We are traditionally taught that the five great religions are Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, as they are the religions with the most believers. It is often contested whether they are all religions, or whether they may be belief systems instead, and to answer this, one must firstly establish definitions for “religion” and “belief system”. A religion is the worship of one or many deities following certain rituals, often has a holy volume of reference and has a designated person (or persons) who officiates ceremonies of worship and represents the faith, while a belief system does not necessarily entail deity worship but instead is a set of values and morals that are accepted and followed, sometimes according to certain rituals. Since most religions preach certain values, generally along the lines of piety, charity, kindness, etc., it can be deduced that most religions are also belief systems. However, since not all belief systems have a deity, belief systems may be a religion, but are not automatically so.
While some may argue that Christianity is in fact a belief system, it would be wrong to say this and deny that it is a religion, considering the generally accepted definitions of religion and belief system. Christianity fills the “criteria” for a religion according to the definition given above. Firstly, Christianity, as the name implies, is based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, the son of God, who would have lived on the Earth approximately 2000 years ago, during Roman times. There are many branches of Christianity, the two main ones being Catholicism and Protestantism, which are further divided into subgroups. However, common to all Christians is the belief in Christ as a prophet of God. Furthermore, Christian worship follows a clear set of rituals regardless of denomination, rituals that have certain key elements to them; readings from the written teachings of God and Christ, belief in a Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Ghost), lyrical praise, prayer and often Communion. Depending on the denomination, Christian worship is led by a priest, reverend, minister or other, sometimes numerous, leaders, who serve to catalyse people’s faith and open them up to the word of God. Lastly, Christians have a holy book, the Bible, which is divided into the Old and New Testament, in chronological order from events before (Old Testament) and after (New Testament) Christ’s birth. Therefore, we can conclude that Christianity is a religion, following the definition previously given.
