Religion & Mythology

Tenzin Gyatso, Tibetan Buddhist religious leader, former Tibetan political leader, and recipient of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize.

Achilles is a Greek mythological hero whose wrath, mortality, and enduring reception connect epic poetry, ethics, art, and philosophy.

Mythical Greek king and commander at Troy whose quarrel with Achilles and murder at home shaped epic and tragedy.

Allah is the Arabic word for God and, in Islam, the name of the one God. This entry covers its etymology, pre-Islamic and Qurʾānic usage, theology, interfaith comparison, and translation debates.

Astrology is a belief and divinatory system holding that the positions of celestial bodies correlate with human affairs and personality; scientists regard it as pseudoscience.

A Sanskrit philosophical dialogue within the Mahabharata that explores duty, action, knowledge, devotion, and liberation.

The Bible is the collection of sacred texts recognized by Christianity and Judaism, written over about a thousand years in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, with its canon and translations still varying among traditions.

A bodhisattva in Buddhism is a being on the path to buddhahood who vows to free all sentient beings, a central ideal of Mahayana Buddhism.

Buddhism is a religious tradition originating in ancient India that encompasses teachings and practices directed toward awakening and liberation from suffering.

Calypso is a goddess-nymph in Greek mythology who detains Odysseus on Ogygia and offers him immortality before the gods compel her to release him.

The Catholic Church is the largest Christian church, led by the pope in Rome and organized around bishops, sacraments, and a long tradition of doctrine, governance, and social and cultural engagement.

Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on Jesus Christ, encompassing diverse traditions of belief, scripture, worship, and church organization.

Circe is a goddess and sorceress in Greek mythology, best known for transforming Odysseus’s companions into pigs and later helping his voyage home.

The Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching) is a short, roughly 5,000-character Chinese classic traditionally attributed to Laozi. Its authorship and dating are still debated.

Eastern Orthodoxy is the communion of self-governing churches that traces its faith to the early Church and is historically centred on Constantinople.

A group of eight legendary immortals revered in Daoism and celebrated in Chinese folklore, literature, performance, and art.

A collection of Confucian texts that became central to moral learning, classical scholarship, and imperial examinations in China.

Gautama Buddha, a teacher from ancient India, founded Buddhism; his life is known mainly through later Buddhist texts and legend.

Oral and literary traditions of the ancient Greeks about gods, heroes, and the origin of the cosmos, known mainly through texts from Homer to later Greek writers.

The annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, required once in a lifetime of Muslims who are physically and financially able.

Helen is a figure of Greek mythology whose beauty, marriages, and disputed departure for Troy connect her with the Trojan War.

Hinduism is a diverse family of religious traditions originating in South Asia, encompassing shared scriptures, devotional practices, philosophies, and ideas about duty, rebirth, and liberation.

Islam is a monotheistic religion originating in seventh-century Arabia, centered on the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad.

First-century Jewish teacher from Galilee, central figure of Christianity and revered prophet in Islam.

Jesus of Nazareth was a 1st-century preacher in Roman-ruled Judea, regarded in Christianity as God's son and savior, and the historical figure on whom Christianity and the Christian calendar are founded.

Judaism is the monotheistic religion and civilization of the Jewish people, founded on the covenant between God and Israel, the authority of the Torah, and halakha, and it gave rise to Christianity and Islam.

The Kaaba is a cube-shaped shrine in Mecca's Masjid al-Haram, the focal point of Muslim prayer and the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages.

A family of Indian religious and philosophical doctrines linking actions to consequences within and across lives.

Chinese philosopher and scholar of Chinese philosophy, Buddhism and religious studies at Peking University (1934–2026).

Meditation comprises diverse practices for cultivating attention, awareness, and inner transformation in religious and secular settings.

A mosque (masjid) is the building where Muslims gather for worship, and it has long served as the social, educational and legal hub of Muslim communities.

Muhammad (c. 570–632 CE) was a Meccan merchant and statesman who, in Islamic belief, received God's revelations and is regarded as the last prophet, with his life reconstructed mainly from Muslim sources.

The collection of Christian scriptures concerning Jesus Christ, the early church, and Christian belief and practice.

Liberation from suffering and rebirth in Indian religions, especially Buddhism, where it entails the cessation of craving, hatred, and delusion.

Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost, became pope in 2025, the first from the United States and the first Augustinian.

Protestantism comprises diverse Christian traditions rooted in the Reformation, distinguished by their understandings of biblical authority, salvation, worship, and church organization.

The Quran is the central scripture of Islam, comprising 114 chapters revealed in Arabic to Muhammad, which Muslims regard as the literal word of God and which also serves as a major work of Arabic literature.

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, observed by Muslims through dawn-to-sunset fasting, prayer, Quran recitation and charity.

Religion encompasses beliefs, practices, institutions, and communities concerned with the sacred, spiritual realities, and questions of ultimate meaning.

Sharia is Islam’s religious and ethical normative tradition, interpreted through jurisprudence and expressed in diverse practices and legal institutions.

A major branch of Islam centered on Ali and the Prophet’s family, encompassing diverse traditions of religious authority, belief, law, and worship.

The largest branch of Islam, encompassing diverse traditions of law, theology, worship, and communal authority.

Trinity is the Christian doctrine that God is one essence existing as three co-equal, distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.