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List Of Religions

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by

The ThelemaPedia Community

List of religions

*Part of the Thelema & Religion series*

The following is a list of religions. Note that the classification hereunder is only one of several possible. This system uses a filter system for categorization. A group will be listed in a category as close to the top of the page as the definitions for the category allow. Even if multiple definitions are applicable a religion will only be listed once. The definition of religion for this page is fairly liberal.

Table of Contents

Magical / Esoteric

Abrahamic religions

*Believers in One God also called classical Monotheism.*

  • Babism
  • Bahá’í
  • Bahá’í Faith
  • Druzism
  • Orthodox Bahá’í Faith
  • Samaritanism (Samaritans)
  • Mandaeanism
  • Rastafarianism
  • Black Hebrews

Christianity

  • Eastern Orthodoxy
  • Roman Catholicism
  • Oriental Orthodoxy (Monophysitism)
  • Nestorianism
  • Protestantism
  • Anabaptists
  • Anglicans
  • Baptists
  • Lutherans
  • Methodists
  • Pentecostalism|Pentecostals
  • Reformed
  • Presbyterian
  • Society of Friends (Quakers)
  • Waldensians
  • Restorationism
  • Jehovah’s Witnesses
  • Mormonism
  • Seventh-day Adventist

Gnosticism

  • Basilidians
  • Bogomils
  • Borborites
  • Cainites
  • Carpocratians
  • Cathars
  • Marcionism (not entirely Gnostic)
  • Ophites
  • Valentinians

Islam

  • Ahmadiyya
  • Kharijites
  • Ibadis
  • Sufris
  • Nation of Islam
  • Shi’a Islam (Shiite)
  • Alawites
  • Ismailis
  • Jafari
  • Zaiddiyah
  • Sunni Islam
  • Berailvi
  • Deobandi
  • Hanafi
  • Hanbali
  • Maliki
  • Mu’tazili
  • Shafi’i
  • Wahhabi
  • Sufism
  • Zikri

Judaism

  • Contemporary divisions
  • Karaite Judaism
  • Rabbinic Judaism
  • Orthodox Judaism
  • Haredi Judaism
  • Hassidic Judaism
  • Modern Orthodox Judaism
  • Reform Judaism
  • Conservative Judaism ( Masorti )
  • Reconstructionist Judaism
  • Humanistic Judaism
  • Historical Sects
  • Hasmoneans
  • Essenes
  • Pharisees
  • Sadducees
  • Zealots
  • Sicarii
  • Heretical sects that believed Jesus was a prophet
  • Ebionites
  • Elkasites
  • Nazarenes
  • Talmidaism
  • Crypto-Jews
  • Marranos
  • Conversos
  • Jewish messianic movements
  • Jacob Frank (Frankists)
  • Sabbatai Zevi (Sabbatians)
  • Donmeh

Dharmic religions

*Religions with a concept of Dharma, also major religions of historical India*

Hinduism

  • Agama Hindu Dharma (Javanese Hinduism)
  • Shaivism
  • Shaktism
  • Smartism
  • Vaishnavism
  • Swaminarayan Religion
  • Shree Swaminarayan Sampraday
  • Gaudiya Vaishnavism
  • ISKCON (Hare Krishna)
  • Six major schools and movements of Hindu philosophy
  • Samkhya
  • Nyaya
  • Vaisheshika
  • Purva mimamsa
  • Vedanta (Uttar Mimamsa)
  • Advaita Vedanta
  • Aurobindo|Integral Yoga
  • Yoga
  • Ashtanga Yoga
  • Hatha yoga
  • Siddha Yoga
  • Tantric Yoga

Buddhism

  • Mahayana
  • Nikaya Buddhism (which have historically been called Hinayana in the West)
  • Theravada
  • Vajrayana

Jainism

  • Digambara
  • Shvetambara

Other revealed religions

*These are broadly similar to Abrahamic religions in scope and nature, but follow a separate history of prophesy and belief*

Indigenous religions

*The orally transmitted canon of indigenous peoples, many involving some variant of animism and most defunct*

African religions

  • Akamba mythology
  • Akan mythology
  • Ashanti mythology
  • Bushongo mythology
  • Dahomey mythology
  • Dinka mythology
  • Efik mythology
  • Egyptian mythology
  • Isoko mythology
  • Khoikhoi mythology
  • Lotuko mythology
  • Lugbara mythology
  • Pygmy mythology
  • Tumbuka mythology
  • Yoruba mythology
  • Zulu mythology

European religions

  • Anglo-Saxon mythology
  • Basque mythology
  • Chukchi mythology
  • Druidry (Celtic Religion )
  • Finnish mythology
  • Greek religion
  • Roman mythology
  • Slavic mythology

Asian religions

  • Babylonian and Assyrian religion
  • Assyrian mythology
  • Babylonian mythology
  • Chaldean mythology
  • Sumerian mythology
  • Bön (Indigenous Tibetan belief)
  • Chinese mythology
  • Shinto
  • Oomoto
  • Tengrism (Indigenous Mongol, Tartar & Kazakh belief)
  • Yezidis (Modified indigenous Kurdish belief)

Native American religions

  • Abenaki mythology
  • Aztec mythology
  • Blackfoot mythology
  • Chippewa mythology
  • Creek mythology
  • Crow mythology
  • Guarani mythology
  • Haida mythology
  • Ho-Chunk mythology
  • Huron mythology
  • Ibo mythology
  • Iroquois mythology
  • Kwakiutl mythology
  • Lakota mythology
  • Lenape mythology
  • Navaho mythology
  • Nootka mythology
  • Pawnee mythology
  • Salish mythology
  • Seneca mythology
  • Tsimshian mythology
  • Ute mythology
  • Zuni mythology

Northern indigenous religions

  • Aleut mythology
  • Evenk mythology
  • Inuit mythology
  • Yukaghir mythology

Oceanic religions

  • Australian Aboriginal mythology
  • Balinese mythology
  • Micronesian mythology
  • Maori mythology
  • Modekngei (Republic of Palau )
  • Nauruan indigenous religion
  • Polynesian mythology
  • Tuvaluan mythology

Neopaganism

*Modern religions seeking to recreate indigenous, usually pre-Christian, beliefs and practices*

  • Ásatrú
  • Church of All Worlds
  • Dievturiba
  • Ghost Dance
  • Neo-druidism
  • Judeo-Paganism
  • Hellênismos
  • Orisha (beliefs of the former West African slaves in the New World)
  • Kumina
  • Obeah
  • Santeria (*Lukumi*)
  • Voudun
  • Beninese Vodun
  • La Regla Arara
  • Jeje Vodun
  • Sèvis Gine
  • Kongo (beliefs of the former South and Central African (Bantu) slaves in the New World
  • Candomblé
  • Macumba
  • Palo
  • Mayombe
  • Kimbisa
  • Briyumba
  • Malongo
  • Umbanda and Quimbanda
  • Xango
  • Rodoverie (Slavic paganism)
  • Summum

Wicca

  • Alexandrian Wicca
  • Dianic Wicca ( Feminist Wicca )
  • Gardnerian Wicca
  • Seax-Wica
  • Faery Wicca
  • Feri Tradition

Non-revealed religions

*Philosophies not transmitted by a divine prophet*

  • Taoism
  • Confucianism
  • Carvaka
  • Fellowship of Reason
  • Spiritual Humanism
  • Mohism
  • Prometheism 1(http://www.prometheism.net/) (*http://www.prometheism.net/*)

Left-Hand Path religions

*The ultimate goal is separating consciousness from the universe, rather than being absorbed by it*

  • Demonolatry
  • Dragon Rouge
  • Satanism
  • LaVeyan Satanism
  • Church of Satan
  • First Satanic Church
  • Order of Nine Angles
  • Setianism *also spelled Sethianism*
  • Temple of Set
  • The Storm
  • Quimbanda

Syncretic religions

*Faiths created from blending earlier religions or that consider all or some religions to be essentially the same*

  • Revelation of Arès
  • Cao Dai
  • Falun Dafa ( Falun Gong )
  • Huna
  • Konkokyo
  • Law of One
  • Mahikari 2(http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/easia/mahik.html) (*http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/easia/mahik.html*)
  • Manichaeism
  • Unitarian Universalism
  • Universal Life Church
  • Tenrikyo
  • Theosophy
  • Seicho-No-Ie

Entheogen religions

*Religions based around divinely inspiring substances*

  • Ayahuasca-based beliefs
  • Santo Daime 3(http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/latam/santo.html) (*http://philtar.ucsm.ac.uk/encyclopedia/latam/santo.html*)
  • União do Vegetal
  • Church of the Universe (marijuana sacrament)
  • Peyotism
  • THC Ministry

New religious movements

*Religions founded since 1850 with small followings*

Indigenous NRM’s

  • Burkhanism
  • Cargo cults
  • Ghost Dance
  • Native American Church

African Diaspora / Latin American NRM’s

  • Rastafarianism
  • Umbanda
  • Candomble

Hindu-oriented NRM’s

  • Sai Baba / Sathya Sai Baba
  • Hare Krishna
  • Transcendental Meditation
  • Sant Mat
  • Swaminarayan
  • Vedanta Society
  • Rajneeshism
  • Meher Baba (actually a Zoroastrian)

NRM’s with Islamic Roots

  • Subud
  • Ahmadi
  • Baha’i
  • Dances of Universal Peace
  • Said Nursi
  • Nation of Islam (Black Muslims)

Christian-oriented NRM’s

  • Unification Church
  • Jehovah’s Witnesses
  • Adventism
  • Mormonism
  • Jesus People
  • Children of God
  • People’s Temple
  • Pentecostalism
  • Holiness movement

Buddhist-oriented NRM’s

  • Soka Gakkai
  • Won Buddhism
  • Hoa Hao
  • Friends of the Western Buddhist Order

Chinese-oriented NRM’s

  • I-Kuan Tao
  • Falun Gong

Japanese-oriented NRM’s

  • Tenrikyo
  • Seicho no Ie
  • Johrei or Reiki
  • Oomoto
  • Soka Gakkai
  • Aum Shinrikyo

Korean-oriented NRM’s

  • Chondogyo
  • Unification Church

Vietnamese-oriented NRM’s

  • Caodaism
  • Hoa Hao

White Supremacist Religions

  • Church of Jesus Christ Christian
  • Covenant of the Sword and the Arm of the Lord
  • World Church of the Creator ( Creativity Movement )
  • Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan 4(http://www.adl.org/backgrounders/american_knights_kkk.asp) (*http://www.adl.org/backgrounders/american_knights_kkk.asp*)

Alien-based religions

  • The Aetherius Society 5(http://www.aetherius.org/index.html) (*http://www.aetherius.org/index.html*)
  • Raelism
  • Scientology
  • Church of Scientology
  • Free Zone
  • Unarius society ( Unarius Academy of Science ) 6(http://www.unarius.org/start.html) (*http://www.unarius.org/start.html*)
  • Urantia, Book of

Other NRM’s

  • Anthroposophy
  • Aum Shinrikyo ( Aleph )
  • Baluan Native Christian United Church
  • Breatharianism (Air cult)
  • Brianism
  • Christian Fellowship Church of New Georgia
  • Church Universal and Triumphant
  • Eckankar
  • Elan Vital
  • Faithists of Kosmon
  • Juche (The personality cult of North Korean leaders)
  • Order of the Solar Temple
  • Process Church|Process Church of the Final Judgement
  • Purtillology
  • Racist religions
  • Sathya Sai Organisation
  • Kardecist Spiritism
  • Subud
  • Tuka Movement
  • The Unification Church (Moonies)
  • Church of Virus
  • Yoism

Parody or mock religions

*Groups that poke fun at other religions or religion in general*

  • Church of the SubGenius (The cult of Bob Dobbs)
  • Discordianism (The Cult of Eris, the Goddess of Chaos)
  • Church of Bill Nye The Science Guy
  • Church of God the Utterly Indifferent
  • Elvis religions
  • Church of Jesus Christ Elvis
  • The First Preslyterian Church of Elvis the Divine 7(http://www.geocities.com/presleyterian_church/home.html) (*http://www.geocities.com/presleyterian_church/home.html*)
  • Fictional religions turned Parody
  • Bokononism
  • Jedi census movement
  • The First Church of the Last Laugh 8(http://www.saintstupid.com/) (*http://www.saintstupid.com/*)
  • Invisible Pink Unicorn
  • Kibology
  • Landover Baptist Church
  • Universal Church of Google
  • Roshambo (religion)|Roshambo
  • Shatnerology
  • Text editor religions
  • Church of Emacs
  • Cult of Vi
  • First Church of Pac-Man 9(http://www.flamingmayo.com/firstchurchofpacman/) (*http://www.flamingmayo.com/firstchurchofpacman/*)

Context: Nonsectarian and trans-sectarian religious movements and practices

Mysticism

  • Christian mysticism

Forms of religion

  • Monolatrism
  • Humanism
  • [Statistics on religious belief or adherence](http://www.adherents.com/) (*http://www.adherents.com*)
  • [Sacred Texts](http://www.sacred-texts.com/) (*http://www.sacred-texts.com*)

References

  • Adapted from: Wikipedia. (2005). *[List of Religions](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religions) (*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religions*)*. Retrieved June 11, 2005.