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Sacred Correspondences
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All Devotional Practices

Ongoing acts of personal devotion toward a deity or sacred figure, the largest subcategory in the practice type and its broadest, covering everything from private prayer habits to pilgrimage undertaken as an act of piety. Where a devotional act has hardened into a fixed formal rite, it is generally filed instead under devotional rituals in the ritual type.

Facts
Overview
What Defines This Grouping
The sustained acts by which adherents attend to a deity, ancestor or holy figure - prayer at fixed hours, recitation and chant, offerings at a shrine or home altar, veneration of saints and images, pilgrimage. It is the widest and loosest of these groupings and holds acts that are obligatory in one tradition and freely optional in another. 2
Status
Standing as a Comparative Category
A standard analytic category in the study of religion 2
Directory
Category
Practices 1
Comparison
Primary Academic Discipline
Comparative Religion 3
Learn More
The Devotional Practices

This group gathers devotional practices, the acts by which the faithful express love, reverence and dependence toward the divine: prayer, worship, praise, offering, the reciting of names and the observance of daily and seasonal devotion. It is the largest practice grouping in the atlas, reflecting how central devotion is to religious life.

The browser will find devotional practices from across the world's traditions. The entries describe each practice's form, purpose and setting, noting the tradition to which it belongs and how it is performed.

All Devotional Practices
Filter Results158 entries

Raf al-Yadayn

Devotional Practices

Rak'a

Devotional Practices

Rapithwin Gah

Devotional Practices

Refuge in Buddhism

Devotional Practices

Retablo and Santos

Devotional Practices

Roman Imperial Cult

Devotional Practices

Sahaj Path

Devotional Practices

Sai between Safa and Marwa

Devotional Practices

Salatul Tasbih

Devotional Practices

Sama (spiritual music and whirling)

Devotional Practices

Sand Mandala

Devotional Practices

Sandhyavandanam

Devotional Practices

Sefirat HaOmer

Devotional Practices

Selichot

Devotional Practices

Sermon

Devotional Practices

Seven Sacraments

Devotional Practices

Sext

Devotional Practices

Shacharit

Devotional Practices

Shakyo (Devotional Sutra Copying)

Devotional Practices

Shidian

Devotional Practices

Shodo (Japanese Calligraphy)

Devotional Practices

Shrine offerings and worship

Devotional Practices

Sitting in salah

Devotional Practices

Soferut (STaM Scribal Art)

Devotional Practices

Solitary self-directed practice

Devotional Practices

Speaking in tongues (glossolalia)

Devotional Practices

Stations of the Cross

Devotional Practices

Sujud Sahwi

Devotional Practices

Tahajjud

Devotional Practices

Talismanic and exorcistic ritual

Devotional Practices

Tarawih

Devotional Practices

Tawaf

Devotional Practices

Temple Elephants

Devotional Practices

Tending the sacred fire

Devotional Practices

Terce

Devotional Practices

Thangka Painting

Devotional Practices

Thanksgiving (gratitude)

Devotional Practices

The Cem ceremony

Devotional Practices

The Five Pillars

Devotional Practices

Thuluth Calligraphy

Devotional Practices

Tilaka

Devotional Practices

Uchen Calligraphy

Devotional Practices

Unprogrammed silent worship

Devotional Practices

Use of the Book of Common Prayer

Devotional Practices

Ushahin Gah

Devotional Practices

Uzerin Gah

Devotional Practices

Veneration of icons

Devotional Practices

Veneration of saints and Mary

Devotional Practices

Veneration of saints and their shrines

Devotional Practices

Vespers

Devotional Practices

Votive Offering (Anathema)

Devotional Practices

Vrata

Devotional Practices

Wearing the Five Ks

Devotional Practices

Witr

Devotional Practices

Women-only covens

Devotional Practices

Women's Mosque Movement

Devotional Practices

Worship of the lingam

Devotional Practices

Yahrzeit

Devotional Practices
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. Worship and Devotional LifeView the Source
3. 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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