In the sixteenth century only four major divisions separated the churches of the Reformation: Lutheran, Reformed, Anabaptist, and Anglican. Soon, however, a number of denominations appeared on the scene, most of them established by believers convinced of the importance of some particular teaching of Scripture. By the twentieth century more than 200 denominations crowded the landscape in the United States alone. The force within Christianity was centrifugal—away from centralization—often independent, and sometimes divisive. In the twentieth century, however, another force, this one centripetal,
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