Catholic view on BCE/CE

[CarloMagnus]

I wanted to see what the Catholic view of this acronym is in the Catholic world. Is it an attack on our Christian religion or is it merely an assertion of religious neutrality?

I’m leaning on attack. I see a lot of hypocrisy on “I don’t believe what you believe, but I’ll fight so you can believe it.” with this; considering they’re not fighting so we can believe what we believe. The behavior of the modern-atheist society across the world has turned into out-right intolerance of the Christian religion.

But to keep things leveled, I’ve looked into the acronym itself.

The expression “Common Era” can be found as early as 1708 in English, and traced back to Latin usage among European Christians to 1615, as vulgaris aerae, and to 1635 in English as Vulgar Era. At those times, the expressions were all used interchangeably with “Christian Era”, and “vulgar” meant “not regal” rather than “crudely indecent”. Use of the CE abbreviation was introduced by Jewish academics in the mid-19th century.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era

Discuss.

-Karl

 

[Pfaffenhoffen]

I wanted to see what the Catholic view of this acronym is in the Catholic world. Is it an attack on our Christian religion or is it merely an assertion of religious neutrality?

I’m leaning on attack. I see a lot of hypocrisy on “I don’t believe what you believe, but I’ll fight so you can believe it.” with this; considering they’re not fighting so we can believe what we believe. The behavior of the modern-atheist society across the world has turned into out-right intolerance of the Christian religion.

But to keep things leveled, I’ve looked into the acronym itself.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era

Discuss.

-Karl

My view: I will let them fight for those crumbs.
I prefer real and tasty bread.

 

[Inego_de_Loyola]

I think it is ridiculous seeing as how the “common era” is still defined by the Era of Christendom. It is plain foolishness. If they want a purely secular calendar then they can count from the founding of Rome (Like the ancient Romans did.) or perhaps of America. Maybe they should count from the end of WWI or some other thing. If it is a Jewish thing then maybe they should count from the destruction of the temple of Herod. It seems ludicrous to count from the traditional date of the birth of Christ and then claim they aren’t by calling it something else. What event happened at 1 CE to make it a worthy date to count from? If not Christ then what?

 

[jpjd]

I think it is ridiculous seeing as how the “common era” is still defined by the Era of Christendom. It is plain foolishness. If they want a purely secular calendar then they can count from the founding of Rome (Like the ancient Romans did.) or perhaps of America. Maybe they should count from the end of WWI or some other thing. If it is a Jewish thing then maybe they should count from the destruction of the temple of Herod. It seems ludicrous to count from the traditional date of the birth of Christ and then claim they aren’t by calling it something else. What event happened at 1 CE to make it a worthy date to count from? If not Christ then what?

My thoughts exactly! What a nonsensical paradox to deny Christ while at the same time using a system of counting days that is based on Christ.

If you think about it, what a wonderful witness to Christ this is, that humans use his life as the basis for marking time.

 

[JRKH]

My view: I will let them fight for those crumbs.
I prefer real and tasty bread.

Largely I agree with this.

The “Catholic view”. that is the view in the “Catholic world” (The Catholic Church) is that she will continue to express times as BC and AD. The rest of the world is free to choose whatever terminology is suitable to it’s particular needs. Of course there are only a very few professions that has need of some identifier on a daily basis, those dealing with the far historical aspects of history and science.

Naturally individual reactions will vary. Personally, I could care less what term they use. I know who’s kingdom I belong to.

Peace
James

 

[MarkThompson]

I think it is ridiculous seeing as how the “common era” is still defined by the Era of Christendom. It is plain foolishness.

Well, you have to acknowledge that there’s a distinction: I’m sure there are many who just want to extirpate visible evidence of religion, but at the same time I think some people who do not hold Christ to the the Lord, although willing to use the common dating, just don’t want to write an abbreviation that says, “In the year of Our Lord.” I would probably feel the same if, through some accident of history, the dates in general use in the world were based on the birth of Mohammed, and the abbreviation meant, “In the year of Allah’s Slave, the Holy Prophet Mohammed.”

 

[followingtheway]

On assignments, I use both. For example.

“In the 4th century BC/BCE, Alexander the great was born”

You could please both people sometimes.

 

[Fiasco]

BCE/CE STINKS!

My view: I will let them fight for those crumbs.
I prefer real and tasty bread.

Well put!

I think it is ridiculous seeing as how the “common era” is still defined by the Era of Christendom. It is plain foolishness. If they want a purely secular calendar…

If the anti-theists want to go all the way, theres a fairly recent precedent: Pol Pots new calender, starting at “Year Zero”, from the mid 1970s.

Another starting point could be the 26th of March 1941: the date of the birth of C R Dawkins. That would allow the continued use of “AD”.

 

[floresco]

I normally use BC/AD but will use the politically correct version in some contexts.

 

[beehumble]

I use it sometimes but I just think of it as Before Christian Era and Christian Era, so it doesn’t matter to me. (It makes no sense whatsoever to use ‘Common Era’ - common as opposed to what? - ancient Egypt and ancient Rome before Christ were both more civilized than the dark ages.)

God bless you.

 

[amsjj]

I use the B.C./A.D., but if I see the BCE/CE, I always say it as Before Christian Era and Christian Era. If they want to create a whole new calendar, they should create a whole new calendar, but just “changing” the meaning of the letters I find pathetic. Reminds me of the French Revolution where a new calendar was created – at least they worked a new system out.

amsjj

+++
Jesus, God and man,
imprisoned by love in Thy most holy Sacrament,
have mercy upon us.

• Blessed John Henry Newman, December 22, 1851

Tú y yo sabemos por la fe que oculto en las especies sacramentales está Cristo,
ese Cristo con su Cuerpo, con su Sangre, con su Alma, y con su Divinidad,
prisonero de amor.

• San Josemaría Escrivá, 1 junio 1974

… Our Lord Himself frequently said; and it is recorded as an Apostolic tradition from Him
by St. Justin the Martyr. He says ‘Jesus often said, “They who are near Me are near a fire”’.

• Abp. W. B. Ullathorne, August 1st 1886