Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| erection | In Catholic usage, the formal establishment of a new diocese. |
| eremite | A hermit; a Christian living for religious reasons in solitary confinement. |
| eschatological sign | The missionary preaching of the gospel among all nations as the sign of the imminence of the End (the Second Coming of Christ), given in Matthew 24.14 and Mark 13.10. |
| eschatology | The doctrine of the Last Things; Christian doctrine of the Second Coming of Christ and the ultimate destiny or purpose of mankind and of the world. |
| Eskimo-Aleut | An Arctic Mongoloid ethnolinguistic family. |
| esoteric | Used of sects whose doctrines and rites guard a mystery known only to the initiated. |
| Esoteric Vehicle | Tantrayana, or Tantrism school of Buddhists (qv). |
| established church | A church that is recognized by law as the official church of a nation, supported by civil authority; state church, national church. |
| ethics, Christian | The discipline dealing with what is good and bad or right and wrong, or with moral duty and obligation, from the Christian standpoint; the principles of conduct governing an individual or a profession. |
| Ethiopian Calendar | Based on the Coptic Calendar (qv), this calendar (still used by church and state in AD 2000) is exactly 8 years behind the Gregorian Calendar (thus AD 2000 = Ethiopian 1992), begins its year on 11 or 12 September, and has 12 months each of 30 days each year, adjusted at leap years with a 13th month of 5 or 6 days. |
| Ethiopian rite | Rite for Ethiopian Catholics under Rome. |
| Ethiopian, Ethiopic | Oriental Orthodox liturgical tradition, using dead language Ge’ez in its liturgy. |
| Ethiopic | (1) AMiddle Eastern ethnolinguistic family. |
| ethnic | Referring to a group distinguished by common cultural characteristics. |
| ethnic group | A group having common physical and mental traits, common heredity and cultural tradition. |
| ethnic Muslims | A term used to describe the 34 million persons (in 1970) belonging to traditionally Muslim nationalities in the USSR, of whom about 82% profess to be or regard themselves as religious Muslims. |
| ethnic non-users | Members of an ethnic group who do not use or understand its own mother-tongue language, preferring instead to learn and use a lingua franca. |
| ethnic origin | The racial, linguistic, tribal or cultural origin of a specific group. |
| ethnic region | One of 13 broad, geographically-delimited regions from which a collection of human populations can be identified as tending to have similar heredity, languages and features. Formerly termed 'geographic race'. |
| ethnic religionists | Followers of local religions tied closely to specific ethnic groups, typically in Africa, with membership restricted to those groups; sometimes termed animists, polytheists, or shamanists. Older terminology: pagans, heathens, tribal religionists, traditional religionists. |
| ethnic religionists | Adherents of major world religions limited in theory or in practice to a particular ethnolinguistic group or groups; including Confucians, Hindus, Jains, Jews, Parsis, Shintoists, Sikhs, et alia. |
| ethnic religionists | Followers of a non-Christian or pre-Christian religion tied closely to a specific ethnic group, with membership restricted to that group; usually animists, polytheists, or shamanists. Older terminology: pagans, heathens, tribal religionists, traditional religionists. |
| ethnocultural family | A larger cover name for a cultural collectivity, also termed a microrace, culture cluster, culture complex, ethnic family, single breeding population, culture family, a large grouping of specific cultures. |
| ethnocultural people | A single people in a single country, being an ethnic or racial population or people group defined by its ethnic and cultural behavior and features. |
| ethnography | A branch of anthropology that describes the origin and filiation of ethnicity and cultures. |
Data on 18 categories of religion, including non-religious, by country, province, and people.
Data on all religions, Christian activities, and trends.
Membership data, year begun, and rates of change.
Population and religion data on all major cities & provinces.
Detailed information covering religion, culture, and geography.
A repository of historical data, including a chronology of Christianity from the 1st to 21st centuries.