Christian wikis

Synopsis

The history of wiki websites specifically related to Christianity is much more recent than that of wikis in general. One of the criticisms that adherents to various religious groups have had to wikipedia is that in attempting to maintain a neutral point of view, some of the teachings of their religion can be "watered-down" or altered. These critics also state that the neutral point of view is in the eye of the beholder. The first religious wiki was Why Clublet. Currently the largest Christian wikis include Theopedia, WikiChristian and OrthodoxWiki.

Related topics

• WikiChristian
• Theopedia
• OrthodoxWiki
• Wikible
• Christian Knowledge Base
• CreationWiki

Comments, Personal Articles, Studies and Sermons

Christian wikis (discussion) (For short comments and opinions)

Template:Links

• Apologetics Wiki
• Bible Study Wiki
• Bible Wiki
• Bible Wiki Net
• Christianity Knowledge Base
• Compass
• Christianity Meta Wiki
• CreationWiki
• Faithpedia
• J6Pedia
• Jesus-Wiki
• MormonWiki Org
• Open Bible Project
• OrthodoxWiki
• Theology Wiki
• Theopedia
• Tulipedia
• Wiki Bible
• Wikible
• WikiCath
• WikiChristian
• the CrossWire wiki

Main article

A wiki website is a site that allows users to add content, as on an internet forum, but also allows anyone to edit the content.

The first wiki was set up by Ward Cunningham in 1995 [1].

Wikipedia was started in 2001. As of 2007, Wikipedia has hundreds-of-thousands of articles, and is the most well-known wiki website and is a testimony to the effectiveness of wikis in allowing exchange of information through collaborative effort. It contains thousands of articles related to religion. One of the criticisms that adherents to various religious groups have however is that in attempting to maintain a neutral point of view, some of the teachings of their religion can be "watered-down" or altered. These critics also state that the neutral point of view is in the eye of the beholder. In response to some of these criticism, explicitly Christian wiki websites have been set up. The majority of them adhere to a specific Christian denomination or tradition, including most that claim to be non-specifically "Christian" in nature. They tend to fall into three categories, Online Bible encyclopedias (of varying completeness and denominational emphases), general Christianity wikis without a specific denominational slant, and wikis devoted to a specific Christian denomination or tradition.

History of Christian wikis

The history of Christian wikis is much more recent than that of wikis in general.

Is that so? What about http://clublet.com/ , begun by Richard Drake in 2000? Other than the original wiki, it's the earliest public wiki I know of. If this wasn't the second public wiki, what wiki was? If this was the second public wiki, wouldn't that mean that Christian wiki history is older than that of "wikis" in general (other than the original wiki)?

One of the earliest Christian wiki was Compass, which was set up by Richard Hall in early 2001. Although still online, this has been essentially empty for a number of years now. In 2004 WikiChristian was set up and was for a time the only Christian wiki that was not specifically denominational. Other wikis developed in early 2005 included Orthodox Wiki (for Eastern Orthodoxy) and Theopedia (for Reformed Protestantism).

In more recent times there has been an explosion of Christian wikis, particularly "Bible" wikis dedicated to Biblical Christianity, such as Wikible.

No Christian wikis have achieved anything like the numerical success of editors that wikipedia has. There are regular users particularly of Theopedia and OrthodoxWiki, and to a lesser extent WikiChristian, Wikible and Christianity Knowledge Base. Wikible keeps a running talley on the active user population of the different wikis - see Wikible's article on Christian wikis.

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