Christianity

Christianity was founded in the early 1st century AD, by Jesus of Nazareth. Today it is the largest religion in the world, with around 2 billion followers. Christianity represents about a quarter to a third of the world's population. Especially dominant in the western world, today's Christianity has a wide variety of forms, beliefs and practices but all center around faith in Jesus Christ. Christians believe that Jesus is the Messiah prophesied in the Hebrew Bible, referred to as the "Old Testament" in Christianity. Among all Christians, 37.5% live in the Americas, 25.7% live in Europe, 22.5% live in Africa, 13.1% live in Asia, 1.2% live in Oceania and 0.9% live in the Middle East. The Greek translation Χριστός (Christos) is the source of the English word "Christ".  The three primary divisions of Christianity are Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protenstantism. The Catholic Church comprises those particular churches, headed by bishops, in communion with the Pope. In the 16th century, Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingly , and John Calvin inaugurated what has come to be called Protestantism.