List of religions and spiritual traditions

While the word religion is hard to define, one standard model of religion used in religious studies courses defines it as a

[…] system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.[1]

Further information: Major religious groups, Religious denomination, and History of religion
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.
Religious symbols in clock-wise order from top: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Baháʼí Faith, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Slavic neopaganism, Celtic polytheism, Heathenism (Germanic paganism), Semitic neopaganism, Wicca, Kemetism (Egyptian paganism), Hellenism (Greek paganism), Italo-Roman neopaganism.

Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life or the universe. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws, or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos and human nature. According to some estimates, there are roughly 4,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements, ultimate concerns, which at some point in the future will be countless.[2]

The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with the words "faith" or "belief system", but religion differs from private belief in that it has a public aspect. Most religions have organized behaviours, including clerical hierarchies, a definition of what constitutes adherence or membership, congregations of laity, regular meetings or services for the purposes of veneration of a deity or for prayer, holy places (either natural or architectural) or religious texts. Certain religions also have a sacred language often used in liturgical services. The practice of a religion may also include sermons, commemoration of the activities of a God or gods, sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trance, rituals, liturgies, ceremonies, worship, initiations, funerals, marriages, meditation, invocation, mediumship, music, art, dance, public service or other aspects of human culture. Religious beliefs have also been used to explain parapsychological phenomena such as out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences and reincarnation, along with many other paranormal and supernatural experiences.[3][4]

Some academics studying the subject have divided religions into three broad categories: world religions, a term which refers to transcultural, international faiths; Indigenous religions, which refers to smaller, culture-specific or nation-specific religious groups; and new religious movements, which refers to recently developed faiths.[5] One modern academic theory of religion, social constructionism, says that religion is a modern concept that suggests all spiritual practice and worship follows a model similar to the Abrahamic religions as an orientation system that helps to interpret reality and define human beings,[6] and thus believes that religion, as a concept, has been applied inappropriately to non-Western cultures that are not based upon such systems, or in which these systems are a substantially simpler construct.

Eastern religions
Main article: Eastern religions

East Asian religions
Main article: East Asian religions
See also: Three teachings

Religions that originated in East Asia, also known as Taoic religions; namely Taoism, Confucianism, Shenism, Muism and Shintoism, and religions and traditions related to, and descended from them.

Confucianism
Main article: Confucianism
See also: Confucian civil religion

Shinto
Main article: Shinto
See also: Shinto sects and schools

Taoism
Main article: Taoism
Chinese religions
Main article: Religion in China
Chinese philosophy schools
Main article: Hundred Schools of Thought
Japanese religions
Main article: Religion in Japan
Korean religions
Main article: Religion in Korea
Mongolian religions
Vietnamese religions
Main article: Religion in Vietnam

Dharmic religions
Main article: Indian religions

The four main religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent; namely Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism and religions and traditions related to, and descended from them.

Buddhism
Main article: Buddhism
See also: Schools of Buddhism
Neo-Buddhism
Main article: Buddhist modernism

Hinduism
Main article: Hinduism
Further information: Hindu denominations and Bhakti movement
Sant Mat[11]
Main article: Sant Mat
Hindu philosophy schools
Main article: Hindu philosophy
Yoga
Main article: Yoga
Hindu new movements
Main article: Hindu denominations § Newer movements
See also: Neo-Vedanta and Hindu reform movements

Jainism
Main article: Jainism

Sikhism
Main article: Sikhism
Further information: Sects of Sikhism
Mainstream
Sects

Middle Eastern religions
Main article: Religion in the Middle East
See also: Western religions

Religions that originated in the Middle East; namely Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and religions and traditions related to, and descended from them.

Abrahamic religions
Main article: Abrahamic religions

Baháʼí Faith
Main article: Baháʼí Faith

Christianity
Main article: Christianity
See also: List of Christian denominations
Eastern Christianity
Main article: Eastern Christianity
Western Christianity
Main article: Western Christianity
Other
See also: Gnosticism and Christian mysticism

Certain Christian groups difficult to classify as "Eastern" or "Western." Many Gnostic groups were closely related to early Christianity, for example, Valentinism. Irenaeus wrote polemics against them from the standpoint of the then-unified Catholic Church.[16]

Druze
Main article: Druze

Islam
Main article: Islam
See also: Islamic schools and branches, Ilm al-Kalam, Ahl al-Hadith, and Islamism
Khawarij
Main article: Khawarij
Shia Islam
Main article: Shia Islam
Sufism
Main articles: Sufism and Islamic Mysticism
See also: List of Sufi orders
Sunni Islam
Main article: Sunni Islam
Other

Judaism
Main articles: Judaism and Jewish religious movements
Kabbalah
Main articles: Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism
Non-Rabbinic Judaism
Rabbinic Judaism
Main article: Rabbinic Judaism
Others
Historical Judaism

Mandaeism (Sabianism)
Main article: Mandaeism

Iranian religions
Main articles: Iranian religions and Religion in Iran

Yazdânism
Main article: Yazdânism

Zoroastrianism
Main article: Zoroastrianism

Indigenous (ethnic, folk) religions
Main articles: Ethnic religion and Folk religion
See also: Paganism, Animism, Totemism, and Shamanism

Religions that consist of the traditional customs and beliefs of particular ethnic groups, refined and expanded upon for thousands of years, often lacking formal doctrine.

Note: Some adherents do not consider their ways to be "religion," preferring other cultural terms.

African
Main article: Religion in Africa

    Traditional African
    Main article: Traditional African religions

    Diasporic African
    Main article: Afro-American religion

    Altaic
    See also: List of Tengrist movements

    American
    Main article: Native American religion

    Austroasiatic

    Austronesian

    Indo-European

    Tai and Miao
    Main articles: Tai folk religion and Miao folk religion

    Tibeto-Burmese

    Uralic

    Other Indigenous

    New religious movements
    Main article: New religious movement
    See also: List of new religious movements

    Religions that cannot be classed as either world religions or traditional folk religions, and are usually recent in their inception.[17]

    Cargo cults
    Main article: Cargo cults

    New ethnic religions
    See also: Ethnic religion

    Black

    Rastafari
    Main article: Rastafari

    Black Hebrew Israelites
    Main article: Black Hebrew Israelites

    White

    Native American

    Hindu-derived new religions

    Sikh-derived new religions

    Japanese new religions
    Main article: Japanese new religions

    Modern Paganism
    Main article: Modern Paganism
    See also: List of Neopagan movements

    Ethnic neopaganism
    See also: Polytheistic reconstructionism and European Congress of Ethnic Religions

    Syncretic neopaganism

    Entheogenic religions
    Main article: Entheogen

    New Age Movement
    Main article: New Age

    New Thought
    Main article: New Thought

    Parody religions and fiction-based religions
    Main article: Parody religion

    Post-theistic and naturalistic religions
    Main articles: Post-theism and Religious naturalism

    UFO religions
    Main article: UFO religions

    Western esotericism
    Main article: Western esotericism
    See also: Ceremonial magic, Left-hand path and right-hand path, and Occult

    Other new

    Historical religions
    Main article: History of religion

    Bronze Age

    Classical antiquity

    Other historical

    Other categorisations

    By demographics
    Main article: Religious demographics

    By area
    Further information: Religion geography

    See also

    References
    1. (Clifford Geertz, Religion as a Cultural System, 1973)
    2. "World Religions Religion Statistics Geography Church Statistics". Archived from the original on April 22, 1999. Retrieved 5 March 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
    3. "About - the Parapsychological Association".
    4. "Key Facts about Near-Death Experiences". Retrieved 5 March 2015.
    5. Harvey, Graham (2000). Indigenous Religions: A Companion. (Ed: Graham Harvey). London and New York: Cassell. Page 06.
    6. Vergote, Antoine, Religion, belief and unbelief: a psychological study, Leuven University Press, 1997, p. 89
    7. Melton 2003, p. 1112.
    8. Tattwananda, Swami (1984). Vaisnava Sects, Saiva Sects, Mother Worship (1st rev. ed.). Calcutta: Firma KLM Private Ltd.
    9. Dandekar, R. N. (1987). "Vaiṣṇavism: An Overview". In Eliade, Mircea (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. 14. New York: MacMillan.
    10. Melton 2003, p. 997.
    11. Lorenzen, David N. (1995). Bhakti Religion in North India: Community Identity and Political Action. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-2025-6.
    12. Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli. Vol. 1-2. Indian Philosophy (1923) Vol. 1, 738 p. (1927) Vol. 2, 807 p. Oxford University Press.
    13. Melton 2003, p. 1001.
    14. Melton 2003, p. 1004.
    15. "Welcome to Jainworld – Jain Sects – tirthankaras, jina, sadhus, sadhvis, 24 tirthankaras, digambara sect, svetambar sect, Shraman Dharma, Nirgranth Dharma". Jainworld.com. Archived from the original on 2011-06-07. Retrieved 2012-04-24.
    16. "Irenaeus of Lyons". Retrieved 5 March 2015.
    17. Clarke 2006.
    18. Clarke 2006, pp. 507–509, Radhasoami movements.
    19. Laycock, Joseph P. Reitman (2012). "We Are Spirits of Another Sort". Nova Religio. 15 (3): 65–90. doi:10.1525/nr.2012.15.3.65. JSTOR 10.1525/nr.2012.15.3.65.
    20. "Eeshan Religion and Church of Metta Spirituality and School of Enlightenment". The Eeshan Religion. Retrieved 2021-04-14.

    Sources
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