Introduction to Christianity
This is a collection of essays
written by the moderator. It is intended both as an introduction to
Christianity for non-Christians, and as an introduction to many of the
ideas discussed commonly in soc.religion.christian, such as the
Trinity, sacraments, and the role of the Bible. This is probably a
better place to start than the FAQ, for topics that it covers.
Charter
There is a charter
for soc.religion.christian. S.r.c was created
before the current convention for group creation started. There was a
vote to create the group and choose the moderator. However no charter
was involved. Thus this charter has not been voted on. The moderator
uses it to document current policies.
The FAQ Collection
The FAQ collection is based on articles that have been posted over the years.
It comes in three parts:
FAQ's:
Documents that try to be objective summaries of some
question.
My views
Others' views
About Archives
I'm often asked whether there is an archive of soc.religion.christian.
I don't know of any specific s.r.c archive. However Dejanews acts as a general netnews
archive. It seems to have the last few years of postings. Their
default search seems to be for the last few months, so you may
need to give an explicit start date in order to get older postings.
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Web resources related to Christianity
I've found that the biggest challenge is to find sites with actual
content, rather than sites that simply index each other. Except where
specifically noted as "[INDEX]" these sites are all primarily content.
(I do not consider something as an index if it integrates contents
from other sites. What I'm trying to avoid is sites that simply point
to the top levels of other sites.) None of these sites represent my
own personal views.
Reference
Yahoo's section on Christianity [INDEX]
This is the best place to start for things not on this list.
Fides Quaerens Internetum: The Christian Theology Page. [INDEX]
An index of serious theology on the Internet.
Virtual Religion Index. [INDEX]
An index of online material relevant to the academic study of
religion, Christian and otherwise. Maintained by a faculty member
of the Rutgers University religion department.
Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Major collection of Church Fathers and other classic/historical writings
The prize for best name has to go to
Theology from a
Bunch of Dead Guys, which includes works from all periods, with
pointers to the major collections.
Creeds of Christendom. Good collection of creedal and confessional documents from a
wide range of groups.
Major Traditions
New Advent Catholic Web
site. Their home page probably gives the best overview of
Catholic resources on the net that I've seen. At New Advent's
site itself, see particularly the
Catholic Encyclopedia,
the section on
the Church Fathers -- which includes the ecumenical councils (also
present in the Early Church Fathers section of the
CCEL) and various classic
Christian writings, and the section on
Church documents
-- a good collection
of major Papal statements and similar items.
Catholic-Pages.com
has a very large library, and it's very well organized. At the
moment it's my favorite of the major Catholic sites, though all
of the "big eleven" listed on
New Advent's home page are worth looking at.
The Orthodox Church in America.
and the
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of
America both are
good online resources for the Orthodox tradition. They each include
fairly extensive descriptions of the Orthodox faith.
Orthodox Christian
Resources on the Internet [INDEX] and
The Orthodox Christian
Information Center are major independent (i.e. not affiliated
with any church) sites. The second has a particularly impressive depth of
content.
For classic Protestant statements of faith and writings of major
theologians, see the sites listed above under Reference.
The
Christian Classics Ethereal Library
and
Theology from a
Bunch of Dead Guys have writings of major Protestant theologians
(as well as Catholics and others).
Creeds of Christendom
focuses of confessions of faith and other official statements
from Protestant bodies, as well as limited Catholic material that
complements New Advent (though EWTN is more complete)
For the Reformed tradition,
Dave Brown's
Reformed Theology Page and
Reformation Ink.
have
good mix of Protestant classics and articles on current issues.
though Dave Brown's page is better as an introduction.
ChristianAnswers.Net and
Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry are both conservative
Protestant sites on a more "popular" level (with more professional
design).
The independent sites such as those listed above tend to be conservative.
Here's a sampling of the liberal end of several major
Protestant traditions:
Disciples of Christ,
Episcopal Church,
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,
Presbyterian Church (USA),
United Methodist Church,
baptist.org.
baptist.org is different, in
that it is a major site dealing with the Baptist tradition as a whole.
Here are three of the best-known groups at (or somewhat beyond) the edge of
mainstream Christianity:
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
(Mormons) (There is an independent site that may be better for
non-Mormons: All About Mormons)
Jehovah's Witnesses,
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
(These are sites representing those groups. Several of the conservative
pages listed here will have material opposing the Mormons and
Jehovah's Witnesses.)
Other Resources
Gospel Communications Network. A
site where 96 (as of May 1998) different groups have online resources,
professionally produced and often involving "big names".
Christianity.Net
is a site run by the publishers of Christianity Today. It also has
a wide variety of information, but is particularly good for news.
Christian Fellowship
Devotionals. Brief daily devotional messages, with archive by
topic. This forms an interesting
resource focused on the Christian life.
Crossings. An ecumenical
site (though with a strong Lutheran background) containing interesting
theological and Biblical reflections.
Answers in Action.
Their list of Christian Net Resources is also more interesting than many.
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