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For other uses of the term Christian, see Christian (disambiguation).

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Usage of the word

As a noun, Christian is an appellation and moniker deriving from the appellation "Christ", which many people associate exclusively with Jesus of Nazareth. The first known usage of this term can be found in the New Testament of the Bible, in Acts 11:26: "The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch." (Gr. Template:Polytonic and variant Template:Polytonic, Strong's G5546). The term was first used to denote those known or perceived to be disciples of Christ.

As an adjective, the term may describe an object associated with Christianity. For many this also means to be a member or adherent of one of the organized religious denominations of Christianity. The term Christian means "belonging to Christ" and is derived from the Greek noun Χριστός Khristós which means "anointed one," which is itself a translation of the Hebrew word Moshiach (Hebrew: משיח, also written "Messiah"), (and in Arabic it is pronounced Maseeh مسيح). According to the New Testament, those who followed Jesus as his disciples were first called Christians by those who did not share their faith, in the city of Antioch. Hebrew is the only known language to not call Christians "Christians" but "Nazarenes" (Hebrew: נוצרי Notzri), because Jesus was from the province of Nazareth, hence the name Jesus of Nazareth or ישוע הנצרת, Yeshua Ha-Natzerat in Hebrew). Also, because calling Christians "Christians" is like the Jews saying followers of the Messiah, and Jesus being the Messiah of the Jews is considered heresy to them, Jews, and particularly Israelis rarely ever say Jesus Christ in Hebrew because that would be heresy to the most ultra-orthodox Jews. Israelis and others who speak Hebrew just say ישו (Yeshu in Hebrew) when referring to Jesus. Xian or Xtian is another word that has been used to describe Christians and is similar to using Xmas in place of Christmas; the X or Xt used as a contraction for "Christ" ("X" resembles the Greek letter Χ (Chi), the first letter of "Christ" in Greek (Χριστός ). Some Christians find these terms offensive and equate it to taking Christ out of the term.

The term "Christian" is used by various groups with diverse beliefs to describe themselves. Some people, including many born-again Christians, use a fairly specific definition of "Christian". They believe that in order to be a Christian, one must follow Jesus, and that the proof of this is found in agreeing to and following the doctrines set forth in their interpretation of the Bible.

Many Christians are grouped into ecclesiastical communities called denominations which are separated by certain aspects of their respective beliefs and theologies. The liturgical denominations, including Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy, Roman and Eastern Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Lutheranism, along with many constituent components of the reformed traditions of Presbyterianism, Methodism, Moravianism, et al., teach that the title Christian is honorifically bestowed upon those who have accepted the command of Jesus Christ (in Mark 8:34) to "take up your cross and follow me", and that the public mark of a Christian is to receive the sacrament of Baptism, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Many denominations advocate infant baptism, in addition to that of adult converts. However, proponents of believer's baptism contest that there is no specific passage in Scripture that mentions infant baptism.

Others who refer to themselves as Christians require only that one believes that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died and was resurrected from the dead, believing that those who do will follow the command of Christ to "take up your cross and follow me". Certain other denominations (The Church of Christ, International Churches of Christ, and the Independent Christian Churches) teach that the definition of a Christian is someone who has been baptized as a repenting adult. For them, adult baptism is the transition from non-Christian to Christian. These varying definitions arise from different biblical interpretations and differences regarding the authority of scripture in the bible in context with tradition.

A small but significant minority of ecclesiastical groups are often referred to as Christian, whose creeds consider Jesus to be theologically significant but not God. Movements along these lines include Jehovah's Witnesses, see also Nontrinitarianism.

A letter ascribed in the Augustan History to the Emperor Hadrian refers to the worship of Serapis by residents of Egypt who described themselves as Christians, and Christian worship by those claiming to worship Serapis:

The land of Egypt, the praises of which you have been recounting to me, my dear Servianus, I have found to be wholly light-minded, unstable, and blown about by every breath of rumour. There those who worship Serapis are, in fact, Christians, and those who call themselves bishops of Christ are, in fact, devotees of Serapis. (Augustan History, Firmus et al. 8)

History

It has been suggested that this article be merged into Christianity. (Discuss) Proposed since September 2006.

Early times

Main article: Early Christianity

Church is taken by some to refer to a single, universal community, although others contend that the doctrine of the universal church was not established until later. The doctrine of the universal, visible church was made explicit in the Apostles' Creed, while the less common Protestant notion of the universal, invisible church is not laid out explicitly until the Reformation. The universal church traditions generally espouse that the Church includes all who are baptized into her common faith, including the doctrines of the trinity, forgiveness of sins through the sacrificial action of Christ, and the resurrection of the body. These teachings are expressed in liturgy with the celebration of sacraments, visible signs of grace. They are passed down as the deposit of faith.

Some minority traditions of Christianity have maintained that the word translated "church" in scripture most often properly refers to local bodies or assemblies. "Church" is a derivative of the Late Greek word "κυριακον", meaning Lord's house, which in English became "church". The Koine word for church is εκκλησία (ecclesia). Before Christian appropriation of the term, it was used to describe purposeful gatherings, including the assemblies of many Greek city states. Christians of this stripe maintain that a centralizing impulse in the church, present from the early days of the church through the rise of Constantine, represented a departure from true Christianity. They therefore reject the authority of the Nicene Creed or the Apostles' Creed.

The first millennium

Christian spirituality blossomed in the Roman Empire between 64 and 313 AD in spite of official efforts to suppress it. The earliest record of the use of the term is by Tacitus when he recorded that Nero blamed the "Christians" for the Great Fire of Rome in 64 AD. Sometime around 200 AD, one leader, Tertullian, is quoted as saying, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed " to account for this phenomenon of persecution of Christians. Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History 2.25 recorded: "The Roman Tertullian is likewise a witness of this. He writes as follows: "Examine your records. There you will find that Nero was the first that persecuted this doctrine, particularly then when after subduing all the east, he exercised his cruelty against all at Rome. We glory in having such a man the leader in our punishment. For whoever knows him can understand that nothing was condemned by Nero unless it was something of great excellence."" In 313 AD, the Edict of Milan ended official persecution, and under the Emperor Constantine, Christians acquired powerful political influence, the results of which are controversial to this day, beginning with Constantine's First Council of Nicaea, sometimes called the Constantinian shift. In 390, Theodosius the Great declared Catholic Christianity the state religion of the empire (Codex Theodosianus).

Christians developed hierarchical structures to lead the visible Church over the course of many centuries. From the early formation of the Church until the Great Schism in 1054 AD, virtually all Christians subsisted within one Church as one visible organization, led locally by bishops, and regionally by patriarchs. However, minor divisions occurred over differences in doctrine as early as the Council of Chalcedon, and continued through the progression of ecumenical councils.

Medieval times

In Medieval Europe, the Roman Catholic Church was at its peak of Apostolic flourishment and spirituality. Not only was the Church and its organizations extremely devoted to Christianity, piously spreading the word of God through missionaries and established monasteries in many countries but through its dominant spiritual influence that eventually rivalled the political power of most Monarchs for support of the population. The majority of people of this age devoted their lives to God and it showed by the donations of land, money, and possessions to the church. In time, this made the Pope an important figure in the life of the continent.

This wealth often expressed itself in the building of beautiful cathedrals which showed their great devotion and adoration to God. The Church's monasteries were seats of learning and study which evolved into modern universities. They also provided the first hospitals for the care of the sick.

Modern times

The history of the Christian faith in modern times must be studied movement by movement, such is its diversity. In the West, the Protestant Reformation profoundly conditioned the relationship between church and state, thus bringing to Christianity the idea of self-interpretation and the denouncement of visible unity. Intellectual pressure from the Enlightenment led to a religious reaction in the North American colonies — called the Great Awakening — to which Protestant North American Christians owe much of their pattern of practice.

Widespread Christian missions, founded by all segments of Christianity in response to the command of Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20 (also known as the Great Commission), have created today's situation in which Christians are to be found in almost every part of the world.

Within Christian communities there are members who devote themselves to active participation in prophetic communication and miraculous healing (and anything else considered to be a 'spiritual gift') as represented in the early church, the pre-Christ prophets and in the Bible (most notably in the book of Acts). They are categorized as Charismatic Christians.

The opposing view is cessationalism. This was made popular in post-reformation times to discount several radical Protestant groups (e.g. Anabaptists) that emphasized new revelations and prophetic messages. Their opponents (Lutherans, Calvinists) then responded by stating that the power of the holy spirit (that they agree had been with the early church), left when the last apostle died.

There are of course various other (some older) versions of cessationalism, (including that held by christadelphians) although some tend to use different names. In some cases the one belief (charismatic or cessationalist) will occupy the entire denomination as doctrine, most famously in the Pentecostal movement (founded on such charismatic principles), whilst other churches allow a more liberal view as to how widely these 'gifts of the holy spirit' are present in the modern church. Consequently there are charismatic Catholics and Anglicans, as well as the cessationalist counter-parts. Indeed the so called 'charismatic movement' began in high churches first, despite being attributed to more low-church style of worship.

Other movements within contemporary Christendom include the emergent church, fundamentalism, return to orthodoxy, messianic Judaism, liberalism, and the home church movement.

The life of a Christian is still characterized by faith in the figure of Jesus as represented in the New Testament. Sacraments aside, the concept of grace is still uniquely Christian: the idea that spiritual wholeness comes only as a result of a gift from God.

References

Religions by Adherents Adherents.com.

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