What is "christian"

Christian \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.)

   1. 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.

   2. 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.

Christian \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 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. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

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.

16c., forms replacing earlier Christen, from Old English cristen (noun and adjective), from a West Germanic borrowing of Church Latin christianus, from Ecclesiastical Greek christianos, from Christos (see Christ). First used in Antioch, according to Acts xi:25-26. Christian Science as the name of a religious sect is from 1863.

A Christian is an adherent of Christianity.

Christian may also refer to:

• Anything associated with Christianity
• Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
• Christian churches and churches of Christ

Christian is a Czech comedy film directed by Martin Frič. It was released in 1939. The film is based on a French play.

Christian Perrin, known by his stage-name Christian, was a French actor and singer in operetta, born in Paris, 1 January 1821, and died there in December 1889. He had a long and successful career in Paris from the 1850s up to his death.

Christian is a 1989 Danish drama film directed by Gabriel Axel. It was entered into the main competition at the 46th Venice International Film Festival.

Gaetano Cristiano Rossi (born 8 September 1949), best known as Christian, is an Italian singer, mainly successful in the first half of the 1980s.

"Christian" is a song by China Crisis. It was released as a single from their 1982 debut album Difficult Shapes & Passive Rhythms, Some People Think It's Fun to Entertain and was the band's first major success on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number 12 in February 1983.

Christian originated as a Baptismal name used by persons of the Christian religion. It is now a given name born by males, and by females as Christiana and other feminized variants. An historically commonly used abbreviation, used for example on English 17th century church monuments and pedigrees, is Xpian, using the Greek Chi Rho Christogram Χρ, pronounced in English "chr", short for Χριστός (pronounced "Christos"), Christ. The Greek form of the baptismal name is Χριστιανός (pronounced "Christianos"), a Christian. The name denotes a follower of Christ, thus a Christian. It has been used as a given name since the Middle Ages, at first as a name for females, without any feminising word endings.

Today the name is popular in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Estonia. Today in Europe — though not the United States — it is almost exclusively used as a male name, but in the 17th and 18th centuries it was a popular female first name in Scotland.

Female variants of the name include Christine, Christina, Christiane, Cristiane, Kristen, Kristin, and Kirsten. Holders of the name Christian may go by the nicknames or shortened forms Chris, Chrissy, "Crix", or Xian.

A Christian ( or ) is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. "Christian" derives from the Koine Greek word Christós , a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term mashiach.

There are diverse interpretations of Christianity which sometimes conflict, they are at least united in believing that Jesus has a unique significance. The term "Christian" is used adjectivally to describe anything associated with Christianity, or in a proverbial sense "all that is noble, and good, and Christ-like."

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. By 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion. According to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey Christianity will remain the world's largest religion in 2050, if current trends continue.

Today, about 37% of all Christians live in the Americas, and about 26% live in Europe, 24% of total Christians live in sub-Saharan Africa, about 13% in Asia and the Pacific, and 1% of the world's Christians live in the Middle east and North Africa. About half of all Christians worldwide are Catholic, while more than a third are Protestant (37%). Orthodox communions comprise 12% of the world's Christians. Other Christian groups make up the remainder. Christians make up the majority of the population in 158 countries and territories. 280 million Christian live as a minority.

Christians have made a myriad contributions in a broad and diverse range of fields, including the sciences, arts, politics, literatures and business. According to 100 Years of Nobel Prizes, a review of Nobel prizes awarded between 1901 and 2000 reveals that (65.4%) of Nobel Prizes laureates identified Christianity in its various forms as their religious preference.

Christian is a surname from the Latin "Christianus" meaning follower of Christ, from "christus" ("anointed"), created to translate the Hebrew messiah. As one of the native Manx surnames the name originates as an anglicisation of "Mac Christen"; Notable people with the surname include:

• Mitchell Christian (Born 1997), American Pyromaniac. Alexander Ryan Werner as Sidekick.
• Benny Gay Christian (1925-1982), American politician
• Bill Christian (born 1938), American ice hockey player
• Charlie Christian (1916–1942), American swing and jazz guitarist
• Claudia Christian (born 1965), American actress, a writer, a director singer and musician
• Dave Christian (born 1959), American ice hockey player
• Ewan Christian (1814–1895), British architect
• Fletcher Christian (1764–1793), the leader of the mutineers on the HMS Bounty and the founder of a colony on Pitcairn Island
• Frank Christian (disambiguation), several people
• Garth Christian, English nature writer, editor, teacher and conservationist
• Glen Christian, American football player
• Hans Christian, German-born American musician and producer
• Henry B. Christian (1883–1953), American painter
• Hugh Cloberry Christian (1747–1798), Royal Navy rear-admiral
• Ivan Christian (born 1919), Pitcairn Island politician
• James Christian, American musician
• John Christian (disambiguation), multiple people
• J. Orlean Christian (c. 1898–1979), American college sports coach
• Linda Christian (born 1923), Mexican film actress
• Luci Christian (born 1973), American voice actress
• Roy Christian, New Zealand rugby league football player
• Shawn Christian (born 1965), American television and film actor
• Stephen Christian (born 1980), American rock singer
• Steve Christian (born 1951), Pitcairn Island politician
• Steve Christian (DJ), English record producer, a DJ and musician
• Terry Christian (born 1962), British television and radio presenter
• Thomas Christian (1754-1828), Manx poet and translator
• Tom Christian (1935–2013), Pitcairn Island radio operator
• William Christian (disambiguation), several people