World Christian Database: glossary

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

Glossary item Definition
missioner A home missionary, especially an evangelist in an Anglican diocese.
missionization The act or process of conducting a mission.
missionize To carry on missionary work.
missionizer One carrying on missionary work.
mission-receiving Countries, areas or churches which regularly receive foreign missionaries in their midst.
mission-sending Countries, areas or churches which regularly send foreign missionaries abroad.
mission-sharing Countries, areas or churches which regularly both send and receive foreign missionaries.
mitra Crown worn by Byzantine Catholic bishops.
mitre Hat worn by cardinals, bishops, abbots and other prelates. Styles: precious, gold and simple.
mixed marriages Marriages of a Catholic to a non- Catholic. Total (1996): 302,630 (8.4% of all RC marriages).
mixed-economy states States combining elements of freeenterprise competition with state ownership or direction of key industries.
mobilization evangelism See total mobilization evangelism.
modality Part of a missiological dichotomy; see under sodality.
moderator The presiding officer of various denominations or church assemblies in Protestantism, mainly Presbyterian, Methodist, Reformed.
Modernism A movement in Protestantism from 1870 onwards seeking to establish the meaning and validity of the Christian faith in relation to present human experience and to reconcile traditional theological concepts with the requirements of modern knowledge.
modernist An adherent of Modernism in religion.
monastery A house of religious retirement or seclusion from the world for persons under religious vows; in Catholic usage a house operated by a religious monastic order for men or women and always dependent on an abbey.
monastic order A religious institute dedicated to the monastic life.
monasticism The monastic life, system or condition; organized asceticism as practiced in a monastery.
monitoring The process of regularly tracking and recording the progress of evangelization in a particular unreached people or unevangelized population segment with special reference to measuring the impact of all Great Commission activities and influences.
monk A man who is a member of a monastic order.
Mon-Khmer An Austro-Asiatic ethnolinguistic family, with over 50 languages.
monocultural evangelism Evangelistic activities that take place, from evangelist to audiences, within a single culture only.
monodenomination A large Christian denomination of over 1 million affiliated members, which therefore functions as a Christian religion in its own right.
monoethnic church A church or denomination whose members are entirely, or mainly, from a single ethnic group, tribe, caste or people; a one-tribe or one-people church.
« first previous Page 69 of 118 next last »

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.