You get my drift. You can lump all the sects and denominations together as
'Christian Religions,' but you are engaged in the enterprise of the
encyclopediast. The taxonomist will say 'these religions are called
Christian because they hold that the divine was manifest in the life of Jesus
of Nazareth.' If _that_ is all that is meant by "Christian," then it is hard
for "Christianity" to have much meaning, and certainly it will be ethically
empty. How can believing that someone was divine be good or bad? It is only
a belief, not an action, not a judgement. To say "Christianity is Evil," if
what is meant is "that which all the religions considered Christian have in
common, is evil" is silly, right?
Ahlstrom was probably right; this discussion belongs in another forum
altogether.