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Sacred Correspondences
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All Core Tenets

The claims a tradition treats as central, the propositions an adherent is expected to affirm rather than the customs they are expected to keep. This is the largest belief subcategory by a wide margin, reflecting how much of what a tradition holds is filed here by default when it does not fit a narrower belief type such as a dietary restriction or a moral precept.

Facts
Overview
What Defines This Grouping
The central affirmations of a tradition, stated one at a time. What counts as a core tenet is set by each tradition, and traditions differ over whether assent to stated propositions is what makes a member: creedal Christianity and Islam draw such lists explicitly, while Judaism, Hinduism and most Indigenous traditions do not. 2
Status
Standing as a Comparative Category
Used, but its validity as a comparative category is disputed 3
Directory
Category
Beliefs & Restrictions 1
Comparison
Primary Academic Discipline
Comparative Religion 4
Learn More
The core tenets

This group gathers the core tenets of the traditions, the central affirmations and defining beliefs that stand at the heart of a religion or worldview, the doctrines a tradition holds as essential to its identity. It is the largest belief grouping in the atlas.

The browser will find the core tenets the atlas gathers from across the traditions. The entries describe each belief in its own terms, distinguishing what a tradition affirms of itself from the historical and comparative perspective of scholarship.

All Core Tenets
Filter Results368 entries

Radha's Love for Krishna Is the Highest Religious Condition

Core Tenets

Receptionism

Core Tenets

Recognition of One's Own Identity as Shiva Is Liberation

Core Tenets

Refusal of the oath

Moral Precepts

Reincarnate lamas (tulku)

Cosmological Beliefs

Reincarnation (samsara)

Cosmological Beliefs

Rejection of outward sacraments

Core Tenets

Rejection of the filioque

Core Tenets

Rejection of the Oral Torah (Talmud)

Core Tenets

Religion Is Not Merely Mistaken but Harmful and Should Be Criticised Openly

Core Tenets

Religious duty consists in doing justice and loving mercy

Moral Precepts

Religious Guidance Passes Through Hereditary Holy Lineages

Core Tenets

Religious truth is known by reason, not revelation

Core Tenets

Restoration of the New Testament church

Core Tenets

Right conduct of the Eightfold Path

Moral Precepts

Rulings Are Taken From the Texts Directly, Not From a School of Law

Core Tenets

Sacramental union (real presence in the Eucharist)

Core Tenets

Salvation by grace

Core Tenets

Salvation through faith in Amitabha Buddha

Core Tenets

Sama: Music and Listening Carry the Seeker Toward God

Core Tenets

Scholarly asceticism devoted to scriptural study

Core Tenets

Scholarly Consensus Carries No Authority Over the Believer

Core Tenets

Scripture alone (sola scriptura)

Core Tenets

Scripture as witness rather than as history

Core Tenets

Scripture Is Read as Metaphysical Allegory

Core Tenets

Self-deification through Xeper

Core Tenets

Self-directed practice drawn from many traditions

Core Tenets

Self-emptiness (rangtong): things are empty of their own inherent existence

Cosmological Beliefs

Self-initiation and open, non-secretive practice

Core Tenets

Seth Is the Ancestor of a Saved Race and a Revealer

Core Tenets

Seventh-day (Saturday) Sabbath

Core Tenets

Shellfish are forbidden

Dietary Restrictions

Shikantaza, just sitting

Core Tenets

Shinjin, entrusting faith, as the cause of birth in the Pure Land

Core Tenets

Shiva as the supreme deity

Core Tenets

Soul liberty and the separation of church and state

Core Tenets

Souls and Matter Form the Body of God

Core Tenets

Souls Are Eternally Graded and Not All Are Destined for Liberation

Cosmological Beliefs

Spiritual Mind Treatment: Affirmative Prayer Directed at a Condition

Core Tenets

Spiritual presence (real presence received by faith)

Core Tenets

Sri Mediates Between the Soul and Vishnu

Core Tenets

Strict vegetarianism, no root vegetables

Dietary Restrictions

Subscription to a confession of faith

Core Tenets

Sudden enlightenment beyond words and scripture

Core Tenets

Surrender Is a Sufficient Means of Liberation

Core Tenets

Tantra as a swift path to enlightenment

Core Tenets

Taqiyya: Belief May Be Concealed Under Threat

Core Tenets

Terma: teachings concealed and later revealed as treasure

Core Tenets

The Amsterdam Declaration States the Fundamental Principles of Humanism

Core Tenets

The arhat ideal

Core Tenets

The avatars of Vishnu (dashavatara)

Cosmological Beliefs

The bardo, the intermediate state between death and rebirth

Cosmological Beliefs

The bodhisattva ideal

Core Tenets

The Body Can Be Perfected into a Deathless State Through Yoga

Core Tenets

The Book of Mormon as additional scripture

Core Tenets

The Cem Is the Community's Central Act of Worship

Core Tenets

The Chain of Transmission Runs Through Abu Bakr

Core Tenets

The Chain of Transmission Runs Through Ali

Core Tenets

The Clergy Are Kessoch, Priests Rather Than Rabbis

Core Tenets

The Community's Core Teaching Is Held Closed to All but Initiated Men

Core Tenets

The cosmic struggle of good and evil

Cosmological Beliefs

The covenant between God and Israel

Core Tenets

The cow is sacred and not eaten

Taboos

The Creator of This World Is a Lesser Power Beneath the True God

Cosmological Beliefs

The Filioque: The Spirit Proceeds From the Father and the Son

Core Tenets

The five great vows (mahavratas)

Moral Precepts

The five periods and eight teachings as the order of the Buddha's preaching

Core Tenets

The five points of Calvinism (TULIP)

Core Tenets

The Four Noble Truths

Core Tenets

The Four Regulative Principles Forbid Meat, Intoxication, Illicit Sex and Gambling

Prohibitions

The full inclusion of LGBTQ people in ordination and marriage

Moral Precepts

The Fylgja: A Spirit That Follows a Person or Family

Cosmological Beliefs

The God and the Goddess (divine duality)

Core Tenets

The Goddess as supreme (Shakti)

Core Tenets

The Gohonzon as the object of devotion

Core Tenets

The graduated path to enlightenment (lamrim)

Core Tenets

The guru as the root of the path

Core Tenets

The historic episcopate

Core Tenets

The Holy Leaven (Malka) in the Eucharistic Bread

Core Tenets

The Holy Trinity

Core Tenets

The Humanist Manifesto Is a Revisable Statement, Not a Creed

Core Tenets

The Imam must rise and rule as a qualified descendant of Ali

Core Tenets

The Imamate (divinely appointed succession through Ali)

Core Tenets

The Immaculate Conception and bodily Assumption of Mary

Core Tenets

The imminent Second Coming of Christ

Cosmological Beliefs

The Inner Light

Core Tenets

The inseparability of samsara and nirvana

Cosmological Beliefs

The Ishtalinga Is Worn on the Body and Worshipped in Place of Temple Images

Core Tenets

The Julian Calendar for the Fixed Feasts

Core Tenets

The Kalachakra tantra and its six branch yoga as the culminating practice

Core Tenets

The Karmapa line as the first recognized succession of reincarnate teachers

Core Tenets

The living Imam as present guide

Core Tenets

The Lotus Sutra as the supreme teaching

Core Tenets

The middle way avoids both eternalism and annihilationism

Core Tenets

The Movement Appoints No Successor and Has No Living Rebbe

Core Tenets

The nembutsu is said in gratitude and not to earn merit

Core Tenets

The nine vehicles (yanas)

Core Tenets

The Old Rite as Received Before the Nikonian Reforms

Core Tenets

The Order's Litany Was Received From the Prophet in Waking Vision

Core Tenets

The ordination of women

Core Tenets
Sources
1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Tree
2. Encyclopedia of Religion
Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005View the Source
3. Belief, Language, and Experience
Rodney Needham, Basil Blackwell, 1972
4. Wikipedia: Comparative religion
WikipediaComparative religion, opening definition
Quote, Comparative religion, opening definition
Comparative religion is the branch of religious studies that systematically compares the doctrines, practices, themes and impacts (including migration) of the worlds religions.
View the Source
Divinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptions
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