Christianity: introduction and definitionsComplaint Emails we have received about
our definition of "Christian!" (Continued)
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This discussion is a continuation from in
another essay
Negative comments we have received about our definition of Christian
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Your definition is wrong because it includes denomination XXXXX which
is not Christian: This is one of the most common types of Emails that we
receive, where "XXXXX" is most commonly Roman Catholic,
Mormon, Jehovah's Witnesses,
United Church, or Progressive Christianity. The
problem here is that if you went to a member of one of these groups, you would
probably find that they regard themselves as Christians -- perhaps
the only true Christians. They might well regard the letter writer as a
non-Christian, sub-Christian. or quasi-Christian.
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If you are getting lots of Emails about your definition of "Christian"
perhaps you are wrong: As we indicated above, we have over 40 definitions
of "Christian" in this section. They are all different. There is no consensus
on which is the right definition. So one can expect that no matter what
definition we choose, many -- probably most of our site visitors -- will
disagree with it.
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"Christian" means something; your definition doesn't mean anything:
The term means a lot of different things to different people. There is no
universally accepted definition. There is probably no definition that the
majority of people who consider themselves to be Christians would accept.
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You are arrogant to suggest that your definition is authoritative:
We do not consider that our definition is authoritative. We merely
consider it to be one of many available definitions -- the one that we chose
for our web site.
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A Christian is one who believes in Biblical Christianity: There is
a problem with your definition, because "Biblical Christianity" has itself
many meanings.
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The Jewish Christians -- the only Christians
prior to the arrival of Paul in the late 30's -- under the leadership of
James the brother of Jesus, rejected the virgin birth,
regarded Jesus as a prophet, and rejected his deity.
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Most progressive Christians today also reject the virgin birth, and doubt
that most of the miracles described in the New Testament actually happened.
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Mainline and progressive theologians generally interpret the Gospels as
including many sayings and activities of Jesus that never happened; they
were added by the anonymous authors in order to promote their faith group's
evolving theology.
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Even the Jehovah's Witnesses and
Mormons believe that they "know" what Biblical Christianity is all
about, although they differ greatly from each other and from other wings of
Christianity.
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So "biblical Christianity" is a meaningless term. One can only talk meaningfully about
Mormon biblical Christianity, Jehovah's Witness biblical Christianity,
Roman Catholic biblical Christianity,
progressive biblical Christianity, mainline
biblical Christianity, evangelical biblical
Christianity, fundamentalist biblical Christianity, and others.... but not
"biblical Christianity."
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I'm not understanding why you present your website as authoritative on
religion, but see no problem with the fact that (by your own admission) you
can't define Christianity. Isn't this kind of like claiming you're a
professional chef, yet can't cook a hamburger? Actually, we do
provide a definition of "Christian: "We accept as Christian any individual or group who devoutly, thoughtfully, seriously, and prayerfully regards themselves to be Christian. That is, they honestly believe themselves to be attempting to follow the teachings of Yeshua of Nazareth (a.k.a. Jesus Christ) as they interpret those teachings to be."
What we say we cannot do is to provide a universally acceptable definition of
"Christian." In fact, nobody can. We list many definitions of "Christian" as
provided by various faith groups, secular sources, our own web site, etc.
There are literally hundreds of different conflicting, and sometimes mutually
exclusive definitions. However, nobody can define exactly which of these, if
any, is the "true" definition. And even if there were a "true" definition, it
would be impossible to get everyone to agree to it.
| | I'm sure you've already heard this, but have made the decision NOT to
post this on your site (because it's always more fun to paint Christianity
with an incoherent brush), but the term 'Christian' literally means "little
Christs", i.e., 'followers of Jesus'. If this is STILL to difficult for you
to figure out, then here's a few similar examples:
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People from California are called Californians.
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People who follow Buddha are called Buddhists.
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People who practice law are called lawyers |
See how that works? It's only as complicated as you MAKE it.
Defining "Christian" as a follower of Jesus is a fairly common one. The
problem is that there is no consensus on what Jesus expects of humans. The
Bible seems to be quite ambiguous on this point. If you don't believe this,
then organize a meeting involving a Roman Catholic, Southern Baptist, Assembly
of God member, Jehovah's Witness, ELCA member, Mormon, etc. and ask them to
reach a consensus on any topic -- e.g. who are saved?
It will be quite impossible for them to reach a consensus.
Ask a Southern
Baptist whether they are a follower of Jesus. The answer will be yes.
Ask a Jehovah's Witness whether they are a follower of Jesus. The answer
will be yes.
As a Southern Baptist whether Jehovah's Witnesses are followers of Jesus. The
answer will probably be no.
As a Jehovah's Witness whether Southern Baptists are followers of Jesus. The
answer will probably be no.
Our essays in this
section present the facts:
- there are many dozens of definition of "Christian" -- perhaps hundreds --
in common use.
- there is no consensus on which is the "true" definition,
- most people are supremely confident that their definition -- alone -- is the
true one.
It is like "God:"
- there are many hundreds of definitions of God, including his/her/their/its
name, location, attributes, expectations, etc.
- there is no consensus on what God's name, attributes, etc. are.
- most people are supremely confident that their definition -- alone -- is the
true one. |
If we have not addressed your concern....:If you have a complaint about our definition of "Christian" that is not
covered above, please feel free to write us. We will
consider adding it to the above list. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that we
will be able to answer your Email.
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Copyright © 2009 to 2012 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Originally written: 2007-DEC-20
Latest update: 2012-MAR-14
Author: B.A. Robinson 
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