Compare traditions
What is the actual difference between two churches? Each pair answered in a paragraph, then drawn on the same six rails.
- 12Comparisons
- 10Traditions
- 6Axes drawn
El Greco, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, 1590–1600
Near neighbours
Landing in the same band is not agreeing: two families can reach one band by different roads, and the pages say where each road ran.
Catholic vs Orthodox
The pope, the filioque and how doctrine grows: what really separates Catholic and Orthodox Christians, and the five things they hold together.
Same band on 5 of 6 axes. ReadPentecostal vs Baptist
Five of the six questions land in the same band. One splits them: whether tongues, prophecy and healing are for today. Here is what each side holds.
Same band on 5 of 6 axes. ReadLutheran vs Reformed
What confessional Lutherans and Reformed churches hold on predestination, on Sunday worship and on the Lord's Supper, and the ground they share.
Same band on 4 of 6 axes. ReadPentecostal vs Charismatic
Both expect the Holy Spirit to speak and to heal today. What separates them is one sentence about tongues, and how much each one writes down.
Same band on 4 of 6 axes. ReadCommon ground, and real differences
Church of Christ vs Baptist
Two American free churches and one long family argument. It turns on what baptism does, how often the Supper comes, and whether instruments belong.
Same band on 3 of 6 axes. ReadLutheran vs Catholic
Same liturgy, same real presence, opposite answers on authority: what separates confessional Lutherans from Catholics, and what they hold together.
Same band on 3 of 6 axes. ReadAnglican vs Catholic
Why an Anglican service looks Catholic and is not: the Thirty-Nine Articles, the pope, and the one question the Compass leaves open for Anglicans.
Same band on 2 of 6 axes. ReadCalvinist (Reformed) vs Arminian (Wesleyan)
Predestination or free will? What Calvinists and Arminians each hold, where they stand close, and the things that actually divide them.
Same band on 2 of 6 axes. ReadMethodist vs Presbyterian
Two churches that baptise babies and keep the same creeds, built on different engines: bishops or elders, free will or election, a book or none.
Same band on 2 of 6 axes. ReadFurthest apart
Baptist vs Methodist
Communion, baptism, the end times and whether a Christian can fall away. Where Baptists and Methodists part, and the big thing they hold together.
Same band on 1 of 6 axes. ReadBaptist vs Presbyterian
Baptism, the Lord's Supper, predestination and who runs the church. Where Baptists and Presbyterians part, and where they stand together.
Same band on 1 of 6 axes. ReadBaptist vs Catholic
The Bible and the church, the Mass, baptism and the pope. Where Baptists and Catholics part, in words each side would accept.
Same band on 0 of 6 axes. ReadOr read one on its own
- Catholic (Roman and Eastern)
- Eastern Orthodox
- Lutheran (confessional)
- Anglican (broad)
- Presbyterian / Reformed (confessional)
- Southern Baptist (non-Calvinist)
- Churches of Christ / Christian Churches
- Wesleyan / Methodist
- Pentecostal (Assemblies of God, Church of God, COGIC)
- Charismatic non-denominational
