RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Christ, Order of Christian Brothers
Church of Germany, it brought believing, earnest Christians together by personal intercourse and by correspondence, and helped them to successful cooperation. Its special object was to oppose the bold depreciation and mockery of the Word of God then so common, as well as the tendency represented by Nikolai's Zeitschrift in Berlin and the Gothaer Zeitung. Its founder was Dr. Johann August Urlsperger (q.v.), of Augsburg, who belonged to the old school of simple Scriptural faith and piety. He thought that the friends of the Gospel should stand together and strengthen one another as did its enemies. In 1777 he wrote to a number of German, Dutch, Danish, and English theologians without getting much response, and in 1779 and 1780 traveled widely in the hope of effecting more by personal contact. But the result was still the same, and he came home much discouraged. In Basel, the last place he had planned to visit, he found a response. Here since 1756, stirred up by D'Annone, the zealous pastor of Muttenz, a number of like-minded men had already been organized, who listened with delight to Urlsperger's ideas; and the society was able to hold its first formal meeting on Aug. 30, 1780. The beginning once made, the thing spread; branches were formed at Nuremberg the next year, then at Stuttgart, Frankfort, Berlin, Magdeburg, etc. As the numbers grew, and correspondence came in even from America, a more formal organization was required. Basel was made the headquarters at the end of 1782, and a manifold activity radiated from it, embracing all that is meant nowadays by home and foreign missions. Selections from the vast mass of correspondence were sent to all the branches, in printed form after 1783. Urlsperger had originally wished to write and circulate good theological treatises, but the central body turned its efforts in a more practical direction, wishing indeed to uphold the true faith, but not to renew the old controversies. The name, too, was changed from the original Deutsche Gesellschaft zur Beforderung christlicher Wahrheit und Gottseligkeit (" German Society for the Promotion of Christian Truth and Piety ") to the present title. In 1801 Steinkopf, who had been the general secretary, was called to the Savoy Chapel in London, and formed a link between Germany and England, where the mighty revival of spiritual life set a standard for emulation. The Basel Bible Society was founded in 1804 as the first result; and the second was the mission house, also at Basel, planned as early as 1805 by C. F. Spittler on the model of the Berlin mission school (founded in 1800 by Janicke, a member of the society), and realized in 1815 with the help of C. G. Blumhardt (q.v.). A number of other foundations and special organizations marked the succeeding years. Among them were the trainingschool and orphanage at Beuggen (1820); the Society of the Friends of Israel (1831); the Society for the Spread of Christian Literature (1835); the deaf and dumb asylum at Riehen (1838); and the deaconess home in the same place (1852). The original association fulfilled its task in giving the impulse to so many and varied good works; it still exists, however, under the direction of a
central committee in Basel, where the Sammlungen fur Liebhaber christlicher Wahrheit und Gottseligkeit is still published periodically, after an existence of more than a century. (R. ANSTEiNf.)
Bibliography: C. J. Riggenbach, I. Stockmeyer, and H. Pratorius, Zur hundertjiihrigen Gedachtnissfeier der deutschen Christentumsgesellschaft, Basel, 1881; A. Ostertag, Entstehungsgeschichte der evangelischen Missionsgesellschaft zu Basel, ib. 1865.
CHRISTIAN: The term Christianas, "of the party of Christ," occurs in the New Testament only in Acts xi. 26, xxvi. 28; I Pet. iv. 16. The first passage states that it originated at Antioch, which accords with the fact that the termination -anos was recognized and employed especially in Grecian Asia. The date impUed by the passage is 40-44 a.d. None of the New Testament passages requires an invidious meaning, though it is suggested in the second and third. There is no historical foundation for the statement often made that it was a " nickname." Tertullian says that non-Christians pronounced it Chrestianos, the word commonly associated with the Greek word chrestos, " serviceable," and the Codex Sinaiticus reads Chrestianos in all New Testament passages. Its earliest use by Christians, apart from the New Testament, is found in the Apologists, Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Theophilus, etc., after whose time it was generally appropriated by Christians. That it originated outside of Christian and Jewish circles is most likely because (1) Christians spoke of one another as "the brethren," "the saints," "the disciples," " the faithful," etc.; (2) the Jews used the term " Nazarene." Its convenience would justify its use; while the frequency with which the term " Christ " occurred in the Christocentric preaching of the early apostolic age would justify its application to the disciples.
Geo. W Gilmohe.
Bibliography: R. A. Lipsius, Ueber den Ursprung und Gebrauch des Christen-rmmens, in Gratulaiionsprogramm der theologischen Facultdt Jena fur Hase, 187.S, pp. 6-10; DB, i. 384-386; EB, i. 752-763; DCG, i. 316-318.
CHRISTIAN BROTHERS (BROTHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS): The most noted and influential of the Roman Catholic educational brotherhoods, founded by Jean Baptiste de la Salle (b. at Reims Apr. 30, 1651; d. at Rouen Apr. 7, 1719), who was canonized May 24, 1900. Placed in charge of a congregation of Sisters of Jesus in Reims in 1680, De la Salle soon added to his duties the direction of a number of schools for boys, whose teachers he bound to a life of remmciation and union. The brothers were required, in addition to the three simple vows, to give instruction invariably without compensation, and to wear a special habit. In 1688 their founder was appointed their first superior-general and removed to Vaugirard near Paris, in 1696 to Saint Yon, a house of novices at Rouen, which remained the center of the congregation until 1770. The Christian Brothers spread rapidly throughout France, and in 1724 were recognized by Benedict XIII. The antimonastic decree of the National Assembly of Feb. 13, 1790, dissolved the congregation, which then had 121 houses in France, but it still retained its organization in Italy, and was reestablished in
Ohristian Brothers Christian Science