Data source: Gina A. Zurlo, ed., World Religion Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| spiritual | Sacred, religious, ecclesiastical; influenced or controlled by the divine Spirit. |
| spirit-worshippers | See tribal religionists. |
| state religion | An established religion, national religion recognized in law as the official religion of a country. |
| statistics | Facts or data of a numerical kind assembled, classified, and tabulated so as to present significant information about a given subject; the science of this process. Statistics are the shortest and most compact form of factual description with regard to a population or situation. |
| Sthanakavasis | Subsect of Svetambaras (qv) in western India. |
| Stupa | A Buddhist hemispherical mound or tower, surmounted by a spire or umbrella, forming a memorial shrine of the Buddha and often containing sacred relics; also known as chaitya, tope, chorten (Tibet), dagoba (Ceylon), pagoda (Burma). |
| subsidiary georeligion | A large megabloc or other segment of a universal georeligion. |
| Sufism | Islamic mysticism, including scores of millions of Sunni Muslims in 70 orders: Ahmadiya, Bektashiya, Christiya, Dargawa, Dervishes, Fakirs, Malamatiya, Mawlawiya, Naqshbandiya, Qadriya, Qalandariya, Rifaiya, Shadhiliya, Shattariya, Suhrawardiya, Tijaniya. |
| sunna | The body of hadith, traditions of Muhammed, i.e. of Islamic custom and practice. |
| Sunnis | Followers of the larger of the major branches of Islam, that adheres to the orthodox tradition of the sunna (qv), acknowledges the first 4 caliphs, and recognizes 4 schools of jurisprudence: Hanafite, Hanbalite, Malikite, Shafiite. |
| supercity | A city with over 4 million inhabitants. |
| supergiant | A city with over 10 million inhabitants. |
| survey | An inquiry or operation designed to furnish information on a special subject and which has limited aims. |
| survey_year | Year that the survey or census was taken. |
| synagogue | A Jewish local community or local assembly organized for public worship; or their building. |
| syncretism | The developmental process of historical growth within a religion by accretion and coalescence of different and often conflicting forms of belief and practice; as understood by Christian theology, the religious attitude which holds that there is no unique revelation in history, that there are many different ways to reach the divine reality, that all formulations of religious truth or experience are inadequate expression of that truth, and that it is necessary to harmonize all religious ideas and experiences so as to create one universal religion for mankind. |
| syncretistic movement | A religious movement incorporating conflicting or divergent beliefs, principles or practices drawn from 2 or more religious systems. |
| synthesist, synthesizer | One who employs synthesis or follows synthetic methods with varying religious traditions. |
| Tantrayana | Tantrism, Vajrayana, Mantrayana, Esoteric Vehicle, or Lamaism; a school of Buddhists (qv), including Shingon in Japan. |
| tariqa | (Arabic). (1) A Muslim religious brotherhood or fraternity of mystics. (2) The Sufi path of spiritual development. |
| thaumaturgic | Connected with or dependent on thaumaturgy (performing of miracles or magic). |
| thaumaturgicalist, thaumaturgist | A performer of miracles, a magician. |
| theist | A believer in theism, belief in the existence of one God transcendent and immanent. |
| theocracy | Government of a state by allegedly the immediate direction or administration of God. |
| theology | The study of God and his relation to man and the world: apologetics, dogmatic theology, natural theology, practical theology, systematic theology, et alia. |
Data on 18 categories of religion, including non-religious, by country, province, and people.
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