What are the differences between the Christian sects?

Answer 1

There are five major sects in Christianity and some say even more, but the easiest way to break up Christianity is into these five categories: Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Eastern, and Mormon. Each of these groups believe the other groups are failing in their attempt to reach proper salvation through the Christ and as such have their own methods of attaining this goal.

Orthodox Christianity is the one of the oldest Christian Sects in the sense that it represents a fragment of the original Church and holds many doctrines in common with Catholicism as concerns the Sacraments. The disagreement between the Orthodox and Catholic is over leadership. The Orthodox maintain that the Church is a community of Patriarchs all with equal standing as opposed to a Pope with supreme power over all cardinals. Orthodox are most famous for praying with icons. There are several movements in Orthodox Christianity, the most famous being the Greek Orthodox and the Russian Orthodox, but there are also Georgian Orthodox, Bulgarian Orthodox, Slavic Orthodox, and Eastern Orthodox.

Catholicism is also one of the oldest Christian Sects in the sense that it represents a fragment of the original Church. Catholics hold that all seven sacraments are necessary to be saved along with the proper Eucharist. Catholicism also has several co-equal rites such as the Roman Rite (the most popular), the Byzantine Rite, the Slavic Rite, and so on. All Catholics (and exclusively Catholics) recognize the infallibility of the Pope on certain matters and the Pope's rule over Christendom.

Protestantism incorporates a wide variety of different movements and in certain cases, different sects in its umbrella. As a result, it is hard to pin down Protestantism. It formed as a rejection of Catholic doctrine in some cases, especially as concerns Calvinists and Lutherans or Catholic power in some cases, especially as concerns Anglicanism/Episcopalianism and Presbyterianism. As Protestant doctrines most often derive from the idea that the Bible should be the only source of Christian belief, differing interpretations of the Bible have made Protestant movements most prone to splitting. New Protestant movements are being created all of the time, with the Evangelical Movement among the fastest growing forms of Christianity. Most African-Americans ascribe to Protestant movements such as the Baptist Church.

Mormonism is a uniquely American form of Christianity (that is to say it embodies many American cultural ideas and American locales not that exclusively Americans are Mormons). Mormonism holds the Divine Revelation extended beyond the Biblical Period, resulting in additional Testaments of His Will. The most famous of these new documents is the Book of Mormon. Additionally Mormons believe that Divine Revelation continues into the present day and the Elder Mormon Leadership has partial access to Divine Knowledge in order to arbitrate Questions of the Faith. Many Christians outside of Mormonism consider Mormonism to be a heresy as it does not hold to the Nicene Creed's understanding of the Trinity.

The Eastern Christian Churches are not a uniform group of churches, but this group represents all of the Churches of the Old World that do not fit neatly into the categories of Orthodox, Catholic, or Protestant. These churches include the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Egyptian Coptic Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church -- all of which are also called Non-Chalcedonian Churches, and the early Christian Heretical Religions (such as the Nestorians and Justinians). What makes these Christian sects unique is different in every case. The Ethiopians have additional holy books and a unique liturgy, the Coptics hold to Monophysite Heresy, the Armenian Church did not join with the Early Patriarchs of the Church, and so forth.