Data source: Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson, eds., World Christian Database (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2024).
| Glossary item | Definition |
|---|---|
| residual Christians | Nominal Christians (qv) or post-Christians (qv) in industrialized and secularized societies. |
| resistant | A term often used to describe peoples who have been exposed to the Christian message but have not accepted it. In most cases it can be shown that they have only been inadequately evangelized, or even faultily evangelized, and that because of the absence of a culturally-adequate message they have in fact been neglected. |
| respondent | A person who answers questions in a survey or government census, in the latter case usually under a legal obligation to answer. |
| response | In religious usage, the measurable number of persons accepting an evangelistic invitation of any kind, making decisions, joining catechumenate classes, becoming baptized or otherwise joining the church. |
| responsiveness | of a population, R, a measure quantified as new church members baptized per year, per million evangelism-hours expended per year. Higher values indicate greater responsiveness to evangelism, lowest values signify small or even zero response. |
| Restoration Movement | (1) The Churches of Christ, or Disciples (qv), a major USA group of denominations. (2) An Independent Charismatic para-denomination splitting in 1974 from the Charismatic Renewal within the mainline Protestant and Anglican churches in UK and USA, also called Church of the Great Shepherd, Pyramid Church, House-Church Movement. |
| Restorationist Baptists | Disciples (qv). |
| restricted countries | 18 countries in the world which, although not closed or partially closed to foreign mission, restrict numbers of foreign missionaries considerably. |
| restricted-access country | A country whose government or regime restricts access by foreign missionaries wishing to reside, foreign Christians wishing to visit, or foreign Christian literature, or broadcasting, or other Christian ministries or influences. |
| Resurrection | (1) The rising of Jesus Christ from the dead in AD 30. (2) The rising again to life of all the human dead throughout history before the Last Judgement. |
| retreat | A special center, or period, of group withdrawal to a place of seclusion for the purpose of deepening the spiritual life of participants through prayer, meditation and study under a retreat director. |
| returnee | An alien of long residence who is deported and forcibly repatriated to the country of his citizenship. |
| reunion | A union of churches or denominations after a period of separation or discord. |
| reunionist | An advocate of church reunion. |
| revival | A period of spontaneous religious awakening, or renewed interest in religion after indifference or decline; in some North American circles, a series of organized evangelistic meetings often characterized by emotional excitement; theologically, a great outpouring of the Spirit of God upon the churches. |
| Revivalist-Pentecostals | Perfectionist-Pentecostals (qv). |
| rice Christian | A convert to Christianity who accepts baptism not on the basis of personal conviction but out of a desire for food, medical services, or other material benefits |
| rite | One of the historical forms of the Christian eucharistic service; a division of the Christian church as determined by liturgy. |
| ritual | The prescribed order, words and actions of a religious ceremony. |
| roll-cleaning | The practice of regularly updating church membership rolls, in particular working through or over rolls in order to remove former members who have now died, left the area, given up church membership, or otherwise ceased to be properly eligible for the rolls. |
| rolls | Written lists of names of church members of all varieties. |
| Roman | Of or relating to the Catholic Church, or the Latin rite. |
| Roman Catholicism | Catholicism (qv). |
| Roman Orthodox | The common Arabic designation for Christians related to the 4 Byzantine (Eastern Orthodox) patriarchates in the Middle East, including Constantinople as the ‘New Rome’. |
| Romanian | Eastern Orthodox liturgical tradition (Romanian Orthodox Church). |
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.