America..., Kurope....
Asia
Africa
Australasia, Polynesia. .
ToUl PopnUtioB.
78,800,000 987,000,000 798,600,000 188,000,000
8,800,000
1,860,200,000
42,700,000
140,200,000
4,800,000
1,100,000
400,000
189,000,000
Protwtanu Ckrtett.
27,500,000
67,900,000
700.000
700,000
1,000,000
:o,^sooo
«74,20Q.M 12,W0,(» 4,9M,0(»
1,400,000
97,100,000 863,<W^
See also Smith, Tables of Church History. Compsre Christianity.
Christ-emporla (ypiartiiieopttd), selling of O&itU See SntoNT.
Christening, a name given to the act of bapdsni, (1) as if thereby the child were made a Christimj- or
CHRISTIAN
269
CHRISTIAN
0, as baptism fixes the Chritlkm or Christmed name rtbechikL
Cbristlan (Xpc^nat^), the name given to tliose ho believe Jesus to be the Messiah (Acts xi, 26). ^mmentatoTs and critics are not agreed wlMther the )Uowen of Christ gave this appellation to themtehttj t whether it was bestowed on them bj oiher$. Nei- tier view i^pears to be wholly tme or wholly fidse. inch titles do not nsoally originate in any arbitrary ray, nor do they spring fhxn a single party, but rath- r arise from a conventional assent to tliehr appropri- teness. It was^indeed, the interest of the Christians 0 luive some name which might not, like the Jewish mes (Nazaranes or GaliltMtns), imply reproach. And hongh the terms brethr^ the/aU^ul, ^ect, $ainii, be- ievers, dUc^fkt, or the Church, might suffice among hemselves, yet none of them were sufficiently definite or an appeUation, and mi^t perliaps be thought to Avor of vanity. They would therefore be not disin- iined to adopt one, especially for exoteric use. Yet he necessity was not so great as to stimulate them to lo this very soon; whiereas the people at large, in having » speak of this new sect, would soon need some dis- inctive appellation; and what so distinctive as one brmed from the name of its founder? It is tiiere- fore most likely to have been suggested by the Gen- ile inhabitants cf Antloch, and to have eariy come into general use by a sort of common consent. (See Conybeare and Howson's Life and Epudet of St, Pcndy i,U9.)
There is no reason to think with some that the oame *' Christians*' was given in absolute derinon. When used by Agrippa (Acts xxvi, 28), there is no proof that it was a term of reproach ; had he intended derision, he might have employed the term Nazarene, which was in frequent use among the Jews, and has continued current in the East, wherever the Arabic language is spoken, to the present day. The early adoption of it by the Christians themselves, and the manner in which they employ it, are sufficient to dis- pel aU idea of this nature (1 Pet. iv, 16). The only reproach connected with the name would be the inev- itable one arising from the profession of faith implied in it Neither is the view of others more probable, that it was a name imposed by divine appointment. The term xpir/^riZiM (translated "caUed" in the pas- sage first quoted), usually relied upon to sustain this view, has other significations than that of an oracular response, and is fairly capable of the meaning assign- ed to it in our version.
" This world-fiunous name (William of Tyre, iv, 9) occurs but three tunes in the New Testament (Acts zi, 26; xxvi, 28; 1 Pet. iv, 16). In the first of these passage^ we are informed that it arose in the city of Antioch, during the year spent there in preaching by Paul and Barnabas, A.D. 34. Both Suidas (ii, 8980, a, ed. Gaisford) and Malalas {Chronograph, x) say that the name was first used in the episcopate of Evodius at Antioch, who is said to have been appointed by the spostle Peter as his successor (Jerome, Chronic, p. 429). That Evodius actually invented the name (Malalas, 1. c.) is an assertion which may be disregarded as safely M the medisBval fiction that it was adopted at a coun- cil held for the purpose.
"The name itself was only contemptuous in the BMraths of those who regarded with contempt him from whom it was derived ; and as it was a universal practice to name political, religious, or philosophical wcieties ftt>m the name of their founders (as Pytha- goreans, Epicureans, Apollonii, Cssariani, Yitelliani, etc.), it was advantageous rather than otherwise for the Christians to adopt a title which was not necu- *Jribf offensive, and which bore witness to their love >Qd worship of tlieir master ; a name intrinsically de- gnding— such as the witty Antiochenes, notorious in the aadent world for their propensity to bestow nick- Mmes, might easily have discovered (Philost. VU,
Apol. iii, 16; Zosim. iii, 11; Ammon. MarcelL xxii; Procop. BelL Pen. ii, 8) — would certainly have re- tarded the progress of the new religion ; and as we see, even in modem times, that it is the tendency of rival sects to brand each other with deritive epi- thets, it is natural to suppose that the name *■ Chris- tians' resulted rather from philosophical indifference than from theological hatred. The Latinized form of the word — Greek in form, Latin in termination — is not indeed a conclusive proof that it emanated from the Romans, because such terminations had al- ready been fiAmiliarised throughout the East by the Roman dominion ; but it is precisely the kind of name wMch would have been bestowed by the haughty and disdainful spirit of victorious Rome, which is so often marked in early Christian history (John xviii, 81 ; Acts xxii, 24; xxv, 19; xviii, 14). That the disci- ples should have been called from * Christus,' a word implying the office, and not frt>m ' Jesus,* the ncane of our blesMd Lord, leads us to infer that the former word was most frequently on their lips, * which harmonizes with the most important fact, that in the epistles he is usually called, not * Jesus,' bat * Christ' (Lactant. Div. Inttit, iv, 7). In later times, when the features of the * exitiabilis superstitio' were better known, be- cause of its ever-widening progress (Tacit. Ann, xv, 44), this indifferenttsm was superseded by a hatred against the name as intense as the Christian love for it, and for this reason the emperor Julian * countenanced, and perhaps enjoined, the use of the less honorable ap- pellation of Galilsans' (Gibbon, v, 812, ed. Milman ; Greg. Nazarene, Oral, iii, 81). Yet, as Tertullian, in an interesting passage, points out, the name so detest- ed was harmless in every sense, for It merely called them by the office of their master, and that office mere- ly implied one set apart by solemn unction {Apolo^. 8).