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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 (Germanic paganism), Semitic neopaganism, Wicca, Kemetism (Egyptian paganism), Hellenism (Greek paganism), 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 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, 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.

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]

Gnosticism[edit]

Main article: Gnosticism

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]

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 (philosophical schools)
Main article: Ilm al-Kalam
Kharijite
Main article: Khawarij
Shia Islam
Main article: Shia Islam
Sufism
Main article: Sufism

Recent Sufi groups

Sunni Islam
Main article: Sunni Islam
Universalist movements
Restorationism
Main article: Islamism
Quranism
Main article: Quranism
Black Muslims
Main article: Black Muslims (disambiguation)
Ahmadiyya
Main article: Ahmadiyya
Other Islamic groups
Sufi and Shia Sects

Druze[edit]

Main article: Druze
  • Orchonid Druze (in Lebanon, Syria, Israel…)
  • Dyayummar Druze (in Lebanon only)
  • Messaite Druze (possibly in any place)

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
Noahidism
Main article: Noahidism

Noahidism is a monotheistic ideology based on the Seven Laws of Noah, and on their traditional interpretations within Rabbinic Judaism. According to Jewish law, non-Jews are not obligated to convert to Judaism, but they are required to observe the Seven Laws of Noah.

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 § Religious beliefs

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.

Bhakti movement[edit]

Main article: Bhakti movement

Buddhism[edit]

Main article: Schools of Buddhism

Din-e Ilahi[edit]

Hinduism[edit]

Main article: Hinduism
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]

Manchu[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]

Main article: Mesoamerican religion

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

American[edit]

Main article: Native American mythology
North American
South American

Eurasian[edit]

Asian
European

Oceania/Pacific/Maritime Southeast Asia[edit]

Cargo cults[edit]

Main article: Cargo cults

Historical religions[edit]

Further information: Prehistoric religion and History of religion

Most historical religions were polytheistic, but some, such as Atenism, were much closer to monotheism.

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]

See also: Ethnic religion

New religious movements[edit]

Main article: List of new religious movements

Race-based[edit]

See also: Ethnic religion

Black[edit]

White[edit]

Native American[edit]

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]

Others[edit]

Parody or mock religions[edit]

Other categorisations[edit]

By demographics[edit]

Main article: Religious demographics

By area[edit]

Further information: Religion geography

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Jump up^ (Clifford Geertz, Religion as a Cultural System, 1973)
  2. Jump up^ (Talal Asad, The Construction of Religion as an Anthropological Category, 1982.)
  3. Jump up^ “World Religions Religion Statistics Geography Church Statistics”. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  4. Jump up^ http://www.parapsych.org/base/about.aspx
  5. Jump up^ “Key Facts about Near-Death Experiences”. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  6. Jump up^ Harvey, Graham (2000). Indigenous Religions: A Companion. (Ed: Graham Harvey). London and New York: Cassell. Page 06.
  7. Jump up^ Vergote, Antoine, Religion, belief and unbelief: a psychological study, Leuven University Press, 1997, p. 89
  8. Jump up^ “Irenaeus of Lyons”. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  9. Jump up^ “Samaritans”. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
  10. Jump up^ 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. Jump up^ 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. Jump up^ 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. Jump up^ 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. ^ Jump up to: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. Jump up^ Smith, Christian; Joshua Prokopy (1999). Latin American Religion in Motion. New York: Routledge, pp. 279-280. ISBN 978-0-415-92106-0
  16. Jump up^ 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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​I am The ordained Geeky, Universal (I feed in all the ways) Autistic, Vampyre, Rivethead, Traditional, Hippie Goth, Vegetarian, "Vampyrian" Graver", Pansexual Experimental Sound Artist AKA theUVUP. I am the Old school Gothic Vampyre & Proud Pagan PhreaK, and the founder of Vampyrian TempleUVUP: https://vampyrian.wordpress.com since Dec. 18th, 2003. I have been in the gothic community since the first Outland (mid 90's) MY MUSIC: https://vampyrian.bandcamp.com/ as well as the Vampire community since mid 2000, and the pagan community since 2003 and a member of DUUF and CUUPS ~ I love the supernatural, Vampyres, Otherkin, Dark Spirituality, and Darkness ect. I am mostly active with my vampyrian TempleUVUP, writing, going out, and helping others that have gone through the same crap as me. I am however in a few other sites and networks. I am also an Empath & Proud Phreak in Central, Ohio. I LOVE MUSIC, clubbing, and dancing...

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