Wikipedia list article

While religion is hard to define, one standard model of religion used in religious studies courses defines it as a

[…] system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely realistic.[1]

A critique of Indian model by Tulsidas categorized religion as "an anthropological category."[2] Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life or the universe. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws, or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos and human nature. According to some estimates, there are roughly 4,200 religions, churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures, movements, ultimate concerns, etc[3]

The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with "faith" or "belief system", but religion differs from private belief in that it has a public aspect. Most religions have organized behaviours, including clerical hierarchies, a definition of what constitutes adherence or membership, congregations of laity, regular meetings or services for the purposes of veneration of a deity or for prayer, holy places (either natural or architectural) or religious texts. Certain religions also have a sacred language often used in liturgical services. The practice of a religion may also include sermons, commemoration of the activities of a god or gods, sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trance, rituals, rites, ceremonies, worship, initiations, funerals, marriages, meditation, invocation, mediumship, music, art, dance, public service or other aspects of human culture. Religious beliefs have also been used to explain parapsychological phenomena such as out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences and reincarnation, along with many other paranormal and supernatural experiences.[4][5]

Some academics studying the subject have divided religions into three broad categories: world religions, a term which refers to transcultural, international faiths; indigenous religions, which refers to smaller, culture-specific or nation-specific religious groups; and new religious movements, which refers to recently developed faiths.[6] One modern academic theory of religion, social constructionism, says that religion is a modern concept that suggests all spiritual practice and worship follows a model similar to the Abrahamic religions as an orientation system that helps to interpret reality and define human beings,[7] and thus believes that religion, as a concept, has been applied inappropriately to non-Western cultures that are not based upon such systems, or in which these systems are a substantially simpler construct.oki

East Asian religions [ edit ]

Religions that originated in East Asia, also known as Taoic religions; namely Taoism, Confucianism, Shenism and Shintoism, and religions and traditions related to, and descended from them.

Confucianism [ edit ]

Shinto [ edit ]

Shinto-inspired religions [ edit ]

Taoism [ edit ]

Other [ edit ]

Chinese [ edit ]

Korean [ edit ]

Manchu [ edit ]

Vietnamese [ edit ]

Indic religions [ edit ]

Religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent; namely Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism, and religions and traditions related to, and descended from them.

Buddhism [ edit ]

New Buddhist movements [ edit ]

Global variants of Buddhism [ edit ]

Charvaka (Historical) [ edit ]

Din-I Ilahi (Historical) [ edit ]

Hinduism [ edit ]

Bhakti movements

Neo-Vedanta

Hindu philosophy major schools and movements

Jainism [ edit ]

Meivazhi [ edit ]

Sarnaism [ edit ]

Sikhism [ edit ]

Nepalese religions [ edit ]

Middle Eastern religions [ edit ]

Religions that originated in the Middle East; namely Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and religions and traditions related to, and descended from them.

Bábism [ edit ]

Christianity [ edit ]

Eastern Christianity [ edit ]

Western Christianity [ edit ]

Other [ edit ]

Certain Christian groups are difficult to classify as "Eastern" or "Western." Many Gnostic groups were closely related to early Christianity, for example, Valentinism. Irenaeus wrote polemics against them from the standpoint of the then-unified Catholic Church.[19]

Druze [ edit ]

Islam [ edit ]

Khawarij [ edit ]

Shia Islam [ edit ]

Sufism [ edit ]

Sunni Islam [ edit ]

Other [ edit ]

Judaism [ edit ]

Haymanot [ edit ]

Karaite Judaism [ edit ]

Kabbalah [ edit ]

Noahidism [ edit ]

Rabbinic Judaism [ edit ]

Samaritans [ edit ]

Subbotniks [ edit ]

Historical Judaism [ edit ]

Mandaeism [ edit ]

Manichaeism [ edit ]

Rastafari [ edit ]

Black Hebrew Israelites [ edit ]

Shabakism [ edit ]

Yazdânism [ edit ]

Zoroastrianism [ edit ]

Indigenous (ethnic, folk) religions [ edit ]

Religions that consist of the traditional customs and beliefs of particular ethnic groups, refined and expanded upon for thousands of years, often lacking formal doctrine.

Note: Some adherents do not consider their ways to be "religion," preferring other cultural terms.

African [ edit ]

Traditional African [ edit ]

Diasporic African [ edit ]

Altaic [ edit ]

American [ edit ]

Austroasiatic [ edit ]

Austronesian [ edit ]

Chinese [ edit ]

European [ edit ]

Uralic (Eurasian) [ edit ]

Japanese [ edit ]

Korean [ edit ]

Tai and Miao [ edit ]

Other Indigenous [ edit ]

New religious movements [ edit ]

Religions that cannot be classed as either world religions nor traditional folk religions, and are usually recent in their inception.

Cargo cults [ edit ]

New ethnic religions [ edit ]

Black [ edit ]

White [ edit ]

Native American [ edit ]

New Hindu derived religions [ edit ]

Modern Paganism [ edit ]

Ethnic neopaganism [ edit ]

Syncretic neopaganism [ edit ]

Entheogenic religions [ edit ]

New Thought [ edit ]

Parody religions and fiction-based religions [ edit ]

Post-theistic and naturalistic religions [ edit ]

UFO religions [ edit ]

Western esotericism [ edit ]

Other new [ edit ]

Historical religions [ edit ]

Other categorisations [ edit ]

By demographics [ edit ]

By area [ edit ]

See also [ edit ]

References [ edit ]