copyright 2001, D. Glenn Arthur Jr.
[What's new at this site] Last updated 2003-02-17.

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The "Common Era" (i.e. nowadays)

If you clicked on a link to this page it's probably because you're wondering what "CE" or "BCE" means. "CE" means "Common Era" (or alternatively, "Christian Era") and refers to the same dates as "AD" or "Anno Domini" does. (Except that "AD" goes before the year number and "CE" goes after it: e.g. "AD 1996" is the same year as "1996 CE".) Why does it matter? Why invent another abbreviation? Well, an awfull lot of people don't realize what AD stands for or means. "Anno Domini" is Latin for "in the year of Our Lord", referring to Our Lord Jesus Christ. That is, "AD 1996" literally means "in the 1996'th year since the birth of the Christ." Now not all the world is Christian, so it makes no sense for a Jew, a Moslem, a Hindu, a Witch, a Druid, or an atheist to refer to the date as being in the year of "their Lord" when they don't follow him.



Before Common Era (i.e. a loooong time ago)

As most people know, "BC" stands for "before Christ", and is therefore subject to the exact same problems as "AD". That is to say, for non-Christians it's somewhat inconsiderate and for Christians it's wrong by four to six years. So the common alternative is "BCE", or "Before the Common Era", which has the wonderful advantage of looking a whole lot like "BC", which it replaces.

Is this "Politically Correct"?

Well, it's polite and it's more accurate. I don't think anybody wants to go around changing all the dates on medieval tax records to pretend our ancestors used religiously-neutral language, or anything like that. It's just more considerate towards non-Christians, and it means that Christians discussing the actual date of the birth of Jesus don't have to say silly things like "Christ was probably born around 4 years Before Christ." Instead we can say, "... around the year 4 BCE, possibly as early as 6 BCE."


The Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance web site has a discussion of this.

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