| A | B |
|---|
| Absolutionist | Believing in one's received traditions as completely and exclusively true. |
| Agnostic | Belief that there is anything beyond this life, it is impossible for humans to know it. |
| Allegory | Narrative using symbols to communicate abstract ideas |
| Atheism | Belief that there is no deity. |
| Awakening | Full awareness of invisible reality. |
| Charisma | Magnetic attraction, a quality often ascribed to spiritual leaders. |
| Comparative religion | A discipline that attempts to compare and understand patterns found in different religious traditions. |
| Creationism | Belief that all life was created by God. |
| Darwinism | Belief that life evolved by biological proceses such as natural selection |
| Dogma | Doctrines proclaimed as absolutely true by religious institutions. |
| Enlightenment | Wisdom that is thought to come from direct experience of Ultimate Reality. |
| Exclusivism | Belief that one's own tradition is the only true religion and that others are invalid. |
| Fundamentalism | Insistence on what is believed to be the historical form of one's religion. |
| Gnosis | Intuitive knowledge of spiritual matters. |
| Heritic | One whose assertions about religion are considered false by his or her religious institution. |
| Immanent | Present in the visible world. |
| Incarnation | Physical embodiment of the divine |
| Intelligent design | Theory that scientific discoveries prove the existnce of an all incompasing Designer, since they reveal complexities beyond chance or evolutionary process. |
| Liberal | Taking, a flexable, non-dogmatic approach. |
| Metaphysics | Philosophy based on theories of subtle realities that transcend the physical world. |
| Monotheism | Belief that there is only one deity. |
| Mysticism | The intuitive perception of spiritual truths beyond the limits of reason |
| Myth | A symbolic story expressing ideas about reality or spiritual history. |
| Orthodox | Strictly standing by preceived traditions. |
| Phenomenology | Study of religious practices to comprehend their meaning for their practiitioners. |
| Polytheism | Belief that there are many deities. |
| Profane | Worldly, secular, as opposed to sacred. |
| Realization | Personal awareness of the existence of Unseen Reality |
| Redaction | Editing and organization of religious scriptures. |
| Religion | A particular response to dimensions |
| Ritual | Repeated, patterned religious acts. |
| Sacred | The realm of the extraordinary, beyond everyday perceptions, the supernatural, holy. |
| Scientific materialism | Belief that only the material world exists and that the supernatural is only mentioned by humans |
| Spirituality | Any personal response to dimensions of life that are considered sacred. |
| Symbol | Visible representation of an individual reality or concept. |
| Theism | Belief in a deity or deities. |
| Transcendent | Spiritual Reality that exists apart from the material universe. |
| Universalism | Acceptance that truth may be found in all religions. |
