Reply #40: The basic problem here is that history is extremely murky [View All]

It also depends greatly on perspective. For instance, an Orthodox Christian would deny that the Roman Catholic Church started Christianity. They would claim that Roman Catholicism started when the bishop of Rome started asserting authority that was not his which led to the schism between East and West. Along a similar vein, the earliest "protestants" did not consider themselves offshoots of the RCC because their intention was to reform the Church and return it to teachings which they considered more in line biblical teachings rather than the combination of biblical and extra-biblical teachings (or refinements as you might put it) of the Church. Of course there are more recent reformers that have discarded the trinity.

Basically my answer was a facetious reply to your question "What is the catholic faith" The line "this is the catholic faith" from the Athanasian creed popped into my head. Since creeds are where religions talk about what they believe, I figured that the Athanasian Creed is the best answer we'll get to the question