The three main branches of Christianity
Christianity divides into three major traditions. The first split, the Great Schism of 1054, separated the Eastern Orthodox Church from the Roman Catholic Church over disputes including papal authority and the filioque clause in the Nicene Creed. The second, the Protestant Reformation beginning in 1517 with Martin Luther, broke from Rome over indulgences, scriptural authority, and justification by faith.
Eastern Orthodoxy is a communion of self-governing churches such as the Greek and Russian Orthodox, sharing doctrine and sacraments while led nationally. Roman Catholicism is centralized under the Pope in Rome. Protestantism is not one church but a wide family of denominations.
Major Protestant denominational families
Protestantism branches further into Lutheran, Reformed and Presbyterian (following Calvin), Anglican (the Church of England), Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, and many nondenominational evangelical churches. Anglicanism occupies a middle position, retaining bishops and liturgy while rejecting papal authority. Pentecostalism, emerging in the early twentieth century, emphasizes spiritual gifts and is among the fastest growing branches worldwide.