“Windows To Spirituality”
Religious Philosophy Religious philosophy is philosophical thinking that is influences and directed as a consequence to teachings from a particular religion. It can be done objectively, but may also be done as a persuasion tool by believers in that faith. Religious philosophy is predominantly concerned with the concept of god, gods, and/or the divine....
Holy The word Holy (from Old English: hālig meaning “wholeness”) denotes the presence of sacredness in an object, being, person, place or idea. It can also indicates an experience of numinosity, (from the adjective numenous “all-inspiring” or embued with sacredness). Alternatively, it refer to items set aside for divine liturgies. Holiness, or the state of being holy is...
Religious Views On Truth Religious views on truth vary between religions. Truth is most often used to mean being in accord with fact or reality, or fidelity to an original or standard. Abrahamic religions Christianity See also: John 18:38, Intuitive truth, and Christian views on lying Christian philosopher William Lane Craig notes that the Bible typically uses...
Blasphemy Blasphemy, as defined in some religions or religion-based laws, is an insult that shows contempt, disrespect, or lack of reverence concerning a deity, an object considered sacred, or something considered inviolable. Some religions regard blasphemy as a religious crime. As of 2012, anti-blasphemy laws existed in 32 countries, while 87 nations had hate-speech laws that covered defamation of...
Religious Festival A religious festival is a time of special importance marked by adherents to that religion. Religious festivals are commonly celebrated on recurring cycles in a calendar year or lunar calendar. By religion Ancient Roman Main article: Roman festivals Festivals (feriae) were an important part of Roman religious life during both the Republican and Imperial eras, and were one of the primary...
Pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life....
List Of Forms Of Worship This list of 60 words refers to forms of worship – not specific religions or belief systems, but rather terms that denote a specific object of worship, be it saints, snakes or whatever. Related word lists you might want to check out are those for philosophical...
New Monasticism New Monasticism is a diverse movement, not limited to a specific religious denomination or church and including varying expressions of contemplative life. These include evangelical Christian communities such as “Simple Way Community” and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove‘s “Rutba House,” European and Irish new monastic communities, such as that formed by Bernadette Flanagan, spiritual communities...
Monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church, or temple, and may also serve as an...
Iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct from artistic style. The word iconography comes from the Greek εἰκών (“image”) and γράφειν (“to write” or to draw). A secondary...
Veneration Of The Dead The veneration of the dead, including one’s ancestors, is based on love and respect for the deceased. In some cultures, it is related to beliefs that the dead have a continued existence, and may possess the ability to influence the fortune of the living. Some groups venerate their direct, familial ancestors....
Separation Of Church And State The separation of church and state is a philosophic and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular state (with or without legally explicit church–state separation) and to disestablishment,...
Sectarianism Sectarianism is a form of prejudice, discrimination, or hatred arising from attaching relations of inferiority and superiority to differences between subdivisions within a group. Common examples are denominations of a religion, ethnic identity, class, or region for citizens of a state and factions of a political movement. The ideological underpinnings of attitudes and behaviours labelled as sectarian...
Argument From Poor Design The argument from poor design, also known as the dysteleological argument, is an argument against the existence of a creator God, based on the reasoning that an omnipotent and omnibenevolent God would not create organisms with the perceived suboptimal designs that can be seen in nature. The argument is structured as a basic modus...
Apocalypse An apocalypse (ἀποκάλυψις apokálypsis, “an uncovering”) is the disclosure or revelation of knowledge. In religious and occult concepts an apocalypse usually discloses something hidden, or provides what Bart Ehrman has termed “a vision of heavenly secrets that can make sense of earthly realities”. Historically, the term has a heavy religious connotation as commonly seen...
Aniconism Aniconism is the absence of material representations of both the natural and supernatural worlds in various cultures, particularly in the monotheistic Abrahamic religions. This prohibition of material representations may extend from only God and deities to saint characters, all living beings, and everything that exists. The phenomenon is generally codified by religious traditions and as such it becomes...
Women And Religion The study of women and religion typically examines the role of women within particular religious faiths, and religious doctrines relating to gender, gender roles, and particular women in religious history. Most religions elevate the status of men over women, have stricter sanctions against women, and require them to be submissive. While there has been...
Natural Law Natural law is law as seen as being independent of, and pre-existent to, the positive law of any given political order, society or nation-state. Such genesis is seen as determined by nature (whether that reflects creation, evolution, or random chance), and a notional law of nature treated as objective fact that is universally...
Fire Worship Worship or deification of fire (also pyrodulia, pyrolatry or pyrolatria) is known from various religions. Fire has been an important part of human culture since the Lower Paleolithic. The earliest known traces of controlled fire were found at the Daughters of Jacob Bridge, Israel, and dated to 790,000 years ago.[1] Religious or animist notions connected to fire are assumed to reach back to such early pre-Homo...
Secularity Secularity (meaning “worldly”, “of a generation”, “temporal”, or a span of about 100 years) is the state of being separate from religion, or of not being exclusively allied with or against any particular religion. Historically, the word secular was not related or linked to religion, but was a freestanding term in Latin...
