Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| black money | Banked profits directly from criminal enterprise, unlaundered or only partially-laundered. |
| Black Muslims | Followers of unorthodox Nation of Islam (since 1977, World Community or Al-Islam in the West) in the USA. Total adherents: (1970) 200,000, (1980) 800,000, (1985) 1,100,000, (2000) 1,650,000. |
| Black neo-pentecostals | Regularly-active Black charismatics (more traditionally ‘sanctified’) in the non-pentecostal Black denominations in the USA. |
| Black theology | Christian theology as interpreted from the standpoint of the oppressed Black race. |
| Black/Third-World indigenous Christianity | Type or style of Christianity evolved and practiced by Non-White indigenous Christians (qv). |
| Black/Third-World indigenous councils of churches | Over 1,000 significant denominations of Non-White indigenous churches have banded themselves into national councils of churches, with 40 million church members. |
| Blanco (Spanish) | A White, especially in Latin America. |
| blanketing | A term used in saturation evangelism for total coverage of a target population. |
| blind, the | Global total of totally blind persons: 16 million in 1973, rising to 32.6 million by AD 2000, a rate or density of 538 blind persons per 100,000 population. |
| body evangelism | Evangelism which results in visible, measurable growth of the church as the Body of Christ; extension growth, the planting of new congregations and churches. |
| body life | Life in the Body of Christ; the developing of spiritual gifts of the Body’s members (fellow-Christians). |
| Bohras | Mustali Ismailis. |
| Bon | The pre-Buddhist animistic religion of Tibet. |
| book | (I) In UNESCO usage for statistical purposes any nonperiodical publication of at least 49 pages excluding covers. (2) In UBS usage, the translation of a single portion, gospel or other book of the Bible when published separate. |
| Book | Any one of the 39 distinct books constituting the Christian Bible, or any set of them, which has been translated whole (at least one complete book), published, and distributed in a language; also termed a scripture, or a portion or a gospel; capitalized with a ‘B’ to distinguish it from other varieties of book, and as a parallel to ‘Bible’, ‘Testament’. |
| book titles | Term used to refer to distinct and separate books, as in a library or bookstore, to avoid misunderstanding with copies or print runs of the same book. |
| book titles, annual new | The number of non-periodical commercial publications produced each year (books and pamphlets). |
| bookshops | Global total of all Christian bookshops, bookstalls and outlets for Christian literature: (AD 2000) 73,500. |
| born-again Christians | Those who have had, or claim to have had, an experience of new birth in Christ; committed Christians (qv). |
| Botika | Digambara (qv). |
| brackets | In printing, square brackets [ ] as opposed to parentheses or curved marks ( ). |
| Braille | A system of writing for the blind using raised dots. |
| Branco (Portuguese) | A White, especially in Brazil. |
| Branhamites | Followers of a marginal pentecostal evangelist, William Branham, and his End-Time Believers. |
| Brazilian indigenous churches | Denominations indigenous to Brazilians. |
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.