Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| users of a language | All persons in a country who can understand a language since it belongs to a language cluster containing their own. |
| usual language | The language customarily used by an individual, as distinct from his mother tongue (qv). |
| vagrants | Persons of no fixed abode. |
| Vaishnavites | Worshippers of Vishnu in any of his forms or incarnations, in several schools, including Sri Sampradayins, Vadagalai, Tengalai, Ramanandis, Vallabhacharins, Chaitanyas, Nimbarkas, Madhvas, and others. |
| Vajrayana | The Tantrism school of Buddhists; Tantrayana (qv). |
| variable | A quantity that changes or varies in size; dependent variable, independent variable, etc. |
| variable | Any quality or phenomenon or aspect of religion that varies or changes and then can be measured by an instrument or measuring device. |
| Vatican | Official headquarters and spiritual center of the Catholic Church; in Rome. |
| Vaticanism | The dogma of absolute papal supremacy. |
| Vedas | The most ancient sacred writings of Hinduism; any of 4 Samhitas (Aranyaka, Brahmana, Sutra, Upanishad). |
| vehicular megalanguage | A language with a million or more speakers which acts a a trade language or lingua franca. |
| Venice | See of Latin Catholic patriarchate and patriarch, since 1451 |
| viable indigenous church | Within an ethnolinguistic people or minipeople, an indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize their own people group without needing outside cross-cultural assistance. |
| vicar | An Anglican incumbent who is not a rector; a Catholic ecclesiastic who acts as the substitute or representative of another. |
| vicar-general | The deputy of a Catholic or Anglican bishop assisting in the jurisdiction of the diocese. |
| vicariate | (symbol V). The office, authority, or jurisdiction of a vicar. |
| vicariates apostolic | (symbol VA). Catholic missionary districts over each of which a vicar apostolic (a bishop) exercises jurisdiction. |
| vicariates castrensi | Military vicariates (qv). |
| Viet-Muong | An Asian ethnolinguistic family. |
| village polytechnic | Christian program in developing countries, offering local technical skills and intermediate technology at village level. |
| Villatte succession churches | Autocephalous Catholic churches under bishops-at-large (qv) whose disputed episcopal orders pass through J.R. Villatte, Mar Timotheus (died 1929). |
| Vishnavites | Vaishnavites (qv). |
| visible church | See church visible. |
| visual gospel | (1) A film or movie of the life of Christ, either via video, or in an 8mm or 16mm presentation; or (2) a film strip based on a gospel, or (3) an art exhibit illustrating the Good News by works of art (paintings) or photographs. |
| vital statistics | Registration statistics of births, deaths, marriages, divorces, etc. |
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.