Non-Christian Faiths and Organizations

The Non-Christian branch of the directory is organized by faith tradition. Under each tradition stand its schools and organizations, then their communities, then the places where they meet.

In no particular order.

Bahá'í

The Bahá'í Faith teaches the oneness of God, of religion, and of humanity, following the revelation given to Bahá'u'lláh in the nineteenth century.

  • Local Spiritual Assemblies — the elected local bodies of each Bahá'í community.
  • National Spiritual Assemblies — the elected national bodies that administer Bahá'í affairs in each country.
  • The Universal House of Justice — the elected world governing body of the Bahá'í Faith, seated in Haifa, Israel.

Buddhist

Buddhism follows the awakening of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, and is lived in monasteries, temples, and lay practice across Asia and the world. See the Buddhist world view.

  • Nichiren Buddhism — the Japanese school devoted to the Lotus Sutra and the chanting of its title.
  • Pure Land — the Mahayana school of devotion to Amitabha Buddha, the largest form of Buddhism in East Asia.
  • Soka Gakkai — a lay Buddhist movement of the Nichiren tradition, based in Japan with members worldwide.
  • Theravada — the oldest surviving school, dominant in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, keeping the Pali Canon.
  • Tibetan Buddhism — the Vajrayana Buddhism of Tibet and the Himalayas, in its Gelug, Kagyu, Nyingma, and Sakya schools.
  • Zen — the Mahayana school of meditation seated in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.

Hindu

Hinduism is the family of traditions native to India, centered on dharma, karma, and liberation from rebirth, worshipped in temples and in homes. See the Hindu world view.

  • Arya Samaj — a reform movement founded in 1875 that returns to the Vedas alone.
  • ISKCON — the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, the Hare Krishna movement founded in 1966.
  • Shaivism — the tradition devoted to Shiva, among the oldest currents of Hindu practice.
  • Shaktism — the tradition devoted to the Goddess in her many forms.
  • Smarta Tradition — the tradition following the philosopher Shankara, worshipping five deities as forms of the one reality.
  • Swaminarayan Sampradaya — a Vaishnava tradition founded by Swaminarayan in the early nineteenth century.
  • Vaishnavism — the tradition devoted to Vishnu and his avatars, the largest family within Hinduism.

Indigenous and Traditional

Indigenous and traditional religions are the rooted faiths of particular peoples and places, carried by custom, story, and rite rather than by scripture.

  • Aboriginal Australian Traditions — the traditions of the Dreaming held by Australia's first peoples.
  • African Traditional Religions — the rooted faiths of Africa's peoples, including the Yoruba religion, carried also into the Americas.
  • Chinese Folk Religion — the household and temple practice of gods, ancestors, and festivals across China and its diaspora.
  • Native American Religions — the ceremonial traditions of the Indigenous peoples of North America, including the Native American Church.
  • Sámi Tradition — the shamanic tradition of the Sámi people of northern Europe.

Jain

Jainism is an ancient Indian path of nonviolence and liberation, following the example of the Jinas, who crossed beyond rebirth.

  • Digambara — the sky-clad tradition, whose monks renounce all possessions including clothing.
  • Shvetambara — the white-clad tradition, the larger of the two great Jain divisions.
  • Terapanth — a Shvetambara order founded in the eighteenth century under a single teacher's authority.

Jewish

Judaism is the covenant faith of the Jewish people, centered on the Torah and lived through synagogues, rabbis, and the festivals of Israel. See the Jewish world view.

  • Conservative Judaism — a movement holding Jewish law as binding while engaging historical scholarship, centered in North America.
  • Karaite Judaism — an ancient movement accepting the written Torah and rejecting the oral law of the rabbis.
  • Orthodox Judaism — the Judaism of strict Torah observance, including the Hasidic and Modern Orthodox communities.
  • Reconstructionist Judaism — a movement understanding Judaism as an evolving religious civilization.
  • Reform Judaism — a movement emphasizing ethical monotheism and individual autonomy in practice.

Muslim

Islam gathers nearly two billion believers who submit to the one God and follow the Qur'an and the example of Muhammad, meeting in mosques under their imams. See the Muslim world view.

  • Ahmadiyya — a movement founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad in 1889. Its followers identify as Muslim. Most Muslim bodies and several states do not recognize it as Islam, and it is listed here with that contest noted.
  • Ibadi Islam — an early tradition distinct from Sunni and Shia, centered in Oman.
  • Ismaili Shia Islam — the Shia tradition following the Aga Khan as its living Imam.
  • Sufi Orders — the mystical orders of Islam, such as the Qadiriyya and the Naqshbandiyya, organized around a master and a path.
  • Sunni Islam — the majority tradition of Islam, ordered by the four schools of law: Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali.
  • Twelver Shia Islam — the largest Shia tradition, following the line of the twelve Imams.
  • Zaidi Shia Islam — the Shia tradition of Yemen, closest in law to the Sunni schools.

New Religious Movements

New religious movements are the faiths founded in the modern age, from the nineteenth century to the present day.

  • Cao Dai — a Vietnamese faith founded in 1926 that honors the saints of many religions.
  • Church of Scientology — the movement founded by L. Ron Hubbard in 1953.
  • Falun Gong — a Chinese spiritual practice introduced in 1992 and suppressed in China since 1999.
  • Raëlian Movement — a movement founded in 1974 teaching that life on earth was created by advanced beings.
  • Unification Church — the movement founded by Sun Myung Moon in 1954, today the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.
  • Wicca and Modern Paganism — the revived pagan witchcraft and nature religions of the twentieth century.

Other and Unknown

Communities whose faith is not yet identified, or that do not fit the families above, are gathered here until they can be placed.

Shinto

Shinto is the indigenous way of Japan, honoring the kami at shrines and binding community, nature, and ancestry together.

  • Folk Shinto — the unorganized practice of shrine custom carried by households and villages.
  • Jinja Shinto — shrine Shinto, gathered since 1946 in the Association of Shinto Shrines.
  • Sect Shinto — the recognized Shinto-derived movements, such as Konkokyo and Tenrikyo, of which Tenrikyo is now often counted separately.

Sikh

Sikhism confesses the one God revealed by Guru Nanak and the Gurus who followed him, and gathers in gurdwaras around the Guru Granth Sahib. See the Sikh world view.

  • The Khalsa Panth — the body of initiated Sikhs, founded by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699.
  • Namdhari — a Sikh tradition that continues the line of living Gurus.
  • Nirankari — a Sikh reform movement founded in the nineteenth century.
  • Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee — the elected body that manages the historic gurdwaras of Punjab.
  • Udasi — an early ascetic order founded by the son of Guru Nanak.