Data source: Gina A. Zurlo, ed., World Religion Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| religious humanism | A modern North American movement composed chiefly of non-theistic humanist churches and dedicated to achieving the ethical goals of religion without beliefs and rites resting upon supernaturalism; sometimes called Christian humanism. |
| religious liberty | Freedom to practice one’s religion with the full range of religious rights specified in the UN’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. |
| religious libraries | A large library (over 100,000 volumes) specializing mainly in the study of religion. |
| religious movement | A movement swept along by its own momentum long before it becomes organized or institutionalized. |
| religious Muslims | Ethnic Muslims (qv) who practice or profess Islam. |
| religious persecution | Persecution of believers specifically on religious grounds, though this is often denied. |
| religious persuasion | A person’s religious profession or preference. |
| religious pluralism | The peaceful co-existence of completely different religions or denominations within a particular community. |
| religious practice | The actual performing of religious duties. |
| religious preference | The religion or denominational tradition which a respondee professes to adhere to when asked in a public-opinion poll. |
| religious profession | (1) the religion or denominational tradition professed or preferred in a poll or census. (2) The taking of vows in a religious order. |
| religious research | Investigation, research and experiment on any religious subject or matter. |
| Religious Science | A marginal Protestant tradition emphasizing metaphysical science, Divine Science, Christian Science, New Thought, magnetic healing and the like. |
| religious sociology | The study of religion as it affects society. |
| religious states | States, governments or ruling regimes which identify themselves as religious, or with religion and its promotion, numbered 113 out of the world total of 238 in AD 2000 |
| religious survival | A religious practice or belief dating back to an earlier, outmoded, religion, which has survived into the present. |
| religious toleration | The attitude of tolerance and acceptance, on the part of a state or a majority church, towards religious minorities. |
| religious zealots | Persons earnestly devoted to or attached to any religion. |
| religious_categories | Number of religious categories or types asked in the survey. |
| Renewal | Generic term for over 100 different current movements of revival or awakening or new spiritual life across the whole spectrum of global Christianity. |
| Renewalists | Church members involved in the Pentecostal/Charismatic/Independent Charismatic renewal in the Holy Spirit, also collectively known as "Pentecostal-charismatics". |
| representative_coverage | Whether the sample is representative of the entire country. Some surveys have an urban bias or omit geographic regions. |
| response_rate | Response rate denotes the percentage of people chosen for the sample who responded to the survey interviewer and are included in the survey. |
| ruralites | Rural dweller, person residing in the countryside rather than in an urban area. |
| Sabbath | The seventh day of the week (Saturday). |
Data on 18 categories of religion, including non-religious, by country, province, and people.
Data on all religions, Christian activities, and trends.
Membership data, year begun, and rates of change.
Population and religion data on all major cities & provinces.
Detailed information covering religion, culture, and geography.
A repository of historical data, including a chronology of Christianity from the 1st to 21st centuries.