Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| secular states | In AD 2000 some 102 nations and countries out of the world total of 238 regarded themselves as secular, promoting neither religion nor irreligion, and maintaining strict separation between church and state. |
| secularism | A view of life or of any particular matter holding that religion and religious considerations should be ignored or purposely excluded. |
| secularization | The act or process of transferring matters under ecclesiastical or religious control to secular or civil or lay control; the process whereby religious thinking, practice and institutions lose social significance. |
| see | The jurisdiction of a bishop, or his rank, office, power, authority, cathedral or diocesan center. |
| seekers | See decisions. |
| Sefardis | (Sephardis). The smaller of the two great divisions of Jews; often loosely used to include Oriental Jews; speaking Ladino, dating from medieval Spain, now scattered from North Africa to Afghanistan, speaking Arabic, Persian, Aramaic; 14% of world’s Jews today. |
| segment | Any homogeneous subdivision of the world’s population, made for purposes of understanding and analysis; the most generalized English translation of the biblical Greek word ethnos (usually translated ‘people’). |
| segmentization | The process of dividing the world’s population into meaningful small segments, usually countries, peoples, or cities in order to assist toward their targeting and evangelization. |
| selections | Small leaflets of 2 or 3 pages or so consisting of attractively-presented scripture passages printed in large numbers by Bible societies usually for special occasions or needs. |
| Selections | 1-, 2-, 4-, or 8-page leaflets or booklets of Scripture texts on a topical theme, used in mass-distribute campaigns by Bible societies and churches in many lands. |
| self-enumeration | A census or survey method in which the questionnaire employed is completed by the respondents themselves. |
| self-evangelization | Auto-evangelization (qv). |
| self-identifying Christians | Professing Christians (qv). |
| self-publishing | (in Russian, samizdat). Underground Christian literature (reports, descriptions, protests, et alia) typed, duplicated or handwritten, that is passed from reader to reader despite prohibition by the Soviet state; a major source of news of churches and persecution in the USSR. |
| Self-Religionists | Followers of varieties of religion centering on benefiting followers personally and helping them live prosperous lives. |
| semi-literate | A person who can read but not write, or read and write only with difficulty. |
| semilogarithmic | A graph with usually a linear axis horizontally but a logarithmic scale on the vertical axis, permitting the inclusion on the same graph of small numbers together with very large numbers several orders of magnitude greater. |
| seminarian, seminarist | A student in a seminary, a candidate for ordination to the diaconate or priesthood. |
| seminaries | Centers for the training of the ordained ministry or priesthood, equipped with premises, plant and personnel; preparing persons of secondary or higher education for ordination; covering religious and secular major seminaries, theological colleges and advanced Bible schools of all churches and also independently-run; excluding smaller Bible schools and minor seminaries. |
| seminary, major | See major seminary. |
| seminary, minor | See minor seminary. |
| seminary, united | See united seminary. |
| Semitic indigenous churches | Semitic initiatives or church traditions or Middle Eastern indigenous churches dating from the 1st century AD, and still completely Semitic in leadership and membership today, namely: Syrian Orthodox (later Arab) Coptic Orthodox (later Arab), Ancient Church of the East (Assyrian, later Nestorian), Ethiopian Orthodox (Amharic). |
| sendee | See church sendee. |
| seniorate | An ecclesiastical geographical division within some Reformed denominations in Eastern Europe, corresponding to a presbytery. |
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.