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i'll take a stab at CS's question then...
folks who so desire should feel free to interrupt at any time.
denominations are manifestations of divided histories. bascially, from day one of the Jesus movement (later to become Christianity) there were conflicts and disagreements. Many of these stayed "in-house" so to speak, but some caused rifts between factions. The only time that the word anti-Christ is used in cannonized Scripture is in the 2nd and 3rd letter from John. The author is complaining bitterly about a fellow Christian, and in anger labels him against Christ (anti-christos). I use this example to show both the historical depth of some of these fights, and to be honest about the problems of schism.
From then on, there were somewhat two options. Split away and win, or split away and lose. Once Christianity became the state religion of Rome, the stakes are even higher. People in tin suits had sharp pointy sticks, and were willing to use them on people who said the wrong thing. History is littered with proto-sects or denominations that got wiped from the face of the Earth. Many of the teachings that separated these groups are later recylced in other doctrinal fights... The unitarian/trinitarian fight is one of the oldest in Christianity, but still pops up with regularity in both conservative and liberal theological movements. Go figure.
Once the Reformations (plural to indicate multiplicity) occur, this formula gets changed a bit. Beyond the East/West schism, there are now tons of fragmented and contesting groups that claim truth and revelation about being the Christian church. Many still get wiped out by men in tin suits carrying sharp pointy sticks, but a lot of them don't. They get their own men in tin suits, carrying sharp pointy sticks to defend them. Or to oppress whoever new pops up to challenge them. (Despite popular opinion, Protestants were just as brutal in putting down "heresy" as anyone else). Heretic, by the way, being a technical term to describe a theologian who has had the worse of an encounter with men in tin suits carrying sharp pointy sticks.
So there we have it...a denomination is a theological viewpoint that is validated (to whatever extent we give this credit) by it's existance as a incarnate movement. historically, this meant having military backing, or being off in a backwater somewhere. Now, it may mean being in a location that has religious pluralism. that a movement is a denomination is always a history lession. look for who they're dividing from, when, why, where, and then in a little while...who they want to keep from dividing from them...
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For God so loved creation, that God sent God's only Son that whosoever believed should not perish, but have everlasting life.
-John 3:16
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