Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| conscientious objector | One who refuses to serve or is exempted from serving, in the armed forces, or to bear arms, as contrary to his moral or religious principles. |
| conscientization | (from the Portuguese, conscientizaì‹o). Consciousness- raising; learning collectively to perceive social, political and economic contradictions and injustices and teaching the masses to take action against the oppressive elements of reality. The movement began in Brazil in the 1950s with the teaching of illiterates under Paulo Freire. |
| consecration | The solemn dedication of a bishop or Christian monarch, or of the eucharistic elements. |
| conservatism | The tendency to accept an existing situation and to be cautious towards or suspicious of change. |
| Conservative Catholics | Followers of recent schisms ex Church of Rome in conservative or reactionary direction, rejecting authority of pope, protesting against up-dating or liberal trends; Tridentinists (qv), Traditional Catholics. |
| Conservative Evangelicals | Evangelicals in Protestant and Anglican churches who hold the theologically conservative doctrine of the verbal inspiration of the Bible, and all persons affiliated to denominations holding Conservative Evangelical doctrines. |
| Conservative Methodists | Holiness Christians (qv). |
| Constantinople | One of the 4 major patriarchates of the early Church, formally a patriarchate from AD 451; New Rome, or the ‘Second Rome’, seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate (qv); now the see of 2 rival patriarchates and patriarchs, Eastern Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic. |
| Constantinopolitan | Byzantine (qv). |
| constituency | The body of supporters of followers of a specific church, denomination, tradition, council, confession, or religion. |
| constitution | A written instrument embodying the system of fundamental rules determining the powers and duties of official bodies and the people’s guaranteed rights, and constituting the organic law of church or state. Most large churches and councils have formal constitutions for guiding procedure. Most states have constitutions which describe whether the state regards itself as religious, secular, or atheistic. |
| constructed languages | Artificial languages deliberately invented or constructed so as to provide a global universal language; total, over 500 attempts. The most successful is Esperanto (5 million speakers), a Romance/Germanic language, since 1887: Volapuk (1879; Germanic); and Interlingua (1920); primarily Romance). All have Scripture translations. |
| consultations | Discussions, conversations or bilateral or mutilateral dialogues between churches of different confessions, with a view to better mutual understanding and eventual organic union. |
| consumer price index | An index showing changes over time in the price level of goods and services, relative usually to 1970 prices (= 100) in the country concerned; the principal means for calculating the inflation rate (qv). |
| contact | The degree of contact between (a) a religion and (b) organized Christianity and its world mission. |
| contemplative | One who practices meditation on spiritual things as a private devotion. |
| contestation | (French). A method of disputation for confronting ecclesiastical authorities with the realities of a bad situation, developed in the 1970s by Catholic priests in Latin Europe. |
| continent | Defined by United Nations as one of 6 Major Areas/Regions/Macroregions. |
| continental area | UN definition of continent, now renamed major area. |
| continental conciliarism | There are about 27 continent-wide multidenominational councils of churches excluding confessional continental councils. |
| Continental Pietists | Moravians (qv). |
| continuous evangelization | Evangelization implemented by a constant and continual complex of evangelistic activities. |
| convent | A house or association of female recluses devoted to the religious life under a superior; a nunnery. |
| conventual prior | A prior (qv). |
| convergency | A concept describing the unstructured way in which the world evangelization thrusts of 7 major ecclesiastical traditions (Catholic, Orthodox, Ecumenical, Evangelical, Catholic Charismatic, Pentecostal/Charismatic, and Fundamentalist) have converged since 1970 in stated aims, goals, terminology, theology, missiology, publications, periodicals, activities, cooperation, and programs, as a result of lay pressures and initiatives, and in many cases despite opposition from their own leaders. |
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.