Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| reached minipeople | A minipeople with a viable indigenous church capable of evangelizing the whole group, that is, with the resources and vision to reach out to the whole people. |
| reached people | An ethnolinguistic people with a viable indigenous church with the resources and vision to evangelize the whole people. |
| reached person | An individual who has had an adequate opportunity to hear the gospel and to respond to it, and also to contact a church of his own culture and to meet and join in fellowship with other believers. |
| reactionary | Conservative. |
| real Christians | See committed Christians. |
| receiver | A receiving set for radio or TV broadcast programs. |
| reconciled diversity | A model for the unity of the church espoused by the confessional-identities part of the ecumenical movement, in opposition to the ‘conciliar fellowship’ model favored by the World Council of Churches: in order to live under the unity Christ wills, the world communions (confessions, world confessional families) must enter into a fully reconciled relationship, recognizing other confessions fully as churches of Jesus Christ, yet retaining their own confessional identities. |
| recording studios | Local broadcasting studios or soundproofed rooms under church or Christian auspices where tapes are prepared for later release over radio or TV stations. |
| records, recording | See religious drama. |
| rector | A clergyman of the Church of England who has the charge and care of a parish and owns the tithes from it; in the Catholic Church, the head priest of a church, university, school, or other religious institution. |
| Red Hat (Unreformed) Lamaism | (Dupka or Karmapa). That part of Tibetan Buddhism in which monasteries have resisted the 14th-century reforms of the monk Tsong-khapa. Red Hat Lamaism is the official religion of Bhutan. |
| reduction | In South American Catholic history, the act or process of resettlement by missionaries of Amerindians in villages or compounds for purposes of acculturation or control; or the settlement itself. |
| Reformed | A major Protestant tradition originating in continental Europe, and including the term Presbyterian originating in English-speaking countries. |
| Reformed Catholics | Followers of recent schisms ex Church of Rome in a Reformed or Protestant direction. |
| Reformed Ecumenical Synod | (RES). A conservative Reformed world communion. |
| Reformed Hindus | See Hindu reformist movements. |
| Reformed Orthodox | Uncanonical reform movements out of Orthodoxy, retaining Orthodox claims. |
| refugee church | A local church or congregation formed entirely by or among refugees in a particular country. |
| refugees | Persons who have migrated due to persecution, fear of persecution, or other strong pressures endangering their continued stay in their countries of origin, and who are unable or unwilling to return; excluding labor and other migrants and also returnees. |
| regeneration | Spiritual rebirth, renewal, re-creation, revival, radical spiritual transformation. |
| region | In United Nations terminology, one of 24 areas into which the whole world is divided for purposes of analysis. |
| region | (apostolic or conciliar). See apostolic region. |
| region | UN term for statistical enumeration referring to a subdivision of a major area (continent). |
| regional conciliarism | There are about 55 international and regional (subcontinental) councils of churches of all kinds. |
| registration with government | Legalizing the existence and status of a denomination or church in countries where registration is compulsory in law. |
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.