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Binding, without a formal definition

This page groups beliefs by their standing within a body of teaching. Wikipedia notes that "beliefs are the subject of various important philosophical debates," including how "fine-grained or coarse-grained" a given belief actually is. Browsing by status-within-the-tradition lets a visitor tell a settled belief from a contested one.

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

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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A closed community forbidding conversion and intermarriage

A Disciple May Hold No Other Sufi Affiliation

A Married Parish Priesthood With Celibate Bishops

A Solitary Report Is Weighed Against the Established Principles of the Quran

A Transmitted Report Outweighs Reasoning by Analogy

Ahura Mazda as the one supreme creator

An Expanded Biblical Canon Including Enoch and Jubilees

Analogical Reasoning Is Not a Source of Law

Ancestral Sin as Inherited Mortality Rather Than Inherited Guilt

Aql: Reason Stands Beside Quran, Sunna and Consensus as a Source of Law

Arminianism (free will and universal atonement)

Ascetic renunciation and celibate monasticism

Atheistic Satanism (Satan as symbol of the self)

Auspicia: Jupiter's Consent Read in the Birds

Authority of the four Sunni schools of jurisprudence

Autocephaly and Conciliar Governance Without a Universal Primate

Baptism in the Holy Spirit

Belief May Not Be Concealed, Whatever the Danger

Believer's baptism (credobaptism)

Biblical inerrancy

Both the Sanskrit Vedas and the Tamil Hymns of the Alvars Are Revelation

Caste Hierarchy and Vedic Ritualism Are Rejected

Christian perfection (entire sanctification)

Conditional immortality (annihilationism)

Congregational Chanting of the Divine Names Is the Practice Appointed for This Age

Congregational church governance

Continuation of the spiritual gifts (charismata)

Continuing revelation through living prophets

Dependent origination (pratitya-samutpada)

Descended from Zoroastrians who migrated to India

Devotion to a Rebbe and mystical joy

Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, as the highest teaching

Emptiness (sunyata)

Episcopal church governance

Esoteric interpretation of scripture (batin)

Eternal progression and exaltation

Every Believer Must Follow a Living Jurist in Matters of Law

Exclusive worship of the Goddess

Five Eternal Differences Divide God, Souls and Matter

God created the world but does not intervene in it

God's Attributes Are Affirmed as Revealed, Without Asking How

God's Attributes Are Real and Are Neither God Nor Other Than God

Good and Evil Are Knowable by Reason

Good and Evil Are Known Only Through Revelation

Halakha is binding and authoritative

Halakha is binding but evolves through scholarship

Human beings are responsible for their own meaning and purpose

Ijma: The Consensus of the Scholars Is Binding

Impermanence (anicca)

Individual autonomy in observance

Infant baptism (paedobaptism)

Initiation into the Khalsa

Initiatory lineage and three degrees

Jesus survived the crucifixion

Judaism as an evolving religious civilization

Justification by faith alone (sola fide)

Kami (sacred spirits in nature)

Karma: action determines future rebirth

Krishna Is the Supreme Person, Not an Avatar of Vishnu

Lamdre, the path and its fruit

Leadership by the most qualified elected imam

Liberation Comes Through Knowledge Rather Than Works or Devotion

Lineage of the Celestial Masters

Mahamudra, the Great Seal

Married ritual priesthood

Mary Confessed as Mother of Christ Rather Than Mother of God

Miaphysitism (one incarnate nature of Christ)

Miracles and revealed prophecy are not credible

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad as the promised Messiah and Mahdi

Monastic celibacy and asceticism (Complete Reality)

Monks and nuns wear white robes (white-clad)

Monks practice nudity (sky-clad)

Mystical union with God (fana)

Non-theistic activist Satanism

Nontrinitarianism

Norse and Saxon deities (Woden and Freya)

One formless God (Ik Onkar)

Ordination Descends Through a Codified Monastic Precept Lineage

Organized founder-led sects

Original enlightenment (hongaku)