World Religion Database: glossary

Data source: Gina A. Zurlo, ed., World Religion Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).

Glossary item	Definition
Hindu reform movements	These include: Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj, Ramakrishna Mission (Ramakrishna Movement/Vedanta Movement), and others.
Hindus	Followers of the main Hindu traditions: Vaishnavism; Shaivism; Shaktism; neo-Hindu movements and modern sects; and other Hindu reform movements.
human rights	The whole range of the rights of individuals, families, communities, religious persons, as set out in the UN’s 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights (especially the detailing of religious freedoms).
humanism	A philosophy based on agnosticism that rejects supernaturalism and revelation, regards man as a natural object only, and asserts the essential dignity and worth of man and his capacity to achieve self-realization and self-fulfillment through the use of reason and scientific method; naturalistic humanism, scientific humanism.
humanist	A person who subscribes to humanism.
Ibadis, Ibadites	Kharijites (qv).
iconography	Art representing religious subjects by conventional images and symbols, the study of religious art and symbolism.
imam	(Arabic, divine guide). AMuslim religious practitioner or cleric.
Imamis, Imamites	Ithna-Asharis (qv), Ismailis (qv) and other Shias.
immigrant religion	A religion absent from a country until brought in by recent immigrants.
independency, religious	A movement asserting independence of a previously recognized ecclesiastical authority, especially exemplified in the African indigenous churches (qv).
Independents	Christians who identify as independent of the major Christian traditions (Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant). Independent of historic, organised, institutionalized and denominationalist Christianity.
indigenous	Originating or developing or produced naturally in a particular land or region or environment; not introduced directly or indirectly from the outside.
infants	Children or babies under 5 years old; the preschool population.
inner language	Alternative term for a language (qv) as utilized in this WCE/WCT/WCD survey.
inter-censal period	The time elapsing between 2 censuses of population.
interreligious	Existing between 2 or more religions; used of activities or relationships between Christianity and one or more of the major world religions (Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism). Interreligious organizations significant at the national or wider levels number over 150.
irreligion	Hostility to religion: impiety, skepticism, disbelief, atheism, anti-religious humanism.
Islam	(Arabic: submission to the will of God). The religious faith of Muslims (qv) who profess belief in Allah as the sole deity and in Muhammad as the prophet of Allah.
Islamic schismatics	Followers of Islam, in other than its 2 main branches of Sunni or Shia. Islamic schismatics include Kharijite and other orthodox sects; reform movements (Sanusi, Mahdiya), also heterodox sects (Ahmadiya, Druzes, Sabbateans).
Islamics	The academic study of Islam.
islamization	The act or process of converting people, or of being converted, to Islam.
Ismailis	Followers of Ismailiya (also known as Seveners). Second largest sect of Shia Islam and itself divided into Nizari Ismailis (Khojas) and Mustali Ismailis (Bohras).
Ithna-Asharis	Followers of Ithna-Ashariya (also known as Twelvers), largest sect of Shia Islam.
Jains	Followers of the two Jain traditions, Svetambara and Digambara; originating in India as a reform movement from Hinduism in the 5th or 6th century BCE.

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Religions

Data on 18 categories of religion, including non-religious, by country, province, and people.

Countries and regions

Data on all religions, Christian activities, and trends.

Denominations

Membership data, year begun, and rates of change.

Cities & provinces

Population and religion data on all major cities & provinces.

Peoples & languages

Detailed information covering religion, culture, and geography.