Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews 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
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 scriptures. The practice of a religion may also include sermons, commemoration of the activities of a god or gods, sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trance, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, music, art, dance, public service, or other aspects of human culture.
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.[3] 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,[4] 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
A group of monotheistic traditions sometimes grouped with one another for comparative purposes, because all refer to a patriarch named Abraham.
Babism
Bahá'í Faith
Main article:
Bahá'í FaithChristianity
Main article:
Christianity
- Catholicism
- Protestantism
Main article:
Protestantism
- Eastern Orthodoxy
- Other Eastern Churches
Other groups
Druze
Gnosticism
- Persian Gnosticism
- Syrian-Egyptic Gnosticism
Islam
- Kalam Schools
Main article: Kalam
- Kharijite
- Shia Islam
- Sufism
- Sunni Islam
Main article:
Sunni Islam
- Quraniyoon
- Black Muslims
- Ahmadiyya
- Other Islamic Groups
Judaism
- Rabbinic Judaism
- Karaite Judaism
- Falasha or Beta Israel
- Modern Non-Rabbinic Judaism
- Historical groups
Rastafari movement
Black Hebrew Israelites
Mandaeans and Sabians
Main articles:
Mandaeism and
SabiansSamaritanism
Main article:
SamaritanismShabakism
Main article:
Shabak peopleIndian religions
Indian religions, also known as dharmic 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
Bhakti movement
Buddhism
Din-i-Ilahi
Hinduism
- Major schools and movements of Hindu philosophy
Jainism
Meivazhi
Sikhism
Iranian religions
Manichaeism
Mazdakism
Mithraism
Yazdânism
Zoroastrianism / Parsi
Main article:
ZoroastrianismEast Asian religions
Confucianism
Main article:
ConfucianismShinto
Taoism
Other
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.
Indigenous traditional religions
Traditionally, these faiths have all been classified "Pagan", but scholars prefer the terms "indigenous/primal/folk/ethnic religions".
African
Main article: African traditional religions
- West Africa
- Central Africa
- East Africa
- Southern Africa
American
Main article: Native American mythology
Eurasian
- Asian
- European
Oceania/Pacific
Cargo cults
Main article:
Cargo cultsHistorical polytheism
Template:See
Ancient Near Eastern
Main article: Ancient Near Eastern religions
Indo-European
Hellenistic
Mysticism and Occult
Esotericism and mysticism
Main articles:
Esotericism and
MysticismOccult and magic
Neopaganism
Main article: Paganism (contemporary)
Syncretic
Ethnic
New religious movements
Creativity
New Thought
Main article:
New ThoughtShinshukyo
Main article: Shinshūkyō
Left-hand path religions
Fictional religions
Parody or mock religions
Others
Other categorisations
By demographics
By area
Template:See
See also
References
External links
- Statistics on religious belief or adherence
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