Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| Sunday attenders | Practicing Christians who attend church services of public worship on average every Sunday. |
| Sunday mass attenders | Practicing Catholics who attend mass on average every Sunday. |
| Sunday schools | Christian or church classes held on Sundays for the purpose of religious education; with their pupils and teachers. |
| sunna | The body of hadith, traditions of Muhammed, i.e. of Islamic custom and practice. |
| Sunnis | Followers of the larger of the major branches of Islam, that adheres to the orthodox tradition of the sunna (qv), acknowledges the first 4 caliphs, and recognizes 4 schools of jurisprudence: Hanafite, Hanbalite, Malikite, Shafiite. |
| supercity | A city with over 4 million inhabitants. |
| supergiant | A city with over 10 million inhabitants. |
| superintendent | Protestant minister charged with the general supervision of churches within a certain district. |
| superior | A head of a religious house, order or congregation. |
| superior general | The head of an entire religious order or congregation. |
| supernatural change, supranatural change | By contrast with natural change in a population (births minus deaths, plus immigrants minus emigrants), change in religious allegiance or adherence which from some points of view is unnatural, non-natural, supranatural or supernatural. |
| superstock | A language grouping or language phylum. |
| suppressed churches | Churches which have been forcibly suppressed, destroyed or otherwise permanently closed by state or other action. |
| suppressed dioceses | See closed dioceses. |
| surveillance | A recognized government tactic against churches in anti-Christian states; continuous close observation for purposes of obstruction, harassment and control. |
| survey | An inquiry or operation designed to furnish information on a special subject and which has limited aims. |
| suspended | Temporarily debarred from church membership, in particular from communicant status, because of some infringement of church law. |
| Svetambara | (‘white-robed’). Amajor Jain sect whose members clothe themselves and their sacred images in white and in contrast to the Digambaras (qv) assert that women can attain salvation. |
| Swedenborgians | Followers of a marginal Protestant tradition, the Church of the New Jerusalem/New Church. |
| switching | Used of church members who change from allegiance to one denomination to allegiance to another. |
| symbolics | Historical theology dealing with Christian creeds (Latin, symbolae) and confessions of faith; also termed symbolic theology. Comparative symbolics (German: Konfessionskunde) is the term traditionally applied to that branch of theology or ecclesiology which deals with the various Christian churches and confessions, their doctrines, their creeds, constitutions, ways of worship, devotional life and distinctive features studied as a whole. |
| synagogue | A Jewish local community or local assembly organized for public worship; or their building. |
| syncretism | The developmental process of historical growth within a religion by accretion and coalescence of different and often conflicting forms of belief and practice; as understood by Christian theology, the religious attitude which holds that there is no unique revelation in history, that there are many different ways to reach the divine reality, that all formulations of religious truth or experience are inadequate expression of that truth, and that it is necessary to harmonize all religious ideas and experiences so as to create one universal religion for mankind. |
| syncretistic movement | A religious movement incorporating conflicting or divergent beliefs, principles or practices drawn from 2 or more religious systems. |
| synod | An ecclesiastical council or church governing or advisory body, including general synod diocesan synod (qv), holy synod (qv); either regularly meeting, or a one-time occasion. |
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.