What does Christist mean?

August 6, 2006 10:14 AM

What does the term christist or christism mean? I'm beginning to see it often and assume it's meant to be different from Christianity or Christian but I don't understand how or why it is different.
posted by NorthCoastCafe to Religion & Philosophy (11 answers total)

I've heard the term "Christianism," which means "fundamentalist Christianity" much like "Islamism" means "fundamentalist Islam." Don't know if that's the same thing as "Christism."
posted by lunchbox at 10:27 AM on August 6, 2006

I would presume it is a take off "racism", perhaps meaning that you believe that Christianity is the only way, and look down on others who believe differently than you. Maybe?
posted by gilsonal at 10:32 AM on August 6, 2006

I think it's pretty much a synonym for "Christianism" in the same sense as "Islamism" means "fundamentalist, politicized religion." I'd never actually heard the term "Christianism" until today, but I've read a few articles (paper, sorry, no linky) using "Christism" in that sense.
posted by Schlimmbesserung at 10:33 AM on August 6, 2006

A simple Google search will discover that "christist" seems to be most often used pejoratively on Indian websites, apparently within more fundamentalist or rightwing strands of Hinduism in the context of combating Christian evangelicals making a concerted effort to convert Hindus to Christianity.

"Christism" appears to be referring to a theological concept or philosophy within Christianity itself.

And as noted, "Christianism" (or alternatively "Dominionism") is a movement within the so-called Christian Right in the United States which seeks to theocratize America.
posted by SenshiNeko at 11:11 AM on August 6, 2006

May I tack a related question onto this one? My thought, before reading the above answers, was that perhaps this was a new term being adopted by the Christian left in order to distance themselves from right-wing fundamentalist Christianity. Since according to everyone's answers above, this is not the case, I'm wondering if there has been another word coined to this end. Has the Christian left tried this, or are they sticking with 'Christian' and continuing to explain their politics to everyone they meet who assumes them to be right-wing holy warriors?
posted by catesbie at 12:00 PM on August 6, 2006

Andrew Sullivan popularized the term "Christianist," which may be related to "Christist" (which I've not personally seen).
posted by thomas j wise at 12:05 PM on August 6, 2006

The associate pastor of my church, who I happily suspect is a left-leaning Christian, prefers to refer to himself as a "follower of Christ," rather than use the standard terms for those who believe in Jesus.
posted by lhauser at 1:29 PM on August 6, 2006

Just to throw something else in, there's a group I come across who call themselves "Jesus Christians" which really annoys the Christians I know ("as opposed to what?"). Maybe that's the intention.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 2:11 PM on August 6, 2006

Another blind suggestion: it may mean a gross misapplication of "Christian" principles or fetishization of Christ outside his relgious significance; cf. scientism, which means dressing up balderdash in sciency language. The negative reviews (scroll down) on this page seem to agree.
posted by kittyprecious at 6:36 PM on August 6, 2006

I just recently started getting some context for the term "Islamist," and from that context I'm getting that it's a term used by its opponents to label a person or organization as fundamentalist, theocratic, and political; not a term you would use for someone who was apolitically pious, or for an organization that you favored. I'm seeing the word more and more often, and I would assume that "Christianist" would be the word coined to serve a similar purpose for Western applications.

If that's the case, "Christianist" would be more appropriate than "Christist," since it's about a movement, not a person.
posted by Lyn Never at 7:22 AM on August 7, 2006

kittyprecious, I think scientism is faith--a misplaced one, in my opinion--in the power of science to explain everything. It's an ideology, just as much as religion or a certain political system that shall remain unnamed for fear of invoking Godwin's Law, is. Eric Voegelin might describe scientism as a form of gnosticism.

My question is, what do you call people who subscribe to scientism? Scientismists? Maybe scientism should be rechristened sciencism, simply so we can call scientific fundamentalists sciencists.
posted by ObeyScient at 5:11 PM on August 11, 2006