World Christian Database: glossary

Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).

Glossary item Definition
messianic movement A nativistic religious cult led by a prophet proclaiming salvation and the destruction of foreign culture and influence.
messianism An ideological movement or system of ideas that teaches the salvation of mankind through a messiah.
Messihaye (Assyrian, Syriac: Christians). East Syrian or Assyrian or Syro-Chaldean Christians.
Mestizo (1) The issue of a European and an Amerindian. (2) ALatin American (Spanish-speaking) ethnolinguistic family.
Metaphysical Term for movements dating back from the 19th-century New Thought movement in the USA, including spiritualism, Theosophy, Religious Science, et alia.
Metaphysical churches Term describing churches or religious bodies which, dating back to the 19th-century New Thought movement in the USA, includes spiritism, Theosophy, religious science, et alia.
Methodists A Protestant tradition ex Church of England in 1795. Many Methodist denominations are usually called, classified, or coded Wesleyan, Holiness, United, although most belong to the World Methodist Council. In addition to Protestant bodies, many Methodist bodies are here classified as Independents.
Métis A Half-Breed of French and Amerindian ancestry.
metrodweller A person residing in a city with a population greater than 300,000.
metropeople An ethnolinguistic people or sociopeople resident in a metropolis, and forming a distinct homogenous group within it.
metropolia In Eastern Orthodoxy, a metropolitan archdiocese, or diocese.
metropolis The central city of a country or region or area, whether large or small (from the Greek for mother city).
metropolitan The head of an ecclesiastical province in the Eastern Orthodox Church who has his headquarters in a large city; an Anglican archbishop: a Catholic archbishop with suffragan dioceses.
metropolitan For Catholics, an archbishop with authority over bishops of a church province; for Eastern Orthodox, a bishop ranking just below patriarch.
metropolitan archdiocese (symbol M). The senior diocese in an ecclesiastical province.
metropolitan French French citizens born in France.
metropolitan see A metropolitan archdiocese (qv).
metropolitanate The see or office of a metropolitan bishop.
metroscan A statistical analysis of the worlds metropolises, especially analyzing the presence or absence of Christians and evangelization.
Miao-Yao An Asian ethnolinguistic family.
micro segment A minor population subgrouping which occupies only a minor or secondary place in a global taxonomy of populations, and which is used for local targeting in evangelization.
micro-church A small, very small, miniscule or microcosmic church or fellowship.
microevangelistics The scientific study of the propagation of Christianity at the microscopic level of individuals, then of churches, peoples, countries.
microfilm, microfiche, microform An information-handling process involving photographically reducing documents to very small size on film.
micro-missiography The descriptive analysis in detail of a single or a local missionary situation.
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Religions

Data on 18 categories of religion, including non-religious, by country, province, and people.

Countries and regions

Data on all religions, Christian activities, and trends.

Denominations

Membership data, year begun, and rates of change.

Cities & provinces

Population and religion data on all major cities & provinces.

Peoples & languages

Detailed information covering religion, culture, and geography.

Archive

A repository of historical data, including a chronology of Christianity from the 1st to 21st centuries.