Browse Creeds
33 results
Ahmadiyya
- Present
A South Asian messianic reform movement within the broad Islamic world, Ahmadiyya combines nineteenthâcentury prophetic claims with organized missionary activity and a centralized caliphal institution, while its selfâunderstanding has generated intense controversy and persecution in several countries.
Armenian Apostolic Church
- Present
One of the oldest Christian communions and the church traditionally associated with the first state to adopt Christianity, the Armenian Apostolic Church combines a distinct liturgical patrimony, an ancient scriptural culture, and a long history of negotiation between ecclesiastical identity and national life.
Arya Samaj
- Present
A lateâ19thâcentury Vedic reform movement that sought to recover what its founders presented as the authority of the Vedas, Arya Samaj reconfigured Hindu practice and social reform in colonial India and continues as a living, plural movement of education, ritual, and social activism.
Brahmo Samaj
- Present
A Bengali movement that reworked Hindu practice into an English-language, monotheistic reform project, the Brahmo Samaj shaped nineteenth-century Indian public religion and continues as a living, diverse body of congregations and institutions.
Bön
- Present
An indigenous Tibetan religious tradition that traces its origins to the high plateaus and the kingdom of Zhangâzhung, Bön survives today as a living faith and corpus of ritual, philosophy, and monastic institutions practiced alongside Tibetan Buddhism.
Caodaism
- Present
A Vietnamese syncretic religion that assembles Buddhist, Confucian, Taoist, Christian and modern Western figures into a single cosmologyâmost strikingly venerating Victor Hugo among its saints.
Cheondoism
- Present
Cheondoism (Cheondogyo), known as the 'Heavenly Way,' is a modern Korean religious movement that emerged from the mid-nineteenthâcentury Donghak reform movement and continues as a living, socially engaged faith centered on the notion that Heaven (Hananim) is immanent in human life.
Chinese Folk Religion (Shenism)
- Present
A diffuse, syncretic popular faith centered on gods (shen), ancestors, and local temples that has been woven into Chinese social life for millennia.
Confucianism
- Present
A living ethical-religious tradition centered on ritual, ancestor reverence, and moral cultivation that has shaped social life across East Asia for two and a half millennia.
Falun Gong (Falun Dafa)
- Present
A qigong-rooted spiritual movement that rose in 1990s China and became both a transnational devotional practice and a focal point of confrontation with the Chinese state.
HĂČa HáșŁo
- Present
A rural reform movement of Vietnamese Buddhism that arose in the Mekong Delta in 1939, HĂČa HáșŁo emphasizes simple lay devotion, moral renewal, and a vernacular corpus of teachings attributed to its founder.
ISKCON (Hare Krishna)
- Present
A modern global movement that transplanted and popularized Gaudiya Vaishnava devotion from Bengal into a worldwide institutional form, known for public chanting, temple worship, and large-scale publishing of devotional texts.
Ismaili Shia
- Present
A living branch of Shia Islam centered on a hereditary imamate and a long-standing emphasis on esoteric interpretation, expressed today through community institutions, devotional traditions, and global social engagement.
Jainism â Digambara
- Present
A tradition of radical renunciation and doctrinal rigor within Jainism, Digambara articulates a 'skyâclad' path in which nonâpossession and ascetic solitude are presented as the surest route to the soul's liberation.
Jainism â ĆvetÄmbara
- Present
The ĆvetÄmbara community of Jainism â the âwhite-cladâ path â articulates an ethic of radical nonâviolence, disciplined renunciation, and textual custodianship that has shaped religious life in western India for two millennia.
Lingayatism (Veerashaivism)
- Present
A 12thâcentury South Indian reform movement centered on Basavaâs call for a lived devotion to a personal linga, Lingayatism (Veerashaivism) remains a distinctive, contested strand of Shaiva religiosity that foregrounds work, equality, and vernacular scripture.
Mahayana
- Present
Mahayana presents itself as the Great Vehicle: a broad, evolving family of Buddhist teachings that places the bodhisattva ideal and universal compassion at the center of spiritual life while cultivating a rich philosophical and ritual repertoire across Asia and beyond.
Nichiren / Soka Gakkai
- Present
A devotional, Lotus-centered strand of Japanese Buddhism that gave rise to a vibrant modern lay movement, articulating personal faith through the chant 'Namu MyĆhĆ Renge KyĆ' and vigorous social engagement.
Pure Land (JĆdo ShinshĆ«)
- Present
A devotional, people-centered strand of Pure Land Buddhism that teaches liberation by entrusting oneself to Amida Buddha's compassion rather than by ritual or meditative self-effort.
Shaivism
- Present
Shaivism is the diverse family of Hindu traditions that center on Shivaâranging from ascetic, temple-centered, and tantric paths to popular devotional movementsâuniting powerful images of destruction and regeneration with practices of renunciation and ritual intensity.
Shaktism
- Present
A stream of Hindu devotion and practice that elevates the Goddess (Devi) as the supreme principle, Shaktism interweaves Puranic myths, medieval and tantric literature, and popular worship into diverse forms of ritual, poetry, and contemplative discipline.
Shingon
- Present
A living lineage of Japanese esoteric Buddhism centered on ritual, mandala, and mantra â Shingon is the mountain-born tradition that claims direct transmission of tantric practice from the Tang court to medieval Japan and continues as a distinctive form of Buddhist life today.
Shinto
- Present
An indigenous Japanese faith centered on kami (sacred powers or deities), lived through shrines, seasonal festivals, and a porous relationship with Buddhism and the modern state.
Sikhism
- Present
A monotheistic tradition born in fifteenth-century Punjab that combines devotional poetry, communal service, and a history of both nonâsectarian spiritual practice and organized temporal authority.
Smartism
- Present
A philosophically oriented, multi-deity current within Hinduism that reads the Vedas through an Advaita (nondual) lens while preserving household worship of several gods.
Swaminarayan Sampradaya
- Present
A nineteenth-century Gujarati bhakti movement that reconfigured Vaishnava devotion into a disciplined community life andâthrough significant twentieth-century institutional developmentsâexpanded into a global temple-building and social service network.
Taoism
- Present
Taoism is a living Chinese religious tradition and cultural horizon centered on the Dao â a pervasive concept of way or process â that has evolved from early philosophical texts into diverse religious institutions, practices of cosmological cultivation, and long-standing alchemical, ritual, and ethical lineages.
Tengrism / Mongolian Shamanism
- Present
A sky-centred indigenous religious complex of the Eurasian steppe â historically bound up with nomadic rulership and ancestor spirits, and in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries the subject of revival, scholarly reappraisal, and political invention across Mongolia, Central Asia and Siberia.
Tenrikyo
- Present
A 19thâcentury Japanese revelation centered on the figure known as Oyasama that teaches a way of daily life called the 'Joyous Life' and now maintains a global institutional presence centered in Tenri, Nara.
Theravada
- Present
The 'Way of the Elders': a living, monastic-centered stream of Buddhism rooted in the PÄli textual tradition and practiced across Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia.
Tibetan Vajrayana
- Present
A tantric, monastic, and lineage-centered form of Buddhism that has shaped Himalayan polities, artistic worlds, and global spiritual exchange â organized around tantra, lamaic lineages, and the institutional weight of the Dalai Lama lineage.
Vaishnavism
- Present
A multifaceted current of Hindu devotion centered on Vishnu and his avatarsâespecially Krishna and RamaâVaishnavism comprises theological systems, temple cultures, and devotional movements that have shaped South Asian religiosity and migrated into a global diaspora.
Zen (Chan)
- Present
Zen (Chan) is a living stream of Mahayana Buddhism that emphasizes disciplined meditation, direct master-to-student transmission, and pedagogiesâsuch as koansâthat aim to disclose awakening beyond the letter of scripture.