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.

⇒ In this sense, often pronounced, but not by the members of the sects, krIs"chan.

© [Webster 1913]

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.

© [Webster 1913]

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.

© [Webster 1913]

Christian (definition)