Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole. Although for many the term usually refers to Christians and churches belonging to the Catholic Church in communion with the Holy See, for others it refers to continuity "back to the earliest churches", as claimed even by churches in dispute with ...
more
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole. Although for many the term usually refers to Christians and churches belonging to the Catholic Church in communion with the Holy See, for others it refers to continuity "back to the earliest churches", as claimed even by churches in dispute with one another over doctrine and practice such as the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Assyrian Church of the East, the Old Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. The claim of continuity may be based on Apostolic Succession, especially in conjunction with adherence to the Nicene Creed. In this sense of indicating historical continuity, the term "catholicism" is at times employed to mark a contrast to Protestantism, which tends to look instead to the Bible as interpreted by the 16th-century Protestant...
less
