Jump to content

List of religions and spiritual traditions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 96.56.152.11 (talk) at 19:58, 1 February 2020 (moved Anglican Ordinariate to Catholicism subheading). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Further information: Major religious groups, Religious denomination, and History of religion
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, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements, ultimate concerns, etc[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.

East Asian religions

Main article: East Asian religions

Religions that originated in East Asia, also known as Taoic religions; namely Taoism, Confucianism, Shenism 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

Japanese

Korean

Manchu

Vietnamese

Indic 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.

Nāstik (Heterodox Indian)

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
Further information: Hindu denominations
Bhakti movements
Main articles: Bhakti movement and Contemporary Sant Mat movements
Neo-Hinduism
Main articles: Hindu reform movements and Neo-Vedanta
Hindu philosophy major schools and movements
Main article: Hindu philosophy

Jainism

Main article: Jainism

Meivazhi

Main article: Meivazhi

Sarnaism

Main article: Sarnaism

Sikhism

Main article: Sikhism

Nepalese religions

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
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.[18]

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

Haymanot

Main article: Haymanot

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: Samaritanism

Subbotniks

Main article: Subbotniks

Historical Judaism

Mandaeism

Main article: Mandaeism

Manichaeism

Main article: Manichaeism

Rastafari

Main article: Rastafari

Black Hebrew Israelites

Main article: Black Hebrew Israelites

Shabakism

Main article: Shabakism

Yazdânism

Main article: Yazdânism

Zoroastrianism

Main article: Zoroastrianism

Indigenous (ethnic, folk) religions

Main articles: Ethnic religion and Folk religion
See also: Paganism, Animism, Totemism, and Shamanism

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: Religion in Africa

Traditional African

Main article: Traditional African religions

Diasporic African

Main article: Afro-American religion

Altaic

American

Main article: Native American religion

Austroasiatic

Austronesian

Chinese

Main article: Chinese folk religion

Japanese

Main article: Religion in Japan

Korean

Main article: Religion in Korea

Tai and Miao

Main articles: Tai folk religion and Miao folk religion

Tibeto-Burmese

Uralic

Other Indigenous

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

New ethnic religions

See also: Ethnic religion

Black

White

Native American

Chicano/Mexican-American

New Hindu derived religions

Modern paganism

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

Ethnic neopaganism

Main article: Polytheistic reconstructionism

Syncretic neopaganism

Entheogenic religions

Main article: Entheogen

New Thought

Main article: New Thought

Parody religions

Main article: Parody religion

Post-theistic and naturalistic religions

Main articles: Post-theism and Religious naturalism

UFO religions

Main article: UFO religions

Western esotericism

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

Other new

Historical religions

Main article: History of religion

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. ^ a b c Tattwananda, Swami (1984). Vaisnava Sects, Saiva Sects, Mother Worship (1st revised ed.). Calcutta: Firma KLM Private Ltd.
  10. ^ Dandekar, R. N. (1987). "Vaiṣṇavism: An Overview". In Eliade, Mircea (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. 14. New York: MacMillan. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Unknown parameter |editorlink= ignored (|editor-link= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Melton, J. Gordon (2003). Encyclopedia of American Religions (7th ed.). Farmington Hills, Michigan: The Gale Group, Inc., p. 997. ISBN 0-7876-6384-0
  12. ^ Lorenzen, David N. (1995). Bhakti Religion in North India: Community Identity and Political Action. New York: SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-2025-6.
  13. ^ Melton, J. Gordon (2003). Encyclopedia of American Religions (7th edition). Farmington Hills, Michigan: The Gale Group, Inc., p. 1001. ISBN 0-7876-6384-0
  14. ^ Melton, J. Gordon (2003). Encyclopedia of American Religions (7th edition). Farmington Hills, Michigan: The Gale Group, Inc., p. 1004. ISBN 0-7876-6384-0
  15. ^ Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli. Indian Philosophy (1923) Vol. 1, 738 p. (1927) Vol. 2, 807 p. Oxford University Press.
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ Subba, J. R. (1998). The Philosophy and Teachings of Yuma Samyo (Yumaism): The Religion of Limboos of the Himalayan Region. Sikkim Yakthung Mundhum Saplopa.
  18. ^ "Irenaeus of Lyons". Retrieved 5 March 2015.

Sources

Wikiversity has learning resources about Beyond Theism
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=List_of_religions_and_spiritual_traditions&oldid=938686805"