Wider fields
Where does it meet other fields?
- 5Fields
- 350Sources
- 55Key works
- 50Key terms
Reading order
Where to begin in this branch
Start with the fields the others build on.
Step 1: Social-scientific study of religionReligion studied by sociology, psychology and anthropology, which supply the data on belief and Bible engagement. Surveys show Western affiliation and practice falling, flattening in the United States since 2019, and high practice in Africa.
Step 2: Comparative religion and theology of religionsHow Christianity relates to other faiths. Christian views of other religions range from exclusivist to pluralist; major church statements affirm respectful dialogue alongside witness to Christ, yet differ on salvation.
Step 3: Aesthetics and sacred arts, with iconsArt, icons and beauty in faith, and how the traditions differ on images. Orthodox and Catholics venerate sacred images, Lutherans keep them, and the Reformed remove them from worship; every tradition forbids worshipping an image itself.
Step 4: Theology and scienceCreation, evolution, cosmology and miracles. Christians hold young-earth, old-earth, design and evolutionary views, and most church statements deny any real conflict with science.
Step 5: World Christianity and contextual theologiesMost Christians now live in the Global South, and their readings belong in any account of the faith.
Fields
The fields in this branch
Sixty-nine per cent of Christians now live in the Global South, Africa alone about 780 million (CSGC 2026); each region reads Scripture through its own history, languages and churches.
Read the field: World Christianity and contextual theologiesWhere traditions divide
They divide on liberation theology, the prosperity gospel, ancestors and traditional religion, polygamy, healing and deliverance, women's ordination, sexuality, and how far Western money and categories still set the terms.
Religions differ in their own sources, practices and goals. Christian views of them range from exclusivist to pluralist; major church statements affirm respectful dialogue alongside witness to Christ, yet differ on salvation.
Read the field: Comparative religion and theology of religionsWhere traditions divide
Christians divide on whether non-Christians can be saved, whether other religions themselves mediate salvation, mission and conversion, multiple belonging, interfaith prayer, and whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God.
The scientific consensus dates the universe at 13.8 billion years, the Earth at 4.54 billion and holds common descent; Christians hold young-earth, old-earth, design and evolutionary views, and most church statements deny real conflict.
Read the field: Theology and scienceWhere traditions divide
They divide on the age of the Earth, common descent, a historical Adam and the Fall, death before sin, a global flood, and whether intelligent design is science.
Christians have made sacred images since about 240; Orthodox and Catholics venerate them, Lutherans keep them, the Reformed remove them from worship. Every tradition forbids worshipping an image itself.
Read the field: Aesthetics and sacred arts, with iconsWhere traditions divide
Christians divide on images in worship, veneration, depicting God the Father, the second commandment's scope, nudity, Jesus's ethnicity in art, and whether AI may make sacred images.
Surveys show Western affiliation and practice falling, flattening in the US since 2019, and high practice in Africa; US Bible use is 38 per cent (2026); Britain's reported 2025 revival was retracted.
Read the field: Social-scientific study of religionWhere traditions divide
Scholars divide on secularisation, whether social science explains religion away, the reality of religious experience, insider and outsider research, and whether "religion" and "spirituality" are usable categories.
The theology map
