Catholic Lexicon · documentary and apologetic terminology
Terms of False Religions, Heresies, Schisms and Sects
These entries explain foreign religious vocabulary without granting the surrounding system divine authority. Every term is dated, placed in its own tradition, tested by natural reason and history, and then judged in the light of Catholic doctrine.
Read the word before accepting the system
A term may preserve an observation, name a practice, or conceal a contradiction. The entries distinguish original source, later development, school meaning, philosophical consequence and Catholic judgement.
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- Reason → history → revelation
Comparative apologetics and natural law
Comparative apologetics and natural law
Civil toleration
A prudential decision by public authority to permit an evil or false religious practice in order to prevent a greater evil or preserve the common good, without approving the error as true or morally entitled.
DISTINCTIONCoercion of faith
The attempted production of religious assent by physical or political compulsion; genuine faith is an act of intellect and will and cannot be manufactured by force.
DISTINCTIONInvincible ignorance
Ignorance that a person cannot overcome by ordinary diligence; it can diminish subjective culpability but cannot make an objectively false proposition true.
PRINCIPLENatural religion
Knowledge and worship of God insofar as they can arise from created reality, conscience and the natural law without a later positive revelation.
DISTINCTIONObjective error
A proposition or religious claim that does not conform to reality, independently of the sincerity or blameworthiness of the person holding it.
PRINCIPLEPrimordial revelation
The thesis that God did not leave the first human beings wholly without knowledge of the Creator, natural duty and the final end of man.
PRINCIPLEPublic revelation
A divine communication authenticated for a community by public signs and transmitted through identifiable witnesses, rather than a merely private experience.
ERRORReligious indifferentism
The error that contradictory religions are equally acceptable before God or equally capable of leading man to his last end.
PRINCIPLERevelation claim
A claim that a teaching, text or messenger communicates divine knowledge unavailable by ordinary human discovery and therefore requires proportionate authentication.
ERRORRight to error
A shorthand for the rejected claim that falsehood or false worship, precisely as false, possesses a positive moral right against truth.
DISTINCTIONSubjective culpability
The personal responsibility attaching to an act or belief according to knowledge, freedom, intention and circumstances.
ERRORSyncretism
The construction of a religious synthesis by treating incompatible doctrines or rites as though their contradictions were secondary or unreal.
Ancient pagan religion
Ancient pagan religion
Cult
An ordered body of public or private worship, including sacrifice, prayer, feast, image, temple and priestly service.
PRACTICEIdolatry
The giving of divine worship to a creature, image, power or finite being rather than to the one Creator.
INSTITUTIONImperial cult
Public honours and rites directed to a ruler, his genius or divinized imperial office as a bond of political and religious loyalty.
CONCEPTMaʿat
The Egyptian idea of truth, justice and cosmic order, personified and ritually maintained through kingship and cult.
INSTITUTIONMystery cult
An initiatory religious association promising special knowledge, ritual participation or benefits beyond ordinary civic worship.
SOURCEMyth
A traditional sacred narrative that expresses a people’s account of gods, origins, order, ritual or destiny; its historical and metaphysical claims must be distinguished.
PRACTICEOracle
An utterance or sign regarded as a divine answer, often mediated through a sanctuary, priest, lot or inspired speaker.
DOCTRINEPolytheism
Belief in a plurality of gods or divine beings who divide functions, places, powers or cults among themselves.
PRACTICESacrifice
The ritual offering of a thing to a deity in recognition, thanksgiving, propitiation or communion.
Hindu traditions
Hindu traditions
Advaita Vedānta
Śaṅkara’s non-dual Vedānta, in which ultimate reality is non-dual Brahman and plurality is explained through ignorance and dependent appearance.
MOVEMENTArya Samaj
A nineteenth-century reform movement founded by Dayananda Saraswati that appealed to the Vedas and rejected later accretions.
DOCTRINEAvatāra
A descent or manifestation of a deity, especially Viṣṇu, within the world; it differs fundamentally from the Christian doctrine of one Incarnation of the eternal Word.
SOURCEBhagavad Gītā
A theological dialogue within the Mahābhārata presenting paths of action, knowledge and devotion in relation to Kṛṣṇa.
PRACTICEBhakti
Personal devotion, loving service and surrender to a chosen deity, developed in texts, temple traditions and regional poet-saint movements.
DOCTRINEBrahman
A term that develops from sacred utterance and ritual power into the designation of ultimate reality in many Upanishadic and Vedāntic systems.
MOVEMENTBrahmo Samaj
A nineteenth-century reform movement advocating monotheism and criticizing image worship and inherited social practices.
CONCEPTDharma
Order, duty, law, right conduct or sustaining norm, applied to cosmic, social, ritual and personal obligations.
SCHOOLDvaita
Madhva’s dualist Vedānta, which maintains an enduring distinction between God, souls and matter.
INSTITUTIONGuru
A religious teacher or spiritual guide whose authority may range from instruction to initiation and personal obedience.
DOCTRINEKarma
Action and its moral or ritual consequence, commonly understood as shaping future conditions of existence across rebirths.
PERSONMadhva
The medieval Vedānta teacher who defended a strong distinction between God, souls and matter.
SOURCEMahābhārata
The great Sanskrit epic that contains narrative, law, theology and the Bhagavad Gītā within a long history of composition and redaction.
PRACTICEMantra
A sacred formula, syllable or verse recited for ritual, contemplative or devotional purpose.
DOCTRINEMokṣa
Liberation from saṃsāra; its nature ranges from knowledge of identity with Brahman to eternal personal communion with a deity.
SCHOOLMīmāṃsā
A school devoted to Vedic interpretation, ritual obligation and the authority of injunction, often defending the beginningless validity of the Veda.
CONCEPTMūrti
A consecrated image or embodied form through which a deity is approached in worship.
MOVEMENTNeo-Vedānta
Modern presentations of Vedānta, often universalist and shaped by colonial encounter, reform and global religious exchange.
SCHOOLNyāya
A school of logic and epistemology analysing perception, inference, testimony, debate and the means of valid knowledge.
SOURCEPurāṇa
A genre of Sanskrit religious literature organizing cosmology, genealogies, pilgrimage, myths and devotion around particular deities and sacred places.
PRACTICEPūjā
Ritual honour offered to a deity or sacred image through presence, food, light, incense, gesture and prayer.
PERSONRāmānuja
The medieval Vaiṣṇava theologian associated with Viśiṣṭādvaita and devotion to the personal Lord.
SOURCERāmāyaṇa
The Sanskrit epic recounting Rāma, Sītā, exile, conflict and kingship, with multiple textual and regional forms.
DOCTRINESaṃsāra
The cycle of birth, death and rebirth from which liberation is sought.
SCHOOLSāṃkhya
A dualistic philosophical system distinguishing conscious puruṣa from material prakṛti and explaining bondage through their confusion.
SOURCEUpaniṣad
One of the speculative texts attached to the Vedic corpus that investigate self, ultimate reality, knowledge, death and liberation.
SCHOOLVaiṣṇavism
Hindu traditions centred upon Viṣṇu or his manifestations, especially Kṛṣṇa and Rāma.
SOURCEVeda
The oldest authoritative Sanskrit corpus of Hindu tradition, consisting principally of hymns, ritual formulae, liturgical prose and speculative materials transmitted in several recensions.
SCHOOLVedānta
The family of schools interpreting the Upaniṣads, Bhagavad Gītā and Brahma Sūtras concerning Brahman, self, world and liberation.
SCHOOLViśiṣṭādvaita
Rāmānuja’s qualified non-dualism, in which souls and world are real and related to the personal Brahman as body to soul.
PRACTICEYajña
Vedic sacrifice, in which prescribed offerings, chants and priestly acts are understood to sustain order and obtain religious goods.
PRACTICEYoga
A family of disciplines of body, breath, attention and contemplation; in classical Yoga it serves the isolation of consciousness from material nature.
DOCTRINEĀtman
The self or inner principle of a living being; its relation to Brahman is interpreted differently by rival Hindu schools.
SCHOOLŚaivism
Hindu traditions centred upon Śiva, ranging from temple and devotional forms to elaborate monistic or dualistic theologies.
PERSONŚaṅkara
The influential teacher and commentator associated with Advaita Vedānta, conventionally dated to the early medieval period.
SCHOOLŚāktism
Hindu traditions in which the Goddess or divine power, Śakti, is central to worship and metaphysics.
CONCEPTṚta
The Vedic notion of cosmic, ritual and moral order by which sacrifice, seasons, truth and divine-human relations are coordinated.
Buddhist traditions
Buddhist traditions
Abhidharma
Systematic scholastic analysis of phenomena, consciousness and doctrine developed in early Buddhist schools.
DOCTRINEAnattā
The denial that the psycho-physical aggregates constitute an enduring, independent self.
DOCTRINEAnicca
Impermanence: the claim that conditioned phenomena arise and pass away without lasting stability.
IDEALArhat
One who has attained liberation through the Buddha’s path, especially central in Theravāda accounts.
IDEALBodhisattva
A being directed toward Buddhahood, especially one who postpones final release in order to assist others in Mahāyāna traditions.
DOCTRINEDependent origination
The account of conditioned arising according to which phenomena occur through dependent causes rather than an independent self.
CONCEPTDukkha
Unsatisfactoriness, suffering or instability characterizing conditioned existence.
DOCTRINEFour Noble Truths
The Buddhist framework identifying suffering, its origin in craving, its cessation and the path leading to cessation.
SCHOOLMadhyamaka
The Mahāyāna school associated with Nāgārjuna and the analysis of emptiness and dependent designation.
SCHOOLMahāyāna
A broad family of Buddhist movements and texts emphasizing the bodhisattva path, emptiness and universal Buddhahood.
PRACTICEMindfulness
Attentive recollection and observation within Buddhist discipline; modern secular forms often detach it from Buddhist cosmology and moral purpose.
DOCTRINENirvāṇa
The cessation of craving and liberation from saṃsāra; schools differ on how positively its reality may be described.
PRACTICENoble Eightfold Path
The path of right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration.
SCHOOLPure Land
Devotional Mahāyāna traditions centred on Amitābha Buddha and rebirth in his Pure Land.
SOURCEPāli Canon
The Tipiṭaka preserved in Pāli by the Theravāda tradition: discipline, discourses and higher doctrine.
INSTITUTIONSaṅgha
The Buddhist community, properly the monastic order and more broadly the community of followers.
SOURCESūtra
A discourse attributed to the Buddha or presented as authoritative teaching; Buddhist canons contain different collections and later Mahāyāna sūtras.
DOCTRINETathāgatagarbha
Buddha-nature language describing the capacity or ground for Buddhahood in sentient beings.
SCHOOLTheravāda
The Buddhist tradition based on the Pāli canon and dominant in Sri Lanka and much of Southeast Asia.
SCHOOLVajrayāna
Tantric Buddhist traditions employing initiation, mantra, mandala and deity yoga, especially associated with Tibet and Himalayan regions.
SCHOOLYogācāra
A Mahāyāna school analysing consciousness, representation and the transformation of cognition.
SCHOOLZen
East Asian Chan/Zen traditions emphasizing meditation, disciplined practice and direct insight into one’s nature.
DOCTRINEŚūnyatā
Emptiness: the denial that things possess independent self-nature, especially developed in Madhyamaka.
Islamic studies
Islamic studies
Apostasy in Islam
The abandonment of Islam, treated in classical legal schools through religious, civil and penal categories.
INSTITUTIONCaliphate
The office or polity claiming succession to Muhammad’s leadership of the Muslim community.
LAWDhimmi
A protected non-Muslim subject in classical Islamic law, ordinarily subject to distinctive legal disabilities and tribute.
LAWFiqh
Human jurisprudential understanding and derivation of Islamic legal rulings.
CONCEPTFitra
The natural disposition with which human beings are said to be created, commonly interpreted as an orientation to Islam.
SOURCEHadith
A report transmitting a saying, act or approval attributed to Muhammad or early authorities, classified through chains and content.
PRACTICEHajj
The pilgrimage to Mecca with prescribed rites, required of able Muslims.
EVENTHijra
Muhammad’s migration from Mecca to Medina in 622, marking the beginning of the Islamic calendar and a new political community.
METHODIjmāʿ
Consensus, treated in many Sunni legal theories as a source or confirmation of binding doctrine and law.
METHODIjtihad
Juristic effort to derive a ruling from authoritative sources where no explicit rule directly settles the case.
METHODIsnād
The chain of transmitters attached to a hadith report and evaluated in hadith criticism.
DOCTRINEJihad
Striving in the path of God; Islamic sources and law apply the word to moral struggle and to forms of armed conflict.
LAWJizya
A poll tax historically levied under Islamic rule upon specified non-Muslim subjects.
METHODNaskh
Abrogation: the theory that one revealed ruling or verse supersedes another.
SOURCEQirāʾāt
Canonical or transmitted modes of Qurʾānic recitation with differences in vocalization and occasionally wording.
METHODQiyās
Analogical reasoning in Islamic jurisprudence from a revealed case to a new case sharing the operative cause.
SOURCEQurʾān
The Arabic scripture proclaimed by Islam as the final, uncreated or divinely communicated word of God to Muhammad.
PRACTICERamadan
The month of fasting from dawn to sunset commemorating Qurʾānic revelation.
MOVEMENTSalafism
Modern reform currents appealing to the pious ancestors and opposing many later devotional or theological developments.
PRACTICEShahāda
The Islamic testimony that there is no god but God and Muhammad is His messenger.
LAWSharia
The divinely ordered path as elaborated through Qurʾān, Sunna and juristic reasoning into norms of worship, family and public life.
SCHOOLShia Islam
Islamic traditions centred upon ʿAlī and the Imams as rightful successors and authoritative guides.
ERRORShirk
The Islamic category of associating partners with God, applied to idolatry and often to Christian claims about the Son and Trinity.
MOVEMENTSufism
Islamic ascetical and mystical traditions organized around purification, remembrance, spiritual direction and varied metaphysical teachings.
SOURCESunna
The normative example attributed to Muhammad and mediated chiefly through hadith and legal tradition.
SCHOOLSunni Islam
The majority branch of Islam, historically recognizing the first caliphs and developing multiple legal and theological schools.
SOURCESīra
Biographical tradition concerning Muhammad, preserved in works compiled after the earliest Islamic conquests.
SOURCETafsīr
Qurʾānic commentary explaining vocabulary, context, law and doctrine.
DOCTRINETawḥīd
Islamic confession of divine unity, often framed in explicit opposition to Christian Trinitarian doctrine.
INSTITUTIONUmma
The community of Muslims understood as a religious and, historically, often political body.
PRACTICEZakāt
The obligatory Islamic alms or levy prescribed for specified forms of wealth.
Jewish studies
Jewish studies
Covenant
A divinely established bond with promises and obligations, especially associated with Noah, Abraham, Sinai and David.
PERIODDiaspora
The dispersion of Jewish communities outside the land of Israel and the religious forms developed within it.
SOURCEHaggadah
Narrative or homiletic rabbinic material; the Passover Haggadah is the liturgical order for the Seder.
LAWHalakha
The body and process of Jewish law governing worship, ethics, family and daily life.
MOVEMENTKabbalah
Jewish mystical traditions concerning divine emanations, Scripture, creation and spiritual ascent.
DOCTRINEMessiah
The anointed one expected in relation to Israel’s restoration, kingship and divine promises; Jewish sources express varied expectations.
METHODMidrash
Jewish scriptural interpretation in legal, homiletic and narrative forms.
SOURCEMishnah
The early rabbinic compilation of legal traditions associated with Judah ha-Nasi, conventionally dated around AD 200.
LAWNoahide laws
A rabbinic formulation of fundamental obligations held to bind the descendants of Noah.
MOVEMENTRabbinic Judaism
Jewish religious life structured around rabbinic law, synagogue, prayer and study after the destruction of the Second Temple.
INSTITUTIONSanhedrin
A Jewish council or court; sources use the name for institutions of different periods and competences.
PERIODSecond Temple Judaism
The diverse Jewish world from the rebuilding of the Temple to its destruction in AD 70.
SOURCESeptuagint
The ancient Greek translation and textual tradition of the Old Testament, widely used by Jews of the diaspora and the apostolic Church.
PRACTICEShema
The confession beginning “Hear, O Israel,” central to Jewish prayer and monotheistic identity.
SOURCETalmud
The Mishnah together with rabbinic discussions in the Palestinian and Babylonian Gemaras.
SOURCETanakh
The Jewish canonical collection of Torah, Prophets and Writings.
SOURCETorah
The Pentateuch and, in broader Jewish usage, divine instruction as written and interpreted.
Eastern schism and Orthodox theology
Eastern schism and Orthodox theology
Acacian schism
The rupture between Rome and Constantinople from 484 to 519 over the Henotikon and Christological communion.
INSTITUTIONAutocephaly
The self-governing status of a local Orthodox church whose primate does not answer to a higher patriarch in ordinary administration.
SOURCECanon 28 of Chalcedon
The disciplinary canon granting Constantinople privileges on account of its imperial status, disputed by Pope Leo I.
PRACTICEChrismation
The sacramental anointing with chrism corresponding to Confirmation, ordinarily administered after baptism in Eastern rites.
PRACTICEDivine Liturgy
The Eucharistic liturgy of the Eastern churches, especially the rites of Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Basil.
DOCTRINEEssence–energies distinction
The Palamite distinction between the unknowable divine essence and uncreated energies in which creatures participate.
DOCTRINEFilioque
The Latin confession that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son as from one principle.
PRACTICEHesychasm
Eastern ascetical prayer associated with stillness, the Jesus Prayer and Palamite theology.
PRACTICEIconostasis
The screen of icons separating sanctuary and nave in Byzantine liturgical tradition.
DOCTRINEPapal primacy
The doctrine that the Bishop of Rome possesses a unique office of universal confirmation, appeal and government rooted in Petrine succession.
INSTITUTIONPatriarchate
A major ecclesiastical see and jurisdiction headed by a patriarch.
INSTITUTIONPentarchy
The theory of five principal patriarchal sees—Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem—in the order of the first millennium.
EVENTPhotian controversy
The ninth-century dispute involving Patriarch Photius, papal jurisdiction, Bulgaria and the Filioque.
INSTITUTIONSynodality
Governance and judgement through councils of bishops; the term does not by itself decide whether a universal primatial office also exists.
DOCTRINETheosis
Deification or participation in divine life by grace, while the creature remains created.
Protestant confessions
Protestant confessions
Assurance of salvation
The claim that a believer may possess certainty of personal justification or final salvation.
SOURCEAugsburg Confession
The principal Lutheran confession presented in 1530, structured as articles of faith and disputed abuses.
MOVEMENTConfessionalism
The ordering of Protestant church identity around an authoritative confession or book of concord.
INSTITUTIONDenominationalism
The organization of Christianity into multiple autonomous confessional bodies lacking one visible universal government.
MOVEMENTEvangelicalism
A transdenominational Protestant movement emphasizing conversion, biblical preaching, the Cross and mission.
DOCTRINEImputed righteousness
The claim that justification consists principally in the external reckoning of Christ’s righteousness rather than an inherent renewal by grace.
DOCTRINEMemorialism
The view that the Lord’s Supper is chiefly a commemorative sign rather than a sacramental making-present of Christ’s sacrifice.
DOCTRINEPenal substitution
The theory that Christ bears the legal punishment due to sinners as their substitute.
DOCTRINEPredestination
Divine ordering of salvation; Protestant schools dispute whether grace and reprobation imply unconditional decrees.
PRINCIPLEPrivate judgement
The individual or local community’s final responsibility to interpret Scripture without a living universal teaching judge.
DOCTRINESacramental union
The Lutheran account of Christ’s body and blood united with the bread and wine in the Eucharist.
DOCTRINESola fide
The Reformation formula that justification is received by faith alone, interpreted differently among Protestant confessions.
DOCTRINESola gratia
The formula that salvation is by grace alone, often used polemically against Catholic accounts of cooperation and merit.
DOCTRINESola scriptura
The Protestant principle that Scripture is the only infallible rule of faith, with traditions and churches judged by it.
SOURCEThirty-Nine Articles
The doctrinal articles historically defining the Church of England in relation to Catholic and Reformed controversies.
DOCTRINETotal depravity
The Reformed claim that fallen nature is corrupted in every faculty and cannot turn toward saving good without efficacious grace.
SOURCEWestminster Standards
The seventeenth-century Reformed confession, catechisms and church-order documents associated with the Westminster Assembly.
Adventism
Adventism
Annihilationism
The teaching that the finally lost cease to exist rather than endure eternal punishment.
PERSONEllen G. White
A principal Adventist founder and claimed prophetic messenger whose writings shaped doctrine, organization and practice.
EVENTGreat Disappointment
The failure of the expected visible Advent on 22 October 1844.
PRACTICEHealth message
Adventist dietary, medical and lifestyle teaching associated with bodily stewardship and Ellen White’s counsel.
DOCTRINEHeavenly sanctuary
The Adventist doctrine of a two-phase heavenly ministry of Christ interpreted through the earthly sanctuary and 1844 chronology.
DOCTRINEInvestigative judgement
The Adventist teaching that a pre-Advent review of professed believers began in the heavenly sanctuary in 1844.
MOVEMENTMillerism
The nineteenth-century American movement associated with William Miller’s chronological prediction of Christ’s imminent return.
DOCTRINERemnant church
The claim that a faithful end-time body is identified by commandments, Sabbath and the spirit of prophecy.
DOCTRINESeventh-day Sabbath
The observance of Saturday as the continuing obligatory Sabbath and an end-time sign of fidelity.
DOCTRINESoul sleep
The teaching that the dead remain unconscious until resurrection.
DOCTRINESpirit of prophecy
An Adventist title for prophetic gift, applied especially to Ellen G. White’s writings and ministry.
DOCTRINESunday law
The prophetic expectation that enforced Sunday observance will become a final test and mark of apostasy.
Jehovah’s Witnesses
Jehovah’s Witnesses
144,000
The number in Revelation interpreted as a limited heavenly class distinct from the earthly “great crowd.”
DOCTRINE1914 chronology
The calculation making 1914 the beginning of Christ’s invisible heavenly presence and the last days.
DOCTRINE607 BCE
The Watch Tower date for Jerusalem’s destruction used as the starting point for the 1914 calculation.
DOCTRINEArmageddon
The imminent divine destruction of the present world system, central to Watch Tower eschatology.
DOCTRINEBlood doctrine
The prohibition of transfusion of whole blood and specified components based on biblical commands concerning blood.
PRACTICEDisfellowshipping
Organizational expulsion accompanied by prescribed social avoidance or shunning.
DOCTRINEDivine name
The Watch Tower emphasis on “Jehovah” as the essential divine name, including its insertion into the New Testament translation.
DOCTRINEFaithful and discreet slave
The interpretation of Matthew 24:45 as a divinely appointed channel of organizational teaching.
INSTITUTIONGoverning Body
The small central body claiming authority to direct doctrine and worldwide activity among Jehovah’s Witnesses.
DOCTRINEInvisible presence
The teaching that Christ returned invisibly rather than visibly, especially in 1914.
PRACTICEMemorial
The annual observance of Christ’s death at which only the claimed anointed remnant partake of bread and wine.
SOURCENew World Translation
The Bible translation produced by the Watch Tower organization and shaped at contested Christological passages.
INSTITUTIONWatch Tower Society
The corporate publishing and legal organization central to the history of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Mormonism and Restorationism
Mormonism and Restorationism
Aaronic Priesthood
The lower LDS priesthood said to possess preparatory ordinances and ministering offices.
PRACTICEBaptism for the dead
Vicarious baptism performed in LDS temples on behalf of deceased persons.
SOURCEBook of Abraham
A text published by Joseph Smith as a translation from Egyptian papyri and included in the Pearl of Great Price.
SOURCEBook of Mormon
A nineteenth-century text presented by Joseph Smith as a translation of ancient American records and another witness of Jesus Christ.
SOURCEDoctrine and Covenants
A collection of revelations and declarations authoritative in the Latter-day Saint movement.
DOCTRINEEternal progression
A Latter-day Saint account of divine and human advancement, expressed in varying formulations concerning God and exalted beings.
DOCTRINEExaltation
The LDS doctrine that faithful persons may become like God and inherit the highest degree of celestial glory.
EVENTFirst Vision
Joseph Smith’s reported youthful vision of the Father and the Son, narrated in several accounts with differing details.
DOCTRINEGreat Apostasy
The claim that priesthood authority and the true Church disappeared after the apostles and required restoration through Joseph Smith.
PERSONJoseph Smith
The founder of the Latter-day Saint movement, claimant of visions, translation, priesthood restoration and continuing revelation.
DOCTRINELDS Godhead
The Latter-day Saint doctrine of Father, Son and Holy Ghost as three distinct divine persons or beings united in purpose rather than one consubstantial Trinity.
INSTITUTIONLiving prophet
The LDS president regarded as prophet, seer and revelator for the Church.
INSTITUTIONMelchizedek Priesthood
The higher LDS priesthood claimed to hold authority for spiritual gifts, governance and higher ordinances.
SOURCEPearl of Great Price
An LDS scriptural collection including the Books of Moses and Abraham, Joseph Smith—History and articles of faith.
DOCTRINEPremortal existence
The LDS belief that human spirits lived before mortal birth.
DOCTRINEPriesthood restoration
The claim that angelic messengers restored Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthood authority to Joseph Smith and associates.
PRACTICESealing
A temple ordinance intended to bind spouses and families for eternity.
PRACTICETemple endowment
An LDS temple ordinance involving covenants, ritual instruction and sacred clothing.