The Religious Life: Institutions and Practices

Subject Outline

AReligious rites and customs
- 1Rituals of worship
  - aPrayer
  - bConfession
  - cPilgrimage
  - dSacrifice
- 2Passage and purification rites: birth, puberty, marriage, death
- 3Religious regulation of personal and social behaviour
  - aReligious law [see 551.B.3.d. and 827.F.6.a.]
  - bDietary customs
  - cMonasticism
  - dCelibacy
  - eAsceticism
  - fProphecy and divination
- 4Religious feasts and festivals
BReligious leaders and institutions
- 1The religious state: theocracies, sacred kingships
- 2Forms of religious organization: church, temple, congregation, sect, council; the priesthood
- 3Sainthood
- 4Institutions of religious education
CMaterial manifestations of religious beliefs
- 1Sacred writings
- 2Art and architecture, religious symbolism and iconography
- 3Ceremonial and religious objects, the sacraments
- 4Religious dress and vestments