Definition of "christian"

Corinna then recollected, that in this very amphitheatre, the persecuted christians died victims of their perseverance, and shewing Lord Nelville the altars which are raised in honour of their ashes, as well as the path of the cross, which is trodden by penitents, at the foot of the most magnificent wrecks of worldly grandeur, asked him, if the ashes of martyrs conveyed no language to his heart?

1807, [Germaine] de Staël Holstein, translated by D[ennis] Lawler, “[Book IV. Rome.] Chap[ter] IV.”, in Corinna; or, Italy. […], volume I, London: […] Corri, […]; and sold by Colburn, […], and Mackenzie, […], page 208

[…] a lector of water levels, most venerable Kevin, then effused thereby letting there be water where was theretofore dry land, by him so concreated, who now, confirmed a strong and perfect christian, blessed Kevin, exorcised his holy sister water, perpetually chaste, so that, well understanding, she should fill to midheight his tubbathaltar, which hanbathtub, most blessed Kevin, ninthly enthroned, […]

1939 May 4, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited; republished London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1960, part IV, pages 605–606

The most isolated christian […] does not come to God like the pagan mystic, as the alone to the Alone.

1945, Gregory Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy, page x

Hence the faithful christians will readily obey Christ, who is the ruler of justice in the community.

1967, Francis Xavier Murphy, Politics and the Early Christian‎, page 65

The first model offered by Campi, appropriately enough given the intense interest displayed by ecclesiastical eruditi of the period in the sufferings of the early christians, was that of the third-century martyr and preeminent patron of Piacenza: S. Antonino.

1995, Simon Ditchfield, Liturgy, Sanctity and History in Tridentine Italy: Pietro Maria Campi and the Preservation of the Particular, page 135

When I employ myſelf upon a paper of morality, I generally conſider how I may recommend the particular virtue which I treat of, by the precepts or examples of the ancient heathens; by that means, if poſſible, to ſhame thoſe who have greater advantages of knowing their duty, and therefore greater obligations to perform it, into a better courſe of life: beſides that many among us are unreaſonably diſpoſed to give a fairer hearing to a pagan philoſopher, than to a chriſtian writer.

1711 November 3, Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, “The Spectator”, in Saturday‎, volume 3, number 213

—Now you ſee, brother Toby, he would ſay, looking up, "that chriſtian names are not ſuch indifferent things;"———had Luther here been called by any other name but Martin, he would have been damned to all eternity———Not that I look upon Martin, he would add, as a good name——far from it——'tis ſomething better than a neutral, and but a little——yet little as it is, you ſee it was of ſome ſervice to him.

1767 Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy, Book IV ( Slawkenbergius's Tale )

She said, that sculpture was a pagan art, and painting a christian one; […]

1807, [Germaine] de Staël Holstein, translated by D[ennis] Lawler, “[Book VIII. The Statues and the Pictures.] Chap[ter] III.”, in Corinna; or, Italy. […], volume II, London: […] Corri, […]; and sold by Colburn, […], and Mackenzie, […], page 205

This was all overheard by Miss Dashwood; and in the whole of the sentence, in his manner of pronouncing it, and in his addressing her sister by her christian name alone, she instantly saw an intimacy so decided, a meaning so direct, as marked a perfect agreement between them.

1811, [Jane Austen], chapter XII, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume I, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], pages 137–138

The fall (bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!) of a once wallstrait oldparr is retaled early in bed and later on life down through all christian minstrelsy.

1939 May 4, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited; republished London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1960, part I, page 3

Of all christian ‘ritual patterns’ that of the eucharist is by common consent central and most important.

1945, Gregory Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy, page ix

The emergence of basic christian communities as a new radical model of church is closely linked with Latin American Liberation Theology.

1985, Helen Ralston, “Models of ‘Church’: A Cross-cultural Perspective”, in Journal of Comparative Sociology and Religion, number 12, page 22

For them liturgy as religion in action with its central role in defining local christian communities, has proved a useful tool for enriching understanding of religious culture in pre-­industrial society.

1995, Simon Ditchfield, Liturgy, Sanctity and History in Tridentine Italy: Pietro Maria Campi and the Preservation of the Particular, page 21