Christians
χριστιανοί
|
| Total population |
|---|
| c. 2.4 billion worldwide (2015)[1][2] |
| Founder |
|---|
| Jesus |
| Regions with significant populations |
|---|
 European Union | 373,656,000[3] |
|---|
 United States | 246,790,000[2] |
|---|
 Brazil | 175,770,000[2] |
|---|
 Mexico | 107,780,000[2] |
|---|
 Russia | 105,220,000[2] |
|---|
 Philippines | 86,790,000[2] |
|---|
 Nigeria | 80,510,000[2] |
|---|
 China | 67,070,000[2] |
|---|
 Democratic Republic of the Congo | 63,150,000[2] |
|---|
 Ethiopia | 52,580,000[2] |
|---|
| Religions |
|---|
Christianity
- 50% Catholicism: Latin Church, Eastern Catholic Churches[2]
- 37% Protestantism: Adventism, Anglicanism, Baptist churches, Reformed churches, Lutheranism, Methodism, Pentecostalism and other denominations[2]
- 12% Orthodoxy: Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodox Churches[2]
- 1% Other Christian traditions: incl. Assyrian Church of the East, Latter Day Saint movement, Jehovah's Witnesses, Unitarianism and Nondenominational churches[2]
|
| Scriptures |
|---|
| Bible |
| Languages |
|---|
- Predominant spoken languages:[4]
Sacred languages:
|
While there are diverse interpretations of Christianity which sometimes conflict,
[8][9] they are united in believing that Jesus has a unique significance.
[8] The term "Christian" is also used as an adjective to describe anything associated with Christianity, or in a proverbial sense "all that is noble, and good, and Christ-like."
[10]
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.
[2] By 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion.
[2]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, about 26% live in
Europe, 24% live in
sub-Saharan Africa, about 13% live in
Asia and the
Pacific, and 1% live in the
Middle East and
North Africa.
[2] About half of all Christians worldwide are
Catholic, while more than a third are
Protestant (37%).
[2] Orthodox communions comprise 12% of the world's Christians.
[2] Other Christian groups make up the remainder. Christians make up the majority of the population in 158 countries and territories.
[2] 280 million Christians live as a minority.
Etymology
The Greek word
Χριστιανός (
Christianos), meaning "follower of Christ", comes from
Χριστός (
Christos), meaning "
anointed one",
[14] with an adjectival ending borrowed from Latin to denote adhering to, or even belonging to, as in slave ownership.
[15] In the
Greek Septuagint,
christos was used to translate the
Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (
Mašíaḥ, messiah), meaning "[one who is] anointed."
[16] In other European languages, equivalent words to Christian are likewise derived from the Greek, such as
Chrétien in French and
Cristiano in Spanish.
The abbreviations
Xian and
Xtian (and similarly-formed other parts of speech) have been used since at least the 17th century:
Oxford English Dictionary shows a 1634 use of
Xtianity and
Xian is seen in a 1634-38 diary.
[17][18] The word
Xmas uses a similar contraction.
Early usage
The first recorded use of the term (or its
cognates in other languages) is in the
New Testament, in
Acts 11:26,
[19] after Barnabas brought Saul (Paul) to
Antioch where they taught the
disciples for about a year, the text says: "[...] the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." The second mention of the term follows in
Acts 26:28,
[20] where
Herod Agrippa II replied to
Paul the Apostle, "Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." The third and final New Testament reference to the term is in
1 Peter 4:16, which exhorts believers: "Yet if
[any man suffer] as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf."
[21]
Kenneth Samuel Wuest holds that all three original New Testament verses' usages reflect a derisive element in the term
Christian to refer to followers of Christ who did not acknowledge the emperor of Rome.
[22] The city of Antioch, where someone gave them the name
Christians, had a reputation for coming up with such nicknames.
[23] However Peter's apparent endorsement of the term led to its being preferred over "Nazarenes" and the term
Christianoi from
1 Peter becomes the standard term in the
Early Church Fathers from
Ignatius and
Polycarp onwards.
[24]
Nazarenes
Another
term for Christians which appears in the New Testament is "
Nazarenes".
Jesus is named as a Nazarene in Math 2:23, while Saul-Paul is said to be Nazarene in Acts 24:5. The latter verse makes it clear that Nazarene also referred to the name of a sect or heresy, as well as the town called Nazareth.
The term Nazarene was also used by the Jewish lawyer
Tertullus (
Against Marcion 4:8) which records that "the Jews call us Nazarenes." While around 331 AD
Eusebius records that Christ was called a Nazoraean from the name
Nazareth, and that in earlier centuries "Christians" were once called "Nazarenes".
[28] The Hebrew equivalent of "Nazarenes",
Notzrim, occurs in the
Babylonian Talmud, and is still the modern Israeli Hebrew term for Christian.
Modern usage
Definition
A wide range of beliefs and practices are found across the world among those who call themselves Christian.
Denominations and sects disagree on a common definition of "Christianity". For example,
Timothy Beal notes the disparity of beliefs among those who identify as Christians in the United States as follows:
Although all of them have their historical roots in Christian theology and tradition, and although most would identify themselves as Christian, many would not identify others within the larger category as Christian. Most Baptists and fundamentalists (
Christian Fundamentalism), for example, would not acknowledge Mormonism or Christian Science as Christian. In fact, the nearly 77 percent of Americans who self-identify as Christian are a diverse pluribus of Christianities that are far from any collective unity.
[29]
Hebrew terms
Nazareth is described as the childhood home of
Jesus. Many languages employ the word "Nazarene" as a general designation for those of Christian faith.
The identification of Jesus as the Messiah is not accepted by Judaism. The term for a Christian in
Hebrew is נוֹצְרִי (
Notzri—"Nazarene"), a
Talmudic term originally derived from the fact that Jesus came from the
Galilean village of
Nazareth, today in northern Israel.
[31] Adherents of
Messianic Judaism are referred to in modern Hebrew as יְהוּדִים מְשִׁיחִיִּים (
Yehudim Meshihi'im—"Messianic Jews").
Arabic terms
In
Arabic-speaking cultures, two words are commonly used for Christians:
Naṣrānī (
نصراني), plural
Naṣārā (
نصارى) is generally understood to be derived from
Nazareth through the
Syriac (Aramaic);
Masīḥī (
مسيحي) means followers of the Messiah.
[32] Where there is a distinction,
Nasrani refers to people from a Christian culture and
Masihi is used by Christians themselves for those with a religious faith in Jesus.
[33] In some countries
Nasrani tends to be used generically for non-Muslim Western foreigners, e.g. "blond people."
[34]
Another Arabic word sometimes used for Christians, particularly in a political context, is
Ṣalībī (
صليبي "Crusader") from
ṣalīb (
صليب "cross"), which refers to
Crusaders and has negative connotations.
[32][35] However,
Ṣalībī is a modern term; historically, Muslim writers described European Christian Crusaders as
al-Faranj or
Alfranj (
الفرنج) and
Firinjīyah (
الفرنجيّة) in Arabic.
[36] This word comes from the name of the
Franks and can be seen in the Arab history text
Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh by
Ali ibn al-Athir.
[37][38]
Asian terms
The most common
Persian word is
Masīhī (
مسیحی), from
Arabic. Other words are
Nasrānī (
نصرانی), from
Syriac for "Nazarene", and
Tarsā (
ترسا), from
Middle Persian word
Tarsāg, also meaning "Christian", derived from
tars, meaning "fear, respect".
[39]
An old Kurdish word for Christian frequently in usage was
felle (فەڵە), coming from the root word meaning "to be saved" or "attain salvation".
[40]
The Syriac term
Nasrani (Nazarene) has also been attached to the
Saint Thomas Christians of
Kerala, India. In the
Indian subcontinent, Christians call themselves
Isaai (
Hindi:
ईसाई,
Urdu:
عیسائی), and are also known by this term to adherents of other religions.
[41] This is related to the name they call Jesus,
'Isa Masih, and literally means 'the followers of 'Isa'.
In the past, the
Malays used to call the Portuguese
Serani from the Arabic
Nasrani, but the term now refers to the modern
Kristang creoles of
Malaysia. In
Indonesian language, the term "
Nasrani" is also used alongside with "
Kristen".
The Chinese word is
基督徒 (
pinyin: jīdū tú), literally "Christ follower." The two characters now pronounced
Jīdū in Mandarin Chinese were originally used phonetically to represent the name of Christ. In Vietnam, the same two characters read
Cơ đốc, and a "follower of Christianity" is a
tín đồ Cơ đốc giáo.
Japanese Christians ("Kurisuchan") in Portuguese costume, 16–17th century
In Japan, the term
kirishitan (written in Edo period documents 吉利支丹, 切支丹, and in modern Japanese histories as キリシタン), from Portuguese
cristão, referred to Roman Catholics in the 16th and 17th centuries before the religion was banned by the
Tokugawa shogunate. Today, Christians are referred to in
Standard Japanese as キリスト教徒,
Kirisuto-kyōto or the English-derived term クリスチャン
kurisuchan.
Korean still uses 기독교도,
Kidok-kyo-do for "Christian", though the Greek form
Kurisudo 그리스도 has now replaced the old
Sino-Korean Kidok, which refers to Christ himself.
In Thailand, the most common terms are คนคริสต์ (khon khrit) or ชาวคริสต์ (chao khrit) which literally mean "Christ person/people" or "Jesus person/people." The Thai word คริสต์ (khrit) is derived from "Christ."
Russian terms
The region of modern Eastern Europe and Central Eurasia (Russia, Ukraine and other countries of the former
Soviet bloc) has a long history of Christianity and Christian communities on its lands. In ancient times, in the first centuries after the birth of Christ, when this region was called Scythia, the geographical area of
Scythians - Christians already lived there.
[42] Later the region saw the first states to adopt Christianity officially - initially
Armenia (301 AD) and
Georgia (337 AD), later
Bulgaria (
c. 864) and the Great Russian Principality (
Kyivan Rus,
Russian:
Великое княжество Русское,
c. 988 AD).
In some areas, people of that time
[when?] came to denote themselves as Christians (
Russian:
христиане, крестьяне) and as Russians (
Russian:
русские). Both terms had strong Christian connotations.
[citation needed] In time the Russian term "крестьяне" (
khrest'yanye) acquired the meaning "peasants of Christian faith" and later "peasants" (the main part of the population of the region), while the term "христиане" (
khristianye) retained its religious meaning and the term "русские" (
russkiye) began to mean representatives of the heterogeneous Russian nation formed on the basis of common Christian faith and language,
[citation needed] which strongly influenced the history and development of the region. In the region the term "Pravoslav faith" (
Russian:
православная вера - Orthodox faith) or "Russian faith" (
Russian:
русская вера) from earliest times became almost as known as the original "Christian faith" (христианская, крестьянская вера).
[citation needed]Also in some contexts the term "
cossack" (
Russian:
козак, казак - "free man" by the will of God
[citation needed]) was used
[by whom?] to denote "free" Christians of steppe origin and Russian language.
Other non-religious usages
Nominally "Christian" societies made "Christian" a default label for citizenship or for "people like us".
[43] In this context, religious or ethnic minorities can use "Christians" or "you Christians" loosely as a shorthand term for mainstream members of society who do not belong to their group - even in a thoroughly secular (though formerly Christian) society.
[44]
Demographics
As of the early 21st century,
Christianity has approximately 2.4 billion adherents.
[45][46][47] The faith represents about a third of the world's population and is the largest religion in the world. Christians have composed about 33 percent of the world's population for around 100 years. The largest Christian denomination is the
Roman Catholic Church, with 1.17 billion adherents, representing half of all Christians.
[48]
Christianity remains the dominant religion in the
Western World, where 70% are Christians.
[2] According to a 2012
Pew Research Center survey, if current trends continue, Christianity will remain the
world's largest religion by the year 2050. By 2050, the Christian population is expected to exceed 3 billion. While Muslims have an average of 3.1 children per woman—the highest rate of all religious groups, Christians are second, with 2.7 children per woman. High birth rates and conversion were cited as the reason for
Christian population growth. A 2015 study found that approximately 10.2 million
Muslims converted to Christianity.
[49] Christianity is growing in
Africa,
[50][51] Asia,
[51][52] Latin America,
[53] the
Muslim world,
[54] and
Oceania.
Percentage of Christians worldwide, June 2014
Christians (self-described) by region(Pew Research Center, 2011)[55][56][57]
|
| Europe | 558,260,000 | 75.2 |
| Latin America–Caribbean | 531,280,000 | 90.0 |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 517,340,000 | 62.9 |
| Asia Pacific | 286,950,000 | 7.1 |
| North America | 266,630,000 | 77.4 |
| Middle East–North Africa | 12,710,000 | 3.7 |
| World | 2,173,180,000 | 31.5 |
|---|
Socioeconomics
According to a study from 2015, Christians hold the largest amount of wealth (55% of the total world wealth), followed by
Muslims (5.8%),
Hindus (3.3%) and
Jews (1.1%). According to the same study it was found that adherents under the classification
Irreligion or other religions hold about 34.8% of the total global wealth.
[58] A study done by the nonpartisan wealth research firm New World Wealth found that 56.2% of the 13.1 million millionaires in the world were Christians.
[59]
According to the study, Christians in
North America,
Europe,
Middle East,
North Africa and
Asia Pacific regions are highly educated since many of the world
universities were built by the historic
Christian Churches,
[60] in addition to the historical evidence that "Christian monks built libraries and, in the days before printing presses, preserved important earlier writings produced in Latin, Greek and Arabic".
[60] According to the same study, Christians have a significant amount of
gender equality in educational attainment,
[60] and the study suggests that one of the reasons is the encouragement of the
Protestant Reformers in promoting the
education of women, which led to the eradication of illiteracy among females in Protestant communities.
[60]
Noted individuals
Christians have made noted contributions to a range of fields, including
philanthropy,
philosophy,
[62][63][64]:15 ethics,
[65] literature,
[12] business and economics,
[66][67][68] fine arts and architecture,
[12] music,
[12][69] theatre and
medicine,
[70] as well as
science and technology,
[11][71][72] both historically and in modern times.
[73]
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