Glossary Church History – NYTS – Dr. Stone Fall, 2013

Group Participants: (1) Kevin Houston, (2) Keith White,

(3) Robin Johnson, (4) Rueben Sinaga, (5) Carla Gittens,

(6) Wayne Graham, (7) Linda Silverberg

Abelard, Peter (1079-1147) - charismatic philospher of Paris, who evolved an explanation of the Trinity which emphasized the divine unity at the expense of the distinction of the Three Persons; developed rationale for mystery of the atonement.

Abrahamic: (a.k.a. Abramic) A group of religions that recognize Abraham as a patriarch. This includes Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Sometimes, the Baha'i Faith is included in the list. Many smaller non-Jewish groups such as Samaritans, Falashas, Karaits, etc, also trace their spiritual roots back to Abraham, but are not often cited as Abrahamic religions.

Abrogate: means to abolish or avoid. When someone cuts in front of you in line, they are abrogating your right to be the next one served. When you cut in line, you are abrogating your responsibility to those who were in line before you. The Latin root of this word is made up of the prefix ab- "away" and rogare "to propose a law." What does it mean if you propose a law away? You repeal it, of course, so abrogate means to officially revoke, cancel or abolish. The meaning of this word has expanded a bit since its earliest usage, but it still appears most often in a legal or political context, or when serious rights and responsibilities are being discussed.

Absentee Property Law: An Israeli law that considers all land in Israel that was abandoned by Palestinians when they were driven from Israel now belongs to the state.

Absolution: In legal terms, it is the act of a judge or jury declaring a person innocent of a crime. In a religious sense, it involves a person being freed from guilt or sin. In the Roman Catholic Church, a priest can declare the sins of a penitent person to be forgiven if they sincerely plan to avoid such behavior in the future.

Absolutism: The belief that absolute truths exist in the field of ethics and morality. Typically, these truths are extracted from a holy text. Antonym is relativism.

Acolyte: (From a Greek word for "follower") A layperson who performs minor duties during a religious service.

a·cros·tic [ ə króstik ] written lines containing word: a number of lines of writing, especially a poem or word puzzle, in which a combination of letters from each line spells a word or phrase

Activism: Promoting social change. In a religious sense, the term is often used by Fundamentalist and other Evangelical Christians to refer to the expression of the gospel in various ways, including missionary outreach and social reform.

Activist judges: A term, typically used by social or religious conservatives, to refer to judges who give state or federal constitutions priority over ordinary laws, and rule in favor of equal justice and liberty for all persons, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, degree of ability, etc.

AD: (a.k.a. A.D.) An acronym for anno domini, the year of the Lord. It refers to the number of years since the birth of Yeshua of Nazareth, a.k.a. Jesus Christ. In reality, Jesus was born probably in the Fall of a year between 4 and 7 BCE. "CE," an acronym for the religiously neutral term "common era" is gradually replacing "AD."

Adhan: The Muslim call to prayer, typically from the minaret at a mosque.

Adoptionism: A belief, universally held within the earliest Christian movement, and still active in the 2nd and 3rd century CE, that Jesus was a normal human being, a prophet, who was born as any other human, and is not a deity. God later gave him supernatural powers at his baptism when God chose Jesus as his "adopted" son. Adoptionism was later declared a heresy by a number of early church councils.

Advent: From the Latin word "adventus" or coming: A period of time before Christmas, beginning on the Sunday closest to NOV-30 when the birth of Jesus is recalled. Advent candles are often lit.

African Independent Churches (AICs; a.k.a. African Indigenous Churches): African-based Christian faith groups which range from variations of Western denominations to syncretistic tribal groups which combine selective elements of Christianity with local existing traditions.

Agnostic: a person who believes that, at our present level of knowledge, we cannot know whether or not a God exists. Some Agnostics believe that we can never know whether one or more deities exists.

Alexandrian School: One of the two great schools of biblical interpretation in the early Church. They incorporated Greek Pagan philosophical beliefs from Plato's teachings into Christianity. They interpreted much of the Bible allegorically. The school was was established in Alexandria, Egypt in the late second century CE.

Aliyah: A Jewish term which means an immigration of Jews to Israel. An "oleh" is a single Jew immigrating into Israel. (Plural is "olim").

All Saints Day: A Christian day of remembrance of the saints of the faith- both recognized and unknown. It has been observed since 609 CE. The Western church celebrates it on NOV-1; Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate All Saints Day in the springtime -- on the Sunday after Pentecost.

All Souls' Day (a.k.a. the Day of the Dead), is celebrated yearly on NOV-2. This is a day for prayer and almsgiving in memory of ancestors who have died. Believers pray for the souls of the dead, in an effort to hasten their transition from Purgatory to Heaven. It is primarily observed by Roman Catholics.

Allegorical: a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another.

Altar: A table-like structure originally used for ritual sacrifice of animals, and occasionally of humans. Now used as a central focus in Jewish, Christian, Neopagan, and other religious services.

Amanuensis
A scribe or secretary employed to assist an author of Scripture or other texts by writing down what is dictated and sometimes helping with syntax and grammar.

Ameliorated: To improve or to make better.

Amen: The word is related to "Emunah" in Hebrew, which means faith and/or belief. Adding "Amen" at the end of "...a blessing or a prayer demonstrates a statement of affirmation that the blessing is true and hope that the prayer will be answered." "Amen" is also a near acronym; its four letters stand for the

Anthropopathism - Attribution of human feelings to things not human, such as inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena.

Antecedents: A thing or event that exisited before or logically precedes another.

Antinomianism: the theological doctrine that by faith and God's grace a Christian is freed from all laws (including the moral standards of the culture)
Usage example: Some reject it with indignation and an impetuous recoil that sends them much too far towards antinomianism

Aphorism - is a statement or saying both efficiently presented and either witty or wise

Apophasis (Late Latin, from Greek ἀπόφασις from ἀπόφημι—apophemi, "to say no") refers, in general to when a contriver pretends to hide or leave out what he in fact is saying. Apophasis covers a wide variety of figures of speech. Apophasis was originally and more broadly a method of logical reasoning or argument by denial—a way of describing what something is by explaining what it is not, or a process-of-elimination way of talking about something by talking about what it is not. An example of this is the Wikipedia article "'Wikipedia: What Wikipedia is not."

Apostates - One who has abandoned one's religious faith, a political party, one's principles, or a cause. (Roman Catholicism) One who, after having received sacred orders, renounces his clerical profession. (see also heretic: Someone who, in the opinion of others, believes contrary to the fundamental tenets of religion he claims to belong to.)

Aquinas , St. Thomas (1225, 74)
The Existence of God can be proved in five ways.

The First Way: Argument from Motion

The Second Way: Argument from Efficient Causes

The Third Way: Argument from Possibility and Necessity (Reductio argument)

The Fourth Way: Argument from Gradation of Being

The Fifth Way: Argument from Design

(see: LINK for detailed discussion)

Arian controversy describes several controversies between the Christian Church fathers Arius and Athanasius related to Christology which divided the Christian church from before the Council of Nicaea in 325 to after the Council of Constantinople in 381. The most important of these controversies concerned the relationship between God the Father andJesus Christ, with Arius defending the nontrinitarian position, while Athanasius supported the trinitarian position.

Archbishopric: 1. The rank, office, or term of an archbishop; 2. the area under an archbishop’s jurisdiction; an archdiocese.

Aristotelian: a follower of Aristotle or to his philosophy, a person whose thinking and method tend to be empirical, scientific, or commonsensical.

Ascension - Ascension, moving upwards in climbing and mountaineering; Right ascension, astronomical positions in the sky. Ascension of Jesus, the bodily ascension of Jesus into heaven. Ascension (mystical), the belief in some religions that there are certain rare individuals that have ascended into Heaven directly without dying first. Feast of the Ascension, an annual feast commemorating Jesus' ascension; a public holiday in several countries. The ascending of Muhammad to heaven known as Isra and Mi'raj. Ascension to heaven of Enoch (ancestor of Noah)

Asceticism - a rigorous self denial, particularly of the rejection of he pleasures of the world

Assyrian Church of the East officially the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East ‫Madnĕkhā d-Āturāyē), is a Syriac Church historically centered in Assyria/Assuristan, northern Mesopotamia. It is one of the churches that claim continuity with the historical Patriarchate of Seleucia-Ctesiphon – the Church of the East. Unlike most other churches that trace their origins to antiquity, the modern Assyrian Church of the East is not in communion with any other churches, either Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, or Catholic. Theologically, the church is associated with the doctrine of Nestorianism, leading to the church also being known as the "Nestorian Church", though church leadership has at times rejected the Nestorian label. The church employs the Syriac dialect of the Aramaic language in its liturgy, the East Syrian Rite, which includes three anaphoras, attributed to Saints Addai and Mari, Theodore of Mopsuestia and Nestorius.

Awesome - Blow your mind!! Our God cannot be encompass or be limited by your understanding.

Babel, tower of: A tower mentioned in Genesis 11. The Bible describes how there was only one language used prior to construction of the tower. God was offended by the construction, and caused its builders to speak in different languages. Almost all linguistic experts, except those who are conservative Christians, consider the story to be a myththree Hebrew words: "Aiy'l Melech Ne-eman" which mean that God is a true and faithful king.

Babylonian Talmud: The most authoritative compilation of rabbinic discussions on Jewish law, ethics, customs, legends and stories. Abbreviated term: Bavli

Baha’l Faith A world religion, founded in 1844 CE by Baha'u'llah (Glory of God) in Iran. Its roots are based in Islam. With the exception of its beliefs about homosexuality, and the makeup of its Universal House of Justice, it promotes democracy with equal rights to all, regardless of gender, race, nationality, etc. It has spread across the world. Its followers experience heavy oppression in Iran.

Barbarianism - The term "barbarian" refers to a person who is perceived to be uncivilized. The word is often used either in a general reference to member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage. In idiomatic or figurative usage, a "barbarian" may also be an individual reference to a brutal, cruel, warlike, insensitive person. The term originates from the ancient Greek word βάρβαρος (barbaros). Hence the Greek idiom "πᾶς μὴ Ἕλλην βάρβαρος" (pas mē Hellēn barbaros) which literally means "whoever is not Greek is a barbarian". In ancient times, Greeks used it for the people of different cultures but also to deride other Greek tribes and states; in the early modern period and sometimes later, they used it for the Turks, in a clearly pejorative way. Comparable notions are found in non-European civilizations. In the Roman Empire, Romans used the word barbarian for the Germanics, Celts, Carthaginians, Iberians, Thracians, Persians and in some respects the Greeks themselves, due to the Romans having little understanding of the languages that they spoke in.

(Barna)- found that 8% of adult American Protestants, 5% of adults generally and less than 0.5% of Roman Catholics "have a [conservative Protestant] biblical world view."

Basilica - The word was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. By extension it was applied to Christian buildings of the same form and continues to be used in an architectural sense to describe those buildings with a central naveand aisles. Later, the term came to refer specifically to a large and important church that has been given special ceremonial rights by the Pope.

BCE (a.k.a. B.C.E.): An anacronym for "Before the Common Era." A religiously-neutral calendar notation that is numerically equivalent to the "BC" notation without the connotation that the user recognizes Yeshua of Nazareth (Jesus Christ) to be the Messiah or Christ. Some non-Christians find the use of "BC" to be offensive

Bedouin/Nomadic - a member of any of the nomadic tribes of Arabs inhabiting the deserts of Arabia, Jordan, and Syria, as well as parts of the Sahara.

Believers in exile: This is a term created by John Shelby Spong, a retired bishop of the Episcopal Church, USA. It refers to Christians "... for whom the God experience is still real, but most of the religious forms used to interpret that reality have lost all meaning." They have outgrown the faith of their childhood and are searching for a new path.

Bible: This word has many meanings:

The holy text used by Christians. It is includes Hebrew Scripture (Old Testament), Christian Scripture (New Testament). Some faith groups also include a group of writings called the Apocrypha. The word originated in the Greek word "biblos," which means "book." The Greek word came from the ancient Phoenician port city of Byblos (now Jubayl in Lebanon).

It is sometimes used to refer to the holy texts of other religions.

It is sometimes used to refer to an all-embracing book on a specific topic, from computers to fly fishing to astronomy.

Bible Code: A book by Michael Drosnin which promoted the concept that the Bible contains prophecies which are hidden by a special code. This belief became popular during the 1990s, but collapsed when it was found that similar codes could be extracted from any book of similar length.

Biblical authority: This is the belief -- near universally held among conservative Christians -- that: "the Bible, as the expression of God's will to us, possesses the right supremely to define what we are to believe and how we are to conduct ourselves." 1 Steven Ibbotson states: "The Bible is authoritative because it is God's inspired word to humanity." 2 Religious liberals commonly discount some sections of the Bible as authoritative because they are judged to be profoundly immoral when compared to today's religious and secular moral standards.

BIBLE BELT

noun

: an area chiefly in the southern United States whose inhabitants are believed to hold uncritical allegiance to the literal accuracy of the Bible; broadly : an area characterized by ardent religious fundamentalism.

Biblical worldview: A personal perspective on humanity, deity and the rest of the universe based on the Bible. There are many such worldviews, reflecting various conservative, mainline, liberal, Gnostic, post-Christian and other belief systems. The Barna Group defines a conservative Protestant biblical worldview as including eight beliefs:

Absolute truth exists.

The source of moral truth is the Bible.

The Bible is without error in all of its teachings.

That eternal spiritual salvation cannot be earned through works while on earth.

Jesus led a sinless life while on earth.

Everyone has a responsibility to share their religious beliefs with others.

Satan is a living entity, not just a symbol of evil.

God is the creator of the universe, omnipotent, omniscient who still rules the universe today.

Biblicism: A belief that the Bible exhibits exclusive authority, infallibility, clarity, self-sufficiency, internal consistency, self-evident meaning, and universal applicability. It is a common belief among Christian fundamentalists and other evangelicals. Considers the text of the Bible as the Word of God and the ultimate authority for religious belief and morality.

Bibliology: This word has a secular and a Christian meaning:: A belief that the Bible exhibits exclusive authority, infallibility, clarity, self-sufficiency, internal consistency, self-evident meaning, and universal applicability. It is a common belief among Christian fundamentalists and other evangelicals. Considers the text of the Bible as the Word of God and the ultimate authority for religious belief and morality.

Bibliolatry: Worship of a book, particularly the Bible. A term of criticism levied against individuals who are judged to give an excessive regard to the text of the Bible.

Bibliology: This word has a secular and a Christian meaning: Secular: A discussion of books. Christian: The study of the Bible and the doctrines derived from it.

Byzantine Empire was the predominantly Greek-speaking continuation of the Roman Empire during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Its capital city was Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), originally known as Byzantium. Initially the eastern half of the Roman Empire (often called the Eastern Roman Empire in this context), it survived the 5th century fragmentation and collapse of the Western Roman Empire and continued to thrive, existing for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. Both "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" are historiographical terms applied in later centuries; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire (Ancient Greek: Βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων, tr. Basileia Rhōmaiōn; Latin: Imperium Romanum), and Romania (Ῥωμανία).

Caliphate: the era of Islam's ascendancy from the death of Mohammed until the 13th century; some Moslems still maintain that the Moslem world must always have a calif as head of the community. Usage example: “their goal was to reestablish the Caliphate”

Calvinism – (See Five Points…)

Canon law: A term used primarily within the Roman Catholic church to refer to a collection of church laws.

Canonization: The process by which a Christian becomes a saint. The process by which writings are accepted into a holy book, like the Christian Scriptures (New Testament)

Canon of scripture

The collection of writings that are divinely inspired and therefore authoritative, sacred, and binding; the list of books that are inspired Scripture.

Cardinal Doctrines of Christianity - Lists of beliefs of the foundational beliefs that all modern-day Christians should believe in. Although lists differ, they often include some of the following: biblical inerrancy, the deity of Jesus, the virgin birth, Jesus' bodily resurrection, the Trinity, the Atonement, CE

Cat·e·chism [ káttə kìzzəm ] 1. question-and-answer teaching: instruction in the principles of Christianity using set questions and answers; 2. religious questions and answers: the series of questions and answers that are used to test somebody's religious knowledge in advance of Christian baptism or confirmation; 3. question-and-answer book: a book containing questions and answers used to test the religious knowledge of somebody preparing for Christian baptism or confirmation

CE ( a.k.a. C.E.): An acronym for "common era." A religiously-neutral calendar notation that is numerically equivalent to the "AD" notation without the connotation that the user recognizes Yeshua of Nazareth (Jesus Christ) to be God. Some non-Christians find the use of "AD" to be offensive.iteria for salvation. Many of these beliefs were not shared by the primitive Christian movement.

Cessationism: The belief that tongues, and other special gifts enjoyed by believers in the early Christian movement faded early in the history of the church, and are thus not present today. The time of cessation is variously defined as the date of the completion of the last book of the Christian Scriptures or the death of the last Apostle. Antonym: Continuationism

Catechetical instruction -

Catechumenal instruction -

Chalcedon (/kælˈsiːdən / or /ˈkælsɨdɒn /;[1] Greek: Χαλκηδών, sometimes transliterated as Chalkedon) was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor. It was located almost directly opposite Byzantium, south of Scutari (modern Üsküdar) and it is now a district of the city of Istanbul named Kadıköy. The name is a variant of Calchedon, found on all the coins of the town as well as in manuscripts of Herodotus's Histories, Xenophon's Hellenica, Arrian's Anabasis, and other works. Except for a tower, almost no aboveground vestiges of the ancient city survive in Kadıköy today; artifacts uncovered at Altıyol and other excavation sites are on display at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum.

The site of Chalcedon is located on a small peninsula on the north coast of the Sea of Marmara, near the mouth of the Bosphorus. A stream, called the Chalcis or Chalcedon in antiquity[2] and now known as the Kurbağalıdere (Turkish: stream with frogs), flows into Fenerbahçe bay. There Greek colonists from Megara in Attica founded the settlement of Chalcedon in 685 BC, some seventeen years before Byzantium.

Church Councils

The First Seven Ecumenical Councils, as commonly understood, are:

First Council of Nicaea (325)

First Council of Constantinople (381)

Council of Ephesus (431)

Council of Chalcedon (451)

Second Council of Constantinople (553)

Third Council of Constantinople (680)

Second Council of Nicaea (787)

However, not all of these Councils have been universally recognized as ecumenical. As indicated above, the Church of the East accepts only the first two, and Oriental Orthodoxy only three. Nontrinitarians, such as Unitarians, Latter Day Saints, Quakers, Christadelphians and Jehovah's Witnesses, reject the teachings of all seven. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_seven_Ecumenical_Councils

Continence – refers to self control. It’s the ability to hold it all in.

Consubstantiation is a theological doctrine that (like Transubstantiation) attempts to describe the nature of the Christian Eucharist in concrete metaphysical terms. It holds that during the sacrament, the fundamental "substance" of the body and blood of Christ are present alongside the substance of the bread and wine, which remain present. The doctrine of consubstantiation is often held in contrast to the doctrine of transubstantiation. The adjective consubstantial however describes a different theological concept.

The doctrine of consubstantiation is erroneously identified as the Eucharistic doctrine of Martin Luther

Council of Nicaea, First - (/naɪ'si:ə/; Greek: Νίκαια /'ni:kaɪja/) was a council of Christian bishops convened in Nicaea in Bithynia by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325. This first ecumenical council was the first effort to attain consensus in the church through an assembly representing all of Christendom. Its main accomplishments were settlement of the Christological issue of the nature of the Son of God and his relationship to God the Father, the construction of the first part of the Creed of Nicaea, establishing uniform observance of the date of Easter, and promulgation of early canon law.

Council of Orange, First - (or First Synod of Orange) was held at Orange, then part of the Western Roman Empire, in 441. The first council of Orange took place on 8 November 441 under the presidency of Bishop Hilary of Arles, with Bishop Eucherius of Lyons among those present. Seventeen bishops attended the meeting. Thirty canons (or judgements) were passed, dealing with unction, the Permission of penance, the right of asylum; recommending caution to bishops in the ordination of foreign clergy, the consecration of churches outside of their own jurisdictions, and other matters; imposing limitations on the administration of ecclesiastical rites to those who were in any way defective, either in body or mind; and emphasizing the duty of celibacy for those belonging to the clerical state, especially deacons and widows, with express reference to canon viii. of the Synod of Turin (AD 401). The exact interpretation of some of them (ii., iii., xvii.) is doubtful. Canon iv. is alleged to be in conflict with a decretal of Pope Siricius; and ii. and xviii. betray an inclination to resist the introduction of Roman customs. These canons were confirmed at the Synods of Arles about 443.

The canons of the first council are often cited in the contemporary debates over the ordination of women to the ministry.

Council of Trent (Latin: Concilium Tridentinum) was an Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils.[1] It convened in Trento, Italy, then the capital of the Prince-Bishopric of Trent of the Holy Roman Empire, between 13 December 1545, and 4 December 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods. During the pontificate of Pope Paul III, the Council fathers met for the first eight sessions in Trento (1545–47), and for the ninth to eleventh sessions in Bologna (1547).[2] Under Pope Julius III, the Council met in Trento (1551–52) for the twelfth to sixteenth sessions, and under Pope Pius IV, the seventeenth to twenty-fifth sessions took place in Trento (1559–63).

Covetous:-1. Inordinately desirous of wealth or possessions; greedy; 2. eagerly desirous

Church Universal - Christian Church, the whole body of Christians collectively: Catholic Church (the word "catholic" means "universal"); Ecumenism; Unitarian Universalism; Universalism; Universal; Church of the Kingdom of God; Universal Church of Truth

Constantinople - Crusaders destroyed the Green empire in 1204 CE.

Creation narrative (Genesis) is the creation myth of both Judaism and Christianity. It is made up of two parts, roughly equivalent to the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis. In the first part, Genesis 1:1 through Genesis 2:3, Elohim, the generic Hebrew word for God, creates the world in six days, then rests on, blesses and sanctifies the seventh day. God creates by spoken command ("Let there be..."), suggesting a comparison with a king, who has only to speak for things to happen,[1] and names the elements of the cosmos as he creates them, in keeping with the common ancient concept that things did not really exist until they had been named.[2] In the second, Genesis 2:4–24, Yahweh, the personal name of God, shapes the first manfrom dust, places him in the Garden of Eden, and breathes his own breath into the man who thus becomes נֶפֶש nephesh, a living being; man shares nephesh with all creatures, but only of man is this life-giving act of God described. The man names the animals, signifying his authority within God's creation, and God creates the first woman, Eve, from the man's body. A common hypothesis among biblical scholars is that the first major comprehensive draft of the Pentateuch (the series of five books which begins with Genesis and ends with Deuteronomy) was composed in the late 7th or the 6th century BC (the Yahwistsource) and that this was later expanded by other authors (the Priestly source) into a work very like the one we have today.

Creed - a statement of belief, in particular a statement of faith that describes the beliefs shared by a religious community. Religious creeds are not intended to be comprehensive, but to be a summary of core beliefs. The term "creed" can also refer to a person's political or social beliefs, or is sometimes used to mean religious affiliation. One of the most widely used creeds in Christianity is the Nicene Creed, first formulated in AD 325 at the First Council of Nicaea. It was based on Christian understanding of the Canonical Gospels, the letters of the New Testament and to a lesser extent the Old Testament. Affirmation of this creed, which describes the Trinity, is generally taken as a fundamental test oforthodoxy for most Christian denominations.[1] The Apostles' Creed is also broadly accepted. Some Christian denominations and other groups have rejected the authority of those creeds. Muslims declare the shahada, or testimony: "I bear witness that there is no god but (the One) God (Allah), and I bear witness that Muhammad is God's messenger." Whether Judaism is creedal has been a point of some controversy. Although some say Judaism is noncreedal in nature, others say it recognizes a single creed, the Shema Yisrael, which begins: "Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God, the LORD is one."

Crusades - The call for the First Crusade touched off the pogroms of 1096 or the Rhineland massacres, also known as thepersecutions of 1096 or Gezeroth Tatenu. As part of this persecution, the destruction of the three towns of Speyer, Worms and Mainz were noted as the "Hurban Shum" (Destruction of Shum). These were new persecutions of the Jews in whichpeasant crusaders from France and Germany attacked Jewish communities.

Day of the Lord: A time when Christians believe that God will destroy all evil and establish his kingdom on earth.

Days of awe: A Jewish term referring to the ten days from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur. It is a time of introspection.

Deacon: From the Greek word diakanos (servant). Originally a church administrator. Currently, the term may refer to a low-ranking member of the clergy, a lay minister, or a lay administrator.

Dead, cult of the: Worship of the deceased. Unlike ancestor worship, cult of the dead involves the worship of the deceased by all, not just by the kin of the ancestors.

Dead Sea Scrolls - are a collection of 972 texts discovered between 1946 and 1956 at Khirbet Qumran in the West Bank. They were found in caves about a mile inland from the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name.[1] The texts are of great historical, religious, and linguistic significance because they include the earliest known surviving manuscripts of works later included in the Hebrew Bible canon, along with extra-biblical manuscripts which preserve evidence of the diversity of religious thought in late Second Temple Judaism.

The texts are written in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Nabataean, mostly on parchment but with some written on papyrus and bronze.[2] The manuscripts have been dated to various ranges between 408 BCE and 318 CE.[3] Bronze coins found on the site form a series beginning with John Hyrcanus (135-104 BCE) and continuing until the First Jewish-Roman War (66–73 CE).[4]

The scrolls have traditionally been identified with the ancient Jewish sect called the Essenes, although some recent interpretations have challenged this association and argue that the scrolls were penned by priests in Jerusalem, Zadokites, or other unknown Jewish groups. According to reality, the Dead Sea Scrolls were actually found in the 1940s. They contained no gospels and no mention of Jesus' ministry. In fact, the scrolls contained no Christian writings at all; they were entirely made up of Jewish documents. Except for the book of Esther, all books from the Hebrew Scriptures are present, along with many documents from the Essene tradition.

Decalogue, also known as the, Ten Commandments, are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry, blasphemy, murder, theft, dishonesty, and adultery. Different groups follow slightly different traditions for interpreting and numbering them. The Ten Commandments appear twice in the Hebrew Bible, in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. According to the story in Exodus, God inscribed them on two stone tablets, which he gave to Moses on Mount Sinai. Modern scholarship has found likely influences in Hittite and Mesopotamian laws and treaties, but is divided over exactly when the Ten Commandments were written and who wrote them.

Dean: As a religious term, it is most commonly used as an assistant to the bishop who runs the cathedral.

Death of God Theology: (a.k.a. Christian Atheism) This is a belief that became popular in the 1960s among some Christian theologians. Perhaps the most famous promoter of this concept was J.A.T. Robinson, a bishop of the Church of England. He wrote in his book Honest to God that the transcendent God described in the Bible is an outdated myth

Debate, religious: A formal discussion of the truth or advantages of one or more faith groups or theological positions. See dialogue

Deconversion: A term used most often by Atheists and Agnostics to describe an individual's loss of faith in a religion with which they had identified.

Deicide: The act of killing God. Until the mid 20th century, most Christians held modern-day Jews responsible for killing God in the form of Yeshua of Nazareth (a.k.a. Jesus Christ). The Catholic Church has partly repudiated this belief. Most Protestant denominations have gone further. But one still hears the occasional accusation of "Christ Killer" directed at Jews.

Deist: a person who believes in the existence of a remote, unknowable deity, usually male, who created the universe, but has not been involved with it since. Most of the politicians who founded America were Deists.

Deity: a generic term used to refer to one or more supernatural beings. It can refer to a single God, as is Judaism and Islam; a pair of gods, as in Zoroastrianism; a Trinity as in Christianity and Hinduism; a God and a Goddess as in Wicca and other Neopagan religions, etc. Plural form is "deities."

Deity of Christ The teaching that Jesus was really and truly God, possessing the divine nature in its fullest sense, existing from all eternity as the infinite God, the second person of the Trinity.§ From scripture:…looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. (Titus 2:13-14 NASB) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:1-3 ESV) § From The Anathemas of the Second Council of Constantinople (553 AD): X. If anyone does not confess that our Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified in the flesh is true God and the Lord of Glory and one of the Holy Trinity; let him be anathema.

Deluvian - The Flood - Noah - Of, relating to, or produced by a flood.

Demiurge:- 1. a powerful creative force or personality; 2. a public magistrate in some Greek states; 3. a deity in Gnosticism, Manichaeism, and other religious who creates the material world and is often viewed as the originator of evil; 4. Demiurge – a Platonic deity who orders or fashions the material world of chaos

Demon: Originally an angel, it joined with Satan to oppose God. Many conservative Christians believe that a person can be possessed by a demon; some think that only non-Christians can be possessed. Mental health professionals abandoned the concept of demonic possession centuries ago.

Demoniac: An individual who is possessed by a demon.

Denomination: an established religious group, which has usually been in existence for many years and has geographically widespread membership. It typically unites a group of individual, local congregations into a single administrative body.

Deontological: a system of ethics based on fixed rules which need to be followed in order for a person to be ethically and morally justified in their decisions. The Ten Commandments or the 613 Mosaic Laws in the Torah are two examples. One's duty is to follow these defined rules of conduct, regardless of the practical consequences. Antonym: teleological.

Deosil: The clockwise direction. The term is often used in describing Neopagan rituals.

Depravity, total: (a.k.a. Total inability) The doctrine, primarily held by conservative Christians, that every part of a person has been hopelessly damaged by sin. None would seek out God unless God first intervenes in their life. "Man is spiritually dead and unable to save himself or even believe without God's help." 1 This is one of the five points of Calvinism. See Romans 3:9.

Deprogramming: A criminal method of forcing a person to abandon their religious or other beliefs, usually through kidnapping, forcible confinement, and psychological pressure.

Deuterocanonical books is a term used since the 16th century in the Catholic Church and Eastern Christianity to describe certain books and passages of the Christian Old Testament that are not part of the Hebrew Bible. The term is used in contrast to theprotocanonical books, which are contained in the Hebrew Bible. This distinction had previously contributed to debate in the early Church about whether they should be classified as canonical texts.

Deutero Isaiah: A theological term referring to chapters 49 to 65 in the book of Isaiah. Religious liberals and most Bible historians believe that this was written by a different author.

Devi: (Sanskrit for Goddess) Wikipedia describes her as a Hindu goddess. "...synonymous with Shakti, the female aspect of the divine, as conceptualized by the Shakta tradition of Hinduism.

Devil: Christian synonym for Satan: an all-evil former angel. He is regarded by most progressive Christians as a mythical being who symbolizes evil. He is regarded by most conservative Christians as an extremely powerful personality -- a quasi-deity who is tempting every human to do evil.

Dharma: This term has multiple meanings: The teachings of the Buddha, truth; that which is established, customary, or proper; natural law -- the way the universe works; one's duty and responsibility, etc.

Dharma Day: This celebrates the first teaching of the Buddha after his enlightenment. (Not to be mistaken for Tuesday, when Dharma and Greg situational comedy is broadcast. Sorry for the humor. ;-)

Dialog: In a religious sense, dialog refers to people from two or more religious traditions meeting as equals to explain and explore their religious beliefs and practices together. The aim is not conversion, debate, or proselytizing; it is to improve understanding, mutual respect, and personal growth. Dialog tends to be rare when compared to instances of debate.

Diaspora: The forced exiles of the Jewish people from Palestine by the Babylonians in the sixth century BCE and by the Roman Empire in the middle of the 2nd century CE.

Diatessaron: The belief that the four Christian Gospels are in harmony with each other. The term is often used to refer to the writing of a very popular gospel by Tatian (120 - 173 CE) based on Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Dichotomy: In the field of religion, the concept that a person is made up of a body and a soul, or a body and a spirit. An opposing belief, also justified by reference to biblical passages is trichotomy: the belief that a person is composed of body, soul, and spirit.

Didache: a very early, short book describing Christian rituals and beliefs.

Diocese: a geographical area under the jurisdiction of a bishop.

Diophysite: A person or group which believes in Diophysitism.

Diophysitism: This is the belief that Christ had two natures: both divine and human. This concept won out after extensive debate at the church council at Chalcedon in 451 CE. It is imbedded in the

Chalcedonian Creed. An opposing belief is Monophysitism.

Diocese: A geographical area in which a group of priests are under the direction of a single bishop. The term is used by the Roman Catholic church, the Greek Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion.

Disciples: In Christian usage, followers of Jesus. At one time, Jesus had 12 disciples; at another time, 70 are mentioned. Although those followers who were mentioned by name often in the gospels were evenly split between women and men, only conflicting lists of male disciples survive.

Disfellowshipping: A practice of some Christian faith groups in which a member has certain privileges removed in order to force them to give up certain behaviors and beliefs. Within the LFD church -- commonly called the Mormons -- a disfellowshipped member has certain privileges removed, but still remains a member. Among the Jehovah's Witnesses, a person is shunned. This can have devastating consequences to persons in a high-intensity religious group whose entire support system involves fellow members.

Dispensation, Dispensationalism: The is the concept that all of human history has been divided into seven distinct periods of time or dispensations. They are often called: innocence, conscience, human government, promise, law, grace and the Kingdom. God focused on the Hebrews during some dispensations and on the church during others. Dispensationalists see a major role for the state of Israel in the future, and anticipate the second coming of Jesus in the immediate future.

Dispensationalist premillennialism: See premillenialism

Displacement, theology of: Alternative term for supercession.

Disappointment, great: The term is used to refer to the failed prophecy of William Miller who predicted that Christ would return to earth in 1844. This lead some followers to start up the 7th Day Adventist Church.

Disassociate: a term used within the Jehovah's Witnesses to refer to an apostate who has been severed from the organization..

Disestablishment: Cancellation of the official status of a faith group as a country's official church. There is a growing support that the state church in Britain, the Church of England, be disestablished.

Disestablishmentarianism: The belief that there should no longer be an official church in the country. The word antidisestablishmentarianism is sometimes quoted as the longest word in the English language. The longest word in any language may well be the Welsh name of a town in Wales: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

Dissociate: a mental condition in which the mind detaches itself from external activity. A psychological term widely used in the treatment of persons who allegedly suffer from Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) a.k.a. Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). This is a controversial topic. Most mental health professionals believe that MPD/DID is either extremely rare or nonexistent. Belief in MPD/DID is rapidly declining among the public.

Divergent -:- 1. Drawing apart from a common point, diverging; 2. Departing from convention; 3. Differing from another

Divination: Any method of predicting future events. Astrology, bird entrails, tarot cards, runes, even the shadow of a groundhog near the end of winter have been used as tools of divination. Divination was practiced by many persons mentioned in the Bible (Joseph, high priests, Daniel). Some types of divination are condemned by the Bible.

Diwali: A Hindu Festival of Lights. Gifts are exchanged; fireworks are enjoyed

Docetism

The heretical teaching that Christ only appeared to be human, but that he was not really human, since he did not have a real human body.

From the Apostle John:

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. (1 John 4:2-3)

Doctrine: Noun: (from Latin: doctrina) is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system. The Greek analogue is the etymology of catechism. Often doctrine specifically connotes a corpus of religious dogma as it is promulgated by a church, but not necessarily: doctrine is also used to refer to a principle of law, in the common law traditions, Something that is taught: (i.e.) In the African Methodist Episcopal Church seeks to reaffirm ones faith in the fundamentals doctrine of the Methodist tradition and heritage.

Documentary Hypothesis: The belief that the Pentateuch (the first five books in the Bible) were not written by Moses, but by four anonymous authors -- traditionally called J, E, P and D. Also involved were one or more redactors who edited the writings into their present form. Conservative Christians generally deny the hypothesis, and believe that Moses wrote all five books -- except perhaps for the chapters that describe his death and burial.

Dogma: From the Greek word "dogma" (a decree). A revealed truth defined by a faith group. It is important to realize that one group's dogma is often another group's heresy.

Domestic partnership: A voluntary union of two adult persons of the same sex. The couple typically receives some but not all of the same benefits, obligations, and protections as married opposite-sex couples are given. In the U.S., they are available in California. See also civil unions.

Donatism: An early Christian leader from North Africa, Donatus, promoted the belief that the validity of a sacrament was dependent on the moral character of the priest who performed it. Two church synods later declared this to be a heresy.

Doomsday cult: a religious group which is focused on the anticipated end of the world in the near future. Often referred to as a destructive cult.

Dormition of the Theotokos: On this day, the Greek Orthodox Church commemorates the death, burial, resurrection and ascension into heaven of the Virgin Mary.

Doubt, religious: "... a feeling of uncertainty toward, and a questioning of, religious teachings and beliefs."

Downgraders: A term used to refer to Christian theologians and clergy during the 1880s who were reacting to the widespread public skepticism against miracles at the time. They instead taught the moral leadership of Jesus, and were called "downgraders" as a result.

Dowsing: A type of divination, typically using a forked branch or two sticks. They are used most often to locate underground sources of water. Although belief in the effectiveness of dowsing is widespread, carefully controlled studies have shown it to be useless.

Druids: A professional class of individuals in ancient Celtic society who had various teaching, priestly, legal, and ambassadorial functions. They are often portrayed as engaging in human sacrifice. However, the only source for this belief are a single reference in the wartime writings of Julius Caesar, who relied on hearsay.

Druse: (a.k.a. Muwahhid, Mowahhidoon, Mo'wa'he'doon, Taw'heed Faith): The Druze are a fiercely independent religious group with perhaps as many as a million members. They are mainly concentrated in Lebanon around the base of Mount Hermon, and in the mountains behind Beirut and Sidon. They broke away from Islam during the 10th century CE.

Dualism: In general, the belief that entities and concepts often appear in pairs. They are generally opposites. Often one is considered good and the other bad. The religion of Zoroastrianism recognizes one all-good deity and one who is all-evil. Most conservative Christians believe that two, very powerful, supernatural powers influence the world: God and Satan. Dualism" is often used to refer to persons as being composed of body and soul, or to refer to the universe as being made up of mind and matter.

Dual Covenant: This is the theological concept that God has continued his covenants with the Jewish people, and has established a new, parallel covenant with the followers of Christianity. Opposing this belief is the concept of Supercessionism: that God has unilaterally terminated his covenants with the Jews, and transferred them to Christians. The latter belief led to a great deal of persecution of Jews by Christians; it is now rejected within Christianity except for some conservative Protestant denominations.

Duotheist: Synonym for bitheist; a person who believes that there are two deities -- typically one female and the other male, as in Wicca, or one all good and the other all bad, as in Zoroastrianism.

Dussehra: An annual observance when Hindus celebrate the victory of Lord Rama over the Demons.

Dystheism: A belief that God exists, but is not good, although is not necessarily evil.

Ebionites, or Ebionaioi (Greek: Ἐβιωναῖοι; derived from Hebrew אביונים ebyonim, ebionim, meaning "the poor" or "poor ones"), is a patristic term referring to a Jewish Christian movement that existed during the early centuries of the Christian Era. They regarded Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah while rejecting his divinity and insisted on the necessity of following Jewish law and rites. The Ebionites used only one of the Jewish Gospels, revered James the Just and rejected Paul of Tarsus as an apostate from the Law. Their name suggests that they placed a special value on voluntary poverty. They have been identified as the meek and the poor Jesus spoke of in the Beatitudes, and the Ebionim was one of the terms used by the sect that sought to separate themselves from the corruption of the Temple, at Qumran, whom many believe were the Essenes[5].

Ecumenical (Movement )-Adjective: general in extent or influence: i.e. promoting worldwide “Christian” unity –reference text Second Vatican Council 1960’s. mainly refers to initiatives aimed at greater Christian unity or cooperation. These initiatives are often referred to as interdenominational. It is used predominantly by and with reference to Christian denominations and Christian Churches separated by doctrine, history, and practice. Within this particular context, the term ecumenism refers to the idea of a Christian unity in the literal meaning: that there should be a single Church. Not to be confused withNondenominational Christianity

Elkasites - The Elcesaites, Elkasaites, Elkesaites, or Elchasaites were an ancient Jewish-Christian sect, possibly related to the Ebionites, in Sassanid southern Mesopotamia.

Some early scholars^[who?^] differentiate Ebionites from Essenic Ebionite-Elchasites. The Elcesaites are discussed by Epiphanius and in pseudo-Clementine literature. The sect is only mentioned in the commentaries on "heresies" by Early Church Fathers. The name of the sect derives the name from the alleged founder: Elchasi (Hλχασΐ, in Hippolytus), Elksai ('Hλξαί) in Epiphanius), or Elkesai (Ελκεσαΐ in Eusebius, and Theodoret).[1]

Epicurus: A philosopher who believed that pleasure is the greatest good.

Episcopal- Adjective: relating to a Bishop relating to the Protestant Episcopal Church. a mainline Anglican Christian denomination found mainly in the United States, and also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia,Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts ofEurope.[2][3][4] The Episcopal Church is the Province of the Anglican Communion in the United States and many other territories where it has a presence (excluding Europe). The Episcopal Church describes itself as being "Protestant, yet Catholic. The Church was organized shortly after the American Revolution when it was forced to separate from the Church of England, as the Church of England clergy were required to swear allegiance to the British monarch, who is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

E·piph·a·ny [ i píffənee ] sudden realization: a sudden intuitive leap of understanding, especially through an ordinary but striking occurrence; appearance of god: the supposed manifestation of a divine being

Epistle (/ɨˈpɪsəl /; Greek ἐπιστολή, epistolē, 'letter') is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum. The letters in the New Testament from Apostles to Christians are usually referred to as epistles. Those traditionally attributed to Paul are known as Pauline epistles and the others as catholic (i.e., "general") epistles.

Erigena - paradoxical theology, "God is both everything and nothing; says God can only symbolize. Goodness is incomprehensible -- it is super essential, or more than Goodness itself - and supernatural.

Eschatology: any system of doctrines concerning last, or final, matters, as death, the Judgment, the future state, etc.

Ethereal - in heaven, resembling heaven : seeming to belong to another world; very delicate; of or relating to the regions beyond the earth; celestial, heavenly; unworldly, spiritual; lacking material substance : immaterial, intangible

Ethnos - Ethnicity or ethnic group is a socially defined category of people who identify with each other based on a perceived shared social experience or ancestry.[1] Membership of an ethnic group tends to be associated with and ideologies of shared cultural heritage, ancestry, history, homeland, language or dialect, and with symbolic systems such as religion, mythology and ritual, cuisine, dressing style, physical appearance, etc.

Ethnicity is an important means by which people may identify with a larger group. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf, do not consider ethnic identity to be universal.

Ethos (/ˈ iː θ ɒ s / or /ˈ iː θ oʊ s /) is a Greek word meaning "character" that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology. The Greeks also used this word to refer to the power of music to influence its hearer's emotions, behaviors, and even morals.

Ex nihilo is a Latin phrase meaning "out of nothing". It often appears in conjunction with the concept of creation, as increatio ex nihilo, meaning "creation out of nothing"—chiefly in philosophical or theological contexts, but also occurs in other fields. In theology, the common phrase creatio ex nihilo ("creation out of nothing"), contrasts with creatio ex materia (creation out of some pre-existent, eternal matter) and with creatio ex deo (creation out of the being of God). The phrase ex nihilo also appears in the classical philosophical formulation ex nihilo nihil fit, which means "Out of nothing comes nothing".

Faith: A system of religious belief. There are many and they conflict with each other.

Faith group: a general, inclusive term that might be used to refer to a religion, denomination, sect, cult, or informal group.

Faith-formula movement: (a.k.a. Word of Faith movement, Health & Wealth Gospel, Positive Confession, Name it and Claim it, and ). A group of conservative Protestant para-church ministries which focus on "anointed" ministers and the health, wealth, and success of their viewers and donors. Ministry Watch estimates that their total income is in excess of a half billion dollars annually.

Faith tradition: A synonym for "faith group."

Fall of mankind: The belief, based on a literal translation of Genesis, that when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden they lost communion with God and brought themselves and all their descendents (including the present and future generations) into a condition of sin and misery. Many religious liberals reject this belief, and interpret Genesis symbolically to indicate the rise of Adam and Eve from a pre-human state to full humanity, becoming aware for the first time of the differences between good and evil -- that is, developing a moral sense and becoming fully human.

Fall of the Temple - The Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD was the decisive event of the First Jewish-Roman War. The Roman army, led by the future Emperor Titus, with Tiberius Julius Alexander as his second-in-command, besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which had been occupied by its Jewish defenders in 66 AD. The siege ended with the sacking of the city and the destruction of its famous Second Temple. The destruction of both the first and second temples is still mourned annually as the Jewish fast Tisha B'Av. The Arch of Titus, celebrating the Roman sack of Jerusalem and the Temple, still stands in Rome. Despite early successes in repelling the Roman sieges, the Zealots fought amongst themselves, and they lacked proper leadership, resulting in poor discipline, training, and preparation for the battles that were to followTitus surrounded the city, with three legions (V Macedonica, XII Fulminata, XV Apollinaris) on the western side and a fourth (X Fretensis) on the Mount of Olives to the east.[1] He put pressure on the food and water supplies of the inhabitants by allowing pilgrims to enter the city to celebrate Passover, and then refusing to allow them back out. After Jewish allies killed a number of Roman soldiers, Titus sent Josephus, the Jewish historian, to negotiate with the defenders; this ended with Jews wounding the negotiator with an arrow, and another sally was launched shortly after. Titus was almost captured during this sudden attack, but escaped.

Fallibilism: The belief that no belief, theory, view, postulation, etc. can be proven with absolute certainty. Any of our beliefs are subject to change in the future.

"Fall-sin-redemption" model. This is a key theological belief about sin and salvation that is held by many Christians. It consists of a series of beliefs: Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden when they ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. By their actions, sin entered the world for the first time, and produced a gulf between God and our first parents. Through the concept of imputation, -- the transfer of sin and punishment from the guilty to the innocent -- Adam and Eve's sin has been assigned to their children, their grandchildren, and all the way down through over 200 generations to present-day humanity. Not a single person since our first parents has avoided sin. Because of the incarnation in which God took human form in the body of Jesus, and because of Jesus' sinlessness, he had the power to forgive sin. Persons can be saved today by repenting of their sin, and trusting Jesus as Lord and Savior. They will then attain Heaven when they die. They become a new creation. Through a process of sanctification God helps them change and become more like Christ. The other alternative is to not trust Jesus; they will then be tortured in Hell for all eternity. Some liberal/progressive Christians reject this model. In part, this is because they view the Garden of Eden story as a religious myth, and Adam and Eve's actions as symbolizing the rise of humanity -- not its fall.

Factual: the nature of facts real, or containing facts

Falsafah - Falsafa is a Greek loanword meaning "philosophy" (the Greek pronunciation philosophia became falsafa).

False Memory: A recollection of an event that never happened, or a very heavily distorted recollection of an event that did occur. During the 1980s and 1990s, false memories were created in tens or hundreds of thousands of North American adults through the use of suggestive techniques like hypnosis, "truth drugs," guided imagery, etc. Most "memories" were generated during therapeutic sessions; some during mutual support groups; still others through individual self-hypnosis. Tens of thousands of innocent parents and relatives were accused of child sexual abuse as a result of false memories. Some victims of recovered memory therapy were driven to suicide by the memories. The therapeutic technique still continues at a low level and new victims are still being created. However, it has largely been discredited and abandoned by counselors and therapists.

Familiar spirit: An evil spirit who can allegedly possess the body of a human, and communicate with them. Belief in evil spirits is widespread among many religious conservatives, but has been abandoned by mental health experts for over a century.

Faqih: A Muslim term for a man skilled in Shari'ah law who has the authority to issue fatwas.

Fard: A Muslim term for an act that is absolutely obligatory. A Muslim who denies a fard becomes an unbeliever.

Fascism: A political concept in which the state is considered paramount, and individual freedoms and human rights are of minor importance.

Fast; Fasting: The act of doing without food and/or water for an interval of time -- generally to attain a spiritual goal. Muslims are expected to fast completely between sunrise and sunset during the lunar month of Ramadan, where it is medically possible. The practice is widespread among followers of many religions, including Native American Spirituality, Islam, Christianity, etc.

Fatalism: The belief that any effort to improve oneself or the world is useless because everything is predetermined by blind, irrational forces.

Fatwa: This is an Islamic term that literally means "an answer to a question." Traditionally, it has been a recommendation, an opinion issued by a Muslim scholar on a specific subject.

Feminist Theology: A rejection of the patriarchal, sexist, homophobic, and other teachings in the Bible which are considered immoral by most of today's religious and secular ethical standards. It promotes a theology which stresses human rights, sexual enjoyment, feminine ordination, and equality. It often involves re-interpreting the Bible in gender-neutral terms.

Feng Shui: A belief, originating in Taoism, that structures and objects in one's environment need to be properly aligned in order to maximize health and functioning.

Fideism, Fideist: From the Latin word "fides" which means "faith." A person who relies on faith rather than reason in matters related to religion and philosophy. Some have traced this belief back to Tertullian in the second century CE, although that is controversial.

Filioque: The Niceno-Constantinopolitan or Constantinopolitan Creed was written and adopted at the Council of Nicea in 325 CE, and then modified by the Council at Chalcedon in 451 CE, and later modified during the sixth century CE with the addition of the filioque. This phrase states that they Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son. The Eastern Orthodox churches have historically rejected the filioque, citing John 15:26 as proof that the Holy Spirit proceeded only from the Father. Friction over the filioque was a major cause of the split between the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodoxy which was formalized in 1054 CE.

Final Solution: The German Nazi plan for the total extermination of every Jew in Europe.

Fiqh: A Muslim term describing allowable and forbidden actions.

Fioloque - (Ecclesiastical Latin: [filiˈɔkwe]), Latin for "and (from) the Son", is a phrase included in the form of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed (commonly called the Nicene Creed) used in most Western Christian churches since at least the 8th century. It was accepted by the popes only in 1014, and is rejected by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodox Churches. It was not in the Greek text of this Creed, attributed to the Second Ecumenical Council (the First Council of Constantinople), which says that the Holy Spirit proceeds "from the Father", without additions of any kind, such as "and the Son" or "alone"

First Temple Period: The interval from 850 to 586 BCE during which time the Jerusalem Temple was in place.

Five hindrances: A Buddhist list of feelings that prevent one's spiritual progress: Lust, aversion, sloth, restlessness, and skepticism.

Five points of Calvinism
Five points summarizing the major doctrines affirmed in the Canons of Dordt (1618) to counter the errors of Arminianism; also called the doctrines of grace, or TULIP (an acronym formed from common names for the five points—total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement,irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints).

1. Free will, or human ability. This taught that man, although affected by the Fall, was not totally incapable of choosing spiritual good, and was able to exercise faith in God in order to receive the gospel and thus bring himself into possession of salvation.

2. Conditional election. This taught that God laid His hands upon those individuals who, He knew - or foresaw - would respond to the gospel. God elected those that He saw would want to be saved of their own free will and in their natural fallen state — which was, of course, according to the first point of Arminianism, not completely fallen anyway.

3. Universal redemption, or general atonement. This taught that Christ died to save all men; but only in a potential fashion. Christ’s death enabled God to pardon sinners, but only on condition that they believed.

4. The work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration limited by the human will. This taught that the Holy Spirit, as He began to work to bring a person to Christ, could be effectually resisted and His purposes frustrated. He could not impart life unless the sinner was willing to have this life imparted.

5. Falling from grace. This taught that a saved man could fall finally from salvation. It is, of course, the logical and natural outcome of the system. If man must take the initiative in his salvation, he must retain responsibility for the final outcome.

Five poisons: A Buddhist list of five harmful influences commonly found in life: ignorance, hate, pride, craving and envy.

Five precepts: A Buddhist list of activities to avoid: Killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying and the taking of intoxicants.

Five ways: These are the five proofs of the existence of God as derived by Thomas Aquinas from Greek Pagan metaphysical thought.

Flying bishops: This is an informal Anglican term used in the Church of England and the Episcopal Church, USA. It refers to bishops that are nominated to provide Episcopal duties in parishes which refuse to accept women as clergy. The parishes have to petition their bishop for such alternative arrangements.

Foreknowledge: An attribute of God that he is able to know all things: past, present and future.

Foreteller. Some prophets were also "foretellers," that is, they brought predictions of the future. (i.e., Isaiah's earlier prophecies concern the short-term future of Judah and the surrounding nations.)

Form criticism: A method of analyzing biblical verses which involves studying the literary forms used in the passage. It often seeks to uncover the oral traditions behind Bible passages.

Forthteller. Some scholars have emphasized that prophets were "forthtellers," that is, proclaimers of God's message. (i.e., Much of Isaiah’s prophecy was a pronouncement of God's judgment on sin, a call for justice and righteousness by those in power, and a concern for the poor.)

Fortune telling: A method of divination: predicting the future. Often performed using cards, tarot cards, runes, palm reading, tea leaf reading, etc.

Foundationalist, Foundationalism: "... the belief that all beliefs are ultimately set upon an unalterable foundation."

Four constituents: In Buddhism, the fundamental components which make up the universe: earth, water, wind and fire.

Four noble truths: A Buddhist list of basic truths about suffering -- that: Suffering exists. It comes from one's attachment to desires. It can be overcome by ceasing one's attachment to desire. The Eightfold Path is the way to achieve freedom from suffering.

Freemasonry: A spiritual, fraternal order for men that originated in guilds of stone cutters. Freemasons see Freemasonry as supplementing and not in conflict with their religious belief. They are heavily involved in charitable works, like the Shriner's hospitals. Many conservative Christians view Freemasonry as anti-Christian and condemn membership in the Masonic Order. Freemasons, like dozens of other like dozens of other groups ranging from the Roman Catholic Church to Quakers, have been accused of ritual abuse. However, no hard evidence has been found to confirm this.

Freethinker: This originally referred to persons who doubted the Trinity -- the concept that a Godhead existed composed of single entity involving three personalities: a Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Freethinkers originally supported the concept of a single indivisible deity. The meaning of the term has since changed its meaning to include persons who reject religious beliefs in general, and who follow their own spiritual and ethical path.

Free will: When used by Christian theologians, means the ability of an individual to freely choose their own actions. This is denied by Calvinists, who say that God cannot be truly sovereign if humans have complete free will.

Friday, Good: The Friday before Easter Sunday. This commemorates the execution of Jesus by the occupying Roman Army circa 33 CE.

Frum: A religiously observant Jew.

Funchpevan: The conservative wing of Protestant Christianity. The word is derived from FUNdamentst, CHarismatic, Pentecostal, and EVANgelical. Coined on 2011-JAN-25 by the sponsors of this web site.

Fundamentalism is the demand for a strict adherence to orthodox theological doctrines usually understood as a reaction against Modernist theology, primarily to promote continuity and accuracy.[3] The term "fundamentalism" was originally coined by its supporters to describe five specific classic theological beliefs of Christianity, and that developed into a movement within the Protestant community of the United States in the early part of the 20th century, and that had its roots in the Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy of that time.[4]

Fundamentalist: Within Christianity, this is a term used since the 1920's to refer to the most religiously conservative groups within Protestant Christianity. Within Judaism, Islam and other religions, the term is used to refer to the extreme conservative wing who Karen Armstrong defines as "embattled forms of spirituality, which have emerged as a response to a perceived crisis" 1 - namely the fear that modernity will erode or even eradicate their faith and morality.

Fundamentalism's roots within Christianity can be traced to the late 19th Century as a reaction against liberal movements of Biblical criticism and analysis. A 1909 publication "The Fundamentals: A testimony to the truth" proposed five required beliefs for conservative Christians; they are listed elsewhere in this glossary under "Evangelicals", items 1 to 5. Fundamentalists generally believe that other wings of Christianity, and other religions, are in error. The largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., the Southern Baptist Convention, has recently transitioned to fundamentalism. Bob Jones University, the General Association of Regular Baptists, the Moody Bible Institute and other organizations are also fundamentalist. Among the most generally known leaders are James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Bob Jones and Hal Lindsey. See the term "Modernism." The term has three additional meanings in general usage that cause great confusion:

Gaia: Greek goddess of the Earth. A belief that the earth is a living entity who adapts the environment to promote life.

Gap theory: The belief that there is a large interval of time between the first and second verses in the book of Genesis. By insertion of a gap at this point, Genesis is brought more closely into harmony with the conclusions of the vast majority of biological and earth scientists who believe that Evolution is a fact and that the earth is about 4.5 billion years old.

Gehena: A Greek word which refers to the Hebrew word gehinnom, the valley of Hinnon. This was the garbage dump for Jerusalem, a place of continuous fire, where the bodies of crucified criminals were tossed. According to Luke 12:4 and other passages, this is Hell. God casts the body and souls of the unsaved here after their death, to be tortured forever without any hope of mercy.

Gender expression: How a person dresses, speaks and acts to show their gender identity.

Gender identity: An individual's feeling of gender. In the vast majority of people, this is the same as their gender as assigned at birth. However, among transgender persons, their perceived gender is different from their birth-assigned gender.

General Revelation: A Christian term partly derived from Romans 1:19-20. Paul taught that the existence of the world is proof of the existence of God and of some of his attributes. Further, it teaches that these beliefs are obvious to everyone -- whether they be Christian or not. With advances in science, the existence of the world and its life forms can be explained in naturalistic terms. Thus, the Romans passage does not necessarily apply to contemporary individuals who have become convinced of the reality of evolution.

Genetic fallacy - The assumption that because something started with a certain belief or quality that it must continue to have those qualities. An example is: "You're not going to wear a wedding ring, are you? Don't you know that the wedding ring originally symbolized ankle chains worn by women to prevent them from running away from their husbands? I would not have thought you would be a party to such a sexist practice."

Genizah: A place in a synagogue set aside to store both worn-out and heretical or disgraced Hebrew books or papers.

Genocide: Systematic murder of an entire group of people on the basis of their religion, race or nationality.

Genocide, cultural: Attempts to eliminate an entire culture. The Canadian government's program of destroying Native Canadian culture between 1879 and 1986 through the use of boarding schools is one example.

Gentile: This term originated in the Latin word "gent" which meant "of the same clan." It became "gentil" in Middle English. Today, it has a variety of definitions: In Judaism: a non-Jew. In the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) the Greek word "Hellenes" -- which means "Greek" -- has been translated as "Gentile." It refers to any non-Jewish nation or group. See: Acts 16:1, 3; 18:17; Romans 1:14). In Mormonism: a person who is not a Mormon. In Hinduism: a person who is not a Hindu. In some other applications, it refers to a person who does not acknowledge the existence of one's God.

Genocide: (Derived from genos (race) and cide (to kill). A term created by Raphael Lemkin in the mid-1940s. It refers to the planned, systematic extermination of an entire ethnic, national, racial, or religious group. Most genocides in the 20th and 21st century have had a strong religious component. The murder of about 200,000 Muslims by Serbian Orthodox Christians during the 1990s is the most serious religiously-motivated genocide in recent years. Rwanda is an exception.

Geocentrism: The belief that the sun revolves around the earth. This was all the rage in Galileo's day. Religious News Service reported in 2006-MAR that the belief is having a comeback among conservative Christians because of its support in the Bible. Commentators are having difficulty deciding whether this news report is a satire, or is serious. Within the environmental movement, a concern over the state and future of the Earth.

Geomancy: The procedure of selecting a site for a building, grave, etc. based upon unseen forces in nature. The goal is to achieve harmony with the natural surroundings.

Get: A Jewish divorce

Ghetto: The term originally referred to a type of inner-city concentration camp for Jews. First developed by the Roman Catholic Church, the concept was later adopted by Hitler during the German Nazi regime. The term now refers to any concentration of a specific group in a city, as in "student ghetto."

Ghost: A form of spirit being. Many faiths, from Aboriginal religion to some groups within Christianity believe that they are the spirits of dead people. Hard evidence of their existence is scant or non-existent.

Gilgamesh epic: A flood story from ancient Pagan Babylon with many points of similarity to the Genesis flood. Religious liberals conclude that the Genesis account of the flood of Noah was derived from this Pagan source. Religious conservatives conclude that the Genesis flood story is precisely true, and that the Gilgamesh epic is a distorted record of the actual flood.

Glory: There are at least four religious meanings: An aura: an indication of radiant light drawn around the head of a saint. "Gloria Patri" is a doxology -- a short hymn of praise to God. God's glory relates to how God's presence is experienced; it is often associated with thunderbolts, fire, bright lights, and other illuminations. Glory is sometimes used to described Heaven, as in "Bound for Glory"

Glossolilia or "speaking in tongues". In the first Centuries CE, it meant the ability of a person to communicate in a foreign language that they had never learned. e.g. a person raised speaking Greek and unable to speak any other language would suddenly be conversing in Aramaic. At the present time, it refers to a person who suddenly, in a state of religious ecstasy, starts speaking sounds that sound like language but do not represent any known tongue. The manifestation of glossolilia is an expected development in all Pentecostal believers and is a sign of the grace of God. It is also a common practice among charismatic Christians. More details are available.

Gnosis: A Greek word which literally means "knowledge." Insight or enlightenment capture the meaning of Gnosis better.

Gnosticism - This is pronounced with a silent "g"; it is derived from the Greek word gnosis (knowledge). It originated in the Middle East and Greece during pre-Christian times. The movement has been composed of many groups with differing beliefs. Gnosticism was a second century heresy claiming that salvation could be gained through secret knowledge. Gnosticism is derived from the Greek word gnosis, meaning "to know." Gnostics also believed that the material world (matter) is evil and that only the spirit is good. They constructed an evil God and beings of the Old Testament to explain the creation of the world(matter), and considered Jesus Christ a wholly spiritual God.

God: A supernatural being, generally male. Various religions assign different attributes and qualities to God, such as a body, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, love, hate, tolerance, intolerance, etc.

God, false: The deity worshiped by another religion. One faith groups' God is another faith group's false God.

Goddess: a female supernatural being.

Godwink: An event that a person regards as an answered prayer. A skeptic would regard it as a coincidence.

Golgotha

Good works: Activities that are legal, pure of motive, and helpful to other persons. Romans 3:12 and other passages state that no unsaved person can perform good works. Many passages in Paul's epistles imply that salvation cannot be obtained by good works. Many passages in the synoptic gospels appear to teach the opposite.

Gospel: This has three main meanings: One of the four books at the start of the Christian Scriptures which give an account of Jesus' life and which were accepted into the official canon of the Christian Scriptures (New Testament); e.g. the Gospel of Mark. One of the many dozens of books about the life of Jesus, of which only four made it into the official canon; e.g. the Gospel of Thomas. The message, found mainly in the writings of Paul, that the a person's belief that Jesus was resurrected will cause God to forgive their sins.

Goy: Hebrew for nation or people. A Yiddish word for non-Jew.

Grace: an Christian expression meaning "the free and unmerited assistance or favor or energy or saving presence of God in his dealings with humanity..."). Grace is a gift of God and is not considered to be deserved by the individual. According to the Bible, those to whom God does not give grace are incapable of understanding the gospel message.

Grassroots movement (often referenced in the context of a political movement) is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures.

Greco-Roman world, Greco-Roman culture, or the term Greco-Roman (/ˌɡrɛkoʊˈroʊmən / or /ˌɡrɛkəˈroʊmən /; spelled Graeco-Roman in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth), when used as an adjective, as understood by modern scholars and writers, refers to those geographical regions and countries that culturally (and so historically) were directly, protractedly and intimately influenced by the language, culture, government and religion of the ancient Greeks and Romans. In exact terms the area refers to the "Mediterranean world", the extensive tracts of land centered on the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins, the "swimming-pool and sex" of the Greeks and Romans, i.e. one wherein the cultural perceptions, ideas and sensitivities of these peoples were dominant.

As mentioned, the term Greco-Roman world describes those regions who were for many generations subjected to the government of the Greeks and then the Romans and thus accepted or at length were forced to embrace them as their masters and teachers. This process was aided by the seemingly universal adoption of Greek as the language of intellectual culture and at least Eastern commerce, and of Latin as the tongue for public management and forensic advocacy, especially in the West (from the perspective of the Mediterranean Sea).

Gutenberg, Johanes - work on the printing press began in approximately 1436 when he partnered with Andreas Dritzehn—a man he had previously instructed in gem-cutting—and Andreas Heilmann, owner of a paper mill.[38] However, it was not until a 1439 lawsuit against Gutenberg that an official record exists; witnesses' testimony discussed Gutenberg's types, an inventory of metals (including lead), and his type molds.[38]

Having previously worked as a professional goldsmith, Gutenberg made skillful use of the knowledge of metals he had learned as a craftsman. He was the first to make type from an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony, which was critical for producing durable type that produced high-quality printed books and proved to be much better suited for printing than all other known materials. To create these lead types, Gutenberg used what is considered one of his most ingenious inventions,[38] a special matrix enabling the quick and precise molding of new type blocks from a uniform template. His type case is estimated to have contained around 290 separate letter boxes, most of which were required for special characters, ligatures, punctuation marks, etc.[39]

Harangued: A lengthy and aggressive speech. A tirade or attack.

Hegemony: the dominance or leadership of one social group or nation over others.

Hellenism - a derivation from the Hellenic (Greek) word "Ellinismos". 1. the customs and ideals of ancient Greeks; 2. the use of a Greek idiom in writing in another language; 3. The adoption or imitation of ancient Greek Language, thought art, or customs.

Heidelberg Catechism A Reformed confessional document, written by Zacharias Ursinus (1534-1583) in Heidelberg, consisting of a series of questions and answers used to teach Christian doctrine and practice. From the Heidelberg Catechism: 1. Q. What is thy only comfort in life and death? A. That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ; who, with his precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, and therefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me sincerely willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.

Herod is a name used of several kings belonging to the Herodian Dynasty of the Roman province of Judaea:

Herod the Great (c. 74–4 BC), client king of Judaea who rebuilt the Second Temple (in Jerusalem) into Herod's Temple

Herod Archelaus (23 BC–c. AD 18), ethnarch of Samaria, Judea, and Idumea

Herod Antipas (20 BC–c. AD 40), tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea, called "Herod the Tetrarch" or "Herod" in the New Testament up to Acts 4:27, and described therein as ordering John the Baptist's death and as mocking Jesus

Herod II (c. 27 BC–33 AD), sometimes called Herod Philip I, father of Salome

Philip the Tetrarch (4 BC–AD 34), sometimes called Herod Philip II, tetrarch of Ituraea and Trachonitis

Herod Agrippa I (c. 10 BC–AD 44), client king of Judaea, called "King Herod" or "Herod" in Acts 12 of the New Testament

Herod of Chalcis, also known as Herod III, king of Chalcis (AD 41–48)

Herod Agrippa II (AD 27–100), tetrarch of Chalcis who was described in Acts of the Apostles as "King Agrippa" before whom Paul of Tarsus defended himself

Herodes Atticus (AD 101–177), an unrelated Greek aristocrat who served as a Roman Senator and proponent of Sophism

Historia salutis
The unfolding in history of God’s plan

Historians (Bible and Philosophical) - CLICK

Hovered - The earth was waste and void, darkness covered the abyss, and a mighty wind was blowing over the surface of the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2)… .Why do we find this mention of the wind—or “spirit” of God (as the Hebrew word is also translated)— before God spoke his creating words? We have to look at the verb used to describe the spirit’s action. Some translations use the word “blowing,” others “moving”; but I believe that the best translation is “hovering.” The spirit of God was hovering over the waters. The only other place where this verb is used is in Deuteronomy 32:11, where it describes a mother bird beating her wings over her little ones, encouraging them to fly.

Hypostases - underlying state or underlying substance, and is the fundamental reality that supports all else. In Neoplatonism the hypostasis of the Soul, Spirit (nous) and the One was addressed by Plotinus. In Christian theology, a hypostasis or person is one of the three elements of the Holy Trinity.

INRI

I Ching: A Chinese technique of predicting the future, based on a book by the same name -- one of the five foundational books of Confucianism. Yellow stocks or rods are cast in order to select one of 64 hexagrams (patterns of six lines which may be broken or continuous).

ICHTHUS a representation of a fish used in ancient times as a pagan fertility talisman or amulet or as a Christian symbol for the Greek word ichthys interpreted as an acrostic in which the Greek letters are the initials of the words I ēsous Ch ristos th eou hy ios s ōtēr meaning Jesus Christ Son of God Savior

Iconoclast: A person who attacks cherished beliefs or institutions.

Iconoclasm - is the deliberate destruction within a culture of the culture's own religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually for religious or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes. The term does not generally encompass the specific destruction of images of a ruler after his death or overthrow (damnatio memoriae). People who engage in or support iconoclasm are called "iconoclasts", a term that has come to be applied figuratively to any individual who challenges established dogma or conventions. Conversely, people who revere or venerate religious images are (by iconoclasts) called "iconolaters". In a Byzantine context, they are known as "iconodules", or "iconophiles". Iconoclasm may be carried out by people of a different religion, but is often the result of sectarian disputes between factions of the same religion. In Christianity, iconoclasm has generally been motivated by people who adopt a literal interpretation of the Ten Commandments, which forbid the making and worshipping of "graven images or any likeness of anything". The degree of iconoclasm among Christian sects greatly varies.

Idol: This has two main meanings: A drawing, statue, or other representation of an item in heaven or earth, that is used for worship.

Anything in life that takes a position of priority over one's relationship with God.

Idolatry: From the Greek: worship of a false god.

Iftar: A Muslim term referring to a meal eaten at sunset that breaks a fast.

Ihram: A white seamless garment worn by male Muslims during the hajj -- a pilgrimage to Mecca. It is normally in two pieces: one is wrapped around the waist, and the other is draped over the left shoulder.

I.H.S.: An acronym for Isis, Horus, and Seb -- the Egyptian trinity consisting of the Mother, the Child and the Father.

The first three letters of the name Iesus, the Greek version of Yeshua.

Imitatio Dei: A Latin term for "imitation of the Gods." Taking on godly values. Expressed in: Leviticus 19:2: "Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy."

Matthew 5:48: "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

Immaculate Conception: The belief that before the birth of Mary (the mother of Jesus) was born, she was preserved from original sin at the time of her conception, circa 20 BCE. It is widely but incorrectly believed to refer to Jesus' conception, circa 5 to 8 BCE.

Immanence: the concept that God is very much associated with creation, is all-present in the world, and is close to believers.

Immerse, immersion: Baptists and some other Christian groups generally translate the Greek words baptizo and baptisma as implying the total immersion of a convert during baptism. Many other Christian denominations believe that the words can also imply washing, without any specific description of the method. Thus, a baptism by sprinkling is biblically valid.

Imminence: the belief that an event is about to occur in the near future. e.g. the Second Coming.

Immorality: Behavior which transgresses a given system of morals; incorrect behavior. Liberal and conservative Christians differ in many matters over what is moral, even though both sincerely believe that their positions are biblically based. Moral standards change over time, even within a given religious group. Church schisms were common in the mid 19th century over slavery because parts of a denomination considered slavery to be profoundly immoral, while other believers believed that it was condoned, regulated and accepted by the Bible. Major moral shifts over the past 150 years have involved slavery, inoculation of children, birth control, abortion, sexism, racial segregation, discipline of children through the use of pain, and homophobia.

Immortality: God has traditionally been considered to be immortal, there having been no point at which he has not existed. Humans who have been saved have traditionally been considered to be immortal in that they will continue to exist in Heaven after death. Most Christian groups teach that the unsaved are also immortal in that they will continue to exist in Hell for all eternity after death. Other faith groups teach annihilationism.

Impeccability: The concept that Jesus Christ could not have sinned, even if he had wanted to.

IM·PE·TUS - noun \ˈim-pə-təs\; a force that causes something (such as a process or activity) to be done or to become more active: a force that causes an object to begin moving or to continue to move. Examples of IMPETUS

1. His discoveries have given impetus to further research.

2. <the reward money should be sufficient impetus for someone to come forward with information about the robbery>

Imprecation: A curse that invokes evil on one or more persons.

Imprecatory prayer: To pray to God asking him to curse and bring evil upon one or more persons. A biblical example is found in Psalms 109 when Jeremiah was being slandered. He asked God to punish the slanderer

Inerrancy of scripture
The principle that the Bible as it was originally written is completely true and without error.

Incarnation literally means embodied in flesh or taking on flesh. It refers to the conception and birth of a sentient creature (generally a human) who is the material manifestation of an entity, god or force whose original nature is immaterial. In its religious context the word is used to mean the descent from Heaven of a god, or divine being in human/animal form on Earth.

Inscriptional curse

A warning included in ancient treaties pronouncing judgment on anyone who changed the wording of a covenant document.

In scripture: You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you. (Deuteronomy 4:2 ESV)

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, 19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.(Revelation 22:18-19)

Irremissible - (of a crime) unpardonable: of an obligation or duty) binding

JEPHTHAH

(ˈdʒɛfθə). —n. Old Testament Douay spelling: Jephte a judge of Israel, who sacrificed his daughter in fulfilment of a vow by stabbing her and burning her on an altar (Judges 11:12--40). Jephthah willingly vowed that if God would give him the victory, the first thing (man or animal) that he saw as he approached his house, he would sacrifice to God. God did not ask for him to kill his daughter.

Titus Flavius Josephus (37 – c. 100), also called Joseph ben Matityahu (Biblical Hebrew: יוסף בן מתתיהו, Yosef ben Matityahu), was a first-century Romano-Jewish scholar, historian and hagiographer, who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed royal ancestry. He initially fought against the Romans during the First Jewish–Roman War as head of Jewish forces in Galilee, until surrendering in 67 to Roman forces led by Vespasian after the six-week siege of Jotapata. Josephus claims the Jewish Messianic prophecies that initiated the First Roman-Jewish War made reference to Vespasian becoming Emperor of Rome. In response Vespasian decided to keep Josephus as a hostage and interpreter. After Vespasian did become Emperor in 69, he granted Josephus his freedom, at which time Josephus assumed the emperor's family name of Flavius. Flavius Josephus fully defected to the Roman side and was granted Roman citizenship. He became an advisor and friend of Vespasian's son Titus, serving as his translator when Titus led the Siege of Jerusalem, which resulted—when the Jewish revolt did not surrender—in the city's destruction and the looting and destruction of Herod's Temple (Second Temple). Josephus recorded Jewish history, with special emphasis on the first century AD and the First Jewish–Roman War, including the Siege of Masada, but the imperial patronage of his work has sometimes caused it to be characterized as pro-Roman propaganda. His most important works were The Jewish War (c. 75) and Antiquities of the Jews (c. 94). The Jewish War recounts the Jewish revolt against Roman occupation (66–70). Antiquities of the Jews recounts the history of the world from a Jewish perspective for an ostensibly Roman audience. These works provide valuable insight into first century Judaism and the background of Early Christianity. (See main article Josephus on Jesus).

Kabbalists - (Hebrew: קַבָּלָה‎, literally "receiving/tradition"; also Romanised Cabala, Qabbālâ, etc.; different transliterations now tend to denote alternative traditions) is an esoteric method, discipline, and school of thought. A traditional Kabbalist in Judaism is called a Mekubal (Hebrew: מְקוּבָל‎). Kabbalah's definition varies according to the tradition and aims of those following it, from its religious origin as an integral part ofJudaism, to its later Christian, New Age, or Occultist syncretic adaptations. Kabbalah is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between an unchanging, eternal, and mysterious Ein Sof (no end) and the mortal and finite universe (God's creation). While it is heavily used by some denominations, it is not a religious denomination in itself. It forms the foundations of mystical religious interpretation. Kabbalah seeks to define the nature of the universe and the human being, the nature and purpose of existence, and various other ontological questions. It also presents methods to aid understanding of these concepts and thereby attain spiritual realisation.

Koinonia is an anglicized form of the Greek word, κοινωνία, which means communion, joint participation; the share which one has in anything, participation, a gift jointly contributed, a collection, a contribution, etc. It identifies the idealized state of fellowship and unity that should exist within the Christian church, the Body of Christ.

Lectio Divina

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The four movements of Lectio divina:read, meditate, pray, contemplate.

In Christianity, Lectio Divina(Latin for divine reading) is a traditional Benedictine practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer intended to promote communion with God and to increase the knowledge of God's Word.^[1] It does not treat Scripture as texts to be studied, but as the Living Word.^[2]

Traditionally Lectio Divina has 4 separate steps: read, meditate,pray and contemplate. First a passage of Scripture is read, then its meaning is reflected upon. This is followed by prayer and contemplation on the Word of God.^[3]

The focus of Lectio Divina is not a theological analysis of biblical passages but viewing them withChrist as the key to their meaning. For example, given Jesus' statement in John 14:27: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you" an analytical approach would focus on the reason for the statement during the Last Supper, the biblical context, etc. But in Lectio Divina rather than "dissecting peace", the practitioner "enters peace" and shares in the peace of Christ.^[4] In Christian teachings, this form of meditative prayer leads to an increasedknowledge of Christ.^[5]^[6]

The roots of Scriptural reflection and interpretation go back toOrigen in the 3rd century, after whom St. Ambrose taught them to St. Augustine.^[7]^[8] The monastic practice of Lectio Divina was first established in the 6th century by Saint Benedictand was then formalized as a 4 step process by the Carthusianmonk, Guigo II, in the 12th century.^[3] In the 20th century, the constitution Dei Verbum of Pope Paul VI recommended Lectio Divina for the general public. Pope Benedict XVIemphasized the importance of Lectio Divina in the 21st century.^[9]

Legalism, in Christian theology, is a usually pejorative term referring to an over-emphasis on discipline of conduct, or legal ideas, usually implying an allegation of misguided rigour, pride, superficiality, the neglect of mercy, and ignorance of the grace of God or emphasizing the letter of law at the expense of the spirit. Legalism is alleged against any view that obedience to law, not faith in God's grace, is the pre-eminent principle of redemption.

Logos (/ˈ l oʊ ɡ ɒ s /, UK /ˈ l ɒ ɡ ɒ s /, or US /ˈ l oʊ ɡ oʊ s /; Greek: λόγος, from λέγω lego "I say") is an important term in philosophy,psychology, rhetoric, and religion. Originally a word meaning "a ground", "a plea", "an opinion", "an expectation", "word," "speech," "account," "reason," it became a technical term in philosophy, beginning with Heraclitus (ca. 535–475 BC), who used the term for a principle of order and knowledge. Under Hellenistic Judaism, Philo (ca. 20 BC–AD 50) adopted the term into Jewish philosophy. The Gospel of Johnidentifies the Logos, through which all things are made, as divine (theos), and further identifies Jesus as the incarnate Logos. Although the term "Logos" is widely used in this Christian sense, in academic circles it often refers to the various ancient Greek uses, or to post-Christian uses within contemporary philosophy, Sufism, and the analytical psychology of Carl Jung. However, both logos andlexis derive from the same verb legō (λέγω), meaning "to count, tell, say, speak".

1. Philosophy

a. In pre-socratic philosophy, the principle governing the source of this principle, or human reasoning about the cosmos

b. Amongst the sophists, the topic of rational argument or the arguments themselves

c. In Stoicism, the active, material, rational principle of the cosmos; nous. Identified with God, it is the source f all activity and generations and is the power of reason residing in the human soul.

2. Judaism

a. In Biblical Judaism, the word God, which itself has creative power and is God’s medium of communication with the human race

b. In Hellenistic Judaism, a hypostasis associated with divine wisdom

3. Christianity In Saint John’s Gospel especially in the prologue (1:1-14), the creative word of God, which is itself God and incarnate in Jesus, Also called Word.

Lustrations: To purify by a propitiatory offering or other ceremonial method. A rite of purification, especially washing. The restoration of credibility to a government by the purging of perpetrators of crimes committed under an earlier regime. The act of lustrating or purifying. A sacrifice, or ceremony, by which cities, fields, armies, or people, defiled by crimes, pestilence, or other cause of uncleanness, were purified.
Ceremonial purification; especially, a religious act of purgation or cleansing by the use of water or certain sacrifices or ceremonies, or both, performed among the ancients upon persons, armies, cities, localities, animals, etc.

Maimonides - Mosheh ben Maimon (משה בן מימון), called Moses Maimonides (/m aɪ ˈ m ɒ n ɪ d iː z / my-mon-i-deez) and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn (Arabic: موسى بن ميمون‎), or RaMBaM (רמב"ם – Hebrew acronym for "Rabbeinu Mosheh Ben Maimon" – English translation: "Our Rabbi/Teacher Moses Son [of] Maimon"), was a preeminent medieval Spanish, Sephardic Jewish philosopher, astronomer and one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages. He was born in Córdoba (present-day Spain), Almoravid Empire on Passover Eve, 1135, and died in Egypt on December 12, 1204. He was a rabbi, physician, and philosopher in Morocco and Egypt. Although his writings on Jewish law and ethics were met with acclaim and gratitude from most Jews, even as far off as Iraq and Yemen, and he rose to be the revered head of the Jewish community in Egypt, there were also vociferous critics of some of his writings, particularly in Spain. Nevertheless, he was posthumously acknowledged to be one of the foremost rabbinical arbiters and philosophers in Jewish history, his copious work comprising a cornerstone of Jewish scholarship.

Major Religions

The 'Common Era' refers to 1 A.D. CE=Common Era, BCE=Before Common Era

date	Near East	India	China/Japan
1000+ BCE	Judaism: Moses 1500-1350 BCE	Hinduism: 2000 BCE

600 BCE	Zoroastrianism: Zoroaster 628-527 BCE	Jainism: Mahavira 599-527 BCE Buddhism: Buddha 563-483 BCE	Taoism: Lao Tse 580-500 BCE Confucianism: Confucius 551-479 BCE
100 CE	Christianity: Jesus 1-33 CE		Shinto: 100 CE
600 CE	Islam: Muhammad 570-632 CE
1500 CE		Sikhism: Guru Nanak 1469-1538 CE
1900 CE	Baha'i: Baha'u'llah 1817-1892 CE

Manichaeism:- a dualistic philosophy dividing the world between good and evil principles or regarding matter as intrinsically evil and mind as intrinsically good

Marcionism
The teaching of the second century heretic Marcion, who made a distinction between what he believed was the inferior God of justice, the God of the Old Testament, who was the Creator and the God of the Jews, and the God of the New Testament, the Supreme God of goodness, of whom Christ was the messenger. Accordingly, he rejected the Old Testament; in fact, his canon included only Luke and Paul’s writings, which he edited to remove whatever he disagreed with, especially the quotes from the Old Testament found in them.

Martyrdom - the suffering of death on account of adherence to a cause and especially to one's religious faith affliction, torture

Medieval period

In European history, the Middle Ages, or lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the early modern period. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the traditional division of Western history into Antiquity and the Medieval and Modern periods. The period is subdivided into the Early, the High, and the Late Middle Ages.

Methodological (Changes)-Noun: The study of procedures, methods and rules to be followed. Reference text- the continued process to research new discoveries.

Meritorious: Deserving reward or praise, having merit.

Mitzvot - a precept or commandment.

Mizbeah - Altar - is a structure used in worship as the place for presenting sacrifices to God or gods.

(Modern) Christianity-Noun: a more thorough interpretation of data derived from the religion of Jesus Christ: is about Modern converts to Christianity from Judaism: The number of post-Mendelssohnian Jews who abandoned their ancestral faith is very large. According to Heman[disambiguation needed] in Herzog-Hauck, "Real-Encyc." (x. 114), the number of converts during the 19th century exceeded 100,000;
Salmon, in his "Handbuch der Mission" (1893, p. 48), claims 130,000;
others ("Divre Emeth," 1880, p. 47; 1883, p. 187) claim as many as 250,000. For Russia alone 40,000 are claimed as having been converted from 1836 to 1875 ("Missionsblatt des Rheinisch-Westphälischen Vereins für Israel," 1878, p. 122); while for England, up to 1875, the estimate is 50,000 (Johannes Friedrich Alexander de le Roi,"Die Evangelische Christenheit und die Juden," iii. 60).

Monasticism

Monergism describes the position in Christian theology of those who believe that God, through the Holy Spirit, works to bring about effectually the salvation of individuals through spiritual regeneration without cooperation from the individual. Monergism is most often associated with Calvinism (like Presbyterians andDutch Reformed) and its doctrine of irresistible grace and in particular with historic doctrinal differences between Calvinism on the one hand and Arminianism on the other.

This position is often presented in contrast to synergism, the belief that God and individuals cooperate for salvation. Lutherans generally adhere to a modified and less stringent form of monergism.

Mizrahi Jews or Mizrahim (Hebrew: מזרחים‎), also referred to as Adot HaMizrach (עֲדוֹת-הַמִּזְרָח) (Communities of the East; Mizrahi Hebrew: ʿAdot(h) Ha(m)Mizraḥ), are Jews descended from local Jewish communities of the Middle East (as opposed to those from Europe). The term Mizrahi is most commonly used in Israel to refer to Jews who trace their roots back to Muslim-majority countries. This includes descendants of Babylonian Jews from modern Iraq, Syria, Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Iran, Lebanon, India, Uzbekistan, Kurdish areas and Jews from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Yemenite and Georgian Jews are usually included within the Mizrahi Jews group. Some also expand the definition of Mizrahim to Maghrebi and Sephardic. Furthermore, some even reclassify the whole Israeli Jewish society as "Mizrahi" as compared with the Western Jews of Europe and the Americas.

Monotheism is defined by the Encyclopædia Britannica as belief in the existence of one god or in the oneness of God. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church gives a more restricted definition: "belief in one personal and transcendentGod", as opposed to polytheism and pantheism. A distinction may be made between exclusive monotheism, and both inclusive monotheism and pluriform monotheism which, while recognising many distinct gods, postulate some underlying unity.

Myth, mysticism, mystery - all are derived from the Green verb "musteion" to close the eyes or the mouth. Rooted in an experience of darkness of silence. The word "myth" is often used as a synonym for a lie, something not true.

Narcissitic

Nascent – coming or having recently come into existence

Nicene Creed
A statement of the orthodox faith of the early Christian church, first adopted at the Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.) in response to the Arian heresy, which denied the full deity of Jesus Christ; and later revised at the Second Ecumenical Council at Constantinople (381 A.D.) as a response to the Macedonian or Pneumatomachian heresy, which denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit.

Noetic effects of sin

The negative effect of sin on the minds and thinking of humankind, causing the reasoning ability of fallen humanity to be corrupted, especially degrading the understanding of spiritual things; also called the noetic effects of the fall.

From scripture: For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened (Romans 1:21 ESV).

Obstinate - Stubborn, unbending, refusing to change one opinion.

Old Testament: The Hebrew word for altar that is used most frequently in the Old Testament is formed from the verb for slaughter and means literally, “slaughter place.” Altars were used primarily as places of sacrifice, especially animal sacrifice.

Oral Tradition

Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and tradition transmitted orally from one generation to another.[1][2] The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants. In this way, it is possible for a society to transmit oral history, oral literature, oral law and other knowledges across generations without a writing system.

Oral Tradition (Christian)

Oral gospel traditions (German: mündliche Überlieferung) is that stage of Christian tradition which preceded the written Gospels.[1]

Modern scholarship has determined that the Gospels as we know them went through four stages during their formation. The first stage was oral, and included various stories about Jesus such as healing the sick, or debating with opponents, as well as parables and teachings. In the second stage the oral traditions began to be written down in collections (collections of miracles, collections of sayings, etc.), while the oral traditions continued to circulate. In the third stage, early Christians began combining the written collections and oral traditions into what might be called "proto-Gospels" - hence Luke's reference to the existence of "many" earlier narratives about Jesus. In the fourth stage, the authors of our four Gospels drew on these proto-Gospels, collections, and still-circulating oral traditions to produce the canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Ostrogoths (Latin: Ostrogothi or Austrogothi) were a branch of the later Goths (the other major branch being the Visigoths). The Ostrogoths, under Theoderic the Great, established a kingdom in Italy in the late 5th and 6th centuries. The Ostrogoths traced their origins to the Greutungi and a semi-legendary kingdom north of the Black Sea in the 3rd and 4th centuries. They were part of the Invasion of Rome. Invading southward from the Baltic Sea, the Ostrogoths, at the time known as the Greuthungi,^[dubious – discuss^] built up a huge empire stretching from the Dniester to the Volga River and from the Black Sea to the Baltic shores.^[dubious – discuss^] The Ostrogoths were probably literate in the 3rd century,^[dubious – discuss^] and their trade with the Romans was highly developed. Their Danubian kingdom reached its zenith under King Ermanaric, who is said to have committed suicide at an old age when the Huns attacked his people and subjugated them in about 370.

After their subjugation by the Huns, little is heard of the Ostrogoths for about 80 years, after which they reappear in Pannonia on the middle Danube River as federates of the Romans.

PAR·A·DIGM

noun \ˈper-ə-ˌdīm, ˈpa-rə- also -ˌdim\

: a model or pattern for something that may be copied

: a theory or a group of ideas about how something should be done, made, or thought about

Examples of PARADIGM

1. Her recent book provides us with a new paradigm for modern biography.

2. the Freudian paradigm of psychoanalysis

3. a new study that challenges the current evolutionaryparadigm

Patristics or Patrology is the study of the Early Christian writers that are designated Church Fathers. The names derive from the combined form of Latin pater and Greek patḗr (father). The period is generally considered to run from the end of New Testament times or end of the Apostolic Age (c. AD 100) to either AD 451 (the date of the Council of Chalcedon), or to the 8th century Second Council of Nicaea, see also First seven Ecumenical Councils.

Paradigm: A example or a pattern of something

Pelagianism is the belief that original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without special Divine aid. This is still sometimes called Limited Depravity. Thus, in contrast to 1 Corinthians 15:19-22 (especially verse 22), Adam's sin was "to set a bad example" for his progeny, but his actions did not have the other consequences imputed to original sin. Pelagianism views the role of Jesus as "setting a good example" for the rest of humanity (thus counteracting Adam's bad example) as well as providing an atonement for our sins. In short, humanity has full control, and thus full responsibility, for obeying theGospel in addition to full responsibility for every sin (the latter insisted upon by both proponents and opponents of Pelagianism). According to Pelagian doctrine, because humans are sinners by choice, they are therefore criminals who need the atonement of Jesus Christ. Sinners are not victims, they are criminals who need pardon.

Penance – voluntary self-punishment in order to atone for some wrong doing

Penitential – relating to or expressing penitence or penance

Pentecost (Greek: Πεντηκοστή [ἡμέρα], Pentēkostē [hēmera], "the fiftieth [day]") is the Greek name for the Feast of Weeks, a prominent feast in the calendar of ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai. This feast is still celebrated in Judaism as Shavuot. Later, in the Christian liturgical year, it became a feast commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ, (120 in all) as described in the Acts of the Apostles 2:1–31. For this reason, Pentecost is sometimes described by some Christians today as the "Birthday of the Church."

Perpetuity: A thing that last forever.

Persecution of Christians (See Roman Tolerance)

Pharisees, In Judaism, were at various times a political party, a social movement, and a school of thought among Jews during the Second Temple period beginning under the Hasmonean dynasty (140–37 BCE) in the wake of the Maccabean Revolt. Conflicts between the Pharisees and the Sadducees took place in the context of much broader and longstanding social and religious conflicts among Jews dating back to the Babylonian captivity and exacerbated by the Roman conquest. One conflict was class, between the wealthy and the poor, as the Sadducees included mainly the priestly and aristocratic families.

Pivotal – very important

Phut or Put (Hebrew: פוט pûṭ; Septuagint Greek Φουδ Phoud) is the third son of Ham (one of the sons of Noah), in the biblical Table of Nations (Genesis 10:6; cf. 1 Chronicles 1:8). The Persian historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (c. 915) recounts a tradition that the wife of Put was named Bakht, a daughter of Batawil son of Tiras, and that she bore him the "Copts". The name Put (or Phut) is also used in the Bible for the people or nation said to be descended from him, usually placed in Ancient Libya, but connections are sometimes proposed with the Land of Punt known from Ancient Egyptian annals. Josephus writes: "Phut also was the founder of Libya, and called the inhabitants Phutites (Phoutes), from himself: there is also a river in the country of Moors which bears that name; whence it is that we may see the greatest part of the Grecian historiographers mention that river and the adjoining country by the appellation of Phut (Phoute): but the name it has now has been by change given it from one of the sons of Mezraim, who was called Lybyos." (AotJ Book 1:6/2).

Plotinus - (204/5 - 270 BCE) a major philosopher of the ancient world. His philosophy had three principles: the One, the Intellect, and the Soul. His teacher was Ammonius Saccas and was of Platonic tradition.

Pogrom - A pogrom is a violent massacre or persecution of an ethnic or religious group, particularly one aimed at Jews. The term, originally entered the English language to describe 19th and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian Empire; similar attacks against Jews at other times and places also became retrospectively known as pogroms. The word is now also sometimes used to describe publicly sanctioned purgative attacks against non-Jewish ethnic or religious groups.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

Significant pogroms in the Russian Empire included the Odessa pogroms, Warsaw pogrom (1881), Kishinev pogrom (1903), Kiev Pogrom (1905), and Białystok pogrom (1906), and, after the 1917 Russian Revolution, the Lwów pogrom (1918) and Kiev Pogroms (1919). The most significant pogrom in Nazi Germany was the Kristallnacht of 1938 in which at least an initial 91 Jews were killed by Nazi soldiers, a further 30,000 were arrested and subsequently incarcerated in concentration camps (many of whom eventually died there),^[7] more than 1,000 synagogues were burned, and over 7,000 Jewish businesses were destroyed or damaged.^[8]^[9]

Polemics: 1. A controversial argument, especially one refuting or attacking a specific opinion or doctrine.

2. A person engaged in or inclined to controversy, argument, or refutation

Polytheism is the worship or belief in multiple deities usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religions and rituals. Polytheism is a religious construct and a type of theism. Within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the belief in a singular God. Polytheists do not always worship all the gods equally, but can be henotheists, specializing in the worship of one particular deity. Other polytheists can be kathenotheists, worshiping different deities at different times. Polytheism was the typical form of religion during the Bronze Age and Iron Age, up to the Axial Age and the gradual development of monotheism or pantheism, and atheism.

Polygamy (from πολύς γάμος polys gamos, translated literally in Late Greek as "many married") is a marriage which includes more than two partners. When a man is married to more than one wife at a time, the relationship is called polygyny; and when a woman is married to more than one husband at a time, it is called polyandry. If a marriage includes multiple husbands and wives, it can be called group or conjoint marriage. The term is used in related ways in social anthropology, sociology, as well as in popular speech.

Portend – means to show a sign that something calamitous is about to happen. The teetering, tottering, pile of fine china piled up after the dinner party portends an imminent crash of broken plates and dishes

Prelate: is a high ranking member of the clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries.

Proselyte - a person who converted from one opinion, religion, or party to another

Pseudepigraphy covers the false ascription of names of authors to works, even to authentic works that make no such claim within their text. Thus a widely accepted but an incorrect attribution of authorship may make a completely authentic text pseudepigraphical. In New Testament biblical studies, authorship of six letters of the Apostle Paul have been questioned by Mark Allan Powell, and these epistles may be termed "disputed" or "pseudographical" letters.

Puritanism-Noun: Members of a 16th and 17th century Protest group in England and New England text reference- both groups opposed the ceremonies and government of the Church of England. including, but not limited to, English Calvinists. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England.

Qumran (Hebrew: ‫קומראן‎, Arabic: خربة قمران‎ - Khirbet Qumran) is an archaeological site in the West Bank. It is located on a dry plateau about a mile inland from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, near the Israeli settlement and kibbutz of Kalia. The Hellenistic period settlement was constructed during the reign of John Hyrcanus, 134-104 BCE or somewhat later, and was occupied most of the time until it was destroyed by the Romans in 68 CE or shortly after. It is best known as the settlement nearest to the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were hidden, caves in the sheer desert cliffs and beneath, in the marl terrace.

Religious pluralism
The view that no one religion has an exclusive claim on the truth, and that there are many valid paths to God and salvation.

Renaissance (UK /rɨˈneɪsəns /, US /ˈrɛnɨsɑːns /, French pronunciation: [ʁənɛsɑ̃s], from French: Renaissance "re-birth", Italian: Rinascimento, from rinascere "to be reborn") was a cultural movement that spanned the period roughly from the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. Though availability of paper and the invention of metal movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century, the changes of the Renaissance were not uniformly experienced across Europe. As a cultural movement, it encompassed innovative flowering of Latin and vernacular literatures, beginning with the 14th-century resurgence of learning based on classical sources, which contemporaries credited to Petrarch, the development of linear perspective and other techniques of rendering a more natural reality in painting, and gradual but widespread educational reform.

Rent in Twain - Both the Tabernacle and the Temple in Jerusalem had an inner room called the “Holy of Holies” which had a thick curtain or veil that separated it from the outer room. This inner room was God’s special dwelling place in the midst of his people. Once a year the high priest solemnly lifted a corner of this veil to enter the room bringing blood and holy incense. This occurred on a prescribed day called the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). The high priest then passed into the immediate presence of Jehovah. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the sins of the people. (Hebrews 9:7) The tearing of the veil at the moment of Jesus’ death dramatically symbolized that His sacrifice, the shedding of His own blood, was a sufficient atonement for sins.

[50] Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
[51] And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent.

Repudiate - is to reject something, or to refuse to accept or support it. If you grew up religious, but repudiate al organized religion as an adult, you might start spending holidays at the movies, or just going to work.

Roman Tolerance - Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire began with the stoning of the deacon Stephen and continued intermittently over a period of about three centuries until the 313 Edict of Milan issued by Roman Emperors Constantine I and Licinius, when Christianity was legalized. Christians were persecuted by local authorities on a sporadic and ad-hoc basis, often more according to the whims of the local community than to the opinion of imperial authority.

This persecution heavily influenced the development of Christianity, shaping the selection of the Canonical gospels, Christian theology and the structure of the Church. Among other things, persecution sparked the cult of the saints, facilitated the rapid growth and spread of Christianity prompted defenses and explanations of Christianity, and raised fundamental questions about the nature of the Christian Church.

Although Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire in 380, persecution of Christians did not come to a complete halt; instead, it switched to those deemed to be heretics by the state. Again more material was lost or destroyed particularly in regard to Jewish Christianity.

Sacerdotalism: A belief that priests can act as mediators between human beings and God.

The Sadducees (Hebrew: צְדוּקִים Ṣĕdûqîm) were a sect or group of Jews that were active in Judea during the Second Temple period, starting from the second century BCE through the destruction of the Temple in 70CE. The sect was identified byJosephus with the upper social and economic echelon of Judean society. As a whole, the sect fulfilled various political, social, and religious roles, including maintaining the Temple. The Sadducees are often compared to other contemporaneous sects, including the Pharisees and the Essenes. Their sect is believed to have become extinct sometime after the destruction of Herod's Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, but it has been speculated that the later Karaites may have had some roots or connections with old Sadducee views.

Saharan - A vast desert of northern Africa extending east from the Atlantic coast to the Nile Valley and south from the Atlas Mountains to the region of the Sudan. During the Ice Age (about 50,000 to 100,000 years ago), the Sahara was a region of extensive shallow lakes watering large areas of vegetation, most of which had disappeared by Roman times. Introduction of the camel (probably in the first century a.d.) led to occupation by nomadic tribes who moved from oasis to oasis in search of water.

Salacious

adjective

having a strong sexual desire <the salacious Greek god Pan is generally portrayed as having the legs, horns, and ears of a goat>

Synonyms concupiscent, goatish, horny, hot, hypersexual, itchy, lascivious, lecherous, lewd, libidinous, licentious,lubricious (or lubricous), oversexed, passionate, randy, salacious, satyric, wanton

Examples of SALACIOUS

1. a song with salacious lyrics

<the salacious Greek god Pan is generally portrayed as having the legs, horns, and ears of a goat

Schism - a split or division between strongly opposed sections or parties, caused by differences in opinion or belief.

Scribes - A scribe is a person who writes books or documents by hand as a profession and helps the city keep track of its records. The profession, previously found in all literate cultures in some form, lost most of its importance and status with the advent of printing. The work could involve copying books, including sacred texts, or secretarial and administrative duties, such as taking of dictation and the keeping of business, judicial and, historical records for kings, nobles, temples, and cities. Later the profession developed into public servants, journalists, accountants, typists, and lawyers. In societies with low literacy rates, street-corner letter-writers (and readers) may still be found providing a service.

Sects/Historical Branches of Christianity

http://theologica.ning.com/forum/topics/chartstimelines-of-church

Seder - Passover Meal; Seder:- is a ritual performed by a community or by multiple generations of a family, involving a retelling o the story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt. This story is in the book of Exodus.

Simony (pron. [ˈsaɪ.mə.ni] or [ˈsɪ.mə.ni]) is the act of paying to receive sacraments, including those for ordination to a holy office or other position in the hierarchy of a church. The practice is named after Simon Magus, who is described in the Acts of the Apostles 8:9–24 as having offered two disciples of Jesus, Peter and John, payment in exchange for their empowering him to impart the power of the Holy Spirit to anyone on whom he would place his hands. This is the origin of the term simony; but it also extends to other forms of trafficking for money in "spiritual things". Simony was also one of the important issues during the Investiture Controversy.

"Snarl," A word, used by some non-fundamentalists to imply intolerance, bigotry, lack of flexibility and an anti-intellectual bias. When applied by the Western media to Muslims, it often means "anti-American". Sometimes it means "radical fundamentalist extremist Muslim terrorist." who form a very small percentage of Muslims.

sola fide
Literally, “faith alone.” The reformation slogan meaning that faith—that is, complete trust in Christ and his saving work—“is the alone instrument [or means] of justification.”1

Sol invictus - the Unconquered Sun. Septimus Severus plan to bring all subjects together and to subsume under that worship all the various religions and philosopies then current. All gods were to be accepted, as long as one acknowledged the Sun that reigned above all.

Sovereignty (of God) God’s dominion over the whole universe that he has created; his rule over all things so as to “secure the accomplishment of the divine purposes.”1

§ From scripture:

Our God is in the heavens;
he does all that he pleases. (Psalm 115:3 ESV)

Stoicism: The endurance of pain or hardship without a display of feelings and without complaint

Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. Politically, it consists of all African countries that are fully or partially located south of the Sahara (excludingSudan). It contrasts with North Africa, which is considered a part of the Arab world. Somalia, Djibouti, Comoros and Mauritania are geographically part of Sub-Saharan Africa, but also part of the Arab world. The Sahel is the transitional zone between the Sahara and the tropical savanna (the Sudan region) and forest-savanna mosaic to the south.

Subjugate the flesh

Bring the flesh under subjection. The word translated “appetite” is the Hebrew noun, #5315 “nephesh”, and is a complicated word to define. It represents the living being or the breathing creature that is man; but it also refers to man’s soul and the idea of “self” that it contains. The Gesenius Lexicon says that “nephesh” is the seat of one's appetites, emotions and passions; as well as the activity of the mind and the will of man. “Nephesh” is translated by the words appetite, beast, body, creature, desire, lust, man, pleasure, self, soul, heart, thing, would have it, etc.

Sym·bol·ism - [ símbə lìzzəm ] - use of symbols: the use of symbols to invest things with a representative meaning or to represent something abstract by something concrete; system of symbols: a set or system of symbols; symbolic meaning: symbolic meaning or quality

Sufficiency of scripture

The principle that the words of scripture contain everything we need to know from God in order for us to be saved and to be perfectly obedient to him.

§ From scripture:

…from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. ( 2 Timothy 3:15-17 ESV)

Sufism - (Arabic: تصوّف‎) is defined by some adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam, others contend that it is a perennial philosophy of existence that pre-dates religion, the expression of which flowered within Islam. Its essence has also been expressed via other religions and cultural memes.

Syncretism: The merging of different religions

Synods – a council or an assembly of officials or churches.

Synoptic - The gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to specifically as the Synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in the same sequence, and similar wording.

The Talmud (/ˈ t ɑː l m ʊ d , -m ə d , ˈ t æ l -/; Hebrew: תַּלְמוּד talmūd "instruction, learning", from a root lmd "teach, study") is a central text of Rabbinic Judaism. It is also traditionally referred to as Shas (ש״ס), a Hebrew abbreviation of shisha sedarim, the "six orders" of the Oral Law of Judaism. The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah (Hebrew: משנה, c. 200 CE), the first written compendium of Judaism's Oral Law, and the Gemara (c. 500 CE), an elucidation of the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings that often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Hebrew Bible.

Theotokos (/ˌ θ i ə ˈ t ɒ k ə s /; Greek: Θεοτόκος, transliterated (Greek) Theotókos, translation (Syriac-Aramaic): transliterated (Syriac): Yoldath Alloho) is the Greek title of Mary, the mother of Jesus used especially in theEastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches. Its literal English translations include "God-bearer", "Birth-Giver of God" and "the one who gives birth to God." Less literal translations include "Mother of God." Roman Catholics and Anglicans use the title "Mother of God" more often than "Theotokos." The Council of Ephesusdecreed in 431 that Mary is Theotokos because her son Jesus is both God and man: one Divine Person with two natures (Divine and human) intimately, hypostatically united.[5][6]

Theodocus

Theology - 1. The study of the nature of God and religious truth; rational inquiry into religious questions.

2. A system or school of opinions concerning God and religious questions: Protestant theology; Jewish theology.

3. A course of specialized religious study usually at a college or seminary.

Transgressive Sin - Hebrew has several other words for sin beyond khata, each with its own specific meaning. The word pesha, or "trespass", means a sin done out of rebelliousness. The word aveira means "transgression". And the word avone, or "iniquity", means a sin done out of moral failing. The word most commonly translated simply as "sin",khata, literally means "to go astray." Just as Jewish law, halakha provides the proper "way" (or path) to live, sin involves straying from that path.

Judaism teaches that humans are born with free will, and morally neutral, with both a yetzer hatov, (literally, "the good inclination", in some views, a tendency towards goodness, in others, a tendency towards having a productive life and a tendency to be concerned with others) and a yetzer hara, (literally "the evil inclination", in some views, a tendency towards evil, and in others, a tendency towards base or animal behavior and a tendency to be selfish). The yetzer hara in some forms of Judaism means that Satan is merely an idiom or parable, rather than the fallen angel of traditional Christianity.

Transubstantiation: Conversion of one substance to another. In many Christian Churches, the doctrine holding that the bread and wine of the Eucharist are transformed into the body and blood of Jesus, although their appearance remains the same.

Transtemporal – transcending time; relating to time travel

Triadic – a group of three persons, things, ideas

Tribute see also Tribute (disambiguation).

Objects in the "Apadana" reliefs at Persepolis: armlets, bowls, and amphorae with griffin handles are given as tribute. A tribute (from Latin tributum, contribution) is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of land which the state conquered or otherwise threatened to conquer. In case of alliances, lesser parties may pay tribute to more powerful parties as a sign of allegiance and often in order to finance projects that benefited both parties. The large sums, essentially protection money, paid by the later Roman and Byzantine Empires to barbarian peoples to prevent them attacking imperial territory, would not usually be termed "tribute" as the Empire accepted no inferior political position. Payments by a superior political entity to an inferior one, made for various purposes, are described by terms including "subsidy".

Trinity

The doctrine that the one God exists eternally as three distinct persons—the Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and each person is fully God. From the Bible: And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17 ESV)

Typology:- 1. The study of systematic classification of types that have characteristics or traits in common. 2. A theory of doctrine of types, as in scriptural studies

Ultimate authority in a state - The concept that a monarchy held the. This was typically a king who claimed to rule by divine right.

Universal Church- An organization call the Catholic Church-“The Life of Christ”, made of biographical accounts.

Universalism
The view that all persons will ultimately be saved, even those who die in unbelief.

§ Scripture teaches that universalism is false:

And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. (Matthew 25:46 ESV)

Upbraid – find fault with (someone); scold

Veneration - Great respect or reverence

Veneration of Relics - The use of relics has some, although limited, basis in sacred Scripture. In 2 Kings 2:9-14, the prophet Elisha picked up the mantle of Elijah after Elijah had been taken up to heaven in a whirlwind. With is, Elisha struck the water of the Jordan, which then parted so that he could cross. In another passage (13:20-21), some people hurriedly bury a dead man in the grave of Elisha, "but when the man came in contact with the bones of Elisha, he came back to life and rose to his feet." In the Acts of the Apostles we read, "Meanwhile, God worked extraordinary miracles at the hands of Paul. When handkerchiefs or cloths which had touched his skin were applied to the sick, their diseases were cured and evil spirits departed from them" (19:11-12). In these three passages, a reverence was given to the actual body or clothing of these very holy people who were indeed God's chosen instruments—Elijah, Elisha and St. Paul. Indeed, miracles were connected with these "relics"—not that some magical power existed in them, but just as God's work was done through the lives of these holy men, so did His work continue after their deaths. Likewise, just as people were drawn closer to God through the lives of these holy men, so did they (even if through their remains) inspire others to draw closer even after their deaths. This perspective provides the Church's understanding of relics.

Vicissitude

1) A change or variation occurring in the course of something.

2) Interchange or alternation, as of states or things.

3) Successive, alternating, or changing phases or conditions, as of life or fortune; ups and downs: They remained friends through the vicissitudes of 40 years

4) Regular change or succession of one state or thing to another.

change; mutation; mutability.

5) Variation or mutability in nature or life, esp successive alternation from one condition or thing to another

6) A variation in circumstance, fortune, character, etc

Visible church
“All those who profess faith in Christ and give evidence of their faith with their lives”;1 all those who profess faith in Christ, submit to baptism, and place themselves under the preaching and authority of the a local church, along with their children.2

Visigoths (Latin: Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, or Wisi) and Ostrogoths were branches of the nomadic tribes of Germanic peoples referred to collectively as the Goths. These tribes flourished and spread during the late Roman Empire in Late Antiquity, or the Migration Period. The Visigoths emerged from earlier Gothic groups (possibly the Thervingi)[3] who had invaded the Roman Empire, beginning in 376, and had defeated the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. The Visigoths under Alaric I invaded Italy and sacked Rome in 410; by this time, at least the elite were Arian Christians, but regarded as heretics by the Catholic Church. Their long history of migration led the Visigoths to compare themselves to the Biblical Hebrew people who had wandered for forty years in the Sinai Desert. After the Visigoths sacked Rome, they began settling down, first in southern Gaul and eventually in Spain and Portugal, where they founded the Kingdom of the Visigoths.

Westminster Shorter Catechism (WSC)

The shortest of two catechisms produced by the Westminster Assembly, completed in 1647, designed to educate lay persons in matters of doctrine and belief, and often used by parents to teach their children. The most well-known question and answer in the WSC: What is the chief end of man? Answer: A man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

Wisdom of God
The perfection of God whereby he knows and chooses the best and highest goals, and assuredly attains them by the best possible means; “that perfection of God whereby He applies his knowledge to the attainment of His ends in a way which glorifies Him most”;1also called omnisapience.

Worldview - A network of presuppostions … in terms of which all experience is related and interpreted;1 a set of presuppositions (or assumptions) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously) about the basic makeup of our world,”2 and through which we make sense of reality.

§ From scripture:

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, (2 Corinthians 10:5 ESV)

wrath
God’s perfection of righteous anger against sin; his “eternal detestation of all unrighteousness.”1

§ From The Attributes of God by A. W. Pink:

Now the wrath of God is as much a Divine perfection as is His faithfulness, power, or mercy. It must be so, for there is no blemish whatever, not the slightest defect in the character of God; yet there would be if “wrath” were absent from Himl Indifference to sin is a moral blemish, and he who hates it not is a moral leper. How could He who is the Sum of all excellency look with equal satisfaction upon virtue and vice, wisdom and folly? How could He who is infinitely holy disregard sin and refuse to manifest His “severity” (Rom. 9:22) toward it? How could He, who delights only in that which is pure and lovely, not loathe and hate that which is impure and vile? The very nature of God makes Hell as real a necessity, as imperatively and eternally requisite, as Heaven is. Not only is there no imperfection in God, but there is no perfection in Him that is less perfect than another.

Zealotry was originally a political movement in 1st century Second Temple Judaism which sought to incite the people ofJudaea Province to rebel against the Roman Empire and expel it from the Holy Land by force of arms, most notably during the Great Jewish Revolt (66-70). Zealotry was described by Josephus as one of the "four sects" at this time.

Church History - Dr. Stone - NYTS Fall 2013

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Church History Glossary - Version 7.1

Lectio Divina

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