pretty much cover all the bases.

Hope you are having a lovely Easter Day, xchrom.

admirable actions. I just don't see why they have to be connected with being a christian.
if you are christian.. a conscious Easter to you.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_of_mercy#Corporal_Works_of_Mercy .

But they ARE central tenets of Christianity, and Christ taught to behave that way.



I only know this because I have actually read the red letter parts of the NT. I don't consider Christ divine, but rather divinely inspired.

I see you do not consider Christ to be divine, but divinely inspired. Do you think of yourself as Christian?

but I pick and choose among many belief traditions.

I call myself a neopagan ecofeminist with Anabaptist leanings, lol. but I actually practice no religion at all. My Easter dinner today will be about enjoying friends without a whiff of religion except for when my host says grace before the meal, which takes him all of 10 seconds.

I'm sure grace will be in ample supply at your table.

I was just thinking about this very thing this morning. What defines being a Christian?
I'm also wondering what, if any, relationship one must have with the Bible in order to be thought of as Christian. As a non-Christian, I would benefit from a universal perspective on what it means to be Christian.

from different people.

Perhaps just following the teachings of Jesus is not enough, but belief that he was the Christ (sent from God) is the distinguishing mark.

I don't think one's relationship with the bible has much to do with the definition, though there are certainly some christian denominations that do.

And grateful to their writers for providing them!

but is it not LDS (Mormon) belief that Christ was not divine?
Many say that LDS is not Christian, but they say they are.
(I'm not LDS and have no opinion on this.- Just reflecting opinions I've read.)

I have no idea if they are Christian or not, but if they say they are, so be it.

..that have denied the divinity of christ. arianism (no relation to aryanism) springs to mind just because it played a central role in the 'jesus-magdalene-marriage' kerfuffle around 'the da vinci code'.

newton was an arian heretic so it wasn't *that* long ago that some believed they could be christian and jesus not divine.

It made for an interesting Wikipedia excursion. I recall the Da Vinci Code kerfuffle, but not the aspect of arianism. I suppose if one is to hold that Christ had sexual relations with a woman, one would also have to hold that he was, therefore, a "created being," as are all humans in this view. Although, I recall Greek and Roman mythologies that didn't hesitate to permit congress between Divine and mundane beings, and even allowed for the existence of offspring.

..as it was in the purportedly nonfiction book that inspired it, 'holy blood, holy grail' by baigent, leigh & that other guy they later disavowed.

long story short: the merovingian kings were largely arians until charlemagne ousted them. that part is historical fact for what it's worth.

Thanks!

Clovis, the third of the Merovingian kings.

following the anathematizing of arius it could get one.. er.. murdered to profess the creed. and yeah in all likelihood some of the merovingian converts *were* orthodox in their faith and true to rome in their policies (orthodox in the sense that 'right' thinking = 'roman church', naturally). history records that clovis, from whose name we get the kings louis, was a true convert. it records other things about his relatives and descendants.