Browse All Entities

Every entity in the worldview tree in one flat index, grouped by level and labeled, never mixed.

180 entities.

Level 1: Worldview

Entity	Worldview	Distinctive
Buddhism	Buddhism	The path founded on the Buddha's awakening: the four noble truths, the eightfold path, and release from rebirth through wisdom and compassion.
Christianity	Christianity	The faith that confesses Jesus of Nazareth as Lord and Christ, risen from the dead, and reads the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament as its canon.
Confucianism	Confucianism	The way of Confucius: humaneness and ritual propriety, ordered family and state, and the cultivation of the exemplary person.
Daoism	Daoism	The way that can be named is not the constant Way: alignment with the Dao through wu wei, and, in its religious forms, registers of priests, rites, and gods.
Hinduism	Hinduism	The family of traditions rooted in the Veda, ordered by dharma, karma, and liberation, and worshipping the divine under many names and forms.
Islam	Islam	Submission to the one God, revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in the Qur'an, ordered by the five pillars and interpreted through schools of law and theology.
Jainism	Jainism	The path of the Jinas, the conquerors: liberation of the soul from karma through non-violence, non-possession, and many-sided truth.
Judaism	Judaism	The covenant of Israel: one God, the Torah given at Sinai, and a people's life ordered by commandment, study, and prayer.
Secular and Non-Theistic Worldviews	Secular and Non-Theistic Worldviews	Positions that order life without appeal to God or revelation: atheism, agnosticism, humanism, and the freethought that produced them.
Shinto	Shinto	The way of the kami: shrine worship, purity, and festival, woven into the life of Japan's communities and its imperial house.
Sikhism	Sikhism	The path of Guru Nanak and his nine successors: one God, honest work, sharing with others, and the Guru Granth Sahib as the eternal Guru.
The Bahá'í Faith	The Bahá'í Faith	The faith of Bahá'u'lláh: the oneness of God, of religion, and of humanity, ordered through its covenant and its elected institutions.
Zoroastrianism	Zoroastrianism	The teaching of the prophet Zarathustra: one wise Lord, the choice between truth and the lie, and fire as the sign of the good religion.

Level 2: Branch

Entity	Stands under	Worldview	Distinctive
Atheism	Secular and Non-Theistic Worldviews	Secular and Non-Theistic Worldviews	The position that no god exists, held as denial, as default, or as the conclusion of argument, from the Charvaka school to the new atheism.
Catholic	Christianity	Christianity	The church in communion with the Bishop of Rome, holding the sacraments, the apostolic succession, and the councils of the undivided church and of its own later centuries.
Classical Confucianism	Confucianism	Confucianism	The teaching of Confucius, Mencius, and Xunzi in the age of the contending states, before any state made it its own.
Digambara	Jainism	Jainism	The sky-clad branch, whose monks renounce clothing itself and which holds that the canon of the Shvetambaras is lost and that women must be reborn male to be liberated.
Jinja Shinto	Shinto	Shinto	Shrine Shinto, the mainstream: the tens of thousands of shrines, their priests and festivals, coordinated since 1946 by the Association of Shinto Shrines.
Orthodox Judaism	Judaism	Judaism	The Judaism that holds the Torah, written and oral, as binding without remainder, ordered by halakha and its decisors.
Parsi Zoroastrians	Zoroastrianism	Zoroastrianism	The community of India, descended from the refugees who landed in Gujarat, keeper of the fire temples of Mumbai and the memory of the migration.
Philosophical Daoism	Daoism	Daoism	The Daoism of the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi: the Way contemplated, the sage who rules by non-action, and the self cultivated in stillness.
Shaivism	Hinduism	Hinduism	The traditions that worship Shiva as supreme: the ascetic orders, the Kashmiri schools, and the temple lineages of the Tamil country.
Sunni Islam	Islam	Islam	The majority tradition of Islam, which holds that leadership after the Prophet passed by the community's choice and consensus, and orders its life by the Qur'an, the Sunna, and the schools of law.
The Khalsa Panth	Sikhism	Sikhism	The community of the initiated, founded by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699, marked by the five Ks and governed in its collective life by the Panth under the Guru Granth Sahib.
Theravada	Buddhism	Buddhism	The way of the elders, which keeps the Pali Canon as its scripture and the arahant as its goal, and carries the Buddhism of Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia.
Celestial Masters and Zhengyi	Daoism	Daoism	The first organized Daoist church, founded on Zhang Daoling's covenant of 142 CE, whose married priests still serve Taiwan and the mainland.
Conservative Judaism	Judaism	Judaism	The Judaism that holds the law binding and historical at once: halakha that develops, under the guidance of its scholars, with the people's practice.
Eastern Orthodox	Christianity	Christianity	The communion of Chalcedonian churches in the Greek and Slavic worlds, holding the seven councils, the Divine Liturgy, and conciliarity without a single earthly head.
Humanism	Secular and Non-Theistic Worldviews	Secular and Non-Theistic Worldviews	The position that human welfare and reason are enough: the good life built on evidence and compassion, without appeal to the supernatural.
Imperial Confucianism	Confucianism	Confucianism	The state doctrine of Han and empire: the classics as the charter of rule, the examinations, and the scholar-official class.
Iranian Zoroastrians	Zoroastrianism	Zoroastrianism	The community that remained in Iran, in Yazd and Kerman, through the Islamic centuries, holding the faith in its homeland.
Mahayana	Buddhism	Buddhism	The great vehicle, which sets the bodhisattva's vow to liberate all beings above the solitary goal, and reads its own sutras beside the early discourses.
Namdhari	Sikhism	Sikhism	The stream of Baba Ram Singh, which holds the line of living Gurus to continue and keeps a discipline of white dress, vegetarianism, and the Name repeated aloud.
Sect Shinto	Shinto	Shinto	The thirteen recognized sects, most founded by nineteenth-century teachers, which organize devotion as denominations beside the shrines.
Shia Islam	Islam	Islam	The tradition that holds leadership of the community belonged by designation to Ali and the Prophet's household, carried by the doctrine of the Imamate.
Shvetambara	Jainism	Jainism	The white-clad branch, which keeps the canon the councils preserved, clothes its monks in white, and holds that women may be liberated in a woman's body.
Vaishnavism	Hinduism	Hinduism	The traditions that worship Vishnu as supreme, in his avatars Rama and Krishna, through devotion ordered by the great acharyas and their lineages.
Folk Shinto	Shinto	Shinto	The unwritten Shinto of household altars, local festivals, and the kami of place, which no registry counts and every community keeps.
Ibadi Islam	Islam	Islam	The tradition descended from the moderate wing of the first secession, which elects its imam on merit and survives today chiefly in Oman.
Neo-Confucianism	Confucianism	Confucianism	The Song and Ming revival that answered Buddhism on its own ground: principle and material force, and Zhu Xi's canon of the Four Books.
Nirankari	Sikhism	Sikhism	The stream of Baba Dayal Singh, which turned the community back to the formless God against image and tomb worship, and divided from the mainstream over its living Guru.
Oriental Orthodox	Christianity	Christianity	The communion of churches that did not receive the Council of Chalcedon, holding the faith of the first three councils and the Christology of Cyril of Alexandria.
Reform Judaism	Judaism	Judaism	The Judaism that reads the tradition through the conscience of the modern Jew: the ethical law binding, the ceremonial open to judgment and choice.
Secularism	Secular and Non-Theistic Worldviews	Secular and Non-Theistic Worldviews	The ordering of the public square without religious establishment, from Holyoake's coinage to the constitutional arrangements of the modern states.
Shaktism	Hinduism	Hinduism	The traditions that worship the Goddess, Devi, as the supreme power, through her temples, her tantras, and her festivals.
Shangqing	Daoism	Daoism	The Highest Clarity revelations to Yang Xi: visualization of the body's gods, the heavens' bureaucracy, and the aristocratic meditation of the fourth century.
Vajrayana	Buddhism	Buddhism	The diamond vehicle, which adds tantra's initiations, mantras, and visualizations to the Mahayana path and carries the Buddhism of Tibet and the Himalayas.
Ahmadiyya	Islam	Islam	The movement founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, who claimed to be the promised Mahdi and Messiah, a claim the wider Muslim world does not accept.
Freethought	Secular and Non-Theistic Worldviews	Secular and Non-Theistic Worldviews	The refusal to take belief on authority, the oldest of the secular streams, running from Epicurus and Lucretius to Paine and the lecture halls.
Lingbao	Daoism	Daoism	The Numinous Treasure scriptures: universal salvation, communal rites, and the liturgy that absorbed Buddhist forms into Daoist worship.
Navayana	Buddhism	Buddhism	The new vehicle proclaimed by B. R. Ambedkar in 1956: Buddhism re-founded as the path of social liberation for India's oppressed castes.
New Confucianism	Confucianism	Confucianism	The modern movement, from Xiong Shili to the 1958 manifesto, which argues the tradition carries the seeds of science and democracy.
Protestant	Christianity	Christianity	The churches and movements born of the sixteenth-century Reformations, holding Scripture as the final authority and justification by faith, in many polities and confessions.
Reconstructionist Judaism	Judaism	Judaism	Mordecai Kaplan's Judaism as an evolving religious civilization, reconstructed for the democratic age without a supernatural legislator.
Smarta Tradition	Hinduism	Hinduism	The tradition of the smriti, which worships the five deities as forms of the one Brahman and follows Shankara's Advaita as its philosophy.
State Shinto	Shinto	Shinto	The state-ordered form of the Meiji and war years, when the shrines stood as public institutions of the empire; dissolved as a state system in 1945.
Udasi	Sikhism	Sikhism	The ascetic order founded by Guru Nanak's son Sri Chand, which carried the teaching through the early centuries in its own celibate line.
Karaite Judaism	Judaism	Judaism	The Judaism of the Scripture alone, which rejects the oral Torah of the rabbis and reads the Hebrew Bible by its own lights.
Quanzhen	Daoism	Daoism	The Complete Perfection school of Wang Chongyang: celibate monasticism, inner alchemy, and the discipline that governs northern China's temples.
Restorationist	Christianity	Christianity	The movements that sought not to reform the church but to restore the New Testament church itself, from the Stone-Campbell movement to the Latter Day Saint restoration.
Sahajdhari Sikhs	Sikhism	Sikhism	The slow adopters: Sikhs who revere the Gurus and the Granth without taking the Khalsa initiation or keeping its full discipline.
Secular Buddhism	Buddhism	Buddhism	The modern reading that keeps the Buddha's ethics and meditation while setting aside rebirth, karma as cosmic law, and the supernatural frame of the early texts.
Vedanta	Hinduism	Hinduism	The school of the Upanishads' end: the systematic reading of the Brahma Sutras that produced Advaita, Vishishtadvaita, and Dvaita, and stands as the sixth darshana.
Secular Judaism	Judaism	Judaism	The Judaism of culture, history, and peoplehood without theistic belief, carried by the secular and humanistic movements and congregations.
The Six Darshanas	Hinduism	Hinduism	The six orthodox schools that accept the Veda's authority and argue, school against school, over knowledge, atoms, spirit, practice, rite, and the absolute.
Hindu Reform Movements	Hinduism	Hinduism	The movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that re-read the tradition against colonial rule and social reform, from the Brahmo Samaj to the Arya Samaj.

Level 3: Sub-branch / Family

Entity	Stands under	Worldview	Distinctive
Advaita Vedanta	Vedanta	Hinduism	Shankara's non-dualism: Brahman alone is real, the self is Brahman, and liberation is the knowledge that dissolves the difference.
Anglican	Protestant	Christianity	The churches in communion with the See of Canterbury, holding the historic episcopate, the Book of Common Prayer, and a formularies tradition between Reformation and catholic order.
Dvaita Vedanta	Vedanta	Hinduism	Madhva's dualism: God and self are eternally distinct, and the hierarchy of beings is real, against every monism.
Hanafi School	Sunni Islam	Islam	The school of Abu Hanifa, the oldest of the four Sunni schools of law and the most widely followed, strong in Turkey, Central and South Asia, and Egypt..
Hanbali School	Sunni Islam	Islam	The school of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, the most text-bound of the four.
Latter Day Saint Movement	Restorationist	Christianity	The restoration founded by Joseph Smith: an open canon with the Book of Mormon, a restored priesthood, and temples, whose largest body is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Maliki School	Sunni Islam	Islam	The school of Malik ibn Anas, built on the practice of Medina.
Shafi'i School	Sunni Islam	Islam	The school of al-Shafi'i, whose Risala founded the theory of Islamic law.
Sthanakavasi	Shvetambara	Jainism	The branch that worships in bare halls without images, holding image worship to be a later corruption of the Jina's teaching.
The Latin Church	Catholic	Christianity	The Western church of the Catholic communion, ordered by the Roman Rite and the canon law of the Latin Church, and by far its largest part.
Tibetan Buddhism	Vajrayana	Buddhism	The Vajrayana of the Tibetan plateau and its four great schools, Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug, ordered by monasteries, lineages, and reborn teachers.
Twelver Shia Islam	Shia Islam	Islam	The largest Shia branch, which follows twelve Imams and awaits the twelfth, the Mahdi, in occultation, under the guidance of its scholars in the meantime.
Vishishtadvaita Vedanta	Vedanta	Hinduism	Ramanuja's qualified non-dualism: the self is real, sustained as the body of God, and devotion to Narayana is the way of release.
Yoshida Shinto	Jinja Shinto	Shinto	Yoshida Kanetomo's fifteenth-century system, which made Shinto the root of which Buddhism and Confucianism were branches and flowers, and governed shrine ranks for centuries.
Zen	Mahayana	Buddhism	The meditation school that points directly at the mind: zazen, the koan, and transmission outside the scriptures, from Chan China to Zen Japan and the modern West.
Zoroastrian Diaspora	Parsi Zoroastrians	Zoroastrianism	The communities of the last century and a half, from London and Toronto to Houston, which rebuilt the fire temple and the association on new continents.
Ismaili Shia Islam	Shia Islam	Islam	The Shia branch that followed the line of Ismail ibn Ja'far, carried today by the Nizari Imam, the Aga Khan, and the Tayyibi Bohra communities.
Kokugaku	Jinja Shinto	Shinto	The National Learning of Motoori Norinaga and his school, which read the Kojiki against the Chinese heart and re-founded Japanese identity on the ancient texts.
Lutheran	Protestant	Christianity	The churches of the Augsburg Confession, holding justification by grace through faith and the sacraments as the means of grace, ordered in territorial and synodical polities.
Mimamsa	The Six Darshanas	Hinduism	The school of the rite: the Veda as eternal and authorless, dharma known from its injunctions alone.
Nyaya	The Six Darshanas	Hinduism	The school of logic: the means of knowledge, the categories of debate, and the refutation of the Buddhist and skeptic opponents.
Pure Land	Mahayana	Buddhism	The school that entrusts itself to Amida Buddha's vow: birth in his Pure Land through the nembutsu, the calling of his name, as the path open to all in the latter age.
Samkhya	The Six Darshanas	Hinduism	The school of enumeration: purusha and prakriti, the twenty-five principles, and release by discriminating knowledge.
Terapanth	Shvetambara	Jainism	The branch founded by Acharya Bhikshu in 1760, which unified its order under one acharya and its thirteen principles, against the laxity it saw around it.
The Eastern Catholic Churches	Catholic	Christianity	The twenty-three Eastern churches in full communion with Rome, keeping their own rites, theologies, and married clergy under their own hierarchs.
Vaisheshika	The Six Darshanas	Hinduism	The school of atoms and categories: the world's furniture counted into kinds, and the soul known by inference.
Yoga Darshana	The Six Darshanas	Hinduism	The school of practice: Patanjali's eight limbs, the stilling of the mind, and isolation of the seer from the seen.
Nichiren Buddhism	Mahayana	Buddhism	The school of the monk Nichiren, which holds the Lotus Sutra alone as the true teaching for this age and chants its title as the whole practice.
Reformed and Presbyterian	Protestant	Christianity	The churches of the Swiss Reformation, holding God's sovereignty, covenant theology, and presbyterian or congregational order under confessions such as Westminster and the Second Helvetic.
Zaidi Shia Islam	Shia Islam	Islam	The Shia branch of Yemen, which holds that any qualified descendant of the Prophet who rises for the office may be Imam, and stands closest of the Shia branches to Sunni practice.
Baptist	Protestant	Christianity	The churches that baptize only professing believers, by immersion, holding the local congregation autonomous under Christ and the Bible as their only creed in the strictest forms.
Anabaptist	Protestant	Christianity	The radical Reformation's heirs: believer's baptism, discipleship, nonviolence, and the separated community, carried by Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites, and Brethren.
Independent and Non-denominational	Protestant	Christianity	Churches and networks that stand outside the historic denominations, holding congregational independence while sharing the evangelical inheritance of the Reformation families.

Level 4: Denomination / School

Entity	Stands under	Worldview	Distinctive
Arya Samaj	Hindu Reform Movements	Hinduism	Dayananda Saraswati's society of 1875: back to the Vedas, against image worship and caste by birth, for education and the purification of converts.
Ash'ari Theology	Sunni Islam	Islam	The theological school of al-Ash'ari, which defends the Sunna with reason: the Qur'an uncreated, God's attributes affirmed without asking how, and human acts created by God and acquired by persons.
ISKCON	Vaishnavism	Hinduism	The International Society for Krishna Consciousness, founded in New York in 1966, which carried the Gaudiya devotion of Chaitanya to the world.
Soka Gakkai	Nichiren Buddhism	Buddhism	The lay movement of Nichiren Buddhism founded in 1930, which carried the daimoku worldwide and broke with the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood in 1991.
Maturidi Theology	Sunni Islam	Islam	The theological school of al-Maturidi of Samarkand, paired with Hanafi law, which gives reason a larger place in knowing good and evil than its Ash'ari sister school.
Swaminarayan Sampradaya	Vaishnavism	Hinduism	The tradition of Swaminarayan, the Gujarati teacher revered by his followers as the supreme reality, carried by its temples and its two historic dioceses.
Mu'tazila Theology	Sunni Islam	Islam	The rationalist school that held God's unity and justice as its two principles, read the Qur'an's anthropomorphisms allegorically, and held the Qur'an created; the school the Ash'ari synthesis answered.
Acts 29	Independent and Non-denominational	Christianity	Acts 29 is distinct in being a church planting network rather than a denomination, uniting autonomous churches around Reformed theology and an assessment based model of planting.
American Baptist Churches USA	Baptist	Christianity	It is the mainline Baptist body in the United States that combines congregational autonomy with a national general board structure rooted in the northern Baptist tradition.
Anglican Church in North America	Anglican	Christianity	It is a province formed in 2009 by Anglicans who left The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, and it is not a member province of the Anglican Communion.
Anglican Church of Australia	Anglican	Christianity	It is the autonomous Anglican province in Australia, led by the Primate of Australia and organized in dioceses that retain significant independence.
Anglican Church of Canada	Anglican	Christianity	It is the autonomous Anglican province in Canada, led by the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada and known in French as l'Eglise anglicane du Canada.
Armenian Apostolic Church	Oriental Orthodox	Christianity	It is the ancient church of Armenia, traditionally founded by the apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew and headed by the Catholicos of All Armenians at Etchmiadzin.
Assemblies of God	Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity	Christianity	The Assemblies of God is distinct in its Statement of Fundamental Truths, which teaches that speaking in tongues is the initial physical evidence of baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Baptist World Alliance	Baptist	Christianity	It is a global fellowship of Baptist unions and conventions rather than a denomination, so it holds no authority over its member bodies or their congregations.
Bruderhof	Anabaptist	Christianity	The Bruderhof is distinct among Anabaptist bodies in that its members live in intentional communities and hold all property in common.
Bulgarian Orthodox Church	Eastern Orthodox	Christianity	It is the autocephalous church of Bulgaria, headed by a patriarch in Sofia and shaped by the Slavonic liturgical heritage of Saints Cyril and Methodius.
Calvary Chapel	Independent and Non-denominational	Christianity	Calvary Chapel is distinct in its verse by verse, book by book exposition of the whole Bible and in its pastor led pattern of church government, often called the Moses model.
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)	Restorationist	Christianity	The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is distinct among Restorationist bodies in its connectional structure of congregations, regions, and a general ministry, and in its active participation in the ecumenical movement.
Christian Reformed Church in North America	Reformed and Presbyterian	Christianity	It is a Reformed denomination of Dutch immigrant origin that separated from the Reformed Church in America in 1857 over hymn singing, open communion, and other practices.
Church of Denmark	Lutheran	Christianity	It is the established Evangelical Lutheran church of Denmark, supported by the state under the Danish constitution while its members may also belong to recognized free congregations.
Church of England	Anglican	Christianity	It is the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the established church of England, with the Archbishop of Canterbury as its senior bishop.
Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee)	Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity	Christianity	The Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) is distinct in its Declaration of Faith and in practicing foot washing as an ordinance alongside baptism and the Lord's Supper.
Church of God in Christ	Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity	Christianity	The Church of God in Christ is the largest Pentecostal body in the United States and the largest historically African American Pentecostal denomination.
Church of God of Prophecy	Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity	Christianity	The Church of God of Prophecy is distinct in originating in the 1923 division of the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), when the elders who retained A. J. Tomlinson as general overseer formed a separate body.
Church of Greece	Eastern Orthodox	Christianity	It is the autocephalous church covering most of modern Greece, governed by the Holy Synod in Athens under the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.
Church of Ireland	Anglican	Christianity	It is the autonomous Anglican church for the whole island of Ireland, both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, led by the Archbishop of Armagh as Primate of All Ireland.
Church of Nigeria	Anglican	Christianity	It is the Anglican province for Nigeria, one of the largest provinces of the Anglican Communion, led by the Primate of All Nigeria in Abuja.
Church of Norway	Lutheran	Christianity	It is Norway's Evangelical Lutheran folk church, which gained greater legal independence from the state through constitutional changes in 2012 and a new Church Act in 2017.
Church of Scotland	Reformed and Presbyterian	Christianity	It is the national church of Scotland, Presbyterian in government and Reformed in theology, whose independence in spiritual matters is recognized by the Church of Scotland Act 1921.
Church of Sweden	Lutheran	Christianity	It is Sweden's Evangelical Lutheran folk church, formally separated from the state in 2000 after centuries as the established church.
Church of Uganda	Anglican	Christianity	It is the Anglican province for Uganda, shaped by the memory of the Uganda Martyrs executed in the 1880s and led by the Archbishop of Uganda in Kampala.
Church of the Brethren	Anabaptist	Christianity	The Church of the Brethren is distinct in combining Anabaptist and Pietist roots, with ordinances that include trine immersion baptism and the love feast with foot washing.
Churches of Christ	Restorationist	Christianity	Churches of Christ are distinct in worshipping without instrumental music and in having no denominational headquarters, with each congregation governed by its own elders.
Community of Christ	Restorationist	Christianity	Community of Christ is distinct among Restorationist bodies in being led by a prophet president and a First Presidency, and in accepting the Doctrine and Covenants as an open canon of scripture.
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship	Baptist	Christianity	It formed in 1991 as a moderate Baptist fellowship for congregations and individuals who chose not to remain aligned with the direction of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Coptic Orthodox Church	Oriental Orthodox	Christianity	It is the ancient church of Egypt, claiming foundation by Saint Mark and headed by the Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of Saint Mark in Cairo.
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople	Eastern Orthodox	Christianity	It holds primacy of honor among the Eastern Orthodox churches and is headed by the Ecumenical Patriarch in the Phanar district of Istanbul.
Elim Pentecostal Church	Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity	Christianity	The Elim Pentecostal Church is distinct as a British Pentecostal denomination founded in Ireland by the evangelist George Jeffreys, beginning with the Elim Evangelistic Band in 1915.
Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church	Oriental Orthodox	Christianity	It is the Oriental Orthodox church of Eritrea, recognized as autocephalous after Eritrean independence and headed by a patriarch in Asmara.
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church	Oriental Orthodox	Christianity	It is the largest Oriental Orthodox church, rooted in the ancient kingdom of Aksum and headed by the Patriarch and Catholicos of Ethiopia in Addis Ababa.
Evangelical Church in Germany	Lutheran	Christianity	It is a federation of Lutheran, Reformed, and United regional churches in Germany rather than a single confessionally uniform church.
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America	Lutheran	Christianity	It is the largest Lutheran church body in the United States, formed in 1988 by the merger of three Lutheran denominations.
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland	Lutheran	Christianity	It is one of Finland's two national churches, holding a public law status alongside the Orthodox Church of Finland.
General Association of Regular Baptist Churches	Baptist	Christianity	It is a fundamentalist Baptist association formed in 1932 by churches that withdrew from the Northern Baptist Convention over theological modernism.
Georgian Orthodox Church	Eastern Orthodox	Christianity	It is one of the oldest national churches in the world, rooted in the fourth century conversion of Iberia and headed by the Catholicos Patriarch of All Georgia in Tbilisi.
Hutterites	Anabaptist	Christianity	The Hutterites are distinct in living on communal agricultural colonies where land, buildings, and income are held by the colony rather than by individuals or families.
Independent Christian Churches	Restorationist	Christianity	The independent Christian churches are distinct in sharing the Restoration Movement heritage while refusing any denominational organization, so that each congregation is fully self governing.
Independent Congregations	Independent and Non-denominational	Christianity	Independent congregations are distinct in having no denominational affiliation or oversight at all, so that membership, property, doctrine, and the calling of pastors rest entirely with the local church.
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel	Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity	Christianity	The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel is distinct in its fourfold message of Jesus Christ as Saviour, Baptizer with the Holy Spirit, Healer, and Soon Coming King.
Jehovah's Witnesses	Restorationist	Christianity	Jehovah's Witnesses are distinct in teaching that Jehovah alone is Almighty God and that Jesus is his created Son, and in rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity.
Lutheran Church Missouri Synod	Lutheran	Christianity	It is a confessional Lutheran synod founded in 1847 by Saxon German immigrants, known for requiring strict subscription to the Book of Concord among its pastors and congregations.
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church	Oriental Orthodox	Christianity	It is the autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church in India claiming origin in the mission of Saint Thomas the Apostle in the first century.
Mennonite Church Canada	Anabaptist	Christianity	Mennonite Church Canada is distinct as the Canadian national Mennonite church, organized through five regional churches rather than as part of a binational body.
Mennonite Church USA	Anabaptist	Christianity	Mennonite Church USA is distinct as the largest Mennonite denomination in the United States, formed by a merger completed in 2002.
National Baptist Convention of America	Baptist	Christianity	It is a historically Black Baptist convention that emerged from the 1915 division of the National Baptist Convention, USA over control of the convention publishing house.
National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.	Baptist	Christianity	It is the largest historically Black Baptist denomination in the United States, organized in 1895 from three Black Baptist conventions.
Old Order Amish	Anabaptist	Christianity	The Old Order Amish are distinct in keeping the Ordnung, the unwritten local code that governs dress, technology, and daily life, and in refusing automobile ownership and connection to public electric lines.
Orthodox Church in America	Eastern Orthodox	Christianity	It is the autocephalous church in North America whose roots lie in the Russian Orthodox mission to Alaska that began in 1794.
Patriarchate of Alexandria	Eastern Orthodox	Christianity	It is the ancient Greek Orthodox patriarchate of Egypt, claiming foundation by Saint Mark the Evangelist and headed by the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria in Alexandria and Cairo.
Patriarchate of Antioch	Eastern Orthodox	Christianity	It is the ancient Greek Orthodox patriarchate based in Damascus, claiming the see where the followers of Jesus were first called Christians.
Patriarchate of Jerusalem	Eastern Orthodox	Christianity	It is the ancient Greek Orthodox patriarchate guarding the Holy Places in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and across Israel, Palestine, and Jordan.
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)	Reformed and Presbyterian	Christianity	It is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States, formed in 1983 by the reunion of the northern and southern Presbyterian churches after a division dating to the Civil War era.
Presbyterian Church in America	Reformed and Presbyterian	Christianity	It is a conservative Presbyterian denomination founded in 1973 by congregations that left the southern Presbyterian church over theological and organizational concerns.
Presbyterian Church of Korea	Reformed and Presbyterian	Christianity	It represents the historic main Presbyterian tradition in South Korea, a church that grew from missions begun in 1884 into one of the largest Presbyterian families in the world.
Reformed Church in America	Reformed and Presbyterian	Christianity	It is the oldest Reformed denomination in the United States with a continuous ministry, tracing its first congregation to Dutch New Amsterdam in 1628.
Romanian Orthodox Church	Eastern Orthodox	Christianity	It is the autocephalous church of Romania, headed by the Patriarch of Bucharest and celebrating the liturgy principally in Romanian.
Russian Orthodox Church	Eastern Orthodox	Christianity	It is the largest autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church, headed by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' in Moscow.
Scottish Episcopal Church	Anglican	Christianity	It is the autonomous Anglican province in Scotland, distinct from the established Church of Scotland and led by the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church.
Serbian Orthodox Church	Eastern Orthodox	Christianity	It is the autocephalous church of Serbia, whose first archbishop was Saint Sava in 1219 and which is headed by the Patriarch in Belgrade.
Southern Baptist Convention	Baptist	Christianity	It is the largest Baptist body in the United States and the largest Protestant denomination in the country, organized in 1845 in Augusta, Georgia.
Syriac Orthodox Church	Oriental Orthodox	Christianity	It is the West Syriac Oriental Orthodox church, headed by the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East now based in Damascus.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints	Latter Day Saint Movement	Christianity	The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is distinct in teaching, as its own literature states it, that it is the restored Church of Jesus Christ, led by a living prophet and holding the Book of Mormon as additional scripture alongside the Bible.
The Episcopal Church	Anglican	Christianity	It is the Anglican Communion province based in the United States, led by a Presiding Bishop and governed by a bicameral General Convention of bishops and deputies.
United Pentecostal Church International	Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity	Christianity	The United Pentecostal Church International is distinct as the largest Oneness Pentecostal body, teaching that God is one person and that baptism must be administered in the name of Jesus Christ.
United Reformed Church	Reformed and Presbyterian	Christianity	It is a British union church formed in 1972 from the Congregational Church in England and Wales and the Presbyterian Church of England, joining congregational and presbyterian traditions in one body.
Vineyard USA	Independent and Non-denominational	Christianity	Vineyard USA is distinct in joining evangelical, Bible centred theology with the regular practice of charismatic gifts, an approach its teachers call naturally supernatural.
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod	Lutheran	Christianity	It is a confessional Lutheran synod founded in Milwaukee in 1850 that practices closed fellowship, declining altar and pulpit fellowship with churches not in complete doctrinal agreement with it.

Level 5: Movement / Current

Entity	Stands under	Worldview	Distinctive
Hasidism	Orthodox Judaism	Judaism	The revival of joy and prayer within Orthodox Judaism: the Baal Shem Tov's teaching, the rebbe's court, and the dynasties that carry it.
Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity	Protestant	Christianity	The movement that expects the Holy Spirit's baptism and gifts, tongues among them, as the normal Christian experience, crossing the Protestant families and entering the Catholic Church as the Charismatic Renewal.
Sufism	Sunni Islam	Islam	The mystical path of Islam: remembrance of God, the master-disciple chain, and the orders that carry it, crossing the Sunni and Shia branches alike.