| A | B |
|---|
| Agnosticism | Belief that nothing can be known about whether God exists. |
| Animism | Belief that objects, such as plants and stones, or natural events, like thunderstorms and earthquakes, have a discrete spirit and conscious life. |
| Atheism | Belief that God does not exist. |
| Autonomous religion | A religion that does not have a central authority but shares ideas and cooperates informally. |
| Branch | A large and fundamental division within a religion. |
| Buddhism | The teaching of an Indian prince (Siddhartha Gautama) that life is permeated with suffering caused by desire, that suffering ceases when desire ceases, and that enlightenment obtained through right conduct, wisdom, and meditation releases one from desire and suffering and rebirth. |
| Caste | The class or distinct hereditary order into which a Hindu is assigned, according to religious law. |
| Christianity | A monotheistic system of beliefs and practices based on the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus as embodied in the New Testament, emphasizing his role as savior. |
| Confucianism | The system of ethics, education, and statesmanship taught by a Chinese administrator and his disciples, stressing love for humanity, ancestor worship, reverence for parents, and harmony in thought and conduct. |
| Cosmogony | A set of religious beliefs concerning the origin of the universe. |
| Denomination | A division of a branch that unites a number of local congregations into a single legal and administrative body. |
| Diocese | The basic unit of geographic organization in the Roman Catholic Church. |
| Ethnic religion | A religion with a relatively concentrated spatial distribution whose principles are likely to be based on the physical characteristics of the particular location in which its adherents are concentrated. |
| Fundamentalism | Literal interpretation and strict adherence to basic principles of a religion (or a religious branch, denomination, or sect). |
| Geomancy | A method of prediction that interprets markings on the ground or handfuls of dirt. |
| Ghetto | During the Middle Ages, a neighborhood in a city set up by law to be inhabited only by Jews: now used to denote a section of a city in which members of any minority group live because of social, legal, or economic pressure. |
| Hajj | In the fifth pillar of Islam, it is a pilgrimage to Mecca during the month of Dhu al-Qadah. |
| Hierarchical religion | A religion in which a central authority exercises a high degree of control. |
| Hinduism | Created in India, it is based on a wide spectrum of laws and prescriptions based on karma, dharma, and societal norms. |
| Interfaith boundaries | Geographic divisions between the major religions. |
| Islam | The religion of Muslims collectively which governs their civilization and way of life. |
| Jainism | A religion that branched off from Hinduism, founded by Mahavira; its beliefs include that everything has a soul and the soul must be cleansed. |
| Judaism | The monotheistic religion of the Jews having its spiritual and ethical principles embodied chiefly in the Torah and in the Talmud. |
| Landscapes of the dead | Certain area where people have commonly been buried. |
| Missionary | An individual who helps to diffuse a universalizing religion. |
| Monotheism | The doctrine of or belief in the existence of only one God. |
| Mormonism | Religious, ideological, and cultural aspects of the various denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement, primarily concentrated in Utah. |
| Pagan | A follower of a polytheistic religion. |
| Pilgrimage | A journey to a place considered sacred for religious purposes. |
| Polytheism | Belief in or worship of more than one god. |
| Proselytic religion | A universalizing religion that attempts to convert another person to the religion. |
| Reincarnation | Embodiment in a new form. |
| Religion | A system of beliefs and practices that attempts to order life in terms of perceived ultimate priorities. |
| Sacred space | Place that people infuse with religious meaning. |
| Sect | A relatively small group that has broken away from an established denomination. |
| Secularism | Worldly; not pertaining to church or religious matters. |
| Shamanism | An animistic religion of northern Asia having the belief that the mediation between the visible and the spirit worlds is affected by shaman. |
| Shari 'a laws | System of Islamic law, sometimes called Qu'ranic Law; this law can be based on legal precedence. |
| Shi'ite | Adherents to Islam, representing the Persian variation who believe in the infallibility and divine right authority of the Imams, descendants of Ali. |
| Shintoism | Religion located in Japan and related to Buddhism; focuses particularly on nature and ancestor worship. |
| Sikhism | A sect of Hinduism that combines some elements of Islam; although it practiced by many, its worship is concentrated in South Asia. |
| Solstice | An astronomical event that happens twice each year, when the tilt of Earth's axis is most inclined toward or away from the Sun, causing the Sun's apparent position in the sky to reach it most northernmost, or southernmost extreme, and resulting in the shortest and longest days of the year. |
| Sunni | Largest branch of Islam, this belief, considered to be orthodox, acknowledges the first four caliphs as the rightful successors of Muhammad. |
| Syncretic | A religion that combines several traditions. |
| Taoism | A Chinese sect, claiming to follow the teaching of Lao-tzu but incorporating pantheism and sorcery. |
| Theocracy | A state whose government is under the control of a ruler considered to be divinely guided or under the control of a group of religious leaders. |
| Universalizing religion | A religion that attempts to appeal to all people, not just those living in a particular location. |
| Zoroastrianism | Considered to be the oldest monotheistic religion in the world, it is practiced mainly in Iran and India under the motto "Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds." |
