Religion: General Information

The reconciliation, or "at-one-ment," of sinful humanity with God. In Judaism both the Bible and rabbinical thought reflect the belief that God's chosen people must be pure to remain in communion with God. The Bible prescribed Temple sacrifice for the removal of sin and uncleanliness.

Doctrines of the end of time. Christian eschatology concerns the end of this Earth and of time; the resurrection of the dead; the Antichrist; the return of Jesus Christ to overthrow the Antichrist; and the culmination of history with the destruction of this world.

The power of making choices without the constraint of fate or some other uncontrollable force, regarded as a human characteristic.

Divinity of the three great monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, as well as many other world religions.

Third person of the Christian Trinity, with God the Father and God the Son (Jesus); also known as the Holy Ghost or the Paraclete (Greek ‘comforter’), and usually depicted as a white dove.

From Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity
A concept central to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, enshrined in the Nicene Creed of A.D. 381. It attests that God the Son (and by extension the Spirit) is of one and the same being or substance (ousia) as the Father.

1st-century Jewish teacher and prophet in whom Christians have traditionally seen the Messiah [Heb.,=annointed one, whence Christ from the Greek] and whom they have characterized as Son of God and as Word or Wisdom of God incarnate.

In Greek and Hebrew metaphysics, the unifying principle of the world. The central idea of the Logos is that it links God and man, hence any system in which the Logos plays a part is monistic.

In theology, doctrine that asserts that God predestines from eternity the salvation of certain souls. So-called double predestination, as in Calvinism, is the added assertion that God also foreordains certain souls to damnation.

Transgression of the will of God or the gods, as revealed in the moral code laid down by a particular religion.

From Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Post-Classical World
Theotokos, a title given to the Virgin Mary, literally means in Greek “the one who bore God” but is commonly translated as “Mother of God.”

In Christianity, the union of three persons - God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost - in one Godhead. The precise meaning of the doctrine has been the cause of unending dispute, and was the chief cause of the split between the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches.

[Gr.,=the books], term used since the 4th cent. to denote the Christian Scriptures.

Two letters of the New Testament. They were written to the church at Corinth by Paul whose stay in Corinth is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.

Ancient leather and papyrus scrolls first discovered in 1947 in caves on the NW shore of the Dead Sea. Most of the documents were written or copied between the 1st cent. b.c. and the first half of the 1st cent. a.d.

Book of the Bible, literally meaning "second law," last of the five books (the Pentateuch or Torah) ascribed by tradition to Moses. Deuteronomy purports to be the final words of Moses to the people of Israel on the eve of their crossing the Jordan to take possession of Canaan.

In the New Testament generally, the message of Christian salvation; in particular the four written accounts of the life of Jesus in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Prophetic book of the Bible. It is a collection of prophecies from a 300-year period attributed to Isaiah, who may have been a priest.

The second part of the Bible , recognized by the Christian church from the 4th century as sacred doctrine.

Christian name for the Hebrew Bible, which serves as the first division of the Christian Bible (see New Testament).

In the New Testament, the summary of Jesus' teachings recorded in Matthew 5-7. It forms the basis of Christian teaching on discipleship, and includes the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-11), that lay down the spiritual qualities held by a true Christian.

In the Old Testament, the laws given by God to the Hebrew leader Moses on Mount Sinai, engraved on two tablets of stone.

In Christianity, the union of three persons – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost – in one Godhead.

The most ancient extant version of the whole Christian Bible. Its name derives from a 13th-century reference to it as the "editio vulgata."

Immersion in or sprinkling with water as a religious rite of initiation.

‘Christ's Mass’ [article] Christian religious holiday, the second most important Christian festival after Easter.

Rite practiced by a number of Christian denominations, including Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox, in which a person who has undergone infant baptism confirms the promises made on their behalf, and is admitted to full membership of the Christian community.

Between March 22 and April 25 in the West and between April 4 and May 8 in the East; first Sunday after the first full moon.

Festival of the Christian church, held on 6 January, celebrating the coming of the Magi (wise men) to Bethlehem.

Chief Christian sacrament, in which bread is eaten and wine drunk in memory of the death of Jesus.

Chief Christian sacrament, in which bread is eaten and wine drunk in memory of the death of Jesus.

[Old Eng. lencten, =spring], Latin Quadragesima (meaning 40; thus the 40 days of Lent). In Christianity, Lent is a time of penance and prayer.

Christianity a festival on Whit Sunday, the seventh Sunday after Easter, commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles.

Religious and political movement in 16th-century Europe to reform the Roman Catholic Church.

Church in which a bishop presides. The designation is not dependent on the size or magnificence of a church edifice, but is entirely a matter of its assignment as the church in which the bishop shall officiate.

Subsidiary place of worship. It is either an alcove or chamber within a church, a separate building, or a room set apart for the purpose of worship in a secular building.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Region, N Israel, roughly the portion north of the plain of Esdraelon. Galilee was the chief scene of the ministry of Jesus.

Town in the Jordan valley, west of the River Jordan and north of the Dead Sea, 24 km/15 mi northeast of Jerusalem; population (2005 est) 19,800. The site of the old city is the center of a fertile district where palms, rose trees, grapes, and balsams are grown.

The capital of Israel, Jerusalem is an administrative, religious, educational, cultural, and market center.

In the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, the state after death in which the soul destined for heaven is purified.

Cathedral church of the City of London, the largest Protestant church in England, and a national mausoleum second only to Westminster Abbey.

vătʹĭkən or Holy See, officially Holy See (State of the Vatican City), independent state (2005 est. pop. 900), 108.7 acres.

An independent state forming an enclave in Rome, with extraterritoriality over 12 churches and palaces in Rome: the only remaining Papal State.

A Gothic church in London: site of a Benedictine monastery (1050-65); scene of the coronations of almost all English monarchs since William I.

The Amish are an Anabaptist religious isolate. There are currently over 180,000 Amish residing in the United States and Canada, with about two thirds living in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Indiana.

The body of churches in all parts of the world that are in communion with the Church of England.

Denomination of Protestant Christians holding a distinctive belief with regard to the ordinance of baptism. Since 1644 the name has been applied to those who maintain that baptism should be administered to none but believers and that immersion is the only mode of administering baptism indicated in the New Testament.

Religion founded upon principles of divine healing and laws expressed in the acts and sayings of Jesus, as discovered and set forth by Mary Baker Eddy and practiced by the Church of Christ, Scientist.

Established form of Christianity in England, a member of the Anglican communion. It was dissociated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534 under Henry VIII; the British monarch is still the supreme head of the Church of England today. The service book until November 2000 was the Book of Common Prayer. It is now Common Worship.

From The Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History
The Orthodox Church is a communion of independent Eastern churches organized geographically, usually by country. Together they constitute the second-largest Christian denomination after the Roman Catholic Church. Orthodoxy sees itself as the one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church founded by Jesus Christ.

Branch of Protestantism that arose as a result of the Reformation , whose religious faith is based on the principles of Martin Luther.

Descendants of the Dutch and Swiss evangelical Anabaptists of the 16th cent.

Member of a Christian sect, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Federation of national and regional self-governing Christian churches, mainly found in Eastern Europe and parts of Asia.

Pentecostalism, worldwide 20th-21st-century Christian movement that emphasizes the experience of Spirit baptism.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Form of Christian faith and practice that originated with the principles of the Reformation. The term is derived from the Protestatio delivered by a minority of delegates against the (1529) Diet of Speyer, which passed legislation against the Lutherans.

The Quakers, or the Religious Society of Friends, are a religious and political reform group that originated in England, whose American branch was influential in the abolition of slavery.

Greek katholikos ‘universal’ [article] One of the main divisions of the Christian religion, separate from the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Members of an esoteric society or group of societies, who claim that their order has been in existence since the days of ancient Egypt and has over the course of time included many of the world's sages. Their secret learning deals with occult symbols—notably the rose and the cross, the swastika, and the pyramid—and with mystical writings containing kabbalistic, Hermetic, and other doctrines.

From Houghton-Mifflin Encyclopedia
By the 1st century b.c.e., JUDAISM had been diffused in the Roman Empire, with Jews residing mainly in Palestine and in the cities of the east.

In the early Middle Ages investigation of heresy was a duty of the bishops. Alarmed especially by the spread of Albigensianism (see Albigenses), the popes issued increasingly stringent instructions as to the methods for dealing with heretics.

Period in Western European history that followed the disintegration of the West Roman Empire in the 4th and 5th centuries and lasted into the 15th century, i.e., into the period of the Renaissance.

Period in European cultural history that began in Italy around 1400 and lasted there until the end of the 1500s. Elsewhere in Europe it began later, and lasted until the 1600s.

Religious and political movement in 16th-century Europe to reform the Roman Catholic Church, which led to the establishment of the Protestant churches.

16th-century reformation that arose largely in answer to the Protestant Reformation; sometimes called the Catholic Reformation. Although the Roman Catholic reformers shared the Protestants' revulsion at the corrupt conditions in the church, there was present none of the tradition breaking that characterized Protestantism.

The scientific and intellectual developments of the 17th cent [...] fostered the belief in natural law and universal order and the confidence in human reason that spread to influence all of 18th-century society.

From The new encyclopedia of the American West
Revivalism, a phenomenon of Protestantism, appeared first in the English colonies of North America in the Great Awakening of the early eighteenth century. It crested in the United States in the first half of the nineteenth century and continued, with declining importance, far into the twentieth century.