Re: CHAT: Defining Christians

abrigon wrote:

> Well, the sabbath in ways is just a reminder than all other days are
> holy as well. Of course Sunday for most Christians (followers of the
> Judeao-Christian tradition to include Mormon and others that are not
> always mainline, but Protestants are not exactly mainline to medieval
> ideas, so times change).
>
> I like the basic definition of Christian to be
>
> Followers of Christ or a like terminology.
I think this shows the problems associated with applying labels to
people and to cultural phenomena like this.  Labels are just that:
broadly based generalizations that have no a priori relationship to
that which is labeled (a problem that goes back to Saussure).  In
this case, the label "Christian" and the associated words "Christianity"
"Christendom", etc., have all been used with a very wide berth of
meaning, many of which are mutually conflicting and contradictory.
The official dogma propounded by the Catholic Church directly
contradicts much of what Mormons hold dear, especially when it
comes to matters such as Trinitarianism, and it doesn't just extend
to what we officially call religions.  There are many people throughout
what may be called "Christendom" that adhere to the principles that
Christ set down in the New Testament, but do not believe in the
supernatural
or spiritual aspects that the official churches preach.  These people
approach the matter more as a philosophy, a guide of ethics and rules
for interpersonal behavior, rather than an overarching cosmology, the
ethics of which being just a part. The question becomes:  are these
people
Christians?  Well, in a manner of speaking, they are, but what about
the people from other religious backgrounds who espouse the same
beliefs --- are they, too, Christians?  Or take me, for example:  there
are many aspects of Daoism that I find appealing, especially its
nonreductionist stance on metaphysics and epistemology -- but its
mystical reverence of a multitude of deities and hero-worship of sages
I find a bit hard to swallow.  Am I, then, a Daoist Christian, if I
accept
a little of column A and a little of column B? Does syncretism make you
a member of both religions, or a member of your own unique group?
It seems then that in fact there are host of factors involved, and what
group
one identifies with in the end boils down to a personal choice, even if
an
educated, considered choice.

I say all this because I think it's important when we consider who and
what we are, and with respect to conlanging, how these matters affect
the languages we create and the societies that many of us place those
languages in.

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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
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