Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| networking | A term so widely used for any type of non-hierarchical communication that its value is best preserved by: (a) restricting it to mean computer networking or electronic networking involving the regular linking of 3 or more computers; and (b) using the term ‘human networking’ when all other kinds of non-electronic communication are meant. |
| New Apostolics | Christians of Catholic Apostolic origin (in 1863) and tradition, who belong to the New Apostolic Church (largely German in membership) or its offshoots. |
| new birth | A turning-point in life when a person commits himself or herself to Christ, experience claimed by 34% of the population in the USA. |
| New Calendar | The New Style or Gregorian Calendar, replacing the Old Style or Julian Calendar, introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, adopted by England in 1752, and by most Orthodox in 1924 except the Churches of Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia and Bulgaria, and Old Calendarists (qv). |
| New Christian | (Spanish, cristiano nuevo). A Marrano (qv). |
| new Christians | Totals of all who become Christians for the first time are larger than annual church growth because they equal annual increase in number of Christians plus annual deaths of Christians. |
| New Church | A major branch of the Swedenborgian movement (qv). |
| New Life for All | (NLFA). Asaturation evangelism program, begun in Nigeria in 1964, involving total mobilization of Christians at the local church level. |
| New Reader Scriptures | UBS-sponsored program for producing versions of the Scriptures specially compiled for newly-literate persons. |
| New Reader Scriptures | 1-, 2-, 4-, or 8- page Selections of texts, or whole Book translations of a gospel (New Reader Portions) prepared for newly literate readers, always illustrated. |
| New religionists | Followers of the so-called New Religions of Asia, mostly founded after 1945. Mainly Hindu or Buddhist sects/offshoots, or new syncretistic religions combining Christianity with Eastern religions. Sometimes termed Neoreligionists. |
| New Religions | The so-called Asiatic 20th-century New Religions, New Religious movements, or radical new crisis religions (new Far Eastern or Asiatic indigenous non-Christian syncretistic mass religions, founded since 1800 and mostly since 1945) including the Japanese neo-Buddhist and neo-Shinto new religious movements, and Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese and Indonesian syncretistic religions, et alia. See Neoeligionists. |
| New Testament | The covenant of God with man embodied in the coming of Christ; the printed volume of 27 books. |
| New Testament distribution | Distribution (free subsidized, commercial): copies of the NT per year. |
| New Thought | A mental healing movement embracing a number of small groups and organizations devoted to spiritual healing, the creative power of constructive thinking, and personal guidance from an inner presence. |
| newly baptized | Believers baptized within the last one-year period. |
| New-Religionists | Neoreligionists (qv). |
| newspapers, daily | In UNESCO usage, newspapers which are published at least 4 times a week. |
| newspapers, general-interest | In UNESCO terminology, publications devoted primarily to recording news of current events in public affairs, international affairs, politics, etc. |
| Nilotic | (Para-Nilotic). An African ethnolinguistic family, with about 90 languages. |
| nirvana | (Sanskrit). In Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, the state of freedom from karma, extinction of desire, passion and illusion. |
| Nisei | (Japanese: second-generation). A Japanese-American son or daughter of Issei (first-generation immigrants) parents, and born and educated in the Americas. |
| Nizaris | Nizari Ismailis, Khojas (qv). |
| no-church | See non-denominational. |
| nomads | Peoples with no fixed residence but migrating seasonally. |
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.