Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| Calendar | In Orthodoxy, most churches follow the Old Calendar (qv), especially the Russian Orthodox Church, although a sizeable number follow the New Calendar (qv), notably Constantinople, Greece, Romania, Finland, Cyprus. |
| call sign | Acombination of identifying letters, or letters and numbers, assigned to a radio/TV station or a radio operator for use in communication. |
| Calvinist | An adherent of Calvinism, the theological doctrines that emphasize the sovereignty of God in the bestowal of grace, election or predestination, limited atonement, total depravity, irresistibility of grace, and the perseverance of saints. |
| campaign | See evangelistic campaigns. |
| campanology | The art of bell ringing, or the science of making bells. |
| Campbellites | Disciples (qv). |
| campus | The grounds and buildings of a university, college or school; the university itself; the academic world. |
| candidate | In Salvationist usage, a soldier who offers to devote his or her life to being an officer. |
| canon | (I) Adecree, decision, regulation, code or constitution made by ecclesiastical authority. (2) Arelatively unchangeable part of the Catholic mass. (3) Books forming the accepted list of Holy Scripture. (4) Aclergyman on the staff of a cathedral. |
| canonical relationship | In Eastern Orthodoxy, sanctioned, orthodox, authoritative relationship of one church with another, in accordance with Orthodox canons. |
| canonicity | Canonical acceptability, authority or genuineness, based on a church’s history, tradition, apostolic succession, liturgy, canons and relationships with sister churches. |
| capitalism | An economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership or capital goods, by investments on private initiative, and by prices, production and distribution in a free market. |
| Capitalist world | Nations of the Western, free or First World that practice capitalism; sometimes used of the West together with similar nations in the Third World. |
| captain | An officer in the Salvation Army, or Church Army (Anglican), or similar organizations with military terminology. |
| cardinals | In the Catholic church, the highest ecclesiastical officials below papal rank, appointed to assist the pope in the College of Cardinals. |
| cargo cults | Religio-political or nativistic (qv) movements among natives of various South Pacific islands, characterized by the messianic expectation of return of the ancestors in ships or planes carrying valuable modern cargoes. |
| cargo cults | Religious movements in Oceania based on prophecies that if appropriate religious rites are performed, God will send ships and aircraft filled with cargo and goods. |
| cassette ministry | Evangelistic outreach through playing cassettes or tapes over recorders in outreach situations, especially in non-Christian languages in non-Christian areas. |
| caste | A social or socio-religious stratum or stratification, any hereditary and exclusive class based on socio-religious beliefs, in India, one of the 30,000 groupings, classified under 4 hereditary classes, into which society is divided in accordance with a system of rank and status fundamental to Hinduism. |
| catacomb church, church of the catacombs | See crypto- Christians. |
| catechesis | (1) The responsibility of every Christian to bear witness to the gospel and to communicate it. (2) A stage in evangelization. (3) The process of systematized instruction in the Christian faith. |
| catechetical center | A center for catechesis (teaching the Christian faith) and study of catechetical methods in the modern world. |
| catechetics | The technology or methodology of religious education. |
| catechist | A church worker who instructs catechumens in the fundamentals of the Christian faith before baptism. |
| catechists | Local teachers of catechumens. Catholic totals (1996): 1,584,633. |
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.