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Christians ( /ˈkrɪstʃən,-tiən/ ( listen )) are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words Christ and Christian derive from the Koine Greek title Christós (Χριστός), a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach (מָשִׁיחַ) (usually rendered as messiah in English). [11] While there are diverse interpretations of Christianity which sometimes conflict, [12] [13] they are united in believing that Jesus has a unique significance. [12] The term Christian used as an adjective is descriptive of anything associated with Christianity or Christian churches, or in a proverbial sense "all that is noble, and good, and Christ-like." [14] It does not have a meaning of 'of Christ' or 'related or pertaining to Christ'.
According to a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, there were 2.2 billion Christians around the world in 2010, up from about 600 million in 1910. [4] Today, about 37% of all Christians live in the Americas, about 26% live in Europe, 24% live in sub-Saharan Africa, about 13% live in Asia and the Pacific, and 1% live in the Middle East and North Africa. [4] Christians make up the majority of the population in 158 countries and territories. [4] 280 million Christians live as a minority. About half of all Christians worldwide are Catholic, while more than a third are Protestant (37%). [4] Orthodox communions comprise 12% of the world's Christians. [4] Other Christian groups make up the remainder. By 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion. [4] According to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey, Christianity will remain the world's largest religion in 2050, if current trends continue. In recent history, Christians have experienced persecution of varying severity, especially in the Middle-East, North Africa, East Asia, and South Asia. [15] [16] [17]
The Greek word Χριστιανός (Christianos), meaning "follower of Christ", comes from Χριστός (Christos), meaning "anointed one", [18] with an adjectival ending borrowed from Latin to denote adhering to, or even belonging to, as in slave ownership. [19] In the Greek Septuagint, christos was used to translate the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (Mašíaḥ, messiah), meaning "[one who is] anointed". [20] In other European languages, equivalent words to Christian are likewise derived from the Greek, such as Chrétien in French and Cristiano in Spanish.
The abbreviations Xian and Xtian (and similarly-formed other parts of speech) have been used since at least the 17th century: Oxford English Dictionary shows a 1634 use of Xtianity and Xian is seen in a 1634–38 diary. [21] [22] The word Xmas uses a similar contraction.
The first recorded use of the term (or its cognates in other languages) is in the New Testament, in Acts 11 after Barnabas brought Saul (Paul) to Antioch where they taught the disciples for about a year, the text says that "the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch" (Acts 11:26). The second mention of the term follows in Acts 26, where Herod Agrippa II replied to Paul the Apostle, "Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." (Acts 26:28). The third and final New Testament reference to the term is in 1 Peter 4, which exhorts believers: "Yet if [any man suffer] as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf." (1 Peter 4:16).
Kenneth Samuel Wuest holds that all three original New Testament verses' usages reflect a derisive element in the term Christian to refer to followers of Christ who did not acknowledge the emperor of Rome. [24] The city of Antioch, where someone gave them the name Christians, had a reputation for coming up with such nicknames. [25] However Peter's apparent endorsement of the term led to its being preferred over "Nazarenes" and the term Christianoi from 1 Peter becomes the standard term in the Early Church Fathers from Ignatius and Polycarp onwards. [26]
The earliest occurrences of the term in non-Christian literature include Josephus, referring to "the tribe of Christians, so named from him;" [27] Pliny the Younger in correspondence with Trajan; and Tacitus, writing near the end of the 1st century. In the Annals he relates that "by vulgar appellation [they were] commonly called Christians" [28] and identifies Christians as Nero's scapegoats for the Great Fire of Rome. [29]
Another term for Christians which appears in the New Testament is "Nazarenes". Jesus is named as a Nazarene in Matthew 2:23, while Paul is said to be Nazarene in Acts 24:5. The latter verse makes it clear that Nazarene also referred to the name of a sect or heresy, as well as the town called Nazareth.[ citation needed ]
The term Nazarene was also used by the Jewish lawyer Tertullus (Against Marcion 4:8) which records that "the Jews call us Nazarenes." While around 331 AD Eusebius records that Christ was called a Nazoraean from the name Nazareth, and that in earlier centuries "Christians" were once called "Nazarenes". [30] The Hebrew equivalent of "Nazarenes", Notzrim, occurs in the Babylonian Talmud, and is still the modern Israeli Hebrew term for Christian.
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A wide range of beliefs and practices are found across the world among those who call themselves Christian. Denominations and sects disagree on a common definition of "Christianity". For example, Timothy Beal notes the disparity of beliefs among those who identify as Christians in the United States as follows:
Although all of them have their historical roots in Christian theology and tradition, and although most would identify themselves as Christian, many would not identify others within the larger category as Christian. Most Baptists and fundamentalists (Christian Fundamentalism), for example, would not acknowledge Mormonism or Christian Science as Christian. In fact, the nearly 77 percent of Americans who self-identify as Christian are a diverse pluribus of Christianities that are far from any collective unity. [31]
Linda Woodhead attempts to provide a common belief thread for Christians by noting that "Whatever else they might disagree about, Christians are at least united in believing that Jesus has a unique significance." [12] Michael Martin evaluated three historical Christian creeds (the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed) to establish a set of basic Christian assumptions which include belief in theism, the historicity of Jesus, the Incarnation, salvation through faith in Jesus, and Jesus as an ethical role model. [32]
The identification of Jesus as the Messiah is not accepted by Judaism. The term for a Christian in Hebrew is נוֹצְרִי (Notzri—"Nazarene"), a Talmudic term originally derived from the fact that Jesus came from the Galilean village of Nazareth, today in northern Israel. [34] Adherents of Messianic Judaism are referred to in modern Hebrew as יְהוּדִים מְשִׁיחִיִּים (Yehudim Meshihi'im—"Messianic Jews").
In Arabic-speaking cultures, two words are commonly used for Christians: Naṣrānī (نصراني), plural Naṣārā (نصارى) is generally understood to be derived from Nazarenes, believers of Jesus of Nazareth through Syriac (Aramaic); Masīḥī (مسيحي) means followers of the Messiah. [35] Where there is a distinction, Nasrani refers to people from a Christian culture and Masihi is used by Christians themselves for those with a religious faith in Jesus. [36] In some countries Nasrani tends to be used generically for non-Muslim Western foreigners. [37]
Another Arabic word sometimes used for Christians, particularly in a political context, is Ṣalībī (صليبي "Crusader") from ṣalīb (صليب "cross"), which refers to Crusaders and may have negative connotations. [35] [38] However, Ṣalībī is a modern term; historically, Muslim writers described European Christian Crusaders as al-Faranj or Alfranj (الفرنج) and Firinjīyah (الفرنجيّة) in Arabic. [39] This word comes from the name of the Franks and can be seen in the Arab history text Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh by Ali ibn al-Athir. [40] [41]
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The most common Persian word is Masīhī (مسیحی), from Arabic. Other words are Nasrānī (نصرانی), from Syriac for "Nazarene", and Tarsā (ترسا), from Middle Persian word Tarsāg, also meaning "Christian", derived from tars, meaning "fear, respect". [42]
An old Kurdish word for Christian frequently in usage was felle (فەڵە), coming from the root word meaning "to be saved" or "attain salvation". [43]
The Syriac term Nasrani (Nazarene) has also been attached to the Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala, India. In Northern India, Christians call themselves Isaai (Hindi : ईसाई, Urdu : عیسائی), and are also known by this term to adherents of other religions. [44] This is related to the name they call Jesus, 'Isa Masih, and literally means 'the followers of 'Isa'.
In the past, the Malays used to call Christians in Malay language by the Portuguese loanword Serani (from Arabic Nasrani), but the term now refers to the modern Kristang creoles of Malaysia. In the Indonesian language, the term Nasrani" is also used alongside Kristen.
The Chinese word is 基督 徒 (jīdū tú), literally "Christ follower". The name "Christ" was originally phonetically written in Chinese as 基利斯督, which was later abbreviated as 基督. [45] Kî-tuk in the southern Hakka dialect, the two characters are pronounced Jīdū in Mandarin Chinese. In Vietnam, the same two characters read Cơ đốc , and a "follower of Christianity" is a tín đồ Cơ đốc giáo.
In Japan, the term kirishitan (written in Edo period documents 吉利支丹, 切支丹, and in modern Japanese histories as キリシタン), from Portuguese cristão, referred to Roman Catholics in the 16th and 17th centuries before the religion was banned by the Tokugawa shogunate. Today, Christians are referred to in Standard Japanese as キリスト教徒 (Kirisuto-kyōto) or the English-derived term クリスチャン (kurisuchan).
Korean still uses 기독교도 (RR: Gidokkyodo) for "Christian", though the Portuguese loanword 그리스도 (RR: Geuriseudo) now replaced the old Sino-Korean 기독 (RR: Gidok), which refers to Christ himself.
In Thailand, the most common terms are คนคริสต์ (RTGS: khon khrit) or ชาวคริสต์ (RTGS: chao khrit) which literally means "Christ person/people" or "Jesus person/people". The Thai word คริสต์ (RTGS: khrit) is derived from "Christ".
In the Philippines, the most common terms are Kristiyano (for "Christian") and Kristiyanismo (for "Christianity") in most Philippine languages; both derives from Spanish cristiano and cristianismo (also used in Chavacano) due to the country's rich history of early Christianity during the Spanish colonial era. Some Protestants in the Philippines uses the term Kristiyano (before the term "born again" became popular) to differentiate themselves from Catholics (Katoliko).
The region of modern Eastern Europe and Central Eurasia has a long history of Christianity and Christian communities on its lands. In ancient times, in the first centuries after the birth of Christ, when this region was called Scythia, the geographical area of Scythians – Christians already lived there. [46] Later the region saw the first states to adopt Christianity officially – initially Armenia (301 AD) and Georgia (337 AD), later Bulgaria (c. 864) and Kyivan Rus (c. 988 AD).
In some areas, people came to denote themselves as Christians (Russian : христиане, крестьяне; Ukrainian : християни, romanized: khrystyiany) and as Russians (Russian : русские), Ruthenians (Old East Slavic : русини, руснаки, romanized: rusyny, rusnaky), or Ukrainians (Ukrainian : українці, romanized: ukraintsi).
In time the Russian term "крестьяне" (khrest'yane) acquired the meaning "peasants of Christian faith" and later "peasants" (the main part of the population of the region), while the term Russian : христиане (khristiane) retained its religious meaning and the term Russian : русские (russkie) began to mean representatives of the heterogeneous Russian nation formed on the basis of common Christian faith and language,[ citation needed ] which strongly influenced the history and development of the region. In the region the term "Orthodox faith" (Russian : православная вера, pravoslavnaia vera) or "Russian faith" (Russian : русская вера, russkaia vera) from earliest times became almost as known as the original "Christian faith" (Russian : христианская, крестьянская вераkhristianskaia, krestianskaia).[ citation needed ]
Also in some contexts the term cossack (Old East Slavic : козак, казак, romanized: kozak, kazak) was used[ by whom? ] to denote "free" Christians of steppe origin and East Slavic language.
Nominally "Christian" societies made "Christian" a default label for citizenship or for "people like us". [47] In this context, religious or ethnic minorities can use "Christians" or "you Christians" loosely as a shorthand term for mainstream members of society who do not belong to their group – even in a thoroughly secular (though formerly Christian) society. [48]
As of 2020, Christianity has approximately 2.4 billion adherents. [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] The faith represents about a third of the world's population and is the largest religion in the world. Christians have composed about 33 percent of the world's population for around 100 years. The largest Christian denomination is the Roman Catholic Church, with 1.3 billion adherents, representing half of all Christians. [54]
Christianity remains the dominant religion in the Western World, where 70% are Christians. [4] According to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey, if current trends continue, Christianity will remain the world's largest religion by 2050. By 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion. While Muslims have an average of 3.1 children per woman—the highest rate of all religious groups—Christians are second, with 2.7 children per woman. High birth rates and conversion were cited as the reason for Christian population growth. A 2015 study found that approximately 10.2 million Muslims converted to Christianity. [55] Christianity is growing in Africa, [56] Asia, [57] [58] [59] Eastern Europe, [60] Latin America, [57] the Muslim world, [61] [62] and Oceania. [63]
Region | Christians | % Christian |
---|---|---|
Europe | 558,260,000 | 75.2 |
Latin America–Caribbean | 531,280,000 | 90.0 |
Sub-Saharan Africa | 517,340,000 | 62.9 |
Asia Pacific | 286,950,000 | 7.1 |
North America | 266,630,000 | 77.4 |
Middle East–North Africa | 12,710,000 | 3.7 |
World | 2,173,180,000 | 31.5 |
According to a study from 2015, Christians hold the largest amount of wealth (55% of the total world wealth), followed by Muslims (5.8%), Hindus (3.3%) and Jews (1.1%). According to the same study it was found that adherents under the classification Irreligion or other religions hold about 34.8% of the total global wealth. [67] A study done by the nonpartisan wealth research firm New World Wealth found that 56.2% of the 13.1 million millionaires in the world were Christians. [68]
A Pew Center study about religion and education around the world in 2016, found that Christians ranked as the second most educated religious group around in the world after Jews with an average of 9.3 years of schooling, [69] and the highest numbers of years of schooling among Christians were found in Germany (13.6), [69] New Zealand (13.5) [69] and Estonia (13.1). [69] Christians were also found to have the second highest number of graduate and post-graduate degrees per capita while in absolute numbers ranked in the first place (220 million). [69] Between the various Christian communities, Singapore outranks other nations in terms of Christians who obtain a university degree in institutions of higher education (67%), [69] followed by the Christians of Israel (63%), [70] and the Christians of Georgia (57%). [69]
According to the study, Christians in North America, Europe, Middle East, North Africa and Asia Pacific regions are highly educated since many of the world's universities were built by the historic Christian denominations, [69] in addition to the historical evidence that "Christian monks built libraries and, in the days before printing presses, preserved important earlier writings produced in Latin, Greek and Arabic". [69] According to the same study, Christians have a significant amount of gender equality in educational attainment, [69] and the study suggests that one of the reasons is the encouragement of the Protestant Reformers in promoting the education of women, which led to the eradication of illiteracy among females in Protestant communities. [69]
Christian culture describes the cultural practices common to Christian peoples. There are variations in the application of Christian beliefs in different cultures and traditions. [71] Christian culture has influenced and assimilated much from the Greco-Roman, Byzantine, Western culture, [72] Middle Eastern, [73] [74] Slavic, [75] Caucasian, [75] and Indian cultures.
Since the spread of Christianity from the Levant to Europe and North Africa and Horn of Africa during the early Roman Empire, Christendom has been divided in the pre-existing Greek East and Latin West. Consequently, different versions of the Christian cultures arose with their own rites and practices, centered around the cities such as Rome (Western Christianity) and Carthage, whose communities was called Western or Latin Christendom, [76] and Constantinople (Eastern Christianity), Antioch (Syriac Christianity), Kerala (Indian Christianity) and Alexandria, among others, whose communities were called Eastern or Oriental Christendom. [77] [78] [79] The Byzantine Empire was one of the peaks in Christian history and Christian civilization. [80] From the 11th to 13th centuries, Latin Christendom rose to the central role of the Western world and Western culture. [81]
Western culture, throughout most of its history, has been nearly equivalent to Christian culture, and a large portion of the population of the Western Hemisphere can be described as practicing or nominal Christians. The notion of "Europe" and the "Western World" has been intimately connected with the concept of "Christianity and Christendom". [82] Outside the Western world, Christians has had an influence and contributed on various cultures, such as in Africa, the Near East, Middle East, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. [83] [84]
Christians have made noted contributions to a range of fields, including philosophy, [85] [86] science and technology, [87] [88] [89] [90] medicine, [91] [92] fine arts and architecture, [93] [94] politics, literatures, [95] music, [96] and business. [97] [98] According to 100 Years of Nobel Prizes a review of the Nobel Prizes award between 1901 and 2000 reveals that (65.4%) of Nobel Prizes Laureates, have identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference. [99]
In 2017, Open Doors, a human rights NGO, estimated approximately 260 million Christians are subjected annually to "high, very high, or extreme persecution", [100] with North Korea considered the most hazardous nation for Christians. [101] [102]
In 2019, a report [103] [104] commissioned by the United Kingdom's Secretary of State of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to investigate global persecution of Christians found religious persecution has increased, and is highest in the Middle East, North Africa, India, China, North Korea, and Latin America, among others, [16] and that it is global and not limited to Islamic states. [104] This investigation found that approximately 80% of persecuted believers worldwide are Christians. [17]
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.4 billion followers representing one-third of the global population. Its adherents, known as Christians, are estimated to make up a majority of the population in 157 countries and territories, and believe that Jesus is the Son of God, whose coming as the messiah was prophesied in the Hebrew Bible and chronicled in the New Testament.
Christendom historically refers to the Christian states, Christian empires, Christian-majority countries and the countries in which Christianity dominates, prevails, or that it is culturally or historically intertwined with.
The history of Christianity concerns the Christian religion, Christian countries, and the Christians with their various denominations, from the 1st century to the present. Christianity originated with the ministry of Jesus, a Jewish teacher and healer who proclaimed the imminent Kingdom of God and was crucified c. AD 30–33 in Jerusalem in the Roman province of Judea. His followers believe that, according to the Gospels, he was the Son of God and that he died for the forgiveness of sins and was raised from the dead and exalted by God, and will return soon at the inception of God's kingdom.
The Syriac Orthodox Church, officially known as the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, and informally as the Jacobite Church, is an Oriental Orthodox church that branched from the Church of Antioch. The bishop of Antioch, known as the patriarch, heads the church, claiming apostolic succession through Saint Peter in the c. 1st century, according to sacred tradition. The church upholds Miaphysite doctrine in Christology, and employs the Divine Liturgy of Saint James, associated with James, the brother of Jesus. Classical Syriac is the official and liturgical language of the church.
The term Greek Orthodox Church has three meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also called 'Eastern Orthodox,' 'Greek Catholic,' or generally 'the Greek Church'". The narrower meaning designates "any of several independent churches within the worldwide communion of [Eastern] Orthodox Christianity that retain the use of the Greek language in formal ecclesiastical settings". The third is the Church of Greece, the Orthodox church operating within the modern borders of Greece.
In ecclesiology, the Christian Church is what different Christian denominations conceive of as being the true body of Christians or the original institution established by Jesus. "Christian Church" has also been used in academia as a synonym for Christianity, despite the fact that it is composed of multiple churches or denominations, many of which hold a doctrinal claim of being the "one true church", to the exclusion of the others.
A Christian denomination is a distinct religious body within Christianity that comprises all church congregations of the same kind, identifiable by traits such as a name, particular history, organization, leadership, theological doctrine, worship style and sometimes a founder. It is a secular and neutral term, generally used to denote any established Christian church. Unlike a cult or sect, a denomination is usually seen as part of the Christian religious mainstream. Most Christian denominations self-describe themselves as churches, whereas some newer ones tend to interchangeably use the terms churches, assemblies, fellowships, etc. Divisions between one group and another are defined by authority and doctrine; issues such as the nature of Jesus, the authority of apostolic succession, biblical hermeneutics, theology, ecclesiology, eschatology, and papal primacy may separate one denomination from another. Groups of denominations—often sharing broadly similar beliefs, practices, and historical ties—are sometimes known as "branches of Christianity". These branches differ in many ways, especially through differences in practices and belief.
The Nazarenes were an early Jewish Christian sect in first-century Judaism. The first use of the term is found in the Acts of the Apostles of the New Testament, where Paul the Apostle is accused of being a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes before the Roman procurator Antonius Felix at Caesarea Maritima by Tertullus. At that time, the term simply designated followers of Jesus of Nazareth, as the Hebrew term נוֹצְרִי, and the Arabic term نَصَارَى, still do.
Jewish Christians were the followers of a Jewish religious sect that emerged in Judea during the late Second Temple period. The Nazarene Jews integrated the belief of Jesus as the prophesied Messiah and his teachings into the Jewish faith, including the observance of the Jewish law. The name may derive from the city of Nazareth, or from prophecies in Isaiah and elsewhere where the verb occurs as a descriptive plural noun, or from both. Jewish Christianity is the foundation of Early Christianity, which later developed into Christianity. Christianity started with Jewish eschatological expectations, and it developed into the worship of a deified Jesus after his earthly ministry, his crucifixion, and the post-crucifixion experiences of his followers. Modern scholarship is engaged in an ongoing debate as to the proper designation for Jesus' first followers. Many see the term Jewish Christians as anachronistic given that there is no consensus on the date of the birth of Christianity. Some modern scholars have suggested the designations "Jewish believers in Jesus" or "Jewish followers of Jesus" as better reflecting the original context.
Criticism of Christianity has a long history which stretches back to the initial formation of the religion in the Roman Empire. Critics have challenged Christian beliefs and teachings as well as Christian actions, from the Crusades to modern terrorism. The arguments against Christianity include the suppositions that it is a faith of violence, corruption, superstition, polytheism, homophobia, transphobia, bigotry, pontification, abuses of women's rights and sectarianism.
This is a glossary of terms used in Christianity.
Postchristianity is the situation in which Christianity is no longer the dominant civil religion of a society but has gradually assumed values, culture, and worldviews that are not necessarily Christian. Post-Christian tends to refer to the loss of Christianity's monopoly to in historically Christian societies to atheism or secularism. It does not include formerly Christian-majority societies that now follow other religions such as Islam.
The Oriental Orthodox Churches are Eastern Christian churches adhering to Miaphysite Christology, with approximately 60 million members worldwide. The Oriental Orthodox Churches are part of the Nicene Christian tradition, and represent one of its oldest branches.
Christianity in the 1st century covers the formative history of Christianity from the start of the ministry of Jesus to the death of the last of the Twelve Apostles and is thus also known as the Apostolic Age. Early Christianity developed out of the eschatological ministry of Jesus. Subsequent to Jesus' death, his earliest followers formed an apocalyptic messianic Jewish sect during the late Second Temple period of the 1st century. Initially believing that Jesus' resurrection was the start of the end time, their beliefs soon changed in the expected Second Coming of Jesus and the start of God's Kingdom at a later point in time.
In the 5th century in Christianity, there were many developments which led to further fracturing of the State church of the Roman Empire. Emperor Theodosius II called two synods in Ephesus, one in 431 and one in 449, that addressed the teachings of Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius and similar teachings. Nestorius had taught that Christ's divine and human nature were distinct persons, and hence Mary was the mother of Christ but not the mother of God. The Council rejected Nestorius' view causing many churches, centered on the School of Edessa, to a Nestorian break with the imperial church. Persecuted within the Roman Empire, many Nestorians fled to Persia and joined the Sassanid Church thereby making it a center of Nestorianism. By the end of the 5th century, the global Christian population was estimated at 10-11 million. In 451 the Council of Chalcedon was held to clarify the issue further. The council ultimately stated that Christ's divine and human nature were separate but both part of a single entity, a viewpoint rejected by many churches who called themselves miaphysites. The resulting schism created a communion of churches, including the Armenian, Syrian, and Egyptian churches, that is today known as Oriental Orthodoxy. In spite of these schisms, however, the imperial church still came to represent the majority of Christians within the Roman Empire.
Nazarene is a title used to describe people from the city of Nazareth in the New Testament, and is a title applied to Jesus, who, according to the New Testament, grew up in Nazareth, a town in Galilee, now in northern Israel. The word is used to translate two related terms that appear in the Greek New Testament: Nazarēnos ('Nazarene') and Nazōraios ('Nazorean'). The phrases traditionally rendered as "Jesus of Nazareth" can also be translated as "Jesus the Nazarene" or "Jesus the Nazorean", and the title Nazarene may have a religious significance instead of denoting a place of origin. Both Nazarene and Nazorean are irregular in Greek and the additional vowel in Nazorean complicates any derivation from Nazareth.
Christianity in late antiquity traces Christianity during the Christian Roman Empire – the period from the rise of Christianity under Emperor Constantine, until the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The end-date of this period varies because the transition to the sub-Roman period occurred gradually and at different times in different areas. One may generally date late ancient Christianity as lasting to the late 6th century and the re-conquests under Justinian of the Byzantine Empire, though a more traditional end-date is 476, the year in which Odoacer deposed Romulus Augustus, traditionally considered the last western emperor.
Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire when Emperor Theodosius I issued the Edict of Thessalonica in 380, which recognized the catholic orthodoxy of Nicene Christians in the Great Church as the Roman Empire's state religion. Most historians refer to the Nicene church associated with emperors in a variety of ways: as the catholic church, the orthodox church, the imperial church, the imperial Roman church, or the Byzantine church, although some of those terms are also used for wider communions extending outside the Roman Empire. The Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, and the Catholic Church all claim to stand in continuity from the Nicene church to which Theodosius granted recognition.
Christian culture generally includes all the cultural practices which have developed around the religion of Christianity. There are variations in the application of Christian beliefs in different cultures and traditions.
Today, the Christian community in India includes approximately 62 million people, about 6 percent of the population. Of these, 14 million are Roman Catholic and 3 million are Orthodox.
Protestants 21,100,000 Independents 18,200,000 Roman Catholics 21,700,000 (2010)
Throughout his diary, Rogers abbreviates 'Christ' to 'X' and the same is true of 'Christian' ('Xian'), 'Antichrist' ('AntiX') and related words.
In modern times the name Christian ... has tended, in nominally Christian countries, to lose any credal significance and imply only that which is ethically praiseworthy (e.g. 'a Christian action') or socially customary ('Christian name').
Since the 1960s, there has been a substantial increase in the number of Muslims who have converted to Christianity
... The insights of Christian philosophy "would not have happened without the direct or indirect contribution of Christian faith" (FR 76). Typical Christian philosophers include St. Augustine, St. Bonaventure, and St. Thomas Aquinas. The benefits derived from Christian philosophy are twofold....
... Many of the scientists who contributed to these developments were Christians...
... the Christian contribution to science has been uniformly at the top level, but it has reached that level and it has been sufficiently strong overall ...
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: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) Many well-known historical figures who influenced Western science considered themselves Christian such as Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Alessandro Volta, Michael Faraday, William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin and James Clerk Maxwell.Many prominent Catholic physicians and psychologists have made significant contributions to hypnosis in medicine, dentistry, and psychology.
Virtually every major European composer contributed to the development of church music. Monteverdi, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Rossini, and Verdi are all examples of composers to have made significant contributions in this sphere. The Catholic church was without question one of the most important patrons of musical developments, and a crucial stimulus to the development of the western musical tradition.
Etymology