World Religions
190 items and 329 connections. The world's religions from prehistoric ritual to today, presented respectfully. Labeled historical record, mostly agreed, debated, or faith & scripture.
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Judaism, Christianity & Islam
Hindu, Buddhist, Jain & Sikh
Chinese, Japanese & Korean
Zoom in to reveal more detail, out for the big picture · click a dot to open it · click a ◆ on a line for how two items connect · +N = hidden details · drag to move · tap an era at the top to jump to it.⬢ religion or tradition■ founder, prophet or teacher▮ scripture or text◎ belief or practice● event▲ holy place
Prehistoricbefore 3000 BC
Burials, cave art and spirits: the oldest signs of belief.
Ancient civilizations3000 – 800 BC
Gods of Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Vedas, and early Israel.
The Axial Age800 – 200 BC
Prophets, the Buddha, Confucius and Laozi reshape belief.
Classical faiths200 BC – AD 600
Christianity and rabbinic Judaism rise; Mahayana and classical Hinduism.
Medieval600 – 1500
Islam spreads; faiths build empires, schools and pilgrimages.
Early modern1500 – 1800
Reformation, Sikhism and global missions.
Modern1800 – 1945
New movements and the challenge of science and secularism.
Contemporary1945 – today
Global faiths, the rise of the nonreligious, and interfaith life.
Every item as its own page (190)
Prehistoric
- Animism: a world alive with spirits
- The Dreaming (Aboriginal Australian religion)
- Prehistoric ritual: burials, cave art, figurines
- Venus figurines and the mother-goddess debate
- Painted caves of Chauvet and Lascaux
- Afterlife beliefs across faiths
- Shamanism: healers who journey to the spirit world
- Göbekli Tepe
- Ancestor veneration
- Proto-Indo-European religion
Ancient civilizations
- Ancient Egyptian religion
- Mesopotamian religion (Sumer, Babylon, Assyria)
- Polytheism: the many gods of the ancient world
- Stonehenge
- Indus Valley religion
- Ra, the sun god
- Osiris: death, rebirth and judgment of the dead
- Epic of Gilgamesh
- Abraham, shared ancestor of Jews, Christians and Muslims
- The covenant between God and Abraham's descendants
- Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation epic
- Book of the Dead and the weighing of the heart
- Rigveda
- Vedic religion
- Canaanite religion: El, Baal and Asherah
- Akhenaten and worship of the Aten
- Moses
- Shang oracle bones and ancestor rites
- Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai
- The Exodus from Egypt
- Indigenous religions of the Americas (Maya, Aztec, Inca)
- Zoroaster (Zarathustra)
- Jerusalem
- Varna and caste
- Solomon's Temple (First Temple)
The Axial Age
- Greek gods of Olympus
- The Axial Age
- Varanasi (Kashi), holiest Hindu city
- Hebrew prophets: Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah
- Karma and rebirth (samsara)
- Upanishads
- Moksha: liberation, and Brahman–Atman
- Babylonian exile and fall of the First Temple
- Confucius
- Jainism
- The Torah (Five Books of Moses)
- Zoroastrianism
- Mahavira
- Monotheism: belief in one God
- Cyrus the Great of Persia
- Second Temple Judaism
- Roman gods and state religion
- Ahimsa: non-violence
- Confucianism
- Dharma: duty and cosmic order
- Resurrection of the dead and Last Judgment
- The Golden Rule across faiths
- Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha
- Buddhism
- Bodh Gaya, site of the Buddha's enlightenment
- Four Noble Truths
- Noble Eightfold Path
- Dao De Jing, attributed to Laozi
- Daoism (Taoism)
- Mahabharata and Ramayana epics
- Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty
- Theravada Buddhism
Classical faiths
- Hinduism
- Shiva
- Bhagavad Gita
- Dead Sea Scrolls
- Korean shamanism (Mu) and the mudang
- Mahayana Buddhism
- Vishnu and his avatars, Rama and Krishna
- Pali Canon (Tipitaka)
- Western Wall
- Jesus of Nazareth
- Paul the Apostle
- Christianity
- Crucifixion of Jesus
- Resurrection of Jesus (Easter)
- Lotus Sutra
- New Testament
- Buddhism reaches China on the Silk Road
- Rabbinic Judaism
- Roman destruction of the Second Temple
- Norse gods: Odin, Thor and Valhalla
- Mishnah and Talmud
- Shinto, the way of the kami
- Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
- Constantine, the first Christian emperor
- Council of Nicaea and the Nicene Creed
- Augustine of Hippo
- Buddhism reaches Korea
- Devi, the Great Goddess (Shakti)
- Pure Land Buddhism
- Hagia Sophia
- Buddhism reaches Japan
- Muhammad
Medieval
- Bhakti, the devotional movement
- Chan, Seon and Zen Buddhism
- Islam
- The Quran
- The Hijra to Medina
- Mecca and the Kaaba
- Caliphates: Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid
- Five Pillars of Islam
- Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca
- Sunni and Shia split
- Battle of Karbala and the death of Husayn
- Ise Grand Shrine
- Dome of the Rock
- Adi Shankara and Advaita Vedanta
- Sufism, Islamic mysticism
- Tibetan (Vajrayana) Buddhism
- Hadith collections and Sharia law
- African traditional religions (Yoruba Orisha)
- Eastern Orthodox Church
- Great Schism between East and West
- Roman Catholic Church and the papacy
- The Crusades
- Angkor Wat
- Neo-Confucianism (Zhu Xi)
- Maimonides
- Thomas Aquinas
- Kabbalah and the Zohar
- Joseon Korea's Confucian state
- Guru Nanak
- Martin Luther
- Sikhism
Early modern
- Global Christian missions and empire
- Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica
- John Calvin
- Protestant Reformation
- Anglicanism and the Church of England
- Council of Trent and the Catholic Reformation
- Wars of religion and the Peace of Westphalia
- Dalai Lama lineage
- Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib)
- Afro-Atlantic faiths: Vodou, Santería, Candomblé
- Guru Granth Sahib
- The Enlightenment and religion
- Founding of the Khalsa
- Evangelicalism and the Great Awakenings
- Hasidism (Baal Shem Tov)
- Wahhabism
- Christianity in Korea
- Religious freedom and church–state separation
- Korean Catholic martyrs
Modern
- Secularization
- Modern Jewish movements: Reform, Conservative, Orthodox
- Hindu reform movements (Brahmo Samaj, Arya Samaj)
- Latter-day Saints (Mormonism)
- New religious movements
- Historical-critical Bible scholarship
- Marx: religion as 'the opium of the people'
- Bahá'í Faith
- Friedrich Nietzsche: 'God is dead'
- Darwin's On the Origin of Species
- Donghak and Cheondogyo
- Swami Vivekananda
- State Shinto
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Jehovah's Witnesses
- World's Parliament of Religions
- Zionism and Theodor Herzl
- Pentecostalism (Azusa Street Revival)
- Great Pyongyang Revival
- Christian fundamentalism
- Soviet state atheism
- March 1st Movement
- Hindu nationalism (Hindutva)
- Muslim Brotherhood
- The Holocaust
Contemporary
- Partition of India and Pakistan
- Founding of the State of Israel
- Unification Church (Sun Myung Moon)
- Ambedkar leads Dalits to Buddhism
- Yoido Full Gospel Church, Seoul
- Second Vatican Council
- Interfaith dialogue
- Christianity's shift to the Global South
- Islamic revival and political Islam
- New Age spirituality
- Liberation theology
- Pope John Paul II
- Iranian Revolution
- Rise of the 'nones' (no religion)
- September 11 attacks
- Pope Francis