Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| clandestine religion | See hidden religion. |
| Classical Pentecostals | Blanket term for traditional types of Pentecostal (Pentecostal Apostolic, Oneness-Pentecostal, Baptistic Pentecostal, Holiness-Pentecostal, Perfectionist- Pentecostal), as contrasted with Neo-pentecostal, Catholic pentecostal, Non-White pentecostal, etc. |
| Classical Pentecostals | Denominational Pentecostals of North American or European origin founded before the year 1945, of 2 types: Baptistic Pentecostals, and Holiness Pentecostals, both being Trinitarian. |
| classis | An ecclesiastical district, or the governing body of a district, in certain churches of Presbyterian polity (Dutch and German Reformed); presbytery. |
| clergy | The body of men and women duly ordained to the service of God in the Christian church: bishops, priests, deacons, ministers, deaconesses (in Anglican usage), and other ordained persons. |
| clergy | Followers of a religion who become ordained for religious services; ministers, pastors, priests, rabbis, bishops, et alii. |
| clergy organizations | There are over 200 significant bodies in this field. |
| clergyman | A member of the clergy, ordained minister, one in holy orders. |
| cleric | A clergyman. |
| clerical order | A large-order/congregation/institute/society of full-time ordained workers (clergy, monks, brothers, nuns), often functioning as itself a separate autonomous religion. |
| clerk in holy orders | A clergyman of the Church of England. |
| clinical theology | A psychiatric or psychological system of mental healing and mental health, derived in the Church of England in the 1950s-60s. |
| clinics | See medical centers. |
| Closed Brethren | Exclusive Brethren (qv). |
| closed communion | The offering of the sacrament of communion only to those who are full members of a particular church or denomination. |
| closed countries | 43 countries across the world which are completely closed to foreign mission (not necessarily to internal mission) by government policy. |
| closed country | A country whose government or regime has closed it to some major form or forms of Christian ministry from outside, usually resident foreign missionaries, visiting evangelists, or freely distributed scriptures, Christian literature, tapes or videos or films, or other Christian influences from outside. |
| closed dioceses | Dioceses which have been forcibly suppressed, destroyed or otherwise closed by state or other action. |
| closed-country ministry | Legal or illegal modes of Christian mission and ministry, resident or itinerant, full-time or part-time, in countries otherwise closed to Christian activity. |
| closing country | A country still open to outside Christian influences but whose increasing restrictions suggest it may become closed within a few months or years. |
| closure | The concept that the mandate of the church for world mission can be completed in a measurable way by evangelizing or reaching all peoples on Earth; not effectively invoked unless attached to some sort of deadline, the usual one in the 1980s and 1990s being AD 2000. |
| cluster | A grouping of languages which all share in common 80% vocabulary of common human experience. |
| cluster | Language cluster (qv). In religion, a grouping or family of related religions. Culture cluster is a synonym for ethnocultural family. |
| coadjutor bishop | A bishop assisting another bishop nearing retirement, who usually has the right in due course to succeed him. |
| coenobite | See cenobite. |
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.