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List of religions and spiritual traditions: Difference between revisions

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*[[Jediism]]
*[[Jediism]]
*[[Moorish Orthodox Church of America]]
*[[Moorish Orthodox Church of America]]
*[[Naturalistic pantheism]]
*[[Pantheism]]
**[[Naturalistic pantheism]]
**[[World Pantheist Movement]]
***[[World Pantheist Movement]]
*[[Raëlism]]
*[[Raëlism]]
*[[Religion of Humanity]]
*[[Religion of Humanity]]

Revision as of 03:14, 17 November 2018

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
Religious symbols in clock-wise order from top: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Bahá'í Faith, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Slavic neopaganism, Celtic polytheism, Heathenism (Germanic paganism), Semitic neopaganism, Wicca, Kemetism (Egyptian paganism), Hellenism (Greek paganism), Italo-Roman neopaganism.

While religion is hard to define, one standard model of religion, used in religious studies courses, was proposed by Clifford Geertz, who defined it as a

[…] system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic."[1]

A critique of Geertz's model by Talal Asad categorized religion as "an anthropological category."[2] Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life or the universe. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws, or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos and human nature. According to some estimates, there are roughly 4,200 religions in the world.[3]

The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with "faith" or "belief system", but religion differs from private belief in that it has a public aspect. Most religions have organized behaviours, including clerical hierarchies, a definition of what constitutes adherence or membership, congregations of laity, regular meetings or services for the purposes of veneration of a deity or for prayer, holy places (either natural or architectural) or religious texts. Certain religions also have a sacred language often used in liturgical services. The practice of a religion may also include sermons, commemoration of the activities of a god or gods, sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trance, rituals, rites, ceremonies, worship, initiations, funerals, marriages, meditation, invocation, mediumship, music, art, dance, public service or other aspects of human culture. Religious beliefs have also been used to explain parapsychological phenomena such as out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences and reincarnation, along with many other paranormal and supernatural experiences.[4][5]

Some academics studying the subject have divided religions into three broad categories: world religions, a term which refers to transcultural, international faiths; indigenous religions, which refers to smaller, culture-specific or nation-specific religious groups; and new religious movements, which refers to recently developed faiths.[6] One modern academic theory of religion, social constructionism, says that religion is a modern concept that suggests all spiritual practice and worship follows a model similar to the Abrahamic religions as an orientation system that helps to interpret reality and define human beings,[7] and thus religion, as a concept, has been applied inappropriately to non-Western cultures that are not based upon such systems, or in which these systems are a substantially simpler construct.

Further information: Prehistoric religion and History of religion

East Asian religions

Main article: East Asian religions

Religions that originated in East Asia; namely Taoism, Confucianism and Shintoism, and religions and traditions related to, and descended from them.

Confucianism

Main article: Confucianism

Shinto

Main article: Shinto
See also: Shinto sects and schools

Shinto-inspired religions

Main article: Japanese new religions

Taoism

Main article: Taoism

Other

Chinese

Korean

Manchu

Vietnamese

Indian religions

Main article: Indian religions

Religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent; namely Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism, and religions and traditions related to, and descended from them.

Ajivika (Historical)

Main article: Ajivika

Ajñana (Historical)

Main article: Ajñana


Buddhism

Main article: Buddhism
See also: Schools of Buddhism

New Buddhist movements

Global variants of Buddhism

Charvaka (Historical)

Main article: Charvaka

Din-I Ilahi (Historical)

Main article: Din-i Ilahi

Hinduism

Main article: Hinduism
See also: Hindu denominations

Hindu reform movements

Main article: Hindu reform movements
Major schools and movements of Hindu philosophy
Main article: Hindu philosophy

Bhakti movement

Main article: Bhakti movement


Jainism

Main article: Jainism

Meivazhi

Main article: Meivazhi

Sikhism

Main article: Sikhism

Middle Eastern religions

Main articles: Abrahamic religions and Iranian religions

Religions that originated in the Middle East; namely Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and religions and traditions related to, and descended from them.

Bábism

Main article: Bábism

Bahá'í Faith

Main article: Bahá'í Faith
See also: Bahá'í divisions

Christianity

Main article: Christianity
See also: List of Christian denominations

Eastern Christianity

Main article: Eastern Christianity

Western Christianity

Main article: Western Christianity

Other

See also: Gnosticism and Christian mysticism

Certain Christian groups are difficult to classify as "Eastern" or "Western." Many Gnostic groups were closely related to early Christianity, for example, Valentinism. Irenaeus wrote polemics against them from the standpoint of the then-unified Catholic Church.[13]

Druze

Main article: Druze

Islam

Main article: Islam
See also: Islamic schools and branches, Ilm al-Kalam, Ahl al-Hadith, and Islamism
Khawarij
Main article: Khawarij
Shia Islam
Main article: Shia Islam
Sufism
Main articles: Sufism and Islamic Mysticism
See also: List of Sufi orders
Sunni Islam
Main article: Sunni Islam
Other

Judaism

Main article: Judaism
See also: Jewish religious movements

Beta Israel

Main article: Beta Israel

Black Hebrew Israelites

Main article: Black Hebrew Israelites

Karaite Judaism

Main article: Karaite Judaism

Kabbalah

Main articles: Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism

Noahidism

Main article: Noahidism

Rabbinic Judaism

Main article: Rabbinic Judaism

Samaritans

Main article: Samaritans

Second Temple Judaism (Historical)

Main article: Second Temple Judaism

Mandaeism

Main article: Mandaeism

Manichaeism

Main article: Manichaeism

Rastafari

Main article: Rastafari

Shabakism

Main article: Shabakism

Yazdânism

Main article: Yazdânism

Zoroastrianism

Main article: Zoroastrianism

New religious movements

Main article: New religious movement
See also: List of new religious movements

Religions that cannot be classed as either world religions nor traditional folk religions, and are usually recent in their inception.

Cargo cults

Main article: Cargo cults

Ethnic religions

See also: Ethnic religion

Black

White

Native American

Modern paganism

Main article: Modern paganism
See also: List of Neopagan movements

Ethnic neopaganism

Syncretic neopaganism

New Thought

Main article: New Thought

Parody religions

Main article: Parody religion

Post-theistic and naturalistic religions

Main articles: Post-theism and Religious naturalism

Western esotericism

Main article: Western esotericism
See also: Left-hand path and right-hand path, Occult, and Magick (Thelema)

Other

Traditional, indigenous, and folk religions

Main article: Folk religion
See also: Paganism, Animism, Totemism, Shamanism, and Mysticism

Religions that consist of the traditional customs and beliefs of particular ethnic groups, refined and expanded upon for thousands of years, often lacking formal doctrine.

Note: Some adherents do not consider their ways to be "religion," preferring other cultural terms.

African

Main article: African traditional religions

African diasporic religions

Main article: African diasporic religions
Central African
East African
North African
West African
South African

American

Main article: Native American mythology

Mesoamerican

Main article: Mesoamerican religion
North American
South American

Eurasian

East Asian

European

West Asian

Main article: Ancient Near Eastern religions

Oceania

Other categorisations

By demographics

Main article: Religious demographics

By area

Further information: Religion geography

See also

References

  1. ^ (Clifford Geertz, Religion as a Cultural System, 1973)
  2. ^ (Talal Asad, The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category, 1982.)
  3. ^ "World Religions Religion Statistics Geography Church Statistics". Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  4. ^ http://www.parapsych.org/base/about.aspx
  5. ^ "Key Facts about Near-Death Experiences". Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  6. ^ Harvey, Graham (2000). Indigenous Religions: A Companion. (Ed: Graham Harvey). London and New York: Cassell. Page 06.
  7. ^ Vergote, Antoine, Religion, belief and unbelief: a psychological study, Leuven University Press, 1997, p. 89
  8. ^ Melton, J. Gordon (2003). Encyclopedia of American Religions (Seventh edition). Farmington Hills, Michigan: The Gale Group, Inc., p. 1112. ISBN 0-7876-6384-0
  9. ^ Melton, J. Gordon (2003). Encyclopedia of American Religions (Seventh edition). Farmington Hills, Michigan: The Gale Group, Inc., p. 1001. ISBN 0-7876-6384-0
  10. ^ Melton, J. Gordon (2003). Encyclopedia of American Religions (Seventh edition). Farmington Hills, Michigan: The Gale Group, Inc., p. 997. ISBN 0-7876-6384-0
  11. ^ Melton, J. Gordon (2003). Encyclopedia of American Religions (Seventh edition). Farmington Hills, Michigan: The Gale Group, Inc., p. 1004. ISBN 0-7876-6384-0
  12. ^ a b "Welcome to Jainworld – Jain Sects – tirthankaras, jina, sadhus, sadhvis, 24 tirthankaras, digambara sect, svetambar sect, Shraman Dharma, Nirgranth Dharma". Jainworld.com. Retrieved 2012-04-24.
  13. ^ "Irenaeus of Lyons". Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  14. ^ Smith, Christian; Joshua Prokopy (1999). Latin American Religion in Motion. New York: Routledge, pp. 279-280. ISBN 978-0-415-92106-0
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