wfn.org | Parliament of World Religions told Defining Religions not Easy

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

By John Dart, Parliament of the World's Religions

Cape Town News Office
011 27 21
082 858-6439

U.S. Offices
Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions
Mim Neal, 312 629 2990, mimneal@cpwr.org
John Dart, 818 363 3984, jdartnews@aol.com
http://www.cpwr.org

DEFINING RELIGIONS AND RELIGIOUS GROUPS NOT EASY,
SAYS PARLIAMENT SPEAKER

CAPE TOWN, South Africa --- How many religions are there in the world? How
many are represented at the 1999 Parliament of the World's Religions? Those
are difficult questions to answer, but particularly at the massive event here
ending Dec.8.

The cover of the thick program book for the eight-day Parliament displays
symbols for 12 major religious traditions---including the four largest:
Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. The other eight range from Bahai
to Zoroastrianism.

However, the number of broad religious categories could be expanded to 15 or
so if you added the western esoteric traditions, humanistic philosophies, and
so-called "initiated," post-missionary churches in Africa, said religion
researcher J. Gordon Melton of Santa Barbara, Calif.

Whether 12 or 15 is the best number, all of those faith traditions are
represented among the more than 6,000 participants in the Parliament
gathering, an event that focuses on interreligious dialog and engagement with
critical ethical issues in the world.

. But the total number of denominations, sects, branches, schools of
thought and movements within those major traditions depends on who is making
the distinctions and determining how big is big enough, Melton said. As a
result, Parliament officials have not tried to tally the number of distinctive
religious groups assembled here..

However, for a planned "Encyclopedia of World Religions," co-edited by Ninian
Smart, Melton decided to start with 1,200 entries defined either by their
dominant influence in a particular country (like the Finnish Lutheran Church)
or their worldwide spread (such as the Church of Scientology). "Scientology is
not strong in any nation, but it exists in some 120 countries," Melton said.
"Even the number of 1,200 significant religious groups will grow in time."
Melton described at a Parliament workshop the encyclopedia project and a
separate "International Religions Directory"---short entries with mail and
electronic addresses proposed for print and Internet versions. Melton is
director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa
Barbara.

Although Melton is still seeking a publisher for his two global compendiums,
he is not without a track record in religious reference works. The sixth
edition of his massive Encyclopedia of American Religions, published last
year, contains descriptions of 2,300 different religious groups in the United
States. "New ones show up every week," he said.

North America is not the only hotbed for newly formed spiritual groups, he
said. Europe has many new religious groups that have arisen from steady
immigration in the post-World War II era, mostly small and with little impact
so far on public life, he said.

But with the vastly improved means of transportation and communications in
the last half-century, Melton predicted that many urban regions of the world
will experience the impact from even greater religious diversity.
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