Christianity
- 1An Abrahamic religion that grew out of the community of the first followers of Jesus Christ.
Christianity spread across the Roman Empire within a few centuries of its founding.
She wrote her thesis on the early development of Christianity in the eastern Mediterranean.
Note
Behind the name is a title rather than a personal name. Greek Khristós, "anointed one," gave Khristianós, and the word reached English through Old French crestienté and Middle English Cristiente. It is usually uncountable, but the plural Christianities exists for the religion's distinct forms. Primitive Christianity, as Ben Travers uses it in A Cuckoo in the Nest (1922), means the faith in its earliest stage.
- 2The Christian world as a whole: the lands and peoples that together make up Christendom.
Medieval Christianity stretched from Spain to the eastern edge of the Byzantine lands.
Word of the king's crusade was welcomed throughout Christianity.
- 3Protestantism, as distinct from Catholicism.
He was raised Catholic and only later converted to Christianity, to his relatives' dismay.
Her mission school in Hong Kong taught Christianity, while her cousins attended a Catholic convent school across the harbor.
Note
In Hong Kong and Philippine usage, the word draws a line that other Englishes do not. Christianity means the Protestant churches, and Catholicism stands apart as its own faith. Elsewhere the word covers both, as in the religion as a whole, so "she converted from Catholicism to Christianity" can read oddly to outsiders. For an international audience, Protestantism carries the meaning without the ambiguity.
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Origin
From Middle English Cristiente, borrowed via Old French crestienté from Medieval Latin Chrīstiānitās, ultimately from Latin christianus and Ancient Greek Χριστιανός (Khristianós), based on Χριστός (Khristós, "Christ, anointed one"). The word was later respelled in the early modern English period to better reflect its Latin source.