Introducing World Religions:
The eBook
Introducing World Religions Online:
Comprehensive Glossary of Terms
Term | Definition |
---|---|
wabi |
Principle in Japanese art indicating a subjective feeling of loneliness, tearfulness, or nostalgia. |
Wāhegurū |
Sikh term used to express God's ineffable nature -- that which is beyond description. |
Wahhābi |
Name of a conservative Islamic movement begun in the 1700s to clear un-Islamic elements from Muslim life in Arabia; today identified with Islamic fundamentalism. |
Wakan-Tanka |
Sioux term for the Great Mystery that pervades and energizes the cosmos. |
Wang Bi |
(226-249) Chinese thinker in the Dark Learning movement who wrote a commentary on the Dao de jing, Book of Changes, and Analects; he identified four levels of meaning in the Book of Changes, namely words, images, meaning, and precepts. |
Wang Yang-ming |
(1472-1529) Chinese philosopher, often considered the fourth great Confucian thinker, who developed the School of Mind as an alternative to the School of Principle; he concluded that to know the world one must look within the mind rather than at external objects. |
Way of Great Peace |
An early Daoist group founded by three "healer" brothers who rallied peasants to join a guerrilla band known as the Yellow Turbans; members of this taiping dao expected an era of Great Peace following their attempts to bring down the Han ruler in 184 CE; remnants of the group were absorbed into the Celestial Masters sect. |
Way of the Five Pecks of Rice |
The first organized Daoist church in Chinese history; called the wudoumi dao because of the annual fee people paid for the benefits of healing that came to members of the group; the founder Zhang Daoling had a vision of Lao-zi, and became the first Celestial Master. |
Wesley, John |
(1703-1791) Christian reformer who wrote Rules for the Methodist faith, and recast core documents of the Anglican Church; he did not break with the Anglican Church, but his followers started the Methodist denomination. |
Wounded Knee Creek |
Place of massacre of Sioux People in South Dakota, USA on December 29, 1890. |
wu-wei |
Actionless action; in Chinese thought (especially Daoist) the paradox of doing nothing, and leaving nothing undone. |