The history of Christianity as Git repositories
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The Initial Commit: Judaism
The repository for Judaism begins with the initial commit: the Covenant of Abraham.
Key commits include:
Mosaic Law (Torah.v1).
Prophetic Books (Nevi'im branch).
Writings (Ketuvim branch).
The main branch (Judaism-main) remains active, with continuous contributions from various communities (Orthodox, Reform, Conservative branches).
The First Fork: Christianity
Around 30 CE, a major fork occurs: the Christianity repository is created from Judaism-main.
The fork is driven by a new feature branch: belief in Jesus Christ as the Messiah.
Initial commits:
Teachings of Jesus (Gospels).
Acts of the Apostles (Acts.v1).
Pauline Letters (Epistles.v1).
Over time, Christianity develops its own main branch (Christianity-main), maintaining partial compatibility with its parent repository.
Early Branching in Christianity
1. Jewish Christianity:
A short-lived branch trying to merge Jesus' teachings back into Judaism-main.
Eventually, this branch becomes abandoned (archived).
2. Gentile Christianity:
Becomes the dominant branch.
Commits include expanding features to non-Jewish communities (Acts.v2, Epistles.v2).
3. Gnosticism:
A controversial branch with significant theological conflicts.
Eventually marked as deprecated and excluded from the main repository.
Major Split: East and West
In 1054, the Great Schism creates two permanent forks:
1. Roman Catholicism:
Maintains the Rome-main branch.
Adds features like papal authority and Latin liturgy.
2. Eastern Orthodoxy:
Forks into the Byzantium-main branch.
Focuses on Greek liturgy and iconography.
Both forks continue to develop independently but occasionally synchronize minor commits (ecumenical councils).
The Reformation: A Cascade of Forks
In 1517, Martin Luther opens a pull request to reform the Catholic-main branch. The request is rejected, leading to a series of Protestant forks:
1. Lutheranism:
Forked directly from Catholic-main.
Removes features like indulgences and introduces justification by faith.
2. Calvinism:
A further fork from Lutheranism, emphasizing predestination.
3. Anglicanism:
A geographically specific fork created by the Church of England.
These forks result in countless sub-branches (Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals), making Protestantism one of the most fragmented repositories.
The New World and Beyond
Christianity sees explosive forking in the Americas and beyond:
Mormonism (19th century): A fork with additional commits like the Book of Mormon.
Evangelicalism (20th century): A feature-rich branch focused on missionary work and revivalism.
Pentecostalism: Emphasizes new features like speaking in tongues (charismatic gifts.v1).
Merging and Interfaith Dialogue
In modern times, some efforts attempt to merge branches:
Ecumenical Movements:
Attempts to resolve conflicts between Catholic-main, Orthodox-main, and Protestant forks.
Some experimental pull requests for interfaith understanding (Judaism-Christianity merge discussions).
A Snapshot of the Current Repos
1. Judaism-main: Still active with traditional and modern branches.
2. Christianity-main:
Catholic-main.
Orthodox-main.
Protestant forks (Lutheran, Calvinist, Evangelical branches).