The Encyclopedia of World Religions

84 S Christ

way China ultimately goes may say much about the future of religion on this planet. See also FENG SHUI ; T IBETAN RELIGION . Further reading: Wolfgang Bauer, China and the Search for Happiness (New York: Seabury, 1976); Julia Ching, Chinese Religions (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1995); Daniel Overmyer, Religion in China Today (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003); Laurence Thompson, Chinese Religion: An Introduction (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1988). Christ From the Greek word christos, meaning “anointed”; a title applied to J ESUS , the founder of C HRISTIANITY . The earliest followers of Jesus most likely spoke Aramaic, which was the languages of Palestine in Jesus’ day. As a result, they would not have applied the Greek word christos, “Christ,” to Jesus. They would have used its Aramaic equiv alent, which is usually rendered into English as MESSIAH . Within 15 years of Jesus’ death, however, MIS SIONARIES such as P AUL were actively spreading the message about Jesus to people outside of Palestine. At the time Greek was the common language of the eastern Mediterranean, so they translated their message into Greek. Jesus the Messiah became Jesus the Christ, and the religion eventually came to be known as Christianity. The word christos, “Christ,” quickly assumed the status of a proper name—Jesus Christ rather than Jesus the Christ—and the name was limited to Jesus. Today the name Christ is rarely associated with its original Greek meaning, “the anointed.” Christianity The religion centered on belief in J ESUS as the Son of G OD . Although it has rep resentatives throughout the globe, Christianity is especially prominent in Europe, the Americas, and Australia. HISTORY Jesus ( c. 4 B . C . E ./ c. 30 C . E .) was a Jew who lived primarily in Galilee (today northern Israel). It is

new state and its ideology. Some churches and Buddhist temples became showplaces for outside visitors, although far more were confiscated and turned over to other uses. Uncooperative religion ists were persecuted. Then came the Great Cultural Revolution of 1966–69, when young Red Guards swept through the country destroying virtually everything “old,” including religion. Whatever religious life sur vived went deep underground. But after the Cul tural Revolution had run its course by around 1970, and especially after the death of Chinese Communism’s leader, Mao Zedong, in 1976, more pragmatic counsels won out. China became more accessible to the world. Visitors reported that reli gion seemed generally able to flourish openly, though under tight supervision. But the situation in Tibet remained tense, and new religious move ments outside official control, such as the Falun Gong (which received worldwide publicity in 2000 and after), were regarded as subversive and were dealt with harshly. However, China is a vast country, often secre tive, and reliable general information is not easy to come by. Some reports say that, of a population of 1.2 billion, perhaps 300 million (25 percent) are followers of various religious faiths, not counting those who only practice occasional forms of Chi nese folk religion. The majority are Buddhist and Taoist, but some 18 million Chinese are Muslim, mostly in the far northwest. Protestants are said to number 25 million in several denominations, some officially recognized and some clandestine, and Roman Catholics 12 million, equally divided between two organizations, one aligned with the Vatican and another, descended from the days of “patriotic” religious groups, separated from it. On the other hand, there are those who claim that the number of Christians in China may reach as high as 100 million, being largely unofficial fol lowers who read the Bible privately and meet qui etly in “house churches.” They say that in this way Christianity is rapidly growing in the world’s most populous nation. At the same time, the government and the majority of Chinese are perhaps more sec ular than in any other large nation on earth. The