List of religions and spiritual traditions

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Religious symbols in clock-wise order: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Bahá'í Faith, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Slavic neopaganism, Celtic polytheism, Heathenism (German paganism), Semitic neopaganism, Wicca, Kemetism (Egyptian paganism), Hellenism, Italo-Roman neopaganism.

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, beliefs, and world views that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes to moral values. While religion is hard to define, one standard model of religion, used in religious studies courses, was proposed by Clifford Geertz, who simply called it a "cultural system."[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 behaviors, 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), and/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, initiations, funerals, marriages, meditation, 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 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.

Contents

Abrahamic religions[edit]

Main article: Abrahamic religions

A group of monotheistic traditions sometimes grouped with one another for comparative purposes, because all refer to a patriarch named Abraham.

Bábism[edit]

Main article: Bábism

Bahá'í Faith[edit]

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

Christianity[edit]

Main article: Christianity
See also: List of Christian denominations
Western Christianity
Main article: Roman Catholic Church
Main article: Protestantism
Eastern Christianity

Other Christian[edit]

Certain Christian groups are difficult to classify as "Eastern" or "Western."

No-longer-extant Christian groups[edit]

Latter-Day Saints movement (Mormonism)[edit]

Main article: List of sects in the Latter Day Saint movement

Gnosticism[edit]

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.[8]

Main article: Gnosticism
See also: List of Gnostic sects

The Yazidis are a syncretic Kurdish religion with a Gnostic influence:

Persian Gnosticism
Syrian-Egyptic Gnosticism

None of these religions are still extant.

Main article: Syrian-Egyptic Gnosticism
Neo-Gnostic Groups

Islam[edit]

Main article: Islam
See also: Islamic schools and branches
Kalam Schools
Main article: Ilm al-Kalam
Kharijite
Main article: Khawarij
Shia Islam
Main article: Shia Islam
Sufism
Main article: Sufism
Sunni Islam
Main article: Sunni Islam
Restorationism
Quranism
Main article: Quranism
Black Muslims
Main article: Black Muslims
Ahmadiyya
Main article: Ahmadiyya
Other Islamic groups

Sufi and Shia Sects[edit]

Druze[edit]

Main article: Druze

Judaism and related religions[edit]

Main article: Judaism
See also: Jewish religious movements
Rabbinic Judaism
Main article: Rabbinic Judaism
Karaite Judaism
Main article: Karaite Judaism
Samaritanism
Main article: Samaritans

Samaritans use a slightly different version of the Pentateuch as their Torah, worshiping at Mount Gerizim instead of Jerusalem, and are possibly the descendants of the lost Northern Kingdom. They are definitely of ancient Israelite origin, but their status as Jews is disputed.[9]

Falasha or Beta Israel
Modern Non-Rabbinic Judaism
Historical groups

Second Temple Judaism

Black Hebrew Israelites[edit]

Main article: Black Hebrew Israelites

Rastafari movement[edit]

Main article: Rastafari movement

Mandaeans and Sabians[edit]

Main articles: Mandaeism and Sabians

Shabakism[edit]

Main article: Shabak people

Indian religions[edit]

Main article: Indian religions

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

Ayyavazhi[edit]

Main article: Ayyavazhi

Bhakti movement[edit]

Main article: Bhakti movement

Buddhism[edit]

Main article: Schools of Buddhism

Din-e Ilahi[edit]

Hinduism[edit]

See also: Hindu denominations
Major schools and movements of Hindu philosophy
Main article: Hindu philosophy

Jainism[edit]

Main article: Jainism

Meivazhi[edit]

Sikhism[edit]

Main article: Sikhism

Iranian religions[edit]

Main article: Iranian religions

Zoroastrianism[edit]

Main article: Zoroastrianism

Gnostic religions[edit]

Bábí movement[edit]

Yazdânism[edit]

Main article: Yazdânism
  • Alevi (this is contested; most Alevi consider themselves to be Shia or Sufi Muslims, but a minority adhere to the Yazdani interpretation)
  • Yarsani
  • Yazidi

East Asian religions[edit]

Main article: East Asian religions

Confucianism[edit]

Main article: Confucianism

Shinto[edit]

Main articles: Shinto and Shinto sects and schools

Shinto-inspired religions[edit]

Taoism[edit]

Main article: Taoism

Contemporary Taoism-inspired religions[edit]

Other[edit]

Chinese[edit]

Korean[edit]

Vietnamese[edit]

African diasporic religions[edit]

See also: African diasporic religions

African diasporic religions are a number of related religions that developed in the Americas among African slaves and their descendants in various countries of the Caribbean Islands and Latin America, as well as parts of the southern United States. They derive from African traditional religions, especially of West and Central Africa, showing similarities to the Yoruba religion in particular.

Mesoamerican religions[edit]

Indigenous traditional religions[edit]

See also: Paganism and Folk religion

Traditionally, these faiths have all been classified "Pagan", but scholars prefer the terms "indigenous/primal/folk/ethnic religions".

African[edit]

Main article: African traditional religions
Northern Africa
West Africa
Central Africa
East Africa
Southern Africa

North American[edit]

Main article: Native American mythology

Eurasian[edit]

Asian
European

Oceania/Pacific[edit]

Cargo cults[edit]

Main article: Cargo cults

Historical polytheism[edit]

Further information: Prehistoric religion and History of religion

Ancient Near Eastern[edit]

Main article: Ancient Near Eastern religions

Indo-European[edit]

Main article: Proto-Indo-European religion

Hellenistic[edit]

Main article: Hellenistic religion

Uralic[edit]

Mysticism and occult[edit]

Esotericism and mysticism[edit]

Main articles: Esotericism and Mysticism

Western mystery tradition[edit]

See also: Esoteric Christianity, Christian mysticism, Jewish mysticism and Islamic mysticism

Occult and magic[edit]

Main articles: Occult § Occultism and Magic (paranormal)

Modern Paganism[edit]

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

Syncretic[edit]

Ethnic[edit]

New religious movements[edit]

Main article: List of new religious movements

New Thought[edit]

Main article: New Thought

Shinshukyo[edit]

Main article: Japanese new religions

Left-hand path religions[edit]

Main article: Left-hand path and right-hand path

Post-theistic and naturalistic religions[edit]

Fictional religions[edit]

Main article: List of fictional religions

Parody or mock religions[edit]

Others[edit]

Other categorisations[edit]

By demographics[edit]

Main article: Religious demographics

By area[edit]

Further information: Religion geography

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  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. ^ "Irenaeus of Lyons". Retrieved 5 March 2015. 
  9. ^ "Samaritans". Retrieved 5 March 2015. 
  10. ^ Melton, J. Gordon (2003). Encyclopedia of American Religions (Seventh edition). Farmington Hills, Michigan: The Gale Group, Inc., p. 1112. ISBN 0-7876-6384-0
  11. ^ Melton, J. Gordon (2003). Encyclopedia of American Religions (Seventh edition). Farmington Hills, Michigan: The Gale Group, Inc., p. 1001. ISBN 0-7876-6384-0
  12. ^ Melton, J. Gordon (2003). Encyclopedia of American Religions (Seventh edition). Farmington Hills, Michigan: The Gale Group, Inc., p. 997. ISBN 0-7876-6384-0
  13. ^ Melton, J. Gordon (2003). Encyclopedia of American Religions (Seventh edition). Farmington Hills, Michigan: The Gale Group, Inc., p. 1004. ISBN 0-7876-6384-0
  14. ^ 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. 
  15. ^ Smith, Christian; Joshua Prokopy (1999). Latin American Religion in Motion. New York: Routledge, pp. 279-280. ISBN 978-0-415-92106-0
  16. ^ Melton, J. Gordon (2003). Encyclopedia of American Religions (Seventh edition). Farmington Hills, Michigan: The Gale Group, Inc., p. 841. ISBN 0-7876-6384-0

External links[edit]
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