Common Era

The Common Era is the period beginning with the year AD 1 onwards. The term is synonymous with the Christian Era, so named because the Christian calendar considers Jesus Christ to have been born in that same year, thus "Common Era" is sometimes used as a religiously neutral alternative.

The term has been in use since the late 19th century and is common in academic circles worldwide. Though the term is rarely used outside a scholarly context in the English-speaking world, China uses the Common Era (公元) universally for time notation, both among academics and the general public.

Chronology and notation

The terms "Common Era" and "Christian Era" both refer to the same time period derived from the Gregorian calendar, which has become the world's de facto standard calendar system. The names of the 12 months and seven days of the week within this system predate the Christian Era, but the Gregorian calendar's salient feature – and the one prompting the coining of the term "Common Era" – is its system of numbering and naming years using the presumed birth year of Jesus Christ in AD 1 as a starting point.

Thus, according to this international standard, the September 11 attacks occurred in the year 2001, the French Revolution occurred in the year 1789, and human beings first walked on the Moon in the year 1969.

When used as a replacement for the Christian Era's BC/AD notation, the Common Era is abbreviated as CE and is the direct chronological equivalent of AD (Latin for anno Domini, literally "in the year of the Lord", which is sometimes used in religious contexts instead of the literal Latin). The time "before the Common Era" is written as BCE and is the direct chronological equivalent of BC, or "before Christ".

Both CE and BCE follow the year, as does BC, but not AD, which properly precedes the year because of the grammatical nature of the Latin phrase anno Domini, although some writers of English write AD after the year. Thus Aristotle was born in 384 BCE, or 384 BC, and Genghis Khan died in 1227 CE, or AD 1227.

Areas of usage

The Common Era designation is most often used by academics, especially by scholars of non-Christian cultures. Some non-Christians, who believe that the Christian connotations inherent in the international timekeeping standard clashes with their own religious or secular beliefs, have also adopted the designation.

BCE/CE notation is also used in interfaith dialogue by some Christian churches [1] and by some news media in the United States [2] in articles dealing with Middle Eastern or interfaith matters. Secular use of BCE/CE is especially common in the fields of non-Western history, archaeology, and anthropology.

United Kingdom

However, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority in the United Kingdom notes that:

"The national curriculum for history clearly states that 'pupils should be taught to use dates and vocabulary relating to the passing of time, including ancient, modern, BC, AD, century and decade'. The terms BCE and CE are not used in the national curriculum and there are no plans to introduce them.

"Schools are free to use them in addition to BC and AD or draw pupils' attention to their use elsewhere (such as in text books) but there is no suggestion that they should become replacements for the traditional Christian dating system." [3]

The British Broadcasting Corporation in their website article The 'Common Era' - a Secular Term for Year Definition notes that "The use of CE/BCE rather than AD/BC is (at the time of writing) limited, and rarely occurs in British speech. Television, radio, newspapers, most non-academic books and h2g2 all use the AD/BC terms much more frequently. Some historical and theological academic works do use the CE/BCE designations, although publications on non-religious issues tend not to bother."

Opposition

Some writers view "Common Era" as an attempt to remove Christian references from the calendar, and use "CE" notation to stand for "Christian Era" instead of "Common Era".

Reasons given for opposing the Common Era designation include:

• It downplays the prominence of Jesus Christ in majority-Christian societies.
• The months and days of the week, named respectively after Roman and Norse gods, remain unchanged, so attempts to remove Christian references in the calendar are hypocritical.
• It is an example of political correctness.
• It preserves a Christian-centric worldview at the expense of a neutral, non-religious timekeeping system, since the year 1 CE is not a "common" starting point for many cultures' calendar systems.

See also

• Anno Domini
• Political correctness

External links

Usage

• Chicago Manual of Style on usage of CE/AD in the United States (see ninth question)

Commentary

• Whatever happened to B.C. and A.D., and why? (United Church of Christ)

Controversy over use in schools

U.K.

• AD and BC become CE/BCE, Evening Standard, Feb. 19, 2002
• History has to be rewritten as school bans BC and AD, News.Telegraph, Dec. 13, 2002

Australia

• Before Christ replaced in books, The Courier-Mail, March 2, 2005
• NSW Govt accused of rewriting history over BC ban, ABC, March 2, 2005
• Before Common Era Use in Schools - Question in New South Wales Legislative Council, March 2, 2005