Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| North Indian | An Indo-Iranian ethnolinguistic family. |
| Northern Amerindian | An American Indian ethno-linguistic family, with 200 languages. |
| Northern Buddhism | Mahayana (qv). |
| notes of the church | Marks of the church (qv). |
| notice-boards | Since vast numbers of local church buildings carry their own detailed notice-boards, these are very useful in rapid surveys. |
| novice | One who has entered a religious house and is on probation. |
| nuclear Christianity | Active, practicing, committed Christianity. |
| nuclear Christians | See committed Christians. |
| Nuclear Mande | An African ethnolinguistic family with about 30 languages. |
| nun | A woman belonging to a religious institute or order of women with solemn vows (moniales), a woman religious in simple vows is more properly termed a sister. |
| nunciature | The diplomatic office of the Holy See in a foreign country. World total: (1997) 98. |
| nuncio | The diplomatic envoy of the Catholic pope as Sovereign of the Holy See, accredited to a foreign government in a country where Catholics are a majority. |
| nuns, Catholic | World total (1978) 946,398; declining to (1996) 828,660. |
| Nusayris | Alawites (qv). |
| obeah | Jamaican-African word for power. |
| obedience | A sphere of jurisdiction; control, rule, spiritual authority over others; conformity to the rule of a monastic order. |
| oblate | One offered or devoted to the monastic life or to some special religious service or work, sometimes a layman living at a monastery. |
| occasional attenders | Affiliated Christians (church members) who attend church services of public worship only occasionally or irregularly. |
| occult | The mysterious, supernatural, secret, esoteric in religion and magic. |
| Occultist churches | Bodies, often claiming the title Christian, who invoke the mysterious, secret, supernatural, esoteric in religion and magic. |
| Oceanic | One of the 13 ethnic regions of mankind speaking 1,083 languages. |
| offers | A scientific count producing numbers of concrete disciple-opportunities, invitations, chances to hear the gospel and become disciples of Christ. |
| offertory | A collection of money taken at a religious service. |
| office | In liturgy, a set form of prayer or worship drawn up by church authority, usually for daily recitation by clergy. |
| office-holders | (German, Amtstragern). Officials of the New Apostolic Church, mostly Germans, and totaling 50,000. |
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.