Talk:Christian (disambiguation)

Clarification

I have moved the following here. I have never heard of this absurd claim before:

Note: The term Christian was originally a derogatory statement made by those of either Roman decent or popular Roman influence (See: Roman Conquest) during the early A.D. periods between the Birth of Christ and the eventual fall of Rome at the hands of the Germanics. Consequently, many educated followers of Jesus Christ refuse to associate themselves with this label; more times than one, they'll simply refer to themselves as Followers of Jesus or a Follower of The Way.

Likewise, the way the paragraph was written reveals a great deal of ignorance regarding the history of Christianity in the Empire. The "persecution period" did NOT last all the way up to the "fall of rome".

Please give a reputable citation to the effect that "Christian" was a derogatory term.

That's what we were taught in Sunday school, and there are tons and tons and tons of citations online detailing that effect. A simple google search found many from various official Catholic and other religious websites confirms this. - John

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I'm the original writer of that paragraph - I suppose I didn't cite enough information about all of that. My apologies.

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The Greek plural is Christianoi, the suffix is a diminutive, hence "little Christs". If you wanted to use a Germanic suffix, "Christlings" might have a similar sense. Whether or not this is derogatory is open to debate.

However, the most common reason for a Chrisitan preferring to identify themselves by some other term is that since there is a great breadth of opinion, and very subtle shades of opinion, among Christians on what is necessary to be Christian, some avoid the phrase "I am a Christian" because it could mean a great number of things, some of which were certainly not intended, to the hearer.

is this article kinda stubbish or what?

I looked at Jew and Muslim recently. Jew is real comprehensive and Muslim is quite good. 'Christian' has essentially nothing. Does anyone find this weird?? I'm gonna look at christianity but wow. still. If anyone knows anyone who might wann help hook this article up, please pass the word along. it needs it. I'm not qualified. Kzzl

Disambiguation

One thing that's really lacking here are the other definitions for "Christian" -- my dictionary lists several after the "professing belief in Christ" part, including Manifesting the qualities or spirit of Jesus, Relating to or characteristic of Christianity or its adherents, Showing a loving concern for others, and Humane. I think there needs to be more about the term "Christian" as its used in the more general sense, as in a "Christian thing to do", which certainly doesn't require the person doing the "Christian" thing to be a practicing Christian or, for that matter, even believe in God. (JKA)

I think we should move this to Christian (disambiguation), redirect this page to Christianity and add a link to the former disambig page on top of the latter. The Christianity meaning is the primary one, and the links seem to indicate that as well. --Joy [shallot] 17:29, 26 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I agree. How many links are there to the given name Christian? --Henrygb 16:58, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I agree, but on the other hand, why don't we have an article for "Christian" like there are for Muslim and Jew for example? Those religions have their own pages, as well - Islam and Judaism. Change the content of this page and add an disambiguation page to the names list... plus that would allow us to move the "Christianity today" section from the Christianity page to this one, helping that article with its length problems. Spangineer 21:53, Nov 18, 2004 (UTC)

User:Netoholic made the change to move out the disambiguation to a separate page... but the page is a sub-stub, really, and we don't want that for such a popular subject. When someone writes something substantial, it can exist separately, but until then, I'll redirect it to Christianity and add the semi-disambig note. --Joy [shallot] 14:13, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I really think that's a poor decision. It may be a sub-stub, but right now I am working on fixing all the links to Christian. Links referring to Christian (noun form) people are linking there, while other Christian (adjective form) are being sent straight to Christianity. Please don't confuse things by reverting that. We all agree this separate article should exist, so now we just need to put down some text. We don't just redirect "until someone writes something substantial". If you redirect, then the page won't get written, and people cannot find Christian (disambiguation). -- Netoholic @ 16:48, 2004 Dec 29 (UTC)

The page won't get written by us wishing for it, and yes, people will find the disambig page, because I linked it from the top of Christianity. You can go around changing links to point to the right place without having the substub instead of the redirect. --Joy [shallot] 20:33, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

kthxbai. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Editzor (talk • contribs) 21:43, 5 March 2007 (UTC).

Disambiguation, November 2008

Someone has proposed moving Christian (word) to Christian, thus removing the disambiguation page from this title. See Talk:Christian (word)#Requested move. Incoming links to this page need disambiguation; there are thousands. You can help. --Una Smith (talk) 20:42, 28 November 2008 (UTC)