A Christian (/ˈkrɪstʃən,-tiən/ⓘ) is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheisticAbrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world.[11] 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).[12] While there are diverse interpretations of Christianity which sometimes conflict,[13][14] they are united in believing that Jesus has a unique significance.[13] 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."[15] It does not mean "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.[16][17][18]
Etymology
The Greek word Χριστιανός (Christianos), meaning 'follower of Christ', comes from Χριστός (Christos), meaning 'anointed one',[19] with an adjectival ending borrowed from Latin to denote adhering to, or even belonging to, as in slave ownership.[20] In the GreekSeptuagint, christos was used to translate the Hebrewמָשִׁיחַ (Mašíaḥ, 'messiah'), meaning "[one who is] anointed".[21] 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.[22][23] 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.[25] The city of Antioch, where someone gave them the name Christians, had a reputation for coming up with such nicknames.[26] 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.[27]
The earliest occurrences of the term in non-Christian literature include Josephus, referring to "the tribe of Christians, so named from him;"[28]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"[29] and identifies Christians as Nero's scapegoats for the Great Fire of Rome.[30]
The term Nazarene was also used by the Jewish lawyer Tertullus (Against Marcion 4:8), who records the phrase "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".[31] The Hebrew equivalent of Nazarenes, Notzrim, occurs in the Babylonian Talmud, and is still the modern Israeli Hebrew term for Christian.
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.[32]
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."[13]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.[33]
Hebrew terms
Nazareth is described as the childhood home of Jesus. Many languages employ the word Nazarene as a general designation for those of Christian faith.[34]
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.[35] Adherents of Messianic Judaism are referred to in modern Hebrew as יְהוּדִים מְשִׁיחִיִּים (Yehudim Meshihi'im'Messianic Jews').
Arabic terms
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.[36] Where there is a distinction, Naṣrānī refers to people from a Christian culture and Masīḥī is used by Christians themselves for those with a religious faith in Jesus.[37] In some countries Naṣrānī tends to be used generically for non-Muslim Western foreigners.[38]
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.[36][39] However, Ṣalībī is a modern term; historically, Muslim writers described European Christian Crusaders as al-Faranj or Alfranj (الفرنج) and Firinjīyah (الفرنجيّة) in Arabic.[40] 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.[41][42]
The most common Persian word is Masīhī (مسیحی), from Arabic. Other words are Nasrānī (نصرانی), from Syriac for 'Nazarene', and Tarsā (ترسا), from the Middle Persian word Tarsāg, also meaning 'Christian', derived from tars, meaning 'fear, respect'.[43]
An old Kurdish word for Christian frequently in usage was felle (فەڵە), coming from the root word meaning 'to be saved, attain salvation'.[44]
In the past, the Malays used to call Christians in Malay by the Portuguese loanword Serani (from Arabic Naṣrānī), 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.[49] The term is 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.
Japanese Christians (Kurisuchan) in Portuguese costume, 16–17th century
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-Korean기독 (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 {{lang[fil|Kristiyanismo}} (for 'Christianity') in most Philippine languages; both derive 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 use 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.[50] 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 the earliest times became almost as common 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 to denote "free" Christians of steppe origin and East Slavic language.
Other non-religious usages
Nominally "Christian" societies made "Christian" a default label for citizenship or for "people like us".[51]
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.[52]
As of 2020, Christianity has approximately 2.4 billion adherents.[1][2][53][54][55] 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.[56]
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.[70] 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.[71]
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,[72] and the highest numbers of years of schooling among Christians were found in Germany (13.6),[72]New Zealand (13.5)[72] and Estonia (13.1).[72] 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).[72] Between the various Christian communities, Singapore outranks other nations in terms of Christians who obtain a university degree in institutions of higher education (67%),[72] followed by the Christians of Israel (63%),[73] and the Christians of Georgia (57%).[72]
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,[72] 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".[72] According to the same study, Christians have a significant amount of gender equality in educational attainment,[72] 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.[72]
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".[83] 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.[84][85]
In 2017, Open Doors, a human rights NGO, estimated approximately 260 million Christians are subjected annually to "high, very high, or extreme persecution",[101] with North Korea considered the most hazardous nation for Christians.[102][103]
In 2019, a report[104][105] 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,[17] and that it is global and not limited to Islamic states.[105] This investigation found that approximately 80% of persecuted believers worldwide are Christians.[18]
^Ehrman, Bart D. (2014). How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee. HarperOne. ISBN978-0-06-177818-6.
^Melton, J. Gordon (2005). Encyclopedia of Protestantism. Infobase Publishing. pp. 284–285. ISBN978-0-8160-6983-5. 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.
^A history of ancient Greek by Maria Chritē, Maria Arapopoulou, Centre for the Greek Language (Thessalonikē, Greece) pg 436 ISBN0-521-83307-8
^Wilken, Robert Louis (27 November 2012). The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. p. 26. ISBN978-0-300-11884-1.
^Bickerman (1949) p. 145, "The Christians got their appellation from 'Christus,' that is, 'the Anointed,' the Messiah."
^ abcWoodhead, Linda (2004). Christianity: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. n.p.
^Beal, Timothy (2008). Religion in America: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. pp. 35, 39. 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, 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.
^Bickerman, 1949 p. 147, "All these Greek terms, formed with the Latin suffix -ianus, exactly as the Latin words of the same derivation, express the idea that the men or things referred to, belong to the person to whose name the suffix is added." p. 145, "In Latin this suffix produced proper names of the type Marcianus and, on the other hand, derivatives from the name of a person, which referred to his belongings, like fundus Narcissianus, or, by extension, to his adherents, Ciceroniani."
^"X, n. 10". OED Online. Oxford University Press. March 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2019.
^Rogers, Samuel (2004). Webster, Tom; Shipps, Kenneth W. (eds.). The Diary of Samuel Rogers, 1634–1638. Boydell Press. p. 4. ISBN9781843830436. Retrieved 8 January 2019. Throughout his diary, Rogers abbreviates 'Christ' to 'X' and the same is true of 'Christian' ('Xian'), 'Antichrist' ('AntiX') and related words.
^#Wuest-1973 p. 19. "The word is used three times in the New Testament, and each time as a term of reproach or derision. Here in Antioch, the name Christianos was coined to distinguish the worshippers of the Christ from the Kaisarianos, the worshippers of Caesar."
^#Wuest-1973 p. 19. "The city of Antioch in Syria had a reputation for coining nicknames."
^Christine Trevett Christian Women and the Time of the Apostolic Fathers 2006 "'Christians' (christianoi) was a term first coined in Syrian Antioch (Acts 11:26) and which appeared next in Christian sources in Ignatius, Eph 11.2; Rom 3.2; Pol 7.3. Cf. too Did 12.4; MPol 3.1; 10.1; 12.1–2; EpDiog 1.1; 4.6; 5.1;"
^Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies: Volume 65, Issue 1 University of London. School of Oriental and African Studies – 2002 "around 331, Eusebius says of the place name Nazareth that 'from this name the Christ was called a Nazoraean, and in ancient times we, who are now called Christians, were once called Nazarenes';6 thus he attributes this designation"
^Beal, Timothy (2008). Religion in America: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 35.
^Rashid al-din Fazl Allâh, quoted in Karl Jahn (ed.) Histoire Universelle de Rasid al-Din Fadl Allah Abul=Khair: I. Histoire des Francs (Texte Persan avec traduction et annotations), Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1951. (Source: M. Ashtiany)
^سنة ٤٩١ – "ذكر ملك الفرنج مدينة أنطاكية" في الكامل في التاريخ
^John, Vinod (19 November 2020). Believing Without Belonging?: Religious Beliefs and Social Belonging of Hindu Devotees of Christ. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 111. ISBN978-1-5326-9722-7. "Isai" is the most common form of address for Christians throughout northern India.
^
Compare: Cross, Frank Leslie; Livingstone, Elizabeth A., eds. (1957). "Christian". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press (published 2005). p. 336. ISBN9780192802903. Retrieved 5 December 2016. 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').
^Blainey, Geoffrey (2011). A Short History of Christianity. Penguin Random House Australia. ISBN978-1-74253-416-9. Since the 1960s, there has been a substantial increase in the number of Muslims who have converted to Christianity
^The Next Christendom: The Rise of Global Christianity. New York: Oxford University Press. 2002. 270 pp.
^Analysis (19 December 2011). "Europe". Pewforum.org. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
^Analysis (19 December 2011). "Americas". Pewforum.org. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
^E. McGrath, Alister (2006). Christianity: An Introduction. John Wiley & Sons. p. 336. ISBN1405108991.
^Caltron J.H Hayas, Christianity and Western Civilization (1953), Stanford University Press, p.2: "That certain distinctive features of our Western civilization – the civilization of western Europe and of America— have been shaped chiefly by Judaeo – Graeco – Christianity, Catholic and Protestant."
^ abDawson, Christopher; Olsen, Glenn (1961). Crisis in Western Education (reprint ed.). CUA Press. p. 108. ISBN978-0-8132-1683-6.
^Curtis, Michael (2017). Jews, Antisemitism, and the Middle East. Routledge. p. 173. ISBN9781351510721.
^D. Barr, Michael (2012). Cultural Politics and Asian Values. Routledge. p. 81. ISBN9781136001666.
^A. Spinello, Richard (2012). The Encyclicals of John Paul II: An Introduction and Commentary. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 147. ISBN978-1-4422-1942-7. ... 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....
^Wilkens, Steve (2010). Christianity and Western Thought: Journey to Postmodernity in the Twentieth Century. InterVarsity Press. p. 326. ISBN9780830868148.
^Gilley, Sheridan; Stanley, Brian (2006). The Cambridge History of Christianity: Volume 8, World Christianities C.1815-c.1914. Cambridge University Press. p. 164. ISBN0-521-81456-1. ... Many of the scientists who contributed to these developments were Christians...
^Steane, Andrew (2014). Faithful to Science: The Role of Science in Religion. OUP Oxford. p. 179. ISBN978-0-19-102513-6. ... 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 ...
^S. Kroger, William (2016). Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis in Medicine, Dentistry and Psychology. Pickle Partners Publishing. ISBN978-1-78720-304-4. Many prominent Catholic physicians and psychologists have made significant contributions to hypnosis in medicine, dentistry, and psychology.
^Porterfield, Amanda (2005). Healing in the History of Christianity. Oxford University Press. p. 145. ISBN9780195157185.
^Woods Jr., Thomas (2012). How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. Regnery Publishing. p. 2. ISBN9781596983281.
^Sinclair, Scott Gambrill (2008). An Introduction to Christianity for a New Millennium. Lexington Books. p. 140. ISBN9781461632924.
^G. Ardila, J. A. (2016). The Picaresque Novel in Western Literature. Cambridge University Press. p. 16. ISBN9781107031654.
^E. McGrath, Alister (2006). Christianity: An Introduction. John Wiley & Sons. p. 336. ISBN1405108991. 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.
^W. Williams, Peter (2016). Religion, Art, and Money: Episcopalians and American Culture from the Civil War to the Great Depression. University of North Carolina Press. p. 176. ISBN9781469626987.
^Sider, Sandra (2007). Handbook to Life in Renaissance Europe. Oxford University Press. p. 209. ISBN9781469626987.
^Baruch A. Shalev, 100 Years of Nobel Prizes (2003), Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, p. 57: "between 1901 and 2000 reveals that 654 Laureates belong to 28 different religions. Most (65.4%) have identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference."ISBN978-0-935047-37-0.
^Mounstephen, Philip. "Interim report".Bishop of Truro's Independent Review for the Foreign Secretary of FCO Support for Persecuted Christians. April 2019. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
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