Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| hidden people | An alternate term for an unreached minipeople. |
| hidden peoples | Non-Christian peoples among whom there is no culturally relevant organized Christian church able to evangelize them. |
| hidden religion | A minor religious system that operates in a clandestine, often subversive or illegal mode. |
| hierarch | A religious leader holding high office or vested with controlling authority; chief prelate, bishop, high priest. |
| hierarchical | Relating to or controlled by the hierarchy. |
| hierarchy | In Catholic usage, the episcopate or the whole body of bishops as an authoritarian body organized by rank and jurisdiction. |
| hierocracy | Government by ecclesiastics. |
| hieromonk | A monk of the Eastern Church who is also a priest. |
| High Church Anglicans | Also termed Prayer Book Catholics, or the High Church Party; Anglicans stressing the Catholic heritage. |
| high spiritism | Mediumistic cults or religions emphasizing a synthesis of science, philosophy and religion, as contrasted with low spiritism. |
| higher education | Tertiary education, education in universities. |
| higher schools | Church- or Christian-related junior and senior secondary schools, minor seminaries (secular and religious), technical schools, agricultural schools, vocational schools, teacher-training colleges, non-degree-granting colleges. |
| Hinayana | A school of Buddhists, Theravada (qv). |
| Hindu reform movements | These include: Arya Samaj, Brahmo Samaj, Ramakrishna Mission (Ramakrishna Movement/Vedanta Movement), and others. |
| Hindus | Followers of the main Hindu traditions: Vaishnavism; Shaivism; Shaktism; neo-Hindu movements and modern sects; and other Hindu reform movements. |
| historic churches | The major mainline or older churches or denominations with a long history in that part of the world under consideration. |
| historic succession of the episcopate | Apostolic succession (qv). |
| historical demography | The study of the history of population development. |
| holdings | The number of volumes and other discrete items held by a library. |
| Holiness, Holiness Christians | Protestant tradition originating in Methodism. |
| Holiness-Pentecostals | Pentecostals teaching 3-crisis experience (conversion, sanctification, baptism of the Spirit). |
| holistic church growth | The emphasis on church-planting combined with sociopolitical action. |
| holistic evangelism | Evangelism which involves sociopolitical action in some sense. |
| holy cities | Headquarters of Third-World Non-White indigenous churches, often regarded as New Jerusalem on earth. |
| holy day of obligation | One of the days on which Catholics, Episcopalians et alii are obliged to hear mass and abstain from servile work. |
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.