Material Culture of Religion: Glossary of (selected) Religious Terms, Concepts, People, Etc. A ad

se'udah mafseket (Hebrew: "final meal")
Jewish: The name for the meal taken just before the fast of Yom Kippur begins.

Seven Patriarchs
Buddhist (Jodo Shinshu): Nagarjuna, India; Vasubanshu, India; Donran, China; Doshaku, China; Zendo, China; Genshin, Japan, and Honen, Japan.

Seventeenth of Tammuz
See Tammuz

Sext
Christian: Fourth part of the daily prayer time schedule; noon.

Sha'ban (Arabic: "the month of division")
Common usage (Muslim): Eighth month of the Islamic lunar calendar.

Shabbat (pl. Shabbatot) (Hebrew: “Sabbath”)
Jewish: Weekly holiday; the seventh day of the seven-day week, begins every Friday evening at sundown and concludes Saturday evening at sundown. (See Shabbat).

Shabbat Shabbaton (Hebrew: "the Sabbath of Sabbaths" or "a Sabbath of solemn rest")
Jewish: Another name for Yom Kippur.

Shabbaton (Hebrew: “day of rest”)
Jewish: One of the three names for the holiday Rosh Hashanah in the Hebrew Bible.

Shabbatot (Hebrew) Jewish: Plural of Shabbat

Shabazz
Nation of Islam: Elijah Muhammad referred to American blacks as members of the Tribe of Shabazz, and this term was used as a last name by many of his followers, most notably Malcolm Little (Malcolm X) and by his widow, Betty Shabazz.

Shaf'ites
Muslim (Sunni): Followers of the school of law named after al-Shafi'i (d. 820).

shah (Persian: "king")

shahadah (=shahada;(Arabic: "creed")
[incomplete]
. Declaration of faith, required of all converts: ''I testify that there is no god but Allah, and Muhammed is the Messenger of Allah.''
Muslim: One of the Five Pillars, the statement of faith. A person becomes a Muslim when, out of his own will and conviction, bears witness (in front of other believers) that there is no deity but Allah and Muhammad is his (final prophet, servant and) messenger.

shahid (Arabic)
Muslim: Martyr to the faith.

shaka (Sanskrit: “branch")
Hindu: Used in the description of a section of Hindu tradition, culture or theology.

Shakti (=shakti)

1. 
   Hindu: The female personification of power as a deity.
   
2. 
   Hindu: Shiva’s consort.
   
3. 
   Hindu: The female aspect of the Tantric Absolute.
   

Shakti Peethams
[incomplete]
Hindu: Sites (in India) where the parts of Sati's body fell to earth.

shaman

1. 
   An expert in reciprocal ecstatic communication between the normal and the supranormal.
   
2. 
   One who is possessed by the Gods and can therefore predict the future.
   
3. 
   A witch doctor, medicine man or other specialist in archaic techniques of ecstasy such as drum beating, dancing, self-hypnosis, chanting or drugs.
   

shandula
Hindu/Buddhist: A mythic bird, a griffin.

Shango
African (traditional): God of lightening and thunder for Yoruba.

Shari'a (=shari'ah, =shariah; Arabic: "clear path")
[incomplete]
Religious, legal and moral code derived from the Qur'an and the sunna.
Islamic law and morality. In many Islamic states, it is enforced by civil authorities.
Muslim: Canon law, the totality of God's prescriptions for mankind, hence considered of divine origin and not the result of human legislation. There are four main schools of shari'a (which disagree with each other on a variety of legal interpretations); named for their founders, they are Hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki and Shafi'i.

sharif (Arabic)
[incomplete]

1. 
   Muslim: Orignally applied only to descendants of Muhammad, a member of the Hashemite Clan.
   
2. 
   Muslim: =noble.
   

shashu
Buddhist (Zen): Hand position for zazen.

Shavuot (=Gift of Torah) (Hebrew)
Jewish (holiday): The holiday celebrates the anniversary of the giving of the Torah. According to Rabbinic tradition, the Exodus from Egypt took place on Friday the fifteenth of the Hebrew month of Nisan. The Torah was given on Shabbat, the sixth of the Hebrew month of Sivan, which is the fiftieth day of the Omer. Shavuot is observed by Orthodox and Conservative Jews in the Diaspora for two days. Reform Jews and all Jews living in Israel observe it for one day. (See Shavuot.)

Shawwal (Arabic)
Common usage: Tenth month of the Muslim calendar.

shaykh (=sheikh; Arabic: "elder")

1. 
   Common Usage: A title of respect bestowed upon any learned or accomplished man such as a distinguished scholar. (note: avoid using shiekh or sheik - use shaykh instead)
   
2. 
   Muslim (Shi'ite): A Sufi master.
   
3. 
   Muslim (Ottoman): Shaykh al-Islam is the title used by the chief religious officer of the Ottoman Empire.
   

shaytan
Muslim: The devil.

Shehekheyanu (Hebrew)
Jewish: A prayer that thanks God for keeping the supplicants alive and sustaining them. “Barukh atah Adonai elohenu melekh ha-olam, shehekheyanu vekiyimanu vehigiyanu lazman hazeh”. = “Blessed are you, Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe who has kept us alive and sustained and enabled us to reach this season.”

Shekali Mai (=Rudrayana)
Hindu (Nepal): A Kathmandu Valley nature Goddess.

Shekkinah (Hebrew)

1. 
   Jewish (rabbinic): The divine presence.
   
2. 
   Jewish (Cabala): The lowest of the ten Sefirot, which goes into exile along with Israel.
   

Shema (Hebrew: "hear")
Jewish: Biblical passages affirming the unity of God, the complete love with which he must be served, and the acceptance of his commandments, which are recited twice daily in the Jewish liturgy. The prayer which expresses the central affirmation of Jewish faith: "Hear O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is One."

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you like down, and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

(Deuteronomy 6)

Shemini Atzeret (Hebrew "Eighth Day of Assembly or Convocation")
[incomplete]
Jewish: Thecompletion of the annual cycle of reading of the Torah.
Jewish: A biblical festival: "On the eighth day you shall observe a holy occasion...it is a solemn gathering ; you shall not work at your occupations" (Lev. 23:36); The term atzeret (which literally means "concluding gathering") is also applied to the last day of Passover and to the end of the holiday of Shavuot. The "Eighth Day" after Sukkot is a festival in its own right. (See also Shemini Atzeret.)

sheol
Jewish: The place where the dead reside.

Shi'a (Persian: "the party of...")
[incomplete]
Shi'a: One of two major branches of Islam, consisting of 10-15 percent of Muslims, who split with the Sunnis and claimed that Mohammed's relative Ali should be the prophet's successor.
Muslim (Shi’a): This group which accounts for approximately 14% of all Muslims began as "the party of Ali." They were those who believed that the legitimate successor to Muhammad was his cousin and son-in-law, Ali. The three major offshoots of this Islamic tradition are Ithna Ash'ariyyah (“Twelvers”), Zaydiyah and Isma'iliyah.

Shi'ite
Muslim: Adjectival form of Shi’a

shikinen sengu (Japanese)
Shinto (ritual): The transfer of a deity to a new shrine building after a prescribed number of years.

Shin Buddhist
Buddhist(Japan/Sect): see Jodo Shinshu Nishi Hongwanji.

Shinto shrine ritual
Shinto: A visit to a shrine includes, minimally, purification at the entrance by rinsing hands and mouth with water, and a sequence of (usually) two bows (gasho), two handclaps (kashiwade) and another bow.

Shinto (=Shintoism; Japanese: "The way of the gods")
Shinto: The indigenous, national religion of Japan, Shinto is more vividly observed in the social life of the people, or in personal motivations, than as a firmly established theology or philosophy. Often described as centering on the worship of nature and the veneration of the spirits of nature, called kami. Little is known about Shinto prior to the 700s CE, when the first Shinto scriptures were codified. Only when Buddhism became popular in Japan, and Shintoism was thus threatened, did the Shintoists begin to define and structure their religion, which has at its core the love and worship of Japan itself and of the Japanese people as a whole. Ancestor worship and emperor worship long have had a place in Shintoism, which considers people as elements in nature rather than separate from nature. The three basic types are Shrine Shinto, Sectarian Shinto and Folk Shinto.

shirk (Arabic: "idolatry")
Muslim: The most severe sin: imagining God as more than one unit.

Shitala Mai
Hindu (Nepalese): A former ogress who became a protector of children, worshipped at Swayambhunath, Nepal.

Shiva (=Siva)
Hindu: One of the three most important Gods, the God of death and destruction and of rebirth and reproduction (the other two are Brahma and Vishnu). He is indifferent to worldly matters; his cosmic dance is invariably so wild that it results in the world's being burned to ashes. Shiva is portrayed as wearing a necklace of skulls, his hair tangled and matted. Like Kali, Shiva beckons humans out of the world to their liberation.

shiva
Jewish (ritual): The sacred ceremonies for honoring the dead.

shivah asar be-Tammuz (=Tammuz) (Hebrew)
Jewish (minor holiday): Commemorates the first breach in the walls of Jerusalem when it was besieged by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. (see also Tammuz)

Shivarat (=Mahasivaratri)
Hindu: The worship of Shiva with flowers.

Shou Lao
Taoist: Deity; the god of longevity, easily recognized by his large cranium, medicinal gourd and "peach of immortality".

shrestha (Nepalese)
Hindu (Nepal): A Newar caste.

Shrine Shinto
Shinto: One of the three major types of Shinto, which has been in existence from the prehistoric ages to the present and constitutes a main current of Japanese Shinto tradition. Until the Emperor renounced his divine status as a part of Japan's surrender at the end of World War II, it included State Shinto. The majority of Japanese are simultaneous believers in Shrine Shinto and Buddhism; because Shinto shrines are used only for "positive" celebrations, funerals are held in Buddhist temples.

Shogatsu (=Gantan-sai)
Shinto: New Year's Day celebration.

shohet (Hebrew)
Jewish: A person whose vocation it is to be a ritual slaughterer of kosher meat; kosher butcher.

Shou Lao
Taoist: Deity often found on altars, the God of longevity easily recognized by his large cranium, medicinal gourd and "peach of immortality".

Shrove Tuesday (=Fat Tuesday, =Mardi Gras)
Christian: A carnival day on the eve of Ash Wednesday. Pancakes are often served."

Shrovetide
Christian: Period before Lent [incomplete].

shu (Chinese)
Confucian: The law of reciprocity.

Shubun-sai
Shinto (holiday): The vernal equinox observance.

shura (Arabic: "council", "consultation")

shu'ubiyya (Arabic: "ethno-loyalty", "tribalism")
Muslim: In the early Islamic period, shu'ubiyya was a movement to provide recognition to non-Arab ethnic groups.

Siddhartha Gautama
Buddhist: The founder of Buddhism was born as a Hindu into the wealthy warrior caste in Nepal (c. 563-c.483 BCE.). His father, King Suddhodana, was the ruler of the Sakya clan, who lived in the foothills of the Himalayas. His mother, Queen Maya, was the daughter of Anjara, also a Sakya raja. Siddhartha means, literally, "every wish fulfilled."

Siffin, Battle of
Muslim (Shi'ite): Second civil war, 37 AH (657 CE).

sigheh
Muslim (Shi'ite, esp. Iran): A temporary marriage recognized by religious authorities.

Sikh faith (=Sikhism; Punjabi)
Sikh: Founded in the 15th Century by Guru Nanak (1439-1539)l, Sikhism has been called an amalgam of Hindu and Muslim traditions. Guru Nanak taught that true religion consisted of being ever mindful of God, meditating on God's name, and reflecting it in all activities of daily life. Ritual is discouraged. Sikhs of Indian origin number approximately 500,000 in North America and 21 million throughout the world.

Sikh Dharma of the Western Hemisphere (= 3HO, Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization)
Sikh: An American sectarian offshoot of Sikhism; founded in 1971by Yogi Harbhajan Singh, it claims 5,000 members.

silsila (pl. salasil; Arabic)
Muslim (Shi'ite: Sufi): A mystic genealogy.

sima (Pali: "boundary")
Buddhist: The consecrated boundary within which higher ordination and other (monastic) ceremonies are performed.

Simchat Torah (Hebrew: "rejoicing of the law")
Jewish: Holiday celebrating the Torah. (See also Simchat Torah.)

simony
Christian (Roman Catholic): The deliberate intention and act of selling and/or buying spiritual goods or material things so connected with the spiritual that they cannot be separated from it. Simony is a violation of the virtue of religion, and a sacrilege, because it wrongfully puts a material price on spiritual things, which can be neither bought nor sold. The term is derived from the name Simon Magus who, in The Acts of the Apostles, tried to buy the power to confirm people in the Holy Spirit.

sin
[incomplete]

1. 
   Common Usage: An immoral act; alienation of the ego from the quest for integration with the inner self.
   
2. 
   Christian: Transgression against the known will of God.
   
3. 
   Christian: Turning away from God.
   
4. 
   Christian (Roman Catholic): The seven mortal, or deadly, sins are: pride, covetousness, lust, envy, gluttony, anger and sloth.
   
5. 
   Muslim: xxxx
   

Singh (Punjabi: “lion”)

1. 
   Sikh: A surname adopted by male members of the Khalsa in the 16th Century and, thus, a common surname among contemporary Sikhs, male and female.
   
2. 
   Sikh: An additional ritual name adopted by male believers.
   

sira
Muslim: The biography of Muhammad.

sirat (Arabic)
Muslim: The bridge that spans hellfire and leads to paradised.

Sister Disciples of the Divine Master
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns founded by Father James Alberione 10 February 1924, in Alba, Italy.

Sister Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns.founded 15 April1894 in Krakow, Poland by Bishop Joseph Sebastian Pelczar.

Sisters of Charity of Our Lady Mother of the Church
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns.

Sisters of Charity of the Immaculate Conception
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns.

Sisters of Christian Charity
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns.

Sisters of Life
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns founded 1 June 1991 in New York State.

Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist
Christian (Roman Catholic): Dominican order of nuns founded 9 February 1997 in Ann Arbor, Mich., by Mother Assumpta Long, Sister Joseph Andrew Bogdanowicz, Sister Mary Samuel Handwerker, and Sister John Dominic Rasmussen.

Sisters of Nazareth
Christian (Roman Catholic) Order of nuns founded in London, England, in 1854 by Mother St. Basil (b. Victoire Larmenier 21 July 1827, France; d. 16 June 1878,).

Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns founded in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, on 1 August 1 1977.

Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns founded by Mother Teresa Eva Potocka (1814-1881) in Warsaw, Poland, in 1862.

Sisters of Reparation of the Congregation of Mary
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns.

Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration
Christian (Roman Catholic): Franciscan order of nuns founded in Olpe, Germany in 1863 by Mother Theresia Bonzel.

Sisters of St. Francis of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Christian (Roman Catholic): Franciscan order of nuns founded in Dillingen, Germany, in 1241.

Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George
Christian (Roman Catholic): Franciscan order of nuns founded by Mother M. Anselma in Thuine, Germany in 1869.

Sisters of St. Joseph
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns.

Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns.

Sisters of St. Joseph the Worker
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns. "SJW"

Sisters of St. Rita
Christian (Roman Catholic): Augustinian order of nuns founded by Father Hugolinus Dach, an Augustinian priest from Wuerzburg, Germany, in 1911 to provide apostolate; family care.

Sisters of the Holy Family
Christian (Roman Catholic) Order of nuns.

Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns.

Sisters of the Holy Spirit
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns.

Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns founded in 1848 by Fr. Joachim Masmitjل (Spain) for the purpose of rebuilding society through the education of young women.

Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns.

Sisters of the Resurrection
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns. The Congregation of the Sisters of the Resurrection was founded in Rome in 1891 by a widow, Celine Borzecka, and her daughter, Hedwig. Celine Chludzinska was born on October 29, 1833 in Poland. In 1853 she married Joseph Borzecki. After his death in 1874 she left for Rome where, together with her daughter Hedwig, she founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Resurrection. Mother Celine died in Cracow on October 26, 1913, and is presently a candidate for canonization. The decree regarding her heroic virtues was proclaimed on February 11, 1982. Hedwig Borzecka was born on February 1, 1863 in Poland. After the death of her father she accompanied her mother Celine to Rome, where she cooperated with her in founding the Congregation of the Sisters of the Resurrection. She died suddenly in Kety on September 27, 1906 at the age of forty-three. She is presently a candidate for canonization, together with her mother. The decree regarding her heroic virtues was proclaimed on December 17,1982.

Sisters of the Society Devoted to the Sacred Heart
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns.

Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis
Christian (Roman Catholic): Order of nuns.

Sita
Hindu: Rama’s wife, heroine of the Ramayana epic; she is worshipped in Jankpur, her legendary birthplace.

666 (=six hundred threescore and six)
Christian: The number of the beast in Revelation 13:18.

Skanda
Hindu: God of war.

skinwalker
Native American (Navajo): Werewolf-like evil spirit.

Slichot
Jewish: The worship service to begin making repentance for wrongs done the past year.

snake
See: serpent

Soka Gakkai (Japanese: "value creation society”)
Buddhist: A lay movement in contemporary Japan based on the teachings of Nichiren and of the Lotus Sutra.

Sokoto
Place name: Province in Nigeria.

Solemn Exposition
Christian (Roman Catholic): The Blessed Sacrament exposed in the Monstrance in a most dignified setting for public Adoration.

Solemn Vows
Christian (Roman Catholic): The strictest type of religious Vows in which the adherents renounce their right to own property of any kind.

solstice

1. 
   winter solstice: the day (near 21 December) when the sun reaches its southernmost latitude. It is the shortest day in the northern hemisphere.
   
2. 
   summer solstice: the day (near 21 June) when the sun reaches its northernmost latitude. It is the longest day in the norhern hemisphere.
   

Son of the Widow Lady
Medieval Europe: An honorific of unknown origin and meaning often applied to Jesus.

sophia (Greek)

1. 
   Common Usage: Wisdom
   
2. 
   Aristotelian: Wisdom as an intellectual virtue.
   

Soto (=Chinese: Caodong)
Buddhist (Zen): A Japanese sect of Zen Buddhism.

spirit
Common usage: The most general term (a spirit, spirits) for any superhuman (usually invisible) being.

Spring Ohigon
Buddhist: The time of meditation on the teachings of Buddha at the vernal equinox.

Sraavana
Indian subcontinent: The fifth month of the (solar) year; the others are Chaitra, Vaishaaka, Jyeshta, Aashaadha, Bhaadrapada, Aaswayuja, Kaartika, Maargasira, Pushya, Magha and Phaalguna.

Sraddha (=Sraddha Devi)
Hindu: Goddess denoting diligence, faith and devotion.

stable terminal
Scientologist: One who is reliable, responsible and can be depended upon to competently perform the duties of his job.

standard memory banks
Scientologist: Recordings in the analytical mind of everything perceived throughout the lifetime up to the present by the individual except painful emotion and physical pain, which are recorded in the reactive mind.

Stoic

1. 
   Common usage: xxxx
   
2. 
   Refers to a school of philosophy developed in the Hellenic world after 300 BCE that later formed the ethos of the Roman Empire. The emphasis is on law as the defining mark of humanity and reflection of the universal order. One must maintain resignation in the face of determinative cosmic order.
   

Strigoi
Christian (Archaic): Vampire, Undead; minion of Satan.

suba (Arabic: "province")

Subordinationism
Christian (heretical): A version of the doctrine of the Trinity according to which Christ as the eternal Logos is less than or subordinate to God the Father.