cenobite was first applied to the followers of Pythagoras there. They founded a commune that existed…
LuciferLucifer begins with a line of poetry. In a modern translation of the Book of Isaiah, it reads: "How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth." Centuries of readers heard in those…
Seventh-day Adventist ChurchThe Seventh-day Adventist Church began with a day on which nothing happened. Followers of the preacher William Miller had come to believe that Jesus Christ would return to Earth on the 22nd of October 1844. He did not, and the episode…
NontrinitarianismMichael Servetus was burned at the stake in Geneva in 1553 for doubting the Trinity.
Church FathersMaximus the Confessor left a court job for a monastery. He was later tortured and exiled, then vindicated by a council.
PentecostPentecost, also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun, falls on the 49th day after Easter. Counting inclusively, with Easter Sunday as day one, it is the 50th. Because Easter has no fixed date, neither does Pentecost. In the Gregorian…
PurgatoryPurgatory was not a noun until perhaps between 1160 and 1180. Before that, theologians spoke of cleansing fire.
ProtestantismThe word Protestant first described six German princes, not a belief. They dissented in 1529.
PaganismThe word pagan began as Roman military slang for a civilian. It first meant someone outside the army, not a religion.
LutheranismLutheranism began as an insult from a rival theologian. Johann Eck used it against Luther's followers in 1519.
English DissentersEnglish Dissenters split from the Church of England because they thought it kept too much Roman Catholic influence.
BishopA child of five, Hugh Vermandois, became a bishop in medieval Europe. The Council of Nicaea never set a minimum age.
New TestamentIn 367, Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria named all 27 books of the New Testament in an Easter letter.
Christian martyrThe Greek word behind Christian martyr originally meant only witness. It later came to mean dying rather than unsaying.
Seven deadly sinsThe seven deadly sins form a short, famous list of major vices within Christian teaching. They are also called the capital vices or the cardinal sins. In the standard Catholic version they are pride, envy, wrath, gluttony, lust, sloth, and…
TrinityThe Trinity is the Christian doctrine that one God exists as three persons: the Father, the Son, who is Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Its name comes from the Latin Trinitas, which grows out of trinus, meaning threefold. The Church…
Mass (liturgy)The Mass may be named after its last words, Ite, missa est. The Latin phrase means roughly go, the dismissal is made.
Edict of MilanThe Edict of Milan did not make Christianity Rome's official religion. In 313 it granted religious liberty to everyone.
Threefold officeJesus never used the prophets' phrase "Thus says the Lord." The threefold office doctrine says he spoke as the source.
Diocletianic PersecutionThe Diocletianic Persecution began in 303 when an emperor razed a church. The date honored the god of boundaries.
Sacramental breadThe Latin word for a Communion host, hostia, means sacrificial victim. The bread is central to the Eucharist.
LentLent, the Christian season of repentance before Easter, once came with a famous loophole involving beavers. The medieval writer Giraldus Cambrensis reported that in Germany and the arctic regions, devout people ate beaver tail as if it…
Old TestamentThe Old Testament has 39 books in most Protestant Bibles, 46 in the Catholic version, and up to 49 in Orthodox editions. That gap surprises many readers. This is the first division of the Christian Bible, and every Christian church uses…
Christian mysticismMen and women withdrew to the deserts of Sketes to fight demons and open themselves to God.
ChristiansThe word Christian was probably first meant as an insult. It began in the city of Antioch, according to Acts 11:26.
Counter-ReformationPaolo Veronese avoided church trouble by renaming a painting. His Last Supper had drawn a Holy Office summons.
Greek East and Latin WestMarcus Aurelius wrote his Meditations in Greek, not Latin. Latin speakers often learned Greek, not the reverse.
Nicene ChristianityArianism taught that Jesus was the first created being. Nicene Christianity rejected that view at Nicaea in AD 325.
RaptureThe Rapture is the belief that believers, living and dead, will one day be lifted skyward together, "in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." Some Christians hold this belief, and it is especially strong within American evangelicalism.…
East–West SchismThe East-West Schism, also called the Great Schism, is the break of communion between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Its traditional date is the 16th of July 1054. On that day, a delegation from Rome walked into Hagia…
ArianismSaint Jerome, looking back on the double council of Rimini and Seleucia in 359, claimed that the world "awoke with a groan to find itself Arian." Arianism is the doctrine named after Arius, a Christian presbyter who preached and studied in…
Christian denominationThe idea of a Christian denomination has a strange feature: the Catholic Church, with over 1.3 billion members, rejects the label. Those members make up 50.1% of all Christians worldwide. So roughly half of the faith's followers belong to…
CoptsThe Copts are a Christian community native to Egypt, and in their own language they have a plain name for themselves: rem en khemi, which means the Egyptians. Their church, in the same tongue, is the Egyptian Orthodox Church. That is a…