Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| trine immersion | The practice of immersing a candidate for baptism 3 times in the names in turn of the Trinity. |
| Trinitarianism | The Christian doctrine of the triune nature of the Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). In the 20th century, this has become the major non-negotiable dogma of mainstream Christianity. |
| triumphalism | A theology of continuous success, namely that the church continually triumphs over evil, succeeds, grows numerically larger and larger. Once espoused by the Catholic Church and other large denominations, this is now rejected as unscriptural. |
| triumphalism | In Christian parlance, either (1) inordinate pride in publicizing huge memberships or rapid church growth, or (2) self-praise or publicized self-congratulation over an agency’s achievements. |
| True Orthodox | Devoutly conservative Russian Orthodox in the former USSR who have seceded from their parent body at various time (1900, 1927, 1944 1956, et alia) to embark on total non-cooperation with the Soviet state. |
| trumping | Black religious dance from the Caribbean (especially in Revival Zion and Pocomania) known as ‘dancing, trumping and laboring for the Holy Ghost’, being the means whereby the Spirit or spirits are invited to take possession. Worshippers form a dancing-trumping ring and dance counter-clockwise around a center post (symbolic of center of the world), in a shuffling 2-step dance done to 2-2 rhythm, bending forward and up in rhythmic sequence while sucking in breath and releasing with grunting sound. |
| Tukutendereza | (Luganda for ‘We praise you, Jesus’) Atheme song of East African Revivalists (Balokole). |
| Twelvers | Ithna-Asharis (qv). |
| typology | The study of types, symbols, symbolism, especially those describing religion or religious properties or phenomena, in order to make sense of vast masses of intractable data. |
| U | A computed estimate of the percentage of peoples in a particular population segment (world, country, person, city) who are unevangelized; equivalent to 100-E, as %. |
| Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Free World | The major Ukrainian Orthodox world communion. |
| Ukrainians | Catholics of the Byzantine rite using Ukrainian. |
| ulema, ulama | (Arabic). The highest body of religious authorities in Islam; a group of Muslim theologians and scholars who are professionally occupied with the elaboration and interpretation of the Muslim legal system from a study of Quran and hadith. |
| ummah | (Arabic) The community of faith embracing all Muslims, adherents of Islam. |
| unaffiliated Christians | Persons professing publicly to be Christians but who are not affiliated to churches, i.e. not church members, unaffiliated or unchurched Christians not, no longer, or not yet attached to organized Christianity, or who have rejected the institutional churches whilst retaining Christian beliefs and values, who may be Christians individually but are not part of the churches’ corporate life, community or fellowship. |
| unaffiliated Christians | Persons professing allegiance and commitment to Christ but who have no church affiliation. |
| unattached congregation | An independent single congregation or worship center with no denominational ties. |
| unbaptized Christian | A professing or believing Christian who has not, or not yet, undergone Christian baptism. |
| unbelief | Non-belief, doubt, incredulity, agnosticism, apathy in matters of religious faith. |
| unbelievers | Non-religious persons: doubters, non-believers, agnostics, freethinkers, liberal thinkers, non-religious humanists, persons indifferent to both religion and atheism. |
| uncanonical | Unsanctioned, unorthodox, not being in accord with church canons. |
| unchristen | To annul the baptism of a person. |
| unchristian | Not of the Christian faith, contrary to Christianity. |
| unchristianize | To turn people from Christianity, dechristianize. |
| unchurch | To excommunicate, expel, separate from the church, deprive of church membership. |
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.