Religion has communities of believers or practitioners {believer}.
People can belong to small believing groups {cult}. Cult membership indicates need to have guru and to have dependency need. Cults emphasize immediate happiness and contentment. Cults also stress ritual purity.
Religion features sense of common purpose and fellowship {fellowship, religion}|.
People can worship artworks instead of the sacred {idolatry, religion}|.
Church meetings {revival}| can heighten religious feeling and typically feature dramatic preaching about sin, hell, and damnation.
Religion has sacred symbolic behaviors {ritual}|.
Rituals {sacrifice, ritual}| can open communication between sacred and profane. One gives up something to make later gain.
Sects split from another church {schism}|.
People at religious schools {theological seminary} can train to preach and minister.
Religious people typically belong to religious associations {church}. Churches can be loose groups, have high institutionalization, or have full integration with society {ecclesia, church}.
Protestant Christian churches {denomination}| are separate and depend on family or primary group.
Churches {sect}| can have strict doctrine, high commitment, intolerance of others, and critical view of society. Sects split from another church by schism.
Religion and society {communal religion} integrate in many communities.
Religion {evangelical religion} can seek to spread doctrine or belief among non-believers, typically using missionaries and witnessing to try to convert others to their religion.
Religion {fundamentalism, religion}| can require members to adhere to simple, strict behavioral code and believe in simple, strict ideology. It can be reaction to social complexity, immorality, excess, and disorder. It can be reaction to poverty and hopelessness. It can be reaction to preserve personal or group identity. It can have belief that people are bad and need controls.
Religion {mainstream religion} can emphasize church-going, good works, faith, and fellowship. It does not emphasize doctrine or evangelism.
People can live in wholly religious community {monasticism}|.
Outline of Knowledge Database Home Page
Description of Outline of Knowledge Database
Date Modified: 2022.0225