Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus. Most forms of Christianity hold that Jesus is the son of God and is the second person of the Trinity, through whom humans may attain redemption from sin.
  • noun Christians as a group; Christendom.
  • noun The state or fact of being a Christian.
  • noun A particular form or sect of the Christian religion.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The religion founded by Jesus Christ.
  • noun Dogmatic Christianity, the systems of theological doctrine founded on the New Testament. These systems differ with different churches, sects, and schools.
  • noun Vital Christianity, the spirit manifested by Jesus Christ in his life, and'which he commanded his followers to imitate.
  • noun The body of Christian believers.
  • noun The Christian or civilized world; Christendom.
  • noun Conformity to the teachings of Christ in life and conduct.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The religion of Christians; the system of doctrines and precepts taught by Christ.
  • noun Practical conformity of one's inward and outward life to the spirit of the Christian religion.
  • noun obsolete The body of Christian believers.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An Abrahamic religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ and various scholars who wrote the Christian Bible.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the collective body of Christians throughout the world and history (found predominantly in Europe and the Americas and Australia)
  • noun a monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament and emphasizing the role of Jesus as savior

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English cristente, from Old French crestiente, from Medieval Latin stem of christianitas, from Latin christianus, Christianus, from Ancient Greek Χριστιανός (Christianos), from Χριστός (Christos, "Christ, anointed one") + -ιανός (-ianos, "of, related to"). The term was respelled in the early modern English period to more closely reflect its Latin etymon. Its form is equivalent to Christian +‎ -ity.

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Examples

  • The 1981 Perennial Dictionary of World Religions classifies the Unitarian Universalist Association as a development within Christianity, but observes that the “new denomination, active in liberal causes, continues its predecessors’ the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America’s commitment to live in the tension between humanistic liberalism and Christianity” 776.

    Philocrites: Unitarian Universalism: In search of a definition 2003

  • Rather than locating us among the quasi-religious free thought groups or at the left flank of mainline Protestantism, A Handbook of Living Religions treats Unitarian Universalism as one of several marginal traditions related to Christianity: “There are movements which are only intelligible in relation to Christian faith, but which do not clearly have the marks of historic Christianity” 112.

    Philocrites: Unitarian Universalism: In search of a definition 2003

  • * Thus, instead of "The spirit of Christianity was humanizing, and therefore &c.," or "Christianity, since it was (or being) of a humanizing spirit, discouraged &c.," we can write more briefly and effectively, "Gladiatorial shows were first discouraged, and finally put down, by the _humanizing spirit of Christianity_."

    How to Write Clearly Rules and Exercises on English Composition Edwin A. Abbott

  • HPFacebookVoteV2. init (409720, 'Brit Hume To Tiger Woods: Convert To Christianity To Recover From Scandal (VIDEO)', 'Fox News\' Brit Hume gave Tiger Woods some personal advice Sunday morning, telling the scandal-plagued (and Buddhist) golfer to \'turn to Christianity\ 'to make a full recovery.

    Brit Hume To Tiger Woods: Convert To Christianity To Recover From Scandal (VIDEO) 2010

  • According to Ward, the significance of this sign in Christianity is that someone had descended to Earth and later re-ascended to Heaven.

    Hand Signed | SciFi, Fantasy & Horror Collectibles 2009

  • The ‘devil’, in Christianity, is far more pious than any living human is or was.

    jhvh is the enemy of god and man 2009

  • That the horror and the hypocrisy, the greed and the complacency, the endless cunning and the endless stupidity which now go to constitute what we term Christianity are dealt with here in absolutes, does not lessen the truth of its repudiation.

    Jan Herman: What's the Catch? Jan Herman 2011

  • That the horror and the hypocrisy, the greed and the complacency, the endless cunning and the endless stupidity which now go to constitute what we term Christianity are dealt with here in absolutes, does not lessen the truth of its repudiation.

    Jan Herman: What's the Catch? Jan Herman 2011

  • The norm in Christianity is genocide, colonialism, and forced conversion.

    Matthew Yglesias » Inauguration Trivia 2009

  • The concept of "savior" within Christianity is likley just a symptom.

    Saturday morning rant (story v language) lili 2008

Comments

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  • Act 11:26 And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

    January 17, 2010