Alienation--extreme marginalization; process by which a group such as a cult, sect or small religion acquires a niche beyond the fringe or periphery of a host society. Alienation may result from rejection of the group by the host society or by migration of the group from the host society. A high state of tension or conflict with the dominant or former host society is maintained.
Anomos (anomie)--literally, `not nomos, not law'; meaninglessness; the feeling that the world does not make sense, that things are falling apart; the effect of modernization upon traditional values and beliefs.
apocalypse, apocalyptic, apocalypticism--generally, any revelation or disclosure of the divine, but more commonly a belief in the dramatic or violent end of the world; belief that history will culminate in global and comic warfare which will result in the ultimate defeat of evil and triumph of good.
aseity--from the Latin a se esse "to be of oneself;" i.e., necessary being as distinguished from contingent being; as used in theology, it refers to the distinctiveness of God's being as radically different and non-contingent.
atheist, atheism--generally understood as the opposite of theism; denial of the existence of a deity. Although atheism receives much opposition in some religions, Paul Tillich asserts that theology must be formally atheistic on the technical grounds that God cannot exist as a debatable entity among other entities; he argues that true atheism, therefore, must be considered a serious expression of ultimate concern.
Church--generically, a reference to the entire group of Christian believers. Also a reference to major divisions of Christianity, e.g., Roman Catholic Church, Protestant Church, Greek Orthodox Church, etc. Sometimes a reference to a particular denomination of Christianity--the Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church. Also a reference to any local congregation of any denomination. A reference to the building where a local congregation meets. Loosely and incorrectly used of non-Christian religions--the Buddhist Church, the Taoist Church, etc.
Core/Periphery--term used to indicate the near/far, center/edge, here/there dimension of a social order. The concept is based upon the geometric abstraction of an area such as a city or region. Within an area delimited by a figurative circle, the area of intense cultural expression is a core; relative to that core, dependent but less intense cultural expression is a periphery. A city is a core in relation to a periphery of suburbs; a city and its suburbs is a core in relation to a surrounding countryside.
cosmogamy--"world marriage;" cosmic marriage, the marriage of heaven and earth; the idea that cosmic process can be understood on the analogy of marriage or more generally sexuality; the sustained duality of implicit cosmic principles which combine to generate the manifest world as the "fruit" or "child" of a sexual act derivatively symbolized in the conjugation of a priest and priestess, king and queen, or farmer and temple prostitute.
cosmological symbolism--a microcosmic imagery of the world; the use of symbols to denote the unity, order, and content of the familiar world; symbols which give order and meaning to the world often by ennumerating the key elements of the world in relation to an act of revelation or creation.
Crypto-religion--a form of ultimate concern in which the religious nature of the commitment made by the participant is not recognized as being religious. Many of the movements and much of the proto-cultic religious experience in the Twentieth century are examples of crypto-religion.
Cult--a religious group characterized by relatively small size, hidden or little-known teachings, powerful leadership, comprehensive cosmic vision, and existing in a state of tension with the host society.
Cultus--the social organization of any religious group; the people who participate in the religion; the members of the religious group who participate in the basic rituals of the religion.
cultus--the minimum social order defined by the hierophany of a sacred tradition; the people created by the revelation of the sacred symbols; the people who practise the rituals of a religion.
De-individuation--intense religious or group activity which results in the primary affiliation of the individual with the immediate dynamics of the group and loss of self-reference; loss or reduction of personal parameters such as somatic boundary of the body, privacy, volition, judgment, responsibility. Often said to be the effect of cult participation but can be observed in other intense, dynamic social conditions.
Denomination--a well-defined, named, and persisting sub-division of one of the major branches of Christianity--Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Congregational, Church of Christ, Nazarene, Assembly of God, Church of God, etc. Denominations are distinguished by a name which is often complex and awkward in order to indicate the doctrinal or institutional distinctiveness of the group--The Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America (PECUSA).
Eclecticism--the practise of reactively selecting or choosing values and beliefs with little emphasis upon their origin or the logical relation of them in the life of the believer. Christians may, for instance, have a formal belief in providence, consult horoscopes, practise yoga, and subscribe to the values of secular American society.
eschatalogy--from Greek eschaton, "the last days;" originally the term referred to the end of any calendric period--week, month, season, year; in Judaism, Christianity, Islam and to some extent in Zoroastrianism and Buddhism, the term referrs to the end of all time or the end of the world; the eschaton then would be the Second Coming or the end of history; see apocalyptic.
Fringe Church--a church of marginal status often geographically occurring in locations away from the core area of mainline churches; also, a church teaching a sectarian or heretical doctrine; a church organized among individuals of low social status.
glossary--a list of selected important concepts that every major should know and be able to employ descriptively in the discussion of religion; the critical term should be understood with reference to origin, historical development, and current usage; the term should be distinguished from similar terms, associated with parallel or convergent terms, and distinguished from popular usage.
grace--unmerited favor by God; divine forgiveness; imputed or declared righteousness as opposed to inherent or works righteousness; in Chrisitanity the idea that salvation is a gift from God to a sinner who could not otherwise possible earn or merit God's favor.
henotheism--selective devotion to one out of many deities; a monotheism of allegiance but not of concept; some scholars interpret the Mosaic commandment "Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me" as an expression of henotheism rather than true monotheism on the ground that the commandment does not deny the existence of other gods but only calls for exclusive allegiance to the God of Israel.
Heresy--literally, `choosing'. A deliberate choice to believe or interpret doctrine in a certain way. Some religions and churches are more tolerant of creativity--e.g., Hinduism--and tend to have very few heresies; other religions and churches--e.g., Christianity and Islam--have strict standards of doctrinal orthodoxy and authority and have historically expressed dissent by expulsion of `heretics' rather than by reform.
hermeneutics--the theory or science of interpretation; the methodology of discerning and elucidating the nature and meaning of texts; originally applied to the interpretation of strictly literary texts, in recent years the debate about the nature of texts has expanded the range and types of texts and hermeneutics has expanded into the general science of interpretation which includes linguistic, scientific, philosophical, theological and aesthetic texts as well as the full range of cultural artifacts.
hierophany--literally, hieros [sacred]+phanein [to show]: a showing or display of the sacred; revelation; an appearance of the sacred or holy; the hierophany is paradigmatic for the sacred tradition; it is the founding revelatory event which creates the cultus and begins the sacred tradition.
higher criticism--an older term used in the study of biblical and classical texts referring to the study of the structure and meaning of texts, rather than the study of the history of the text as a manuscript. In the late Nineteenth Century, the term became a catch-all symbol of conservative Christian opposition to the detailed analysis of the editorial history of the Bible.
Institutionalization--the process by which religious groups evolve and become accepted within a society; involves the acquisition of the elements of group structure such as name, leadership, teachings, property, symbols, etc; also involves acquistion of a niche in the social network of the host society.
Liturgy--literally, `work of people'; the practised ritual of a religion; the formal components of worship in a religion; the dramatized script [mythos] of a worship service.
lower criticism--the study of texts with special attention to the manuscript history of the text; the history of a manuscript; examination of the manuscript sources and fragments of the New Testament.
Mainline Church--a well-established church; a church of high status associated with a cultural core; one of the widely recognized and accepted denominations of America.
Marginalization--the process by which a religious or social group loses niche location and is compelled to accept a niche of lower status; sometimes it involves the physical/geographic migration or expulsion of the group. Movement of a religious group toward the boundaries of the acceptance within a society; relative movement away from the societial core toward the periphery.
Megachurch--a term of recent coinage used to describe ultra-large congregations with large buildings and diversified programs; generally these churches have Sunday attendance in excess of 2500 people; from 10 such churches scattered across America in 1970, there are now in 1995 more than 400 with another added every few weeks; these churches are dynamic, growing, and generally conservative in theology, politics, and morality often with a charismatic or pentecostal flavoring; though sometimes denominational, they are often independent and/or inter-denominational.
Messianic movement--a religious or political expression within a society involving the belief that a divine or exemplary human `savior' figure will appear and initiate the re-organization of society or the fulfillment of a religious promise or vision. Messianic movements are often associated with Christianity but can be found in other religions such as Amerindian religion, Islam, Taoism, and Buddhism.
monotheism--belief in a single deity, god, or divine being; argued by some scholars as being the "highest" or most highly evolved form of religious belief; the divine considered as unitary and undivided.
Movement--a form of religious affiliation not symmetric with institutional forms such as denominations, churches, religions. Movements frequently are trans-denominational, involving participants from different churches. Movements often focus upon a limited rather than full religious experience and tend to emphasize a special teaching, doctrine, explantation, or experience. Temporal persistence of a movement and appropriate socialization can transform a movement into a church.
myth--from the Greek muthos, meaning story or narrative; originally the spoken component of ritual, the term later came to be associated with stories of the gods as a form of literature decontextualized from its original ritual context; this decontextualized literature is better designated "mythology" rather than myth, but the association with mythology has led to the view that myths are inherently false stories, assertions, or beliefs. In its proper usage in religious studies, myth refers to paradigmatic or exemplary stories, "stories that life is like" which have the compelling power and acceptance to mold life and one's vision of reality.
Mythos--a Greek word indicating the spoken component of a ritual; the script of a worship service. The narrative structure of a religion often expressed in a highly stylized literary form. The word from which the English word `myth' is derived.
New religion--a term originally used among scholars to refer to religious innovation in Japan in the post-WW II period; now applied to the generation and development of novel forms of religion in any society; a general name for contemporary religious innovation.
Niche--social location; the relative position of a social group in a host society. Niche may be indicated by geographic factors such as neighborhood or region, or by economic factors, education, clothing, language, food customs, customary architecture, lifestyle, family structure, religious belief or practise, or political status. Generally `niche' involves several or many factors and is not determined by any single characteristic.
Nomos--Greek for law; in its extended use, the term indicates the natural order that is the basis of law and eventually comes to mean cosmic order or meaning.
Oppression, Religions of--described by V. Lantenari in Religions of the Oppressed; religions which exist in a state of high tension with the host society because of direct persecution or because of social or economic pressures. Conflict with the host society is important in defining and motivating the religious group which is the subject of the oppression.
panentheism--a form of religious belief that assumed that God is both to be identified with the natural world [as in pantheism] but also transcends or exceeds the meaning of the natural world.
pantheism--literally, "god in all;" the belief that the divine is present everywhere; particularly, the identification of the being of God with the natural order; a way of describing the worship or veneration of natural phenomena.
polytheism--the belief in many gods; the divine considered as plural or diverse; the term is often used as a derogatory description of non-monotheistic religions.
Pseudo-religion--a form of social organization in which the participants use the apparatus of a recognized religious without a personal commitment to the meaning or value of that apparatus; religion practised by those for whom that religion is not the expression of their ultimate concern.
Quasi-religion--a form social organization and commitment which is in an intermediate stage of evolution between unorganized beliefs and a formal religious system. "Movements" are often quasi-religions--they have elements of belief and organizational structure but have not yet found coherent form as full religions.
Schism--a branch of a church,denomination, or religion which is doctrinally, liturgically, or socially distinct and maintains a high tension with the parent/host group. Schisms may become churches or denominations or new congregations (depending upon size and degree of institutionalization). Schisms are often based upon minute points of doctrine or practise. Schisms are often viewed by the host group as heretical.
Sect--a doctrinally or liturgically distinct branch of a denomination. Originally the Methodist Protestant Episcopal Church was a sect of the Church of England and practised a special `method' of spiritual devotion and discipline. A sect may eventually differentiate itself into a new denomination, but sects generally do not exist in a state of high tension with the host denomination.
Secular--a realm outside of the purview or authority of a church or religion. The people and events of a society not included in the religious structures of that society. The term is often associated with the modern period in Western European culture in which many forms of life developed which were new and not under any previous blessing or sanction of the church. Sometimes the term denotes the absence of religion; on occasion it denotes (for evangelical Christians, for instance) irreligion.
Secularism--the ideology of the secular world. The comprehensive theory of the secular. The re-interpretation of the secular in spiritual terms so as to find religious meaning in the affiliation of people to secular life forms.
Socialization--the process of coming to know, accept and participate in the social norms of a society. The term applies to both individuals and groups. Process of interaction with the society that results in the acquisition of a `niche' in the society.
symbol--literally, "thrown together;" two or more things thrown together so that one becomes the referent of the other or both become the referent of a third meaning; in either case, the resultant of the throwing together has a meaning not reducible to the meaning of any single element in the symbol; in Tillich, a symbol is like a sign in that it points to a meaning which is beyond is finite, concrete, element, but unlike a sign, there is a close relationship between the symbol and what it points to so that it "participates in the reality of that to which it points."
Syncretism--the practise of joining or blending different things together; the religious practise of selecting religious symbols, beliefs, or practises from different sources and combining them. Such blending of material from different traditions sometimes results in conflict or contradiction in the religious system. Syncretism may sometimes result in creative synthesis and development within the religious system. All of the historical religions are syncretistic to some degree.
theist, theism--the belief in god; generally understood as belief in a single god or monotheism.
theodicy--the "justice of God"--that is, the area of philosophical theology which concerns the status of evil in a created universe: if God is good [just], how can there be evil; theodicy considers the particularly difficult cases of tragedy or suffering in relation to the doctrines of creation and providence.
Ultimate Concern--the term popularized by Paul Tillich in his book Dynamics of Faith which describes religion in the most general terms. Tillich was seeking a term which would include the beliefs of theists as well as include the beliefs of non-theists; he was also seeking a term which could be used descriptively both of the familiar historical or "named" religions as well as of the more recent phenomena such as movements and ideologies which were not formal religions. Ultimate concern is a "centered act" of the entire person which acknowledges a transcendent reality and accepts a commitment of the person to the demands of that reality. According to this concept, Christianity and Buddhism would be forms of ultimate concern, but so also would be communism, materialism and other forms of commitment.