in the sense that Chrisianity exists? I do as well...and also in Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism...

That's the difference between me and Lewis: by it, I don't see anything...

but jokes apart, how should this sentence be interpreted?

I believe that this sentence should be interpreted like "I believe in the ideology of Christianism". At least that's how I interpret it.

>I believe that this sentence should be interpreted like "I believe in the ideology of Christianism". At least that's how I interpret it.

Well, then, why "-ity" and not "-ism"?

"Christianity" is to Christianism what the "Umma" is to Islam...

whops, my bad, i meant to write '-ity' like in the original version and not '-ism"

Yeah, Guybrush is correct here.

>Yeah, Guybrush is correct here.

I don't know what the "ideology" of Christianity is. There are - at least - 3 different Christian civilisations and they have very different ideologies...if one can even name this "ideologies"...

That may be true, but that is still the meaning of this sentence.

>That may be true, but that is still the meaning of this sentence.

well, then you sense something I don't. Because I'm still at sea to translate this...

« croire en la chrétienté », in French, doesn't make much sense...Christianity (as being the people who believe in Christ) exists. You don't need to "believe" in it for it to exist. Its like believing in human beings. They're there, whether you believe it or not...

English uses "Christianity" instead of "Christianism", unlike French ("christianisme"). Christianity and christianisme have the same meaning, English just uses a different word from the Romance languages.

>English uses "Christianity" instead of "Christianism", unlike French ("christianisme"). Christianity and christianisme have the same meaning, English just uses a different word from the Romance languages.

That's interesting...I never realised that...In effect, « chrétienté » refers only to the group or the geographical space, when « christianisme » refers to the religion...

Nevertheless, one doesn't believe in "a religion" but in its teachings...The religion is the belief. So one problem remains, anyway...

>In English, one can believe in a religion to mean believe in the ideals of the religion.

Yeah...it's not translatable in French...We can't believe in beliefs...

It's probably the reason why France has the largest proportion of atheists in the world...

je pratique *le* christianisme.
Oui, c'est correct. On peut « pratiquer » une religion, mais on ne peut pas y « croire ».

Mais je peux difficilement traduire le verbe anglais "believe" en « pratiquer ». La nuance est trop importante...
D'ailleurs, on peut pratiquer sans croire. Par exemple, le Régent Philippe d'Orléans, qui était athée, affichait néanmoins une pratique religieuse parce qu'il pensait, comme Montesquieu, que c'est bon pour le peuple, qui est incapable d'être athée...