Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| presses | Printing presses owned and operated by churches or specifically Christian agencies number well over 3,000. |
| Preto | A Portuguese-speaking Black. |
| priest | (from NT Greek, presbyteros). Amember of the second order of clergy in the Anglican communion, ranking below bishop and above deacon; a member of the highest order of clergy in the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches; a professional clergyman of a religious denomination; a minister of religion. |
| priest | A pastor, minister, presbyter, elder, clergyman, authorized (in hierarchical denominations) to administer the sacraments. |
| priests, Catholic | World totals (1996) 404,336 (262,899 secular, 141,437 religious). |
| priests’ council | A presbyteral council (qv). |
| priest-worker | See worker-priest. |
| primal religionists | Original or primitive religionists in an area, animists, shamanists, spirit-worshippers, ancestor-venerators, polytheists, pantheists, tribal religionists, traditional religionists; sometimes called pagans, heathen, fetishists; usually exclusive to a particular tribe or people, hence nonmissionary in emphasis; local as contrasted with universal religionists (qv). |
| primary education | Education given in primary or elementary schools. |
| primary evangelization | The first or initial or preliminary attempts at the evangelization of a people or area. |
| primary religious group | A sociological term for a denomination; defined as a social entity or group which claims the exclusive or primary religious affiliation or allegiance of its members, attempting to serve not specialized needs but the overall needs of its members, ministering to them on a regular, weekly or even daily basis. |
| primate | A bishop who has precedence in a province, group of provinces, or a nation; the ranking prelate. |
| primitive religionists | Tribal religionists (qv). |
| primus | The first in dignity of the bishops of the Episcopal Church in Scotland who has various privileges but no metropolitan authority. |
| primus inter pares | (Latin). The first among equals; often used of an archbishop with no jurisdiction over his fellow bishops. |
| print media | A term covering newspapers, magazines, books, comics, and other printed literature. |
| printing presses | See presses. |
| prior | The superior of a priory. |
| prioritization | The science of setting priorities, especially as it relates the world’s least evangelized population segments, e.g. peoples. |
| priory | A religious house that ranks immediately below an abbey; is either self-sustaining or dependent upon an abbey. |
| priory nullius | (Latin: priory of no diocese). Apriory that is not dependent upon a diocese but on the pope. |
| prisoner of war | A person captured or interned by a belligerent power because of war with several exceptions provided by international law or agreement. |
| prisoners of conscience | Political prisoners undergoing torture, estimated at over one million across the world in over 100 countries. |
| private attenders | Persons who attend church services only for special private family occasions (baptisms, weddings, funerals). |
| probability | Something that is probable, statistically, logically or otherwise. |
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.