Comparative Religions Vocabulary

A group of religions (among them, Christianity, Islam and Judaism) centered on the worship of the God of Abraham (a Hebrew patriarch).

A

One who holds the view or belief that human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify either the belief that God exists or the belief that God does not exist.

A

The belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence.

A

An absence of belief in the existence of deities or a rejection of the belief that any deities exist.

A

A religion founded in the 19th century by Baháʼu'lláh (1817-1892) that teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people.

B

In its broadest sense, a collection of religious texts or scriptures, some, all, or a variant of which, are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, and many other religions.

B

An Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, the Enlightened One (6th or 5th century BCE).

B

An Abrahamic religion that began in the 1st century as a Judaic sect with Hellenistic influences and whose central tenet is the belief in Jesus as the Son of God and the Messiah.

C

An ancient Chinese system of thought and behavior developed from the teachings of the philosopher Confucius (551-479 BCE).

C

The philosophical position and rationalistic theology that generally rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge and asserts that empirical reason and observation of the natural world are exclusively logical, reliable, and sufficient to determine the existence of a Supreme Being as the creator of the universe.

D

Various forms and expressions of religion (usually ethnic or regional) outside the official doctrine and practices of organized religions.

F

A doctrine held by a member of a religion at variance with established religious beliefs.

H

Called the oldest religion in the world, its beliefs evolved in India with prominent themes including karma (action/intent/consequences) and the proper goals of human life (ethics/duties, prosperity/work, liberation from passions/desires, and the cycle of death and rebirth).

H

An Abrahamic religion dating from about 610 CE and centered on the teachings of the prophet Muhammad, the successor to earlier prophets such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus.

I

From India, one of the oldest religions still practiced today, based on the three main pillars of non-violence, non-absolutism and asceticism.

J

An Abrahamic religion that originated in the Middle East during the Bronze Age, encompassing the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people.

J

The belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being.

M

In modern scholarly usage, a community that includes Wiccans, Druids, Shamans, Sacred Ecologists, Odinists and Heathens.

P

The belief that God preceded the universe and created it, but is now equivalent with it.

P

The belief that the divine intersects every part of the universe and also extends beyond space and time.

P

The philosophical religious belief that reality, the universe, and nature are identical to divinity or a supreme entity, popularized in Western culture by Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677).

P

The belief in, and often worship of, multiple deities or spirits.

P

The central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God.

Q

An animistic religion from Japan that centers on the worship of the kami, supernatural entities believed to inhabit all things, including forces of nature and prominent landscape locations.

S

A Punjabi religion that developed from the spiritual teachings of Guru Nanak (1469–1539). Core beliefs include faith and meditation in the name of the one creator, divine unity and equality of all humankind, engaging in selfless service, striving for justice for the benefit and prosperity of all, and honest conduct and livelihood.

S

A nineteenth-century social religious movement according to which an individual's awareness persists after death and may be contacted by the living.

S

A foundational work of Taoism written around 400 BCE and traditionally credited to the sage Laozi.

T

Philosophical doctrines and a family of organized religious movements that share concepts and terminology from the philosophy that arose in China c. the 4th to 5th centuries BCE, and that center on the underlying cosmic power that creates the universe, supports culture and the state, saves the good and punishes the wicked.

T

The compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.

T

An umbrella term that refers to the West African Vodun religion and various related African diaspora religions.

V