Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| gross national product per capita | National income per person (qv). |
| growth | In church and mission circles: development, rise, emergence, evolution, expansion, size. |
| growth rate | The annual increase in a population measured as a percentage per year. |
| guerrillas | Small military forces engaged in irregular warfare or in the rear of regular forces. |
| Guinean | An African ethnolinguistic family, with about 80 languages. |
| Gypsy | Itinerant Caucasoid people originally from India, and since the 14th century scattered throughout Europe. |
| hadith | In Islam, the collected traditions of Mohammed. |
| hajj | (hadj, haj). The pilgrimage to Mecca prescribed as a religious duty for Muslim. |
| hajj pilgrims to Mecca | Annual totals: (1912) 300,000, (1929) 90,000, (1941) 23,000, (1968) 692,784, (1975) 1,557,867, peaking at 2.5 million (1989); controlled thereafter at 2 million. Sou |
| hajji | (hadji, haji). AMuslim who has made the pilgrimage to Mecca, who may then add the term to his name as a title. |
| Half-Breed | A Half-Caste (qv). |
| Half-Caste | A person of mixed blood or race. |
| ham operators | Amateur radio operators (qv). |
| Hanafites | Followers of Hanafiya, the most liberal of the 4 schools or rites of Sunni Muslim law, and by far the most widespread. |
| Hanbalites | Followers of Hanabila, the most rigid of the 4 schools or rites of Sunni Muslim law; mainly in Central Arabia. |
| handicapped children | Of the world’s 1.8 billion children under 15 years old, 100 million (5%) are severely handicapped and 240 million (13%) need special attention or rehabilitation services. |
| handicapped groups, ministry to | Special ministries exist, in most larger denominations and para-church agencies, to work with lepers, the blind, the crippled, and other groups. |
| hearers | Persons understanding a language at a lower level than native speakers, understanding it but not competent at conversing in it. |
| hearing impaired persons | Deaf and partially-deaf persons, able to converse by signing (use of a signed language). |
| hermeneutics | The study of the general principles of biblical interpretation and explanation. |
| heuristic | The use of empirical knowledge and rules of thumb in problem-solving by an expert or an expert system. |
| hidden affiliation | The situation in which Christians affiliated to minority or illegal or anti-state or persecuted churches hide this affiliation in government censuses (or whose affiliation is ignored by enumerators) and profess another type of Christianity (usually that of the majority church). |
| hidden Buddhist believers in Christ | NBBC (q.v.). |
| hidden Hindu believers in Christ | NBBC (q.v.). |
| hidden Muslim believers in Christ | NBBC (q.v.). |
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.