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John Shearman

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  1. Someone asked where the word Christianity came from. I looked into the Oxford English Dictionary and found that it derived from Latin christianitatem and came into English through Old French in the 14th century. Chaucer made use of the word but spelled it "cristyanytee." It simple means either the whole body of Christians or the Christian part of the world. In today's usage, it does have a negative connotation, largely due to its long association with evangelical imperialism dating from the 19th century and competition with other religious traditions. Personally, I have tried to exclude the word from my vocabulary and follow the counsel of one of my teachers, Prof. Wilfrid Cantwell Smith, in adopting the term "religious tradition" instead of "religion" and "the Christian tradition" rather than "Christianity." I follow a similar practice in referring to other religious traditions - Judaism, Buddhism, etc. In other words, let's drop the inane "... isms" and "... ianities."
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