Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| otiose | Used of God in many pagan religions: remote, aloof, uninvolved, uninterested in the human race. |
| Outcastes | Persons in India considered outside caste society. See scheduled castes. |
| outer language | Also termed a language cluster (qv). |
| outer language | Alternative term for a language cluster (qv). |
| outer lingua franca | A common language with over 100,000 non-native speakers, and strictly defined as a language cluster (outer language) in World Language Classification; a lingua franca identical to a language cluster or outer language, with all component languages sharing 80% basic vocabulary of common human experience. |
| outreach | In evangelization, the extent or length or whole complex of all varieties of evangelistic reaching out to the non-Christian world on the part of the Christian community. |
| outreach | The churches’ organized mission of reaching out with the Good News to persons outside their fellowship, especially to Non-Christians in Worlds A and B. |
| outreach into the world | The act or process of the church reaching out to the world’s non-Christian populations, in evangelism and in service. |
| outsider | A non-Christian, or non-affiliated. |
| overlapping membership | Membership of an individual or group, or of congregations, in 2 distinct church areas or churches or denominations. |
| overt evangelizers | Evangelizing Christians who work openly without having to fear government spies or religious police in hostile lands. |
| p.a. | Per annum, per year, each year, every year, annual, yearly, over the previous 12 months. |
| p.d. | Per diem, per day, daily. |
| Pacific | One of the 13 ethnic regions of mankind, with 135 languages. |
| Pacific indigenous churches | Non-White indigenous churches in Oceania, indigenous to Pacific or Oceanic peoples. |
| paedobaptist | See pedobaptist. |
| pagan religionists | See neo-paganism. |
| pagans | (Latin: country-dwellers). Asomewhat outdated term for non-Christians, heathen, polytheists, animists, shamanists, et alii. |
| pagoda | A stupa (qv). |
| Paleoasiatic | An Asian ethnolinguistic family. |
| Paleohemerologites | Authentic Orthodox or Old Calendarists (qv). |
| pantheism | A doctrine that the universe conceived of as a whole is God. |
| pantheist | A follower of pantheism. |
| papal bull | A formal letter from the Roman pope named after the lead seal (bulla) attached to it. |
| papal journeys | Official apostolic visits by Catholic pope to various countries. |
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.