What Is Your Definition Of The Word Christian

This feels like a way of legitimising Christianity, and also presuming certain behaviour is only to be identified with Christians.

 

do you mean legit as in legal? or as in real ?

 

Real.

 

well, in the humane sense of the word christian its already real.so theres no need ta try and make what already exists.

 

What do you mean?

 

i remember once being told by a mate that someone who was christian was someone who believed in jesus as the son of god and identified with one of those religions etc etc. and that technically someone who just thought jesus was a bloke who had some good ideas, or maybe even didn't exist but said good stuff and tries to live by those rules should call themselves "christist"; like the distinction between marxist and marxian. he wasn't really being serious, i don't think, but the distinction makes sense (i think, i don't really know suffixes, maybe it should be the other way around.) and would help clear up a lot of confusion.

 

As one of those who just thinks Jesus was a bloke who had some good ideas, I've been told (by Skip) I should call myself a Jesusist. But I prefer to call myself a Christian to underscore my conviction that those good ideas were mainly what Jesus was about, and the baggage tacked on by Paul, the Gospel writers, the Council of Nicea, etc., was their own load of crap.

 

that makes more sense, since jesus was his actual name whereas "christ" was a title. trips off the tongue better than "christian agnostic" and suchlike.

 

Christian atheist? Isn't that an oxymoron?

 

one who believes in the teachings of Jesus Christ.

 

if you primarily follow the teachings of jesus but don't believe that he was a divine being (and, in fact, don't believe that one exists at all) then you are a christian atheist.

i don't think its an ideal term for it, i think jesusist or christist would be better, since they get to the point more concisely.

 

jesus was'nt religious

 

To me a christian is someone who follows the literal word of the entire Bible. Anyone who claims to be a christian but does not live in this way is being dishonest. I don't think I've ever met a christian.

 

to my mind driving the money changers out of the temple was a religious act.

also when my ex took comparative religion at emory university they cited a sea captain who wrote of seeing him at a distance when in port as the only known eye witness of his time.

 

My definition of a Christian: someone belonging to one of the approximately 41,000 Christian sects...or someone who doesn't belong to one of them but likes what Jesus purportedly said and cares to call themselves a Christian.

 

It means that you got "saved". Asked Jesus in your heart, and follow the Christian teachings. That's it.

 

Most Christians wouldn't accept your definition. The Bible thumper fundies are mostly American gothics. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Mainline Protestants wouldn't qualify as Christian by that definition. In the third century, Origen, the first Christian theologian to develop a systematic approach to interpreting the Bible, went on and on ridiculing literal interpretations of Genesis. He advised taking a literal approach as the first step, to show how absurd and contradictory the results were, thereby opening the way for more sophisticated understandings. Saint Augustine said "When I read the Bible literally, I was slain spiritually."

 

The person I learned this from has passed, however she learned this as part of her study of comparative religion at Emory University in Atlanta.