In one minute
Christians are followers of Jesus Christ, a Jewish teacher from Galilee who lived about two thousand years ago. The name Christ comes from the Greek Christos, "anointed one", the same meaning as the Hebrew Mashiach, Messiah.
Christians believe there is one God, the Creator of everything, who is love. They believe God made himself known most fully in Jesus: that Jesus lived, taught, healed, was crucified, and rose from the dead on the third day, and that through him people can be forgiven, made new and brought home to God. They believe God is present with them now as the Holy Spirit. Christians speak of one God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit: the Holy Trinity.
Christian faith is gathered into two things every Christian child is taught:
- The Creed — what Christians believe: the short statements of faith said in churches across the world.
- The two great commandments — how Christians live: love God with everything you are, and love your neighbour as yourself.
About 2.3 billion people, roughly three in every ten people on earth, are Christian, making it the world's largest faith. In England and Wales the 2021 Census counted 27.5 million Christians (46.2% of the population).
The frame: "Which commandment is the first of all?"
In Mark's Gospel a scribe, a teacher of the Jewish law, watches Jesus debating in the Temple courts in Jerusalem and asks him which commandment matters most. Jesus answers with the Shema, the prayer every Jewish child learns, and then joins it to a second command from the book of Leviticus:
"The greatest is: 'Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. The second is like this: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:29–31, WEBBE)
The scribe agrees, and Jesus tells him: "You are not far from God's Kingdom" (Mark 12:34, WEBBE).
Greek (Mark 12:29): Ἄκουε, Ἰσραήλ, κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν κύριος εἷς ἐστιν — Akoue, Israēl, kyrios ho theos hēmōn kyrios heis estin.
Christians notice three things in this moment. Jesus begins where his own people began, with the oneness of God (Deuteronomy 6:4–5). He joins love of God and love of neighbour so that neither can be had without the other. And both commands are about love, not about rules for their own sake. In Matthew's account he adds: "The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:40, WEBBE).
The creeds: faith in a few lines
Within a few centuries of Jesus, Christians gathered the heart of their faith into creeds (from Latin credo, "I believe"). Two are used by most churches:
| Creed | Where it comes from | Where you hear it |
|---|---|---|
| The Apostles' Creed | an early Roman baptismal creed, in its present form by about the 8th century | baptisms, morning and evening prayer, school assemblies |
| The Nicene Creed | the Councils of Nicaea (325) and Constantinople (381) | the Eucharist / Mass / Divine Liturgy on Sundays, in Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and many Protestant churches |
The Apostles' Creed, in the words of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer:
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried: He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost: The holy Catholick Church; The Communion of Saints: The Forgiveness of sins: The Resurrection of the body, And the Life everlasting. Amen.
(Book of Common Prayer, 1662, Morning Prayer. "Catholick" here means "universal", the whole Church; "the quick and the dead" means "the living and the dead"; "Holy Ghost" is the older English for Holy Spirit.)
The creed has three paragraphs, one for each person of the Trinity. The pages below follow its order.
Two doors
Door one: what Christians believe (the Creed)
- God the Father, Creator — one God, maker of heaven and earth, who loves what he has made. → God the Father
- Jesus Christ — the Word made flesh: his birth, life and teaching. → Jesus Christ
- The cross and the resurrection — Good Friday and Easter morning, the centre of the faith. → The cross and the resurrection
- The Holy Spirit and the Trinity — God with us now; one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. → The Holy Spirit and the Trinity
- The Church and the Bible — the family of believers, and the book it reads. → The Church and the Bible
- Forgiveness and the life everlasting — a fresh start, and a hope beyond death. → Forgiveness and the life everlasting
Door two: how Christian life is lived (the two commandments)
- Prayer — talking with God, above all in the Lord's Prayer. → Prayer
- Worship and the sacraments — baptism, Holy Communion and gathering on Sunday. → Worship and the sacraments
- Love in action — the Good Samaritan, the hungry and the stranger. → Love in action
- The Christian year — Advent, Christmas, Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost. → The Christian year
- Life and home — Sunday, the milestones of life, and pilgrimage. → Life and home
Belief and life: how they fit
Christians often say faith is not only something you hold but something that holds you, and then sends you out. The creed says who God is; the two commandments say what that means on a Monday morning. The letter of James puts it bluntly: "faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself" (James 2:17, WEBBE). Many Christians also stress the other side: good works are a response to God's love, not a way of earning it.
One faith, many families
Christians belong to many churches or denominations, and nearly all of them say the same creeds. The main families are:
- Catholic — the largest, about half of all Christians, in communion with the Pope, the Bishop of Rome. Seven sacraments; the Mass at the centre of worship.
- Orthodox — the Eastern churches (Greek, Russian, Romanian, Serbian, Antiochian and others), with the Oriental Orthodox churches (Coptic, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Armenian, Syriac). Icons, the Divine Liturgy, and a strong sense of continuity with the early Church.
- Anglican — the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion, holding together Catholic and Reformed traditions; the Book of Common Prayer.
- Protestant — churches shaped by the 16th-century Reformation and later movements: Lutheran, Reformed and Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, independent and many more. A strong emphasis on the Bible and on faith in God's grace.
Each page notes briefly where these families understand or practise something differently. The aim is to describe, not to judge between them.
How Jews and Muslims might recognise this
Each tradition speaks for itself, and none of these are claims that the faiths are the same. But neighbours will find much that is familiar:
- Judaism: the words Jesus quotes are the Shema ("Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one", Deuteronomy 6:4), said by Jews morning and evening; "love your neighbour as yourself" is Leviticus 19:18. Jews pray at set times each day, keep the Sabbath and the festivals, and give tzedakah.
- Islam: Muslims bear witness that "there is no god but God", pray five times a day, give zakah, fast in Ramadan and make the Hajj. The Qur'an honours Jesus ('Isa) as a great prophet and Messiah, and his mother Mary (Maryam), who has a chapter named after her.
Reflection
If someone asked you, as the scribe asked Jesus, "What matters most?", what would your two answers be?
Next
- Start with the first line of the creed: God the Father, Creator.
- Print the one-page summary for schools.
Watch
A Christian telling
A Christian telling