Religious Terms: Definitions and Origins
Ablution (Lat. Ablutio): In some religions, a ritual purification ceremony using water.
Agnosticism (Gr. Agnostos “unknown”): Philosophical doctrines that consider understanding or knowledge of all things (especially the existence of God and nature) inaccessible to humans, reducing knowledge to phenomenal science.
Anathema (Lat. Anathema): Canonical sentence of excommunication from the bosom of the Church.
Totem (Algonquin, totem): Natural entities, generally an animal, considered a religious object in society and adopted as a protective ancestor of an individual, clan, tribe, etc., subject to taboos, obligations, and prohibitions.
Viatical (Lat. viaticu): Sacrament of the Eucharist administered to the dying.
Fasting (Lat. jejunu): Abstinence from some or all meals for devotion by ecclesiastical precept.
Jew (f. Jewess) (Lat. iudaceu): Professing Judaism. Name given to the Hebrew people when they were deported to Babylon in the 6th century BC.
Shinto (Jap. shinto, “way of the gods”): Official religion of Japan until 1945, based on emperor worship, ancestors, and natural forces.
Sarcophagus (Lat. sartago “sacred vessel”): Sepulcher or tomb, generally made of stone, to bury a corpse.
Taboo (Eng. taboo): Ban of religious origin that prohibits touching or naming certain things.
Dolmen (Fr. dolmen, from Bret. taol “table” and men “stone”): Primitive stone construction of a funerary monument from the megalithic period (4th and 3rd millennium BC), sometimes covered by a hidden mound. Dolmens are formed by several gigantic vertical stones planted in the ground and one or several horizontal slabs that serve as a deck; also known as anta, ante, ark, Pedro Moura.
Atheism (Gr. a-Theus): Doctrines or beliefs that deny the existence of God.
Cathars (In Qatar): Basic Manichean doctrines advocating a dual opposition between good and evil and a rigid ascetic practice; it spread through Europe between the 11th and 13th centuries, with its greatest implantation in Occitan.
Exvoto (Lat. ex-voto “by vote”): Offering made to a divinity in gratitude for a benefit received.
Heretic (Lat. haeresiarca): Author or defender of a heresy (theological doctrine or system that is rejected by the ecclesiastical authority of a religious confession).
Islam (Ar. Islam, “Submission to the will of God”): Religion of the Muslims, Islamism, Mohammedanism. The set of those who profess Islam, Islamism, Mohammedanism.
Macumba: Cult similar to voodoo practiced in some regions of Brazil. It is a mixture of indigenous and African rituals.
Madrasa (Ar. madrasa): In Islamic countries, a religious teaching school attached to a mosque.
Muezzin (Fr. muezzin from Ar. Mu’addin): In Islam, the person who calls the faithful to prayer from the minaret.
Neophyte (Lat. neophytu): A person who has recently converted to a faith or religion. An individual admitted to a corporation, party, doctrine, association, etc., a short time ago.
Layman (Lat. laicu): That, or who, does not belong to the clergy.
Priscillianism (Priscillian): Doctrines preached at the end of the 4th century by Bishop Priscillian in the Roman province of Gallaecia, considered that the soul of man came from heaven and only the body was affected by evil. It was considered heretical for containing elements of Gnosticism, Manichaeism, and many religious and cultural elements from pre-Roman Gallaecia.
Prayers (Latin Preces “appeals”): Prayers that believers address to God or the saints.
Ramadan: The ninth month of the Muslim year consecrated to fasting.
Cross: Cross with stone monuments placed at crossroads, on the roadsides, at parish boundaries, or in the atriums of churches, supported by a graduated platform.