Denomination

A religious denomination is a subgroup within a religion that operates under a common name, tradition, and identity.

Religion may be defined as a cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations that relates humanity to supernatural, transcendental, or spiritual elements. However, there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion.

Different religions may or may not contain various elements ranging from the divine, sacred things, faith, a supernatural being or supernatural beings.

 Religious practices may include rituals, sermons, commemoration or veneration (of deities), sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trances, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, prayer, music, art, dance, public service, or other aspects of human culture.

Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which may be preserved in sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim mostly to give a meaning to life. Religions may contain symbolic stories, which are sometimes said by followers to be true, that have the side purpose of explaining the origin of life, the universe, and other things. Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, has been considered a source of religious beliefs.

There are an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide, but about 84% of the world’s population is affiliated with one of the five largest religion groups, namely Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or forms of folk religion. The religiously unaffiliated demographic includes those who do not identify with any particular religion, atheists and agnostics. While the religiously unaffiliated have grown globally, many of the religiously unaffiliated still have various religious beliefs.

The study of religion encompasses a wide variety of academic disciplines, including theology, comparative religion and social scientific studies. Theories of religion offer various explanations for the origins and workings of religion, including the ontological foundations of religious being and belief.

The term ‘religion’ (spirituality, faith) refers to the various Christian denominations (for example, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and the many varieties of Protestantism). It is also used to describe the four branches of Judaism (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist). Within Islam, it can refer to the branches or sects (such as Sunni, Shia, and Ahmadiyya), as well as their various subdivisions such as sub-sects, schools of jurisprudence, schools of theology and religious movements.

The world’s largest religious denomination is Sunni Islam, followed by Roman Catholicism.

Of what is termed ‘religion’ is divided into: • Christianity • Hinduism • Islam • Judaism • Multi-denomination or variation there of.

So why do we need so many variations of sects, cults, reformation, assemblies, etc?

It seems our scriptures written and re-written by word-of-mouth have many different interpretations. New preachers or spiritual leaders will gather a following and tweak the writings to form a new variation of believing.   

• Anabaptist • Anglicanism • Adventist • Baptist • Catholicism • Calvinism • Christian Science • Evangelicalism • Eastern Orthodox • Jehovah’s Witnesses • Khawarij • Latter Day Saint • Lutheranism • Methodist • Pentecostalism • Presbyterianism • Protestant • Quaker • Shaivism • Shakers • Shi‘ah • Sunni • Unitarianism… there are lots of choices.

Whatever the reason for spirituality or faith in a divine benevolent mystical unknown or a cosmic muffin, there are lots of clubs to join and see if it fits. If you can’t find one tailored to your needs…. Make one up.