Georg Wilhelm Fredrich Hegel who saw the world as an experience and not set in rules first challenged the Bible. This idea led Ferdinand Baur to make people forced to see Jesus in a different light. The thought that Jesus might not be what everyone thought He was came into context. ‘All this was a speculative trend, but stimulated much historical inquiry into the actualities of what we could know about Jesus’ (Smart 354).

People began to see the Bible in more terms than belief. The Bible was beginning to be treated historical wise and not authoritatively. This was reinforced by Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, which was published in 1859. Evolution was what Darwin proclaimed. The human species came from the mutation of animals and apes. This challenged the Creation of God, which leads to humans not believing that they were created for a purpose and that they were to serve God so that they could enjoy a life after death in Heaven.

Evolution, away from the Christian aspect, should have been considered a step above and towards the right direction. ‘Evolution is good news: it hints at how we have risen from earlier stalkings and screams in the undergrowth to our present moral stature-above all, so the argument goes, the Christian religion-has played crucial part’ (Smart 356).

The Roman Catholic Church revived religion by reaffirming the authority that it had in the Vatican I in Rome in 1870. The Pope and his doctrine would be held in high regard and people were to listen to the Pope and the authority that he held. Some people rebelled against this to form Christian Socialism and started Methodists and Baptists.

The teaching of Karl Marx and other thinkers such as Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin once again challenged Christianity. Many philosophers had great influence as well. The blending of countries and domination over each other in Europe leads to the work of missionaries. Karl Barth, who wrote Church Dogmatics, challenged the Church by saying that everything that we know about God is through revelation only.

The Ecumenical Movement after World War II and the Vatican II (1962-1965) proved that the Catholic Church had become less reserved and that it’s doctrine was more loosely translated. Strengths and weaknesses were prevalent in the Church but where there were weaknesses the strengths confirmed the movement of religion. ‘The weakness is that the Churches appear statistically in decline; the strength is that voluntary religion is deeper than conforming religion’ (Smart 363). Christianity in Europe changed from being forced into it to deciding what was good for the individual. When people weren’t forced into it they started to seek out religion for themselves and take on their own view of the Bible.

North America was also hit with a tremendous change in Christianity. Christianity broke into many different sects with different denominations such as Mormons, Baptist, and Methodists. The Great Awakening and the Enlightenment led to a form of different beliefs and the breakdown of Christianity. Many different people took bits and pieces of Christianity and formed there own religion but all based on the belief in God.

The Methodists was started by John Wesley and was influenced by Moravians and Pietism. His goal was to revitalize the Church of England. Roman Catholics were allowed to tithe in North America by the passing of The Quebec Act of 1774. ‘Maryland had in principle been a colony for English Catholics, but a Puritan majority in the colony repealed the Act of Toleration in 1664, and Catholics were deprived of voting rights’ (370).

Unitarian Christianity thought that Christ was not God and was subordinate to Him. This movement was lead by William Ellery Channing in 1819. Transcendentalism that was featured by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau reverted back to Nature. Joseph Smith II who said that an angel came down and told him about gold plates, which became The Book of Mormon, started the Mormans. He was killed and one of his followers, Brigham Young moved the people from Illinois to Salt Lake City, Utah. Many Mormans were persecuted because of their belief in polygamy and the new teachings.

Mass immigration lead to the start of many Catholic schools in North America and many different forms of Christianity. After the Civil War many former slaves became interested in their own “black religion”. Richard Allan started the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816. Africa was a genuine symbol for many African Americans who felt that in order to practice their “black religion” freely was in Africa. ‘Ministers found it natural to blend into secular organizations, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and in general to take part in politics’ (374).

Other forms of Christianity that started in the 19^th century were the Seventh Day Adventists, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Christian Science. Seventh Day Adventists believed that the holy day is the seventh day of the week, which is a Saturday and was started by Ellen Gould White and her husband James. The Jehovah Witnesses believe in the name of Jehovah and that Satan has been ruling the world and that it is there duty to bring people to the love of Jehovah. Mary Baker Eddy started Christian Science, which believes in the blend of science and religion. She believed that she recovered from an accident because she was reading a book of Christ’s healings. She started the First Church of Christ Scientist in Boston, in 1892.

Another movement of Christianity is the fundamentalists and evangelicals. The fundamentalists believe in the infallibility of the Bible, The Virgin Birth of Christ and the Second Coming. Evangelicals believe in the authority of the Bible and the spiritual life. Dwight L. Moody started the premillenial movement during the middle of the 19^th century. C.I Scofield translated the Bible and believed in closely reading it.

Equal Rights and women again challenged Christianity and the formation of it and still continue to do even today. Things began to change because of the variety of Americans and social classes. Classes and race affect religion as do cultural integration. As we have seen Christianity was greatly affected by different people and different religions. It is impossible to obtain one certain religion with out being influenced by other religions.

While there have been exceptions to this generalization, most notably the oppression of several Native American religions, the United States for the most part has been fertile ground for religious diversity, participation in religious organizations, and religious change.

Organization

A full 90 percent of Americans report a preference for a particular religious organization when asked if they have such a preference. While all world religions are represented in the United States, the vast majority of American religious affiliation is with Christian and Jewish organizations. Of the 90 percent with a preference, 57 percent report a preference for Protestant Christian religious organizations; 27 percent report a Roman Catholic preference; and 2 percent report a Jewish preference.

American Protestants are dominated by a few major denominations, including Baptists (20 percent), Methodists (9 percent), Lutherans (7 percent), Presbyterians (5 percent), Episcopalians (3 percent), and the United Church of Christ (2 percent); the remainder consists of a wide variety of Protestant denominations and sects. During the last 20 years, these percentages have been relatively stable. Jewish identification is somewhat more complicated since Jews are both an ethnic and a religious group; those who identify a preference for Judaism in response to a poll question may exhibit few religious behaviors otherwise. Of those Jews who do identify with religious organization, approximately 14 percent identify with Orthodox Judaism, 49 percent with Conservative Judaism, and 34 percent with Reform Judaism.

Geographical Concentrations

The Catholic Church, for example, dominates in the northeast and north central United States, where so many southeastern Europeans immigrants settled. It is also strong in southern Florida (home to Cuban refugees) and in the southwestern United States, with its large Hispanic population. The Baptists dominate the southern states up to the Ohio River and west through Missouri, Texas, and Oklahoma.

Lutherans dominate the Dakotas, Minnesota, and some areas of Montana and Iowa, where so many German and Scandinavian groups settled. Methodists, while found in large numbers in many locations, show particular dominate id Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas. Finally, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints dominate Utah and southern Idaho, the result of Mormons’ nineteenth-century search for a land free from persecution.