The world's principal and spiritual traditions may be classified into a small number of major groups, though this is not a uniform practice. This theory began in the 18th century with the goal of recognizing the relative degrees of civility in different societies,
Religious demographics
One way to define a major religion is by the number of current adherents. The population numbers by religion are computed by a combination of census reports and population surveys, in countries where religion data is not collected in census, for example the United States or France. Results can vary widely depending on the way questions are phrased, the definitions of religion used and the bias of the agencies or organizations conducting the survey. Informal or unorganized religions are especially difficult to count.
There is no consensus among researchers as to the best methodology for determining the religiosity profile of the world's population. A number of fundamental aspects are unresolved:
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Whether to count "historically predominant religious cultures".
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Whether to count only those who actively "practice" a particular religion.
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Whether to count based on a concept of "self-identification as adherents".
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Whether to count only those who expressly self-identify with a particular denomination.
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Whether to count only adults, or to include children as well.
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Whether to rely on official government-provided statistics.
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Whether to use multiple sources and ranges or single "best source(s)".
Largest religious groups
Medium-sized religions
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[Olupona, Jacob Kẹhinde; Rey, Terry. Òrìşà Devotion as World Religion: The Globalization of Yorùbá Religious Culture, p. 23. Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2008. - "...more than 70 million African and New World peoples participate in or are closely familiar with, religious systems that include Ogun."] |
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[Historically, the Baháʼí Faith arose in 19th-century Persia, in the context of Shia Islam, and thus may be classed on this basis as a divergent strand of Islam, placing it in the Abrahamic tradition. However, the Baháʼí Faith considers itself an independent religious tradition, which draws from Islam but also other traditions. The Baháʼí Faith may also be classed as a new religious movement, due to its comparatively recent origin, or may be considered sufficiently old and established for such classification to not be applicable.] |
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[Self-reported figures from North Korea (South Korean followers are minimal according to census): ] |
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| Ravidassia | 1.5–2 | Indian religions and New religious movements | Indian subcontinent, 2010 | |
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Small-sized religion
By region
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Religions by country according to The World Factbook – CIA
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Religion by region
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Religion in Africa
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Religion in Antarctica
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Religion in Asia
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Religion in the Middle East
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Muslim world (SW Asia and N Africa)
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Religion in Europe
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Religion in North America
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Religion in Oceania
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Religion in South America
Trends in adherence
+ Trends in adherence[The results have been studied and found "highly correlated with other sources of data", but "consistently gave a higher estimate for percent Christian in comparison to other cross-national data sets." ]
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Maps of self-reported adherence
Classification
Religious traditions fall into super-groups in comparative religion, arranged by historical origin and mutual influence. Abrahamic religions originate in the
Middle East,
in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia) and East Asian religions in
East Asia.
Another group with supra-regional influence are Afro-American religion,
which have their origins in Central and West Africa.
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Middle Eastern religions:
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Abrahamic religions are the largest group, and these consist mainly of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith. They are named for the Hebrews patriarch Abraham, and are unified by the practice of monotheism. Today, at least 3.8 billion people are followers of Abrahamic religions
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Iranian religions, partly of Indo-European origins, include Zoroastrianism, Yazdânism, Uatsdin, Yarsanism, Manichaeism, and Yazidism.
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Gnosticism, including historical traditions of Mandaeism, which is still alive in the Middle East and diaspora.
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Eastern religions:
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Indian religions, originated in Greater India and they tend to share a number of key concepts, such as dharma, karma, reincarnation among others. They are of the most influence across the Indian subcontinent, East Asia, Southeast Asia, as well as isolated parts of Russia. The main Indian religions are Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. In 2010 Ravidassia religion was separated from Sikhism.
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East Asian religions consist of several East Asian religions which make use of the concept of Tao (in Chinese), Tao (in Vietnamese) or Dō (in Japanese or Korean). They include many Chinese folk religions, Taoism and Confucianism, as well as Vietnamese, Korean shamanism and Shinto religions, which are influenced by Chinese religious thought.
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Indigenous , found on every continent, now marginalized by the major organized faiths in many parts of the world or persisting as undercurrents () of major religions. Includes traditional African religions, Asian shamanism, Native American religions, Austronesian and Australian Aboriginal traditions, Chinese folk religions, and postwar Shinto. Under more traditional listings, this has been referred to as "paganism" along with historical polytheism.
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African religions:
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The religions of the tribal peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa, but excluding ancient Egyptian religion, which is considered to belong to the ancient Middle East;
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African diasporic religions practiced in the Americas, imported as a result of the Atlantic slave trade of the 16th to 18th centuries, building on traditional religions of Central and West Africa.
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New religious movement is the term applied to any religious faith which has emerged since the 19th century, often syncretism, re-interpreting or reviving aspects of older traditions such as Ayyavazhi, Mormonism, Ahmadiyya, Jehovah's Witnesses, polytheistic reconstructionism, and so forth.
History of religious categories
Christian categorizations
Initially, Christians had a simple dichotomy of world beliefs: Christian civility versus foreign heresy or barbarity. In the 18th century, "
heresy" was clarified to mean
Judaism and
Islam;
along with
paganism, this created a fourfold classification which spawned such works as
John Toland's
Nazarenus, or Jewish, Gentile, and Mahometan Christianity,
which represented the three Abrahamic religions as different "nations" or sects within
religion itself, the "true
monotheism."
Daniel Defoe described the original definition as follows: "Religion is properly the Worship given to God, but 'tis also applied to the Worship of Idols and false Deities."
In 1838, the four-way division of Christianity, Judaism, Mohammedan (archaic terminology for Islam) and paganism was multiplied considerably by Josiah Conder's Analytical and Comparative View of All Religions Now Extant among Mankind. Conder's work still adhered to the four-way classification, but in his eye for detail he puts together much historical work to create something resembling the modern Western image: he includes Druze, Yazidis, Mandaeism, and
The modern meaning of the phrase "world religion", putting non-Christians at the same level as Christians, began with the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago. The Parliament spurred the creation of a dozen privately funded lectures with the intent of informing people of the diversity of religious experience: these lectures funded researchers such as William James, D. T. Suzuki, and Alan Watts, who greatly influenced the public conception of world religions.
In the latter half of the 20th century, the category of "world religion" fell into serious question, especially for drawing parallels between vastly different cultures, and thereby creating an arbitrary separation between the religious and the secular.
Islam categorizations
In
Islam, the
Quran mentions three categories:
Muslims, the People of the Book, and
Idolatry.
See also
Notes
Sources
Further reading
External links
