Definitions for: Christian


[n] a religious person who believes Jesus is the Christ and is a member of a Christian denomination
[adj] following the teachings or manifesting the qualities or spirit of Jesus Christ
[adj] (religion) relating to or characteristic of Christianity; "Christian rites"



Webster (1913) Definition: Chris"tian, n. [L. christianus, Gr. ?; cf. AS.
cristen. See Christ.]
1. One who believes, or professes or is assumed to believe,
in Jesus Christ, and the truth as taught by Him;
especially, one whose inward and outward life is conformed
to the doctrines of Christ.

The disciples were called Christians first in
Antioch. --Acts xi. 26.

2. One born in a Christian country or of Christian parents,
and who has not definitely becomes an adherent of an
opposing system.

3. (Eccl.)
(a) One of a Christian denomination which rejects human
creeds as bases of fellowship, and sectarian names.
They are congregational in church government, and
baptize by immersion. They are also called {Disciples
of Christ}, and Campbellites.
(b) One of a sect (called Christian Connection) of
open-communion immersionists. The Bible is their only
authoritative rule of faith and practice.

Note: In this sense, often pronounced, but not by the members
of the sects, kr[=i]s"chan.


Chris"tian, a.
1. Pertaining to Christ or his religion; as, Christian
people.

3. Pertaining to the church; ecclesiastical; as, a Christian
court. --Blackstone.

4. Characteristic of Christian people; civilized; kind;
kindly; gentle; beneficent.

The graceful tact; the Christian art. --Tennyson.

Christian Commission. See under Commission.

Christian court. Same as Ecclesiastical court.

Christian era, the present era, commencing with the birth
of Christ. It is supposed that owing to an error of a monk
(Dionysius Exiguus, d. about 556) employed to calculate
the era, its commencement was fixed three or four years
too late, so that 1890 should be 1893 or 1894.

Christian name, the name given in baptism, as distinct from
the family name, or surname.


Chris"tian, a.

Christian Endeavor, Young People's Society of. In various
Protestant churches, a society of young people organized
in each individual church to do Christian work; also, the
whole body of such organizations, which are united in a
corporation called the United Society of Christian
Endeavor, organized in 1885. The parent society was
founded in 1881 at Portland, Maine, by Rev. Francis E.
Clark, a Congregational minister. Christian Era Christian

Synonyms: christianly, christlike, christly

Antonyms: unchristian

See Also: Adventist, Apostle, arianist, born-again Christian, Catholic, Christian church, church, communicant, Copt, Friend, Gentile, goy, non-Jew, Old Catholic, Protestant, Quaker, religionist, religious person, Second Adventist, Shaker, Tractarian

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