Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| confessional | (1) Denominational. (2) Adhering to a confession of faith. (3) Related to a world confessional family (qv). |
| confessional Christianity | The Christian faith as interpreted by a particular confession or Christian world communion, and emphasizing the superiority of its confessional tradition. |
| confessional conciliarism | See Christian world communions. |
| confessional identities | The recent trend emphasizing the distinctness and importance of world confessions (communions, confessional families) in contrast to the overall ecumenical movement. |
| confessional pluralism | The existence and continued persistence of some 45 Christian world communions (until 1979 termed world confessional families, WCFs) as distinct and separate identities in contrast to and hindering ecumenism and organic church union. |
| confessionalism | (1) The principle that a church should have a confession of faith. (2) Devotion or adherence to a confession of faith. (3) The contemporary movement towards reemphasizing confessional roots in contrast to ecumenicity. |
| confided | In Catholic missionary usage, given into the care and charge of a missionary society or religious order or congregation. |
| confiding of a jurisdiction | The placing (by Propaganda in Rome) of a vicariate or prefecture (and, before 1969, of a diocese) in the charge of a missionary institute. |
| confirmation | A rite of various Christian churches supplemental to the rite of baptism, regarded as a sacrament and viewed as confirming a person in his religious faith. |
| confirmation, annual | (1) The number of persons confirmed in a given year. (2) The number of distinct services of confirmation held in a given year. |
| confirmed | Church members to whom the rite of confirmation has been administered. |
| confrontation | In evangelization, the bringing of people faceto- face with the gospel of Christ; challenging, facing, facing up to them, opposing them, forcing them to consider. |
| Confucianists | Non-Chinese followers of the teachings of Confucius and Confucianism. Sometimes spelt Confucians. |
| congregation | (1) A distinct organized worship center (qv) or group of worshippers, usually quantified by church buildings, chapels, regular worship premises, sites, stations, centers, outposts, preaching points, or (Catholics) parishes and quasi-parishes. (2) In some Protestant usage, an organized self-supporting church or parish. (3) In Catholic usage, a religious institute (qv) for priests, monks, brothers or nuns living the religious life. |
| congregation | (1) A local church or grouping of worshipers. (2) A religious order, society, or institute (mainly Catholic usage). |
| Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples | See Sacred Congregation. |
| Congregation for the Oriental Churches | See Sacred Congregation. |
| Congregation of Bishops | Office in Roman Curia. |
| Congregational | Congregationalist (qv). |
| congregational publisher, congregation publisher | See publishers (Jehovah’s Witnesses). |
| Congregationalism | Protestant tradition with a system of church government in which the local congregation has full control and final authority over church matters within its own area. |
| Congregationalist | One who belongs to a Congregational church. |
| Congregationalists | Followers of Congregational tradition still so termed (many Congregational denominations have joined united churches since 1960). |
| congregations | For global statistics, see worship centers, also religious institutes. |
| congresses on evangelism | National or international conferences specifically on evangelism, organized by Conservative Evangelicals. Some 45 congresses have been organized since the first, the 1966 World Congress on Evangelism (Berlin). |
Data on 18 categories of religion, including non-religious, by country, province, and people.
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