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Common Era
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cover image Common Era is an annual anthology of the best new writing in the field of religion. It brings together a cross section of articles from the wisdom traditions of the major religions as well as articles on new religious movements and indigenous traditions from around the world. Common Era blends together accessible scholarly studies with articles by, and interviews of, leading religious figures and remarkable persons.
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Common Era is the calendar system widely used in the Western world to number the year part of a date. This way of giving the date does not have an obvious connection to a particular faith. The year numbers are the same as those used for Anno Domini (AD), which is the Christian calendar. The number of this year is the same in both systems.
The Common Era refers to the conventional Gregorian numbering of years from an epoch based on the traditionally reckoned year of the birth of Jesus Christ. This convention for year numbering was introduced by Christians in the 6th century, although it was not widely used until later. Years before the epoch were denoted A.C.N. (for Ante Christi Natus, Latin for "before the birth of Christ"), although B.C. ("Before Christ") is now usually used in English. These abbreviations are placed after the year number, which is counted backward from 1; that is, the first year before the epoch is "1 B.C.", the second year before the epoch is "2 B.C.", etc. Years after the epoch are denoted A.D. (for Anno Domini, Latin for "in the year of the Lord"), with the abbreviation before the year and counted from 1.
The Common Era ( CE )... known as the Christian Era and sometimes the Current Era , is the period beginning with the year 1 onwards. The term is used for a system of reckoning years that is chronologically equivalent to the anno Domini (AD) ( Latin for "in the year of our Lord") system, but with less overt religious implications. Although common era was a term first used by some Christians in an age when Christianity was the common religion of the West, it is now a term preferred by some as a religiously neutral alternative. It has its equivalents in other languages. For example, Chinese uses its literal translation, gōngyuán (公元), for date notation.
The terms "Common Era", "Anno Domini", "Before the Common Era" and "Before Christ" can be applied to dates that rely on either the Julian calendar or the Gregorian calendar. Modern dates are understood in the western world to be in the Gregorian calendar, but for older dates writers should specify the calendar used. Dates in the Gregorian calendar have always used the Common Era, but over the millennia a wide variety of eras have been used with the Julian calendar.
BCE means "Before Common Era" and CE means "Common Era". These designations were invented to avoid the Christian reference. The designation is part of the politically correct "inclusive language" movement to sanitize anything Christian.
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