Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| instrument panel | Juxtaposition of the main basic instruments (in aviation, the conventional 6 flight instruments) essential for pilot or driver to control his mode of transportation. |
| instrumentation | The developing and use of scientific measuring devices used by churches and agencies to document or record progress or change. |
| instruments | As described here, these are measuring devices or gauges or documents (e.g. questionnaires) used by churches and missions to document or record progress or lack of it. |
| inter-censal period | The time elapsing between 2 censuses of population. |
| intercessors | Christians undertaking to pray daily for unreached peoples, for World A, for non-Christians; often in institutions (monasteries, converts, ashrams) or in other structured situations (prayerwalking, Praying through the Window). |
| interchurch aid | Aid given by one church or denomination to another, usually as finance, personnel or other resources. |
| intercommunion | Mutual fellowship and limited sacramental and ministerial recognition between 2 or more churches or confessions, but falling short of full communion (qv). |
| interconfessional | Involving, supported by, or common to major Christian families or communions having different confessions of faith. |
| interdenominational | Occurring between or among or common to different denominations (qv). |
| interdenominational | Occurring between or among or common to several or many different denominations; accountable to several denominations, or partially or completely controlled by them. |
| intermediate technology | Technology that is sufficiently simple to directly benefit peasants and workers in developing nations. |
| internal province | In Anglicanism, a self-governing ecclesiastical province within an autonomous church. |
| internally evangelized | Those persons in a people or population who have become evangelized as a result of persons or agencies of their own people or population. |
| international Christian radio stations | There are some 50 powerful radio stations under Christian auspices which beam programs worldwide in several hundred languages. |
| International Conference of Old Catholic Bishops | See International Old Catholic Bishops Conference. |
| International Congregational Council | (ICC). Confessional council begun 1891 linking all Congregationalist denominations. Merged in 1970 with World Alliance of Reformed Churches. |
| International Council of Christian Churches | (ICCC). The major global Fundamentalist, anti-Ecumenical, council. Global constituency: (AD 2000) 100 denominations with 3 million members. |
| international denominational bodies | See non-confessional international denominational bodies. |
| International New Thought Alliance | (INTA). World communion for metaphysical Christian bodies, begun 1914. |
| International Old Catholic Bishops Conference | Also known as the Union of Utrecht, begun 1889; the major Old Catholic world communion. |
| international sharing of personnel | The sending and receiving, between and amongst all countries of the world, and between and amongst all churches of the world, of 420,000 full-time long-term foreign missionaries and personnel. |
| internationals | (1) Persons living abroad; workers, laborers, businessman, entrepreneurs, students, and many other categories of persons who live, reside, and work in a foreign country; excluding tourists or other transients. (2) Professionals working for United Nations-related agencies or parallel global organizations (as contrasted with national or regional bodies). |
| Internet | A network of computer networks which allows users to communicate using electronic mail, to retrieve data stored in databases, and to access websites and the World Wide Web. |
| internuncio | A Vatican diplomat of lower rank than nuncio. |
| interpolation | The estimation of values of a series at points intermediate between known or given values. |
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.