Christian wikis

Bible Encyclopedias

General Christianity

Specific Denominations

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

Wikipedia, with hundreds-of-thousands of articles, is the most well-known wiki website and is a testimony to the effectiveness of wikis in allowing exhange 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.

Bible Encyclopedias

BibleWiki is a "project to build a wiki of information around the Bible". It contents include the text of the King James Version, Easton's Bible Dictionary of 1897, the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1907, the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906. It is now starting to add commentary texts as well. It aims towards the scholarly approach, rather than denominational doctrines. BibleWiki is produced under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

BibleWiki.net: "The Bible Wiki is a wiki containing information about the Bible and a catalogue of Bible-related issues." It takes a protestant point of view, and adheres to the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

"TheWikiBible ... exists for a single purpose: create an online Bible commentary and encyclopedia that is accessible, collaborative, definitive and, over time, exhaustive." TheWikiBible is produced under the GFDL, and has not been very active.

"Wikible is a Christian community focused on centralizing all data available relating to the Bible." Wikible is collaboratively produced under the GFDL, except for copyrighted works such as the NASB and other copyrighted Bible translations. Wikible does not claim any particular denomination, but does claim the Bible is inerrant in its original writing.

General Christianity and Christian Theology Encyclopedias

Christianity Knowledge Base aims to provide articles and discussions on any Christian topics. Articles are explicitly allowed to be "CPOV" (Christian Point of View). Christianity Knowledge Base is produced under the GFDL.

TheoWiki is a general theological wiki with Christian emphasis but claims to be different in that it is not "distinctively Christian". As of January 2006, it is apparently inactive. TheoWiki adheres to the GFDL.

TheologyWiki is a Christian theological wiki dedicated to a consensual ecumenical perspective. Started in March 2006, TheologyWiki adheres to the GFDL.

WikiChristian claims to be the largest wiki specifically related to Christianity on the internet. It was set-up in late 2004 by an American called Prab R Tumpati and by Graham Grove in Australia. It aims to be a useful reference on all topics related to Christianity. Articles need not be neutral in viewpoint as long as the article is clearly marked as an opinion. WikiChristian uses the GFDL.

Christian Forums Wiki is a new general Christianity wiki started in early 2006 as part of Christian Forums, the world's largest online Christian community.

Specific Denominations or Traditions

AnglicanWiki was a small wiki dedicated to "attempt to codify the vast expanse of Anglicanism throughout time and space". It used the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. It has since been discontinued.

CARMPedia was set-up by Matt Slick, who is the founder of the Christian apologetics website CARM. It adheres to a specific form of Evangelical Protestantism and requires that all articles likewise espouse such doctrines, flatly using "Christian" as a synonym. It adheres to the GFDL.

Compass is a small wiki that has a distinct discussion forum feel. Users are encouraged to write down their thoughts about a particular topic. The website was set up by a minister in England called Richard Hall. It currently appears to presume acceptance of the doctrines of mainstream Protestantism. It uses the GFDL.

CreationWiki is a Christian apologetics encyclopedia focused on creation science. It was inaugurated in June 2004 by the Northwest Creation Network. It uses the GFDL.

"... J6Dpedia ... is an online encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics. It will contain articles that defend the Christian faith, or contribute towards its defense. In particular, it is intended to develop an online one-volume Bible commentary." It strongly appears to adhere to the Evangelical Protestant expositional tradition and requires that anyone who would post to it state doctrinal compliance. It does not state what license it adheres to.

MormonWiki (.org) is a Christian wiki outlining the history, doctrines, and culture of Mormonism from the perspective of Evangelical Protestantism. It attempts to share the "love of Christ" to Mormons while showing the "fallacies" of Mormonism. It uses the GFDL.

OrthodoxWiki is a wiki specifically for all issues related to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. It was inaugurated in November 2004 and has grown considerably with many active contributing users. It uses mixed licensing, with most content simultaneously under both the GFDL and the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike licenses. Some material reprints coyrighted works and has been reproduced with permission, copyrights remaining intact. This Wiki underwent a license adjustment, and some older material is under the non-commercial attribution share-alike license.

Theopedia is a conservative Calvinist theology wiki. It generally adheres to the doctrines of the Reformed churches. Though it is guided by Reformed Calvinist theology, it includes an online forum where Christians of all denominations are welcomed to share their views. It has over 1,000 articles and its claimed strengths are in biographies and general theological topics. Theopedia is under the GFDL.

Tulipedia is a wiki dedicated to the Calvinism. It adheres to the GFDL.

WikiCath is a new and fast growing Catholic wiki founded in January of 2006. It does not require neutrality but it does require that all articles are as faithful to the teachings of the Catholic Church as possible. It uses the GFDL.