General Reference 8

Originating from a small group of Bible students led by Charles Taze Russell in the 1870s, the Watch Tower Society grew into an international society. After Russell's death in 1916, Franklin Rutherf……続きを見る

Few religious traditions have generated such diversity and stirred imaginations as shamanism. In their engagements with other worlds, shamans have conversed with animals and ancestors and have been ……続きを見る

Witchcraft has proven an important, if difficult, historical subject to investigate and interpret over the last four decades or so. Modern historical research into witchcraft began as an attempt to ……続きを見る

Contributions to Illuminations: A Scarecrow Press Series of Guides to Research in Religion provide students and scholars, lay readers and clergy, with a road map to research in key areas of religiou……続きを見る

Of the three major branches of Christianity, Orthodoxy is the least known and most misunderstood. The A to Z of the Orthodox Church provides students, researchers, and specialists with a desk encycl……続きを見る

Methodism is growing, both in numbers and influence, according to the World Methodist Council there are 78 Methodist, Wesleyan, and related Uniting and United churches representing over 80 million p……続きを見る

Judaism, the religion of the Jewish people, is one of the first recorded monotheistic religions, and as such is one of the oldest religious traditions still practiced today. While its influences can……続きを見る

Contrary to popular opinion, there is more to Sikhism than the distinctive dress. First of all, there is the emergence of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, and the long line of his successors. The……続きを見る

Since its inception, the United States has defined itself as a nation of immigrants and a land of religious freedom. But following September 11, 2001 American openness to immigrants and openness to ……続きを見る

In the early 21st century, Buddhism has become ubiquitous in America and other western nations, moving beyond the original bodhi tree in India to become a major global religion. During its journey w……続きを見る

It is much harder to define a religious movement than it is to define a religion or denomination. That applies especially when that movement almost defies definition as the Holiness Movement does. T……続きを見る

The Jewish attachment to Zion is many centuries old. While the modern Zionist movement was organized a little more than a century ago, the roots of the Zionist idea reach back close to 4,000 years a……続きを見る

Mormonism is the unofficial name for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which originated in the early 1800s. Mormonism refers to the doctrines taught by Joseph Smith, doctrines that ar……続きを見る

Christian communities in the state Andhra Pradesh of south India and the Telugu Christians in diaspora have passed their stories from one generation to the next by oral traditions as well as in scat……続きを見る

The modern reputation of Friends in the United States and Europe is grounded in the relief work they have conducted in the presence and aftermath of war. Friends (also known as Quakers) have coordin……続きを見る

The Wilderness, the Nation, and the Electronic Era: American Christianity and Religious Communication 1620-2000: An Annotated Bibliography contains over 2,400 annotations of books, book chapters, es……続きを見る

A great deal has been written about the history of witchcraft, but much of what has been written is unreliable, exaggerated, or inaccurate. This problem is especially acute in regard to modern witch……続きを見る

The decline of institutionalized religion in the increasingly secularized West has been offset by the contemporary spiritual development understood in the form of emerging New Age movements. This re……続きを見る

It is much harder to define a religious movement than it is to define a religion or denomination. That applies especially when that movement almost defies definition as the Holiness Movement does. T……続きを見る

Conflicts over homosexuality and gay rights threaten to break apart denominations, if not North American society. These heated theological and political debates have, as well, obscured the fact that……続きを見る

The two original volumes of the Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy were published in 2007. Those two volumes included 848 entries from nearly 300 contributors……続きを見る

Pietism is increasingly recognized as the most important movement in Protestant Christianity since the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Simply put, early Protestant reformers were concerned wit……続きを見る

One of Japan's major religions, Shinto has no doctrines and there are no sacred texts from which religious authority can be derived. It does not have an identifiable historical founder, and it has s……続きを見る

There is both unity and variety in the Islamic world. Muslims are not a homogeneous people who can be explained solely by their normative texts: the Koran and the Sunnah. Muslims differ vastly in th……続きを見る

This collection gives the reader a taste of the thousands of stories one can find in the treasure house of rabbinic literature. Some of these stories are humorous, some mysteriuos, some tense with d……続きを見る

The New Testament is filled with stories of Jesus eating with peopleーfrom extravagant wedding banquets to simple meals of loaves and fishes. The Food and Feasts of Jesus offers a new perspective on……続きを見る

Covering the Millerite movement of the 1830s and 1840s, sabbatarian Adventism prior to organization of the denomination, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church since its organization in 1861-63, this ……続きを見る

New religious movementsーcommonly known as cultsーare defined as organizations that have arisen within the last 200 years. Most treatments of these movements have typically resorted to sensationalis……続きを見る

Members of the Church of England until the mid-16th century, the Puritans thought the Church had become too political and needed to be 'purified.' While many Puritans believed the Church was capable……続きを見る

With more than 3,000 entries and cross-references on the history, main figures, institutions, theory, and literary works associated with Islam's mystical tradition, Sufism, this dictionary brings to……続きを見る