Preface

The purpose of The Wilson Chronology of the World’s Religions is to provide readers with a reasonably complete record of the major events in the development and spread of religions around the world. The chronology begins with religion in prehistoric times, dating to 100,000 b.c.e., and ends in 2000. This chronology is primarily a chronology of events, with each entry listing and describing a specific event or series of events that took place in a specific year or span of years.

Our compilation of this chronology was guided by four primary beliefs about the nature of religion and the history of religion. First, despite the inability of experts to agree on exactly what is and what is not religion, religion can be defined broadly as beliefs and actions that take place within the context of the relationship between the human and supernatural worlds. This broad definition had the practical advantage of allowing us to cover of religion in the chronology as broadly as possible. Thus, we include not just organized religions or world religions but also such topics as spirituality, witchcraft, the personal growth movement, and alternatives to religion, such as deism and atheism. Our second guiding belief was that religion, as a societal institution, has never existed in isolation from other societal institutions. Rather, the situation is quite the opposite, and as many entries throughout the chronology show, religion throughout human history and across cultures has almost always influenced and been influenced by social, economic, and political developments, events, trends, and contexts. Our third guiding principle was that as religion has been the subject of interdisciplinary study, this chronology must also be interdisciplinary; we have therefore relied on a broad range of sources from history, anthropology, religious studies, sociology, political science, and the humanities. The fourth principle is that all religious beliefs and practices are equally valid and are entitled to respect and acceptance. Thus, in compiling the chronology we have tried to be fair and nonjudgmental. Adherence to these four principles has allowed us to compile a chronology that has considerable historical depth, is cross-cultural, and contains information about how and why particular events, trends, and developments took place, in addition to the what, when, where, and who of these events.

The chronology is meant to serve readers in a variety of ways. First, it provides a general history of the origins, development and spread of religion and thus allows readers to learn when and where particular events took place and what effect those events had on subsequent events. Second, it provides general histories of the origin, development, and spread of specific religions and sects and thus enables readers to learn when and where a particular religion began, how it developed, when and where it spread, and its status in the 1990s. Third, it allows readers to compare the development and spread of different religions by comparing events for each religion of interest in specific years, decades, or spans of years or centuries. Fourth, it gives readers an opportunity to learn how different religions have influenced one another. Fifth, it enables readers to understand the development and roles of religion and religions in their political, social, and economic contexts. And, sixth, it explores topics related to religion that cut across various religions; these topics include fundamentalism, creationism, African-American religion, Native American religion, and religious rights.

Coverage

The entries in the chronology cover seven major themes in the prehistory and history of religion:

(1) Religion in the prehistoric world; that is, religions about which we know through the study of the archaeological record. Coverage of these is slight compared to coverage of religion in the historic period, as information is limited by the absence of written records and the need to base interpretations on a less than full archaeological record.

(2) Religion in the ancient world, with an emphasis on the religions of major civilizations in China, Japan, Southeast Asia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Africa, India, Greece, Rome, and the Americas. Information about these religions comes from both the archaeological and often written records.

(3) Major world religions; religions whose followers are widely distributed throughout the world and/or religions that have influenced other religions in significant ways. The world religions covered here are Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism (Baptist, Churches of God, Episcopalian, Anglican, Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Methodist, Congregational, Presbyterian, and the Salvation Army), Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Christianity, Mormonism, Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Shinto, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Baha’i, Coptic Christianity, Mormonism, Seventh-Day Adventist, Society of Friend (Quakers), Christian Science, Moravians, and the Unitarians.

(4) Other religions, including the Shakers, Anabaptists (Amish, Hutterites, and Mennonites), Rosicrucians, Gnostics, Unification Church, Hare Krishna, Brethren, Japanese new religions, and Scientology.

(5) Religious sects and cults, including mystical orders of the Middle Ages, spiritual groups of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, New Thought and New Age groups, witchcraft, astrology, apocalyptic and millenarian groups, and the personal growth movement.

(6) Religious tolerance and intolerance, including ecumenicism, missionary activity, relations among denominations and sects within a religion, relations between and among different religions and relations between the church and state. One major theme in the history of religion is both intolerance and tolerance by governments of religion or specific religions; therefore, the relationship between religion and the state is afforded much attention here.

(7) Special topics, including Native American religion, African-American religion, atheism, creationism, missionary activity, televangelism, the role of women in religion, and ecumenicism.

As much as possible we have tried to make coverage of each religion parallel while also including information about unique features of each religion. For each religion covered in the chronology we provide information on the following: origin; development and refinement of major beliefs and practices; origin and revision of major texts; major founding individuals, leaders, and reformers; designation of important places; tolerance or intolerance by others; major denominations or sects; and geographical spread.

Structure

The heart of the volume is the chronology itself. It is supplemented by about 250 information sidebars which describe all of the major and minor religions covered in the chronology, provide biographical sketches of major religious figures, define and frame major issues or events, and in general provide context to the information provided in the chronology. The volume also includes a bibliography and an index.

To aid readers in working through the chronology, nineteen subject codes are used to indicate the topic or topics covered in each entry. Other religions and topics, as well as specific topics within these general categories, are listed in the index. In addition, cross-references are included in the entries to direct users to other relevant entries.

african African and African-American Religions

budd Buddhism

cath Roman Catholicism

chris Christianity, general

civil Religion in prehistoric times and in ancient civilizations

conf Confucianism

dao Daoism

evan Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity

hind Hinduism

jain Jainism

jud Judaism

islam Islam

misc General information about religion in general

nativ Native American religions

ortho Eastern Orthodoxy

prot Protestantism

sect Other religions, sects, and cults

shinto Shinto

tol Religious tolerance and intolerance

A number of special decisions were made about how to best handle and present the information in the chronology. Perhaps the most difficult issue was how to present information that is dated at one point in time by adherents of a religion and at a different point in time by such experts as archaeologists or historians. In many religions it is not unusual for followers of the religion to date early events at earlier dates than do scholars. When there is a conflict in dates of this type, we have indicated that the date is one supported by religious belief by saying that it is the "traditional" date and that it is one supported by experts by saying it is the date assigned by "experts." Readers are free to choose whichever date, or both, as they prefer. Our goal is to be respectful of all religious beliefs while at the same time providing an accurate statement of the historical record.

A second issue that required special consideration was how to direct readers to entries that specifically relate to other entries that may be years or even centuries apart in the chronology. Of course, the index and the nineteen subject codes help, but for some entries we have also added cross-references or references in the text to the year where related information may be found.

The other decisions were more technical. They include the following:

(1) presenting all events in the present tense with events that take place later presented in the future tense or with information about when they occur;

(2) presenting all b.c.e. dates with a preceding – (minus) sign;

(3) not using c. (circa) with b.c.e. dates; as many b.c.e. dates are not exact, it is to be understood that sources often differ in the dates listed for these events;

(4) using c. (circa) to indicate that the date is approximate in the c.e. section of the chronology;

(5) using parentheses, as in (St.) Peter, to indicate that sainthood has been conferred on an individual at some later point in time.

Acknowledgments

A number of people not listed as contributors deserve mention and special thanks for their help with this work. First, I want to thank Michael Schulze, vice president and director of General Reference at H.W. Wilson, for his support of the idea and bringing the concept to a project with a minimum of fuss. I also want to thank the editorial staff at H.W. Wilson, including Gray Young, Lynn Messina, and Jacquelene Latif, as well as Hilary Claggett for supplying useful tips about reliable sources of information related to religion as the project progressed.

David Levinson