Christianity (Guardians)

Christianity is a religion developed by Jesus of Nazareth during the early 1st century A.D., claiming to be the messiah and son of the Jewish God. His teachings were ultimately cut short by persecution from the Roman authorities and Jewish priesthood, who condemned him to death. Rather than end the religion as intended, his death galvanized his few followers to spread Jesus' teachings from Judea to the rest of the world. Within three hundred years of Jesus' death, Christianity was the official state religion of the Roman Empire and dominated much of Europe, Africa, and Asia.

At present, Christianity is the world's largest religion by both geographic area and number of adherents despite having the most splits within its organized church hierarchy. It is dominant in Europe, the New World, the Pacific, and much of Africa and Asia with small groups of followers in the Serican nations and India. Because of its influence within the nations of Europe, it spread to most corners of the world as those nations explored, traded, and warred with the other peoples, cultures, and nations. To this day Christianity still holds much influence and sometimes even outright political power.

Basic Principles
All Christianity draws inspiration from the traditional Jewish faith, although how much varies by denomination. As a result, the stories and basic ethics of Judaism are learned and valued by Christians, who call this collection the Old Testament. Jesus himself was a Jew and incorporated references to many stories and laws of the Old Testament into his own teachings. The life and lessons of Jesus Christ are recorded in the New Testament. The primary premise is that there is only one god and that Jesus is his son, sent to deliver the world and its people from their sins into everlasting life.

Towards that end, Christians aim to practice Jesus' teachings of caring for others and living a relatively calm, peaceful, and simple life. This, in addition to believing that Jesus is the messiah and the son of God, will enable a person to enter heaven after death and live eternally, while those that commit grave offenses are typically believed to go to hell and are instead punished for all eternity. At the end of the world, Jesus will return and the armies of heaven and hell will do battle, ending with heaven's victory and the establishment of paradise for God's followers.

Scripture
The only scripture universally accepted amongst Christians is the Bible, which is a conglomeration of the Jewish Old Testament and the Christian New Testament. The Old Testament is covered on the page for Judaism and as such is not included here. The New Testament is composed of accounts of Jesus' life and teachings, the journeys of his apostles, their letters to the early church, and the revelation of the future end of the world. Each one of these is given more detail below.

Denominations

 * Catholic: The Catholic doctrine derives its authority from the Apostle Saint Peter and his successors, the Bishops of Rome, often referred to as the Pope. Rome is the primary center of Catholic Christianity and the faith covers most of Western, Central, and Northern Europe.
 * Orthodox: The Orthodox church claims to be closer to the original Christianity than the Catholic church and also gained much of its authority through close relation with Imperial Roman governments. Constantinople is the capital of the Orthodox church, which serves as the dominant denomination in much of Eastern Europe and Anatolia.
 * Miaphysite: The Miaphysite denomination governs out of Alexandria in Egypt and counts much of Egypt and East Africa amongst its territories. While the differences between the Catholic and Orthodox churches are more about authority and more minor religious differences such as the Filioque, they do agree that Christ had two natures, one Human and one Divine, that act in unison together. The Miaphysites, on the other hand, believe Christ to have a single nature composed of united Human and Divine components.
 * Dyophysite: The Dyophysites are even further removed from the three branches mentioned thus far. While the previous denominations differed on how the Human and Divine components within Christ interacted, the Dyophysites argued that Christ's two natures were separate and distinct from each other. The primary city of the Dyophysites is Buchephala and their primary regions are the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Arabia, with small groups of converts in Persia and Turkestan.
 * Monothelite: This church is perhaps the more ATL of them all. Effectively a combination of the OTL Monothelite doctrine of Christ having two natures but only one will and the Donatist beliefs of rites being carried out perfectly by "saints" and not "sinners." While the smallest of the Pentarchy this church has survived because of its difficult position in North and West Africa and is perhaps the most "Western" of the churches after the Catholic Church. The central city of Monothelite Christianity is Carthage.