Divinity Atlas

Sacred Correspondences
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Solitary or Communal

This page groups practices by whether they are carried out alone or with others. Wikipedia distinguishes "communal rites, whether of worship, where a community comes together to worship" from "rites of personal devotion, where an individual worships, including prayer and pilgrimages." Browsing this way lets a visitor separate a group ceremony from a practice one person performs alone.

Facts
Overview
What Defines This Grouping
Giving required or commended by a tradition - zakat, tithing, sadaqah, seva, langar. The grouping holds obligatory levies at a fixed rate with named categories of recipient alongside voluntary gifts and unpaid service, which are not the same kind of act: a legal due and a free gift differ in who may compel them and in what failing to give means. 2
Status
Standing as a Comparative Category
A standard analytic category in the study of religion 2
Directory
Category
Practices 1
Learn More
The charitable practices

This group holds charitable practices, the acts of giving and service enjoined by the traditions as religious duty and virtue: almsgiving, care for the poor and the stranger, and generosity as a path of merit or righteousness. Charity is a central obligation in most of the world's religions.

The browser will find charitable practices from across the traditions. The entries describe each practice's form and religious basis, noting the tradition that commands it.

Solitary or Communal
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005s.v. AlmsgivingView the Source
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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