Terms You Should Know Agnosticism - an intellectual doctrine or attitude affirming the uncertainty of all claims to ultimate knowledge; the belief that one is incapable of knowing whether or not there is a deity.
Apocrypha - a group of 14 books, not considered canonical, included in the Septuagint and the Vulgate as part of the Old Testament, but usually omitted from Protestant editions of the Bible.
Apologetics - the field of study concerned with the defense or proof of Christianity
Atheism - the absence of a belief in god.
Deontology - the ethical system which holds that morality is decided by a criteria or entity independent of the effect of the action.
Dharma - in Hinduism and Buddhism, the principle of virtue which orders the entire universe.
Catholic - an adherent to the Roman Catholic faith as represented by the Doctors of the Church, canon law, and the pope.
Ethics - the prescriptive study of morality; the study of how we determine what is right and wrong.
Evangelical or Evangelicalism - a subdivision of Christianity that typically refers to Christians who hold to the ultimate authority of scripture over church administration, the need for personal conversion, the need to impart Jesus into other by way of evangelism or social reform, and an emphasis on the work of Jesus on the cross as the means by which people are saved.
Exegesis - critical explanation or interpretation of a text or portion of a text with respect to its literary, social, and historical context.
Fundamentalist - strict adherence to any set of basic ideas or principles or, specific to Christianity, anyone adhering to the total infallibility of a strictly literal translation of the Bible.
Gnosticism - a group of ancient heresies, stressing escape from this world through the acquisition of cryptic knowledge, responsible for the production of the so called "Gnostic gospels."
Hadith - traditional account of things said or done by Muhammad or his companions or, if used plurally, the whole body of these accounts.
Jihad - from the Arabic for struggle, it refers both to the Muslim's struggle for self perfection as well as a holy war or struggle against the infidels.
Karma - in Hinduism, Buddhism, and other religions, the cosmic principle where each person is rewarded or punished according to that person's deeds either in this life or a future incarnation.
Nirvana - a state of perpetual freedom from pain, worry, and attachment entered into by Buddhists who have achieved enlightenment and broken the cycle of reincarnation.
Pantheism - a religious or philosophical belief that equates god with the entirety of the universe represented in everything
Philosophy - the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct.
Polemics - the practice of theological argumentation to refute errors of doctrine.
Protestant - any church which descended from a religious belief that broke away from the Roman Catholic Church during the Reformation.
Pseudepigrapha - A body of texts written between 200 B.C. and A.D. 200 and falsely ascribed to various prophets and kings of Hebrew Scriptures.
Reincarnation - the belief that a person's essence enters into and becomes another form upon their death and is then born again into a new incarnation.
Religion - a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe typically, but not universally, involving belief in the supernatural, ritualistic observances, and a specific ethical system to determine the morality of behavior.
Sanctification - the process by which a person is made pure or holy according to the particular statutes of said person's religion.
Shi'ite - a member of the branch of Islam that regards Ali and his descendants as the legitimate successors to Muhammad and rejects the first three caliphs.
Spirituality - beliefs pertaining to the immaterial or spiritual aspects of the world.
Sunni - a member of one of the two great religious divisions of Islam, regarding the first four caliphs as legitimate successors of Muhammad and stressing the importance of Sunna as a basis for law.
Talmud - the collection of ancient Rabbinic writings consisting of the Mishnah and the Gemara, constituting the basis of religious authority in Orthodox Judaism.
Theology - the field of study that focuses on the nature and will of a particular deity.
Torah - another name for the Pentateuch or first five books of the Jewish Bible or Christian Old Testament.
Utilitarianism - the ethical system which holds that the moral action is determined by an evaluation of what is best for the greatest number of people.