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Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem

Christianity (/ˌkrɪstɪˈænɪti/) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.4 billion followers representing one-third of the global population. Its adherents, known as Christians, are estimated to make up a majority of the population in 157 countries and territories, and believe that Jesus is the Son of God, whose coming as the Messiah was prophesied in the Hebrew Bible (called the Old Testament in Christianity) and chronicled in the New Testament.

Christianity remains culturally diverse in its Western and Eastern branches, and doctrinally diverse concerning justification and the nature of salvation, ecclesiology, ordination, and Christology. The creeds of various Christian denominations generally hold in common Jesus as the Son of God—the Logos incarnated—who ministered, suffered, and died on a cross, but rose from the dead for the salvation of humankind; and referred to as the gospel, meaning the "good news". The four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John describe Jesus's life and teachings, with the Old Testament as the gospels' respected background.

The six major branches of Christianity are Roman Catholicism (1.3 billion people), Protestantism (800 million), Eastern Orthodoxy (220 million), Oriental Orthodoxy (60 million), Restorationism (35 million), and the Church of the East (600 thousand). Smaller church communities number in the thousands despite efforts toward unity (ecumenism). In the West, Christianity remains the dominant religion even with a decline in adherence, with about 70% of that population identifying as Christian. Christianity is growing in Africa and Asia, the world's most populous continents. Christians remain greatly persecuted in many regions of the world, particularly in the Middle East, North Africa, East Asia, and South Asia. (Full article...)

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The Huguenot-Walloon half dollar or Huguenot-Walloon Tercentenary half dollar is a commemorative coin issued by the United States Bureau of the Mint in 1924. It marks the 300th anniversary of the voyage of the Nieuw Nederlandt which landed in the New York area in 1624. Many of the passengers were Huguenots from France or Walloons from what is now Belgium; they became early settlers of New York State and the surrounding area.

A commission run by the Federal Council of Churches in America sought issuance of a half dollar to mark the anniversary, and the bill passed through Congress without opposition in 1923 and was signed by President Warren G. Harding. Sketches were prepared by commission chairman Reverend John Baer Stoudt and converted to plaster models by the Mint's aging chief engraver, George T. Morgan. The models were initially rejected by the Commission of Fine Arts, which required revisions under the supervision of Buffalo nickel designer James Earle Fraser. (Full article...)

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General images

The following are images from various Christianity-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1God the Father (top), the Holy Spirit (a dove), and child Jesus, painting by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (d. 1682) (from Trinity)
Image 2A depiction of the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, at which the Deity of Christ was declared orthodox and Arianism condemned (from Trinity)
Image 3Pope Clement I prays to the Trinity, in a typical post-Renaissance depiction by Gianbattista Tiepolo (d. 1770) (from Trinity)
Image 4Atypical depiction. The Son is identified by a lamb, the Father an Eye of Providence, and the Spirit a dove, painting by Fridolin Leiber (d. 1912) (from Trinity)
Image 5The Baptism of Christ, by Piero della Francesca, 15th century (from Trinity)
Image 6First page of Mark, by Sargis Pitsak (14th century): "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God". (from Jesus in Christianity)
Image 7Jesus healing the paralytic in The Pool by Palma il Giovane, 1592 (from Jesus in Christianity)
Image 8The "Heavenly Trinity" joined to the "Earthly Trinity" through the Incarnation of the Son – The Heavenly and Earthly Trinities by Murillo (c. 1677). (from Trinity)
Image 9Depictions of the Resurrection of Jesus are central to Christian art (Resurrection of Christ by Raphael, 1499–1502). (from Jesus in Christianity)
Image 10Jesus' Farewell Discourse to his eleven remaining disciples after the Last Supper, from the Maestà by Duccio (from Jesus in Christianity)
Image 11The Holy Trinity in an angelic glory over a landscape, by Lucas Cranach the Elder (d. 1553) (from Trinity)
Image 12God in the person of the Son confronts Adam and Eve, by Master Bertram (d. c. 1415) (from Trinity)
Image 13Nativity at Night, by Geertgen tot Sint Jans, c. 1490 (from Jesus in Christianity)
Image 1413th-century depiction of the Trinity from a Roman de la Rose manuscript (from Trinity)
Image 15Father, The Holy Spirit, and Christ Crucified, depicted in a Welsh manuscript. c. 1390–1400 (from Trinity)
Image 16Saint John indicating Christ to Saint Andrew by Ottavio Vannini, 17th century (from Jesus in Christianity)
Image 17God the Father (top), and the Holy Spirit (represented by a dove) depicted above Jesus. Painting by Francesco Albani (d. 1660) (from Trinity)
Image 18The Adoration of the Trinity by Albrecht Dürer (1511): from top to bottom: Holy Spirit (dove), God the Father and the crucified Christ (from Trinity)
Image 19The Communion of the Apostles, by Luca Signorelli, 1512 (from Jesus in Christianity)
Image 20Detail of the earliest known artwork of the Trinity, the Dogmatic or Trinity Sarcophagus, c. 350 (Vatican Museums): Three similar figures, representing the Trinity, are involved in the creation of Eve, whose much smaller figure is cut off at lower right; to her right, Adam lies on the ground (from Trinity)
Image 21Russian icon of the Old Testament Trinity by Andrei Rublev, between 1408 and 1425 (from Trinity)
Image 22A 'Jesus Saves' neon cross sign outside of a Protestant church in New York City (from Salvation in Christianity)
Image 23The Good Samaritan is a painting by James Tissot. The Parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the parables of Jesus. (from Jesus in Christianity)
Image 24Depiction of Trinity from Saint Denis Basilica in Paris (12th century) (from Trinity)
Image 25Renaissance painting by Jerónimo Cosida depicting Jesus as a triple deity. Inner text: The Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Spirit is God (from Trinity)
Image 26A Gospel of John, 1056 (from Jesus in Christianity)
Image 27The Glory of Saint Nicholas, by António Manuel da Fonseca. Nicholas of Myra, a participant in the First Council of Nicaea, achieves the beatific vision in the shape of the Holy Trinity. (from Trinity)
Image 28A compact diagram of the Trinity, known as the "Shield of Trinity". The Shield is not generally intended to be a schematic diagram of the structure of God, but it presents a series of statements about the correlation between the persons of the Trinity. (from Trinity)
Image 29Representation of the Trinity in the form of the mercy seat (epitaph from 1549) (from Trinity)
Image 30A Greek fresco of Athanasius of Alexandria, the chief architect of the Nicene Creed, formulated at Nicaea. (from Trinity)

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Pope Theodore II (Latin: Theodorus II; 840 – December 897) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States for twenty days in December 897. His short reign occurred during a period of partisan strife in the Catholic Church, which was entangled with a period of violence and disorder in central Italy. His main act as pope was to annul the recent Cadaver Synod, therefore reinstating the acts and ordinations of Pope Formosus, which had themselves been annulled by Pope Stephen VI. He also had the body of Formosus recovered from the river Tiber and reburied with honour. He died in office in late December 897. (Full article...)

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Credit: User:Csanády

The Siege of Belgrade (1456) or Battle of Belgrade or Siege of Nándorfehérvár occurred from July 4–22, 1456. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II rallied his resources in order to subjugate the Kingdom of Hungary. His immediate objective was the border fort of the town of Belgrade (in old Hungarian Nándorfehérvár). John Hunyadi, the Voivode of Transylvania, who had fought many battles against the Turks in the previous two decades, prepared the defenses of the fortress. Since 22 July 2011, the date when Christian forces led by John Hunyadi and John of Capistrano defeated the Ottoman Turks besieging Belgrade in 1456, has been a national memorial day in Hungary.

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... that Mount Yasumandake was considered sacred to Buddhists, Shintoists, and Christians?
... that in the Book of Mormon, the city of Ammonihah kills Christians by fire as a deliberately twisted reference to a warning that spiritual death is like a "lake of fire and brimstone"?
... that a call to prayer is a common feature to Christianity, Islam and Judaism?
... that wood type for printing was invented in China, first mass-produced in the United States, and later exported back to China for use by missionaries?
... that interfaith greetings in Indonesia include phrases from Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism?
... that the Correspondence of Paul and Seneca was cited in the Middle Ages to claim that Seneca, a Roman philosopher of Stoicism, had converted to Christianity?

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Selected scripture

Jesus taught turning the other cheek during the Sermon on the Mount

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’
But I tell you, don’t resist him who is evil; but whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also. If anyone sues you to take away your coat, let him have your cloak also. Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and don’t turn away him who desires to borrow from you.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven.
For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?
If you only greet your friends, what more do you do than others? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?
Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."

— Turning the other cheek, Matthew 5:38-48, World English Bible

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