neo-Christianadj.n.
/ˌniːə(ʊ)ˈkrɪstʃ(ə)n/, U.S. /ˌnioʊˈkrɪstʃ(ə)n/ A. adj.
Holding modern or modified Christian views or attitudes.
ΚΠ
1852 New Monthly Mag. Dec. 428 This neo-Christian Socrates is commissioned to pull to pieces the tenet of Protagoras the sophist.
1910 W. Lewis Lett. (1963) 44 He [sc. Masefield] makes Pompey a sort of Tolstoyan or neo-Christian hero.
1958 Russ. Rev. 17 29 Interest in [Vladimir Solovyov] quickly dwindled, till it is now almost confined to a few neo-Christian commentators.
1986 W. Weaver tr. U. Eco Trav. in Hyper Reality iii. 95 It seems incredible that a neo-Christian sect, gentle, mystical-communist in its inspiration, should end up transformed into a gang of killers.
B. n.
A new or modern Christian; spec. a convert to Christianity.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > sect > Christianity > conversion to Christianity > [noun] > a convert
neo-Christian1864
1864 F. Harrison Let. June in Autobiogr. Mem. (1911) 355 We held a meeting..Anglicans, Broad Churchmen, Neo-Christians, Non-Christians, Papists, Unitarians, Quakers, and Agnostics all together.
1882 J. R. Seeley Nat. Relig. 116 The Neochristian.., if he is not provoked by argument, gradually forgets his crotchet.
1960 Speculum 35 339 During the rioting which swept the kingdom of Valencia..these neo-Christians suffered along with the other Moors and as identified with them, losing all their possessions.
1994 H. Bloom Western Canon ii. iii. 77 Charles Williams—a guru for such neo-Christians as Eliot, C. S. Lewis,..and others—went so far as to affirm that the Athanasian creed..did not receive full expression until Dante.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1852