Talk:Christianist

Having found no record of the word "Christianist" in any established English lexicon, I amended this entry to reflect the probable origin of the term. I also deleted reference to the term "Sanhedrin" which, according to Merriam-Webster online, is "the supreme council and tribunal of the Jews during postexilic times headed by a High Priest and having religious, civil, and criminal jurisdiction" and thus is not analogous to either the word "Islamist" or Sullivan's made-up word "Christianist."

In fact, the analogy between "Christianist" and "Islamist" is shaky as well, "Islamist" being defined (again at M-W.com) as a popular reform movement advocating the reordering of government and society in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam. In common usage, "Islamist" describes the movement to impose Islamic Sharia law upon both Moslems and non-Moslems. Since the very existence of any comparable Christian movement is in question (fundamentalism alone is not the defining characteristic of Islamism), the term itself is essentially meaningless. That may be why it has not been recognized by any major lexocographer.


 * The term seems to date at least to the early 19th century. Determining the meaning it has had is more difficult. The best way to determine meaning, in the absence of dictionaries with the courage to tackle this, is to collect quotations. Arguments without quotations are nothing. Let's start with a definition, which we have. If you object, then we subject the definition to verification ("rfv"). I wouldn't be surprised to find that much of the usage is not very precise and that, where precise, different authors use the term differently. DCDuring TALK 00:51, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

RFV
Rfv-sense: "(pejorative) A Christian." An anon has removed it twice; presumably, or hopefully, it's because (s)he thinks this sense doesn't exist. —Ruakh TALK 00:06, 5 September 2012 (UTC)


 * The other (unchallenged) sense is "one who espouses or practices Christianism", and one of the senses of that word is "the Christian religion", so perhaps it's already covered. Equinox ◑ 00:10, 5 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Note that originally the definition referred only to the first sense of Christianism. — Ungoliant (Falai) 00:31, 5 September 2012 (UTC)


 * RFV-failed as a separate sense. - -sche (discuss) 05:54, 24 October 2012 (UTC)