Reader Questions: Homework time!

I was raised Catholic but have always identified more as just Christian. I grew up being taught about God and the Bible, but realized that I was just learning someone else's interpretation. I want to start learning more for myself about my religion. Where does one begin? I feel like one does not start at page 1 of the bible...
I am very much a self identified nerd so research and reading and the such do not scare me!
Thanks and best wishes,
Paige

----

I get the basics of how and why the protestant religions broke off from the Catholic Church with the whole Martin Luther/95 Theses, John Calvin, etc all aided by the arrival of the printing press. However, from there my history knowledge gets immensely dimmer. Why then the further fracturing of so very many protestant denominations? Was it a lack of centralized organization? A mistrust of same? Doctrinal differences? And what are the major differences between the bigger sects? For instance what makes a presbyterian different from a methodist, etc? If you're not interested in writing on the topic yourself, but could point to some source material that a reasonably intelligent person who has not done a stint at seminary could digest, I'd be interested in some homework.

Thanks!
Regards,
Allie


So let me get this straight. You folks are starting to ask me for HOMEWORK now? Man, you all really do put the nerd in nerdfighter, don't you? Well, I live to please... (cracks knuckles)

Ok, Paige first. You're never going to entirely get away from other people's perspectives. Even within the Bible, you are going to find the differing perspectives of the Biblical Authors, and sometimes outright debates. For example, while he went about the (important) task of rebuilding Jerusalem's walls to protect the returned Jews from outsiders, the prophet-priest Nehemiah also ordered his people to get rid of their foreign wives, saying that they would corrupt the people and make them not-jewish. And yet, written within twenty years of Nehemiah (and likely contemporary to his rule) is the book of a Ruth, the story of a gentile woman (and not just any Gentile, but a woman of Moab, Judah's enemy!) who followed God's commands and ultimately became the Great-Grandmother of King David! This isn't a coincidence, but a religious debate, with the clerical power of the time making his case through his autobiography, while the ones in favor of keeping families together (who ultimately won the debate) arguing through the moral of their story.

And both are Biblical.

Plenty of people have claimed to have found the unassailable truth behind it all, but they are lying to you and (hopefully) themselves. There is no removing humanity from the process. Even if God was to come down and place a beautiful truth straight in your head, Paige (could happen) in expressing it to us, we would get some of that truth, and a LOT of Paige.

So what you do is start digging in, and remember two very important things in any sort of religious study.

1) Human Beings always get in the way.
2) God knew that about us, which may, in fact, make it the point.

So dive in. Start with the Bible. I'll probably do a video later as a guide, but just remember that the Bible isn't really a book, per se, or even a series of Books, but rather an Anthology, a collection of oral tradition passed down, then written down, and finally collected. Look for the biases of those who tell the stories or the law, and recognize your own, and always remember that the Bible often teaches through moral narrative... the way things are done by the people in the Bible is more often a horrible warning than an example.

There ain't no one more qualified to show your own reading of the Bible than you. 

Next up, Allie!

One of the things that is so often forgotten about Catholicism (either pre-Reformation or Modern day) is that just because there is one guy in a funny hat who ostensibly runs the show doesn't mean that they are, were, or have ever been monolithic. There have always been contrasting views within the church, with various religious orders (very different theologically from each other, yet still existing under the Catholic Umbrella) existing for about as long as the ol' church in Rome has. And yet all the while, these people, very different, bickering constantly, managed to keep the whole "one church" idea going. 

But then the Reformation happened, and it broke the surface tension. The early Reformers really did try to reestablish a new "one church" (Their intent had never been to leave in the first place) but theological differences that had always been there continued to exist, and now seemed bigger. After all, if you are going to risk your neck to speak out against Rome, you might as well make sure you get the message right, you know?

So they continued to divide and sub-divide. Anti-Catholic sentiment fueled this as well, and as Rome was slowly painted as "Babylon" any concept of a centralized church slowly became known as an evil. To this day, organizations like the National Council of Churches or the World Council of Churches constantly come up against opposition that claims that such ecumenical organizations are a return to the "whore of Babylon."

Some of that has simmered out, of course, but to this day you will get churches that claim to be "non-denominational." Wishing no ill on those congregations, this has ALWAYS irritated me, as a denomination is simply a gathering of churches who believe similar things. By that definition, there is no such thing as a non-denom... they are simply denominations of one. Ironic, for churches that claim to BE non-denom because of how denominations divide the church!

For a real good breakdown of Christian History in this period, I always recommend Justo Gonzalez' seminal work, The Story of Christianity. Great Book and does its best to give a well rounded, though still Christian, view of how things came to be. This particular volume goes from the Reformation to modern day (Well, Modern day as of about twenty years ago.)

There are quite a few references that compare the various denominations to one another, such as the one that can be found here, but always take these with a grain of salt. The better way to learn about who they are is to ask their people. If you want some REAL homework, visit the church of a denomination you are interested in on a weekday, and ask if you can speak to a pastor. If they have time, they'll probably be delighted to tell you. If someone walked into my office and asked a history question, I'd be thrilled.

Kinda like I was with yours.

DFTBA!