The Campaign Builder's Guild

Since many of our Settings do involve religion--and many of those include figures who can draw upon godly power--It would seem helpful to have a list of different KINDS of religions around for reference.  To that end, I am posting below a handful of different religious forms on which to base in-setting religions.  Feel free to post more, or to add to or correct my definitions if you see something wrong.  I will try to keep this post updated with the whole list.  

Monotheism:  The belief in a single god.  This god usually created the universe, and often rules it.  This god is USUALLY all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present.

• Deism: Monotheism in which the god who created the universe no longer takes any hand in its operation, leaving mortals completely to their own devices.  No prayers will be answered, no magical powers granted.

Polytheism: The belief in multiple gods.  No single god is omnipotent, and gods can be in conflict with each other.  Greek polytheism had the gods as clearly defined metaphysical entities who ruled over certain things.  Celtic Polytheism, on other other hand, had their gods be as much a tribe of beings as a traditional pantheon, and roles such as "smith" would sometimes overlap, be shared, or be in competition.

• Shinto: Involves the veneration of nature spirits (Kami).  These spirits are bound up in the natural world, and so are very present.  I use the term "Shinto" but refer more to this arrangement.
• Ancestor Worship: Sometimes heroes are considered able to rise to the status of gods in their own right, sometimes it is simply the belief that those in the afterlife can keep an eye out for (or lend a hand to) their descendents.  Common among societies that place high value on family honor. 
• Anti-theism: The belief that the gods are actively hostile to human interests, and must be opposed, and destroyed if possible.  Relies on a setting where the gods are provably real entities with clearly defined powers, and human technology is advanced to the point that it can oppose those powers.

Henotheism: The strong belief in, or worship of, a single god, while acknowledging the existence (or possible existence) of other gods.  Henotheism forms the standard religious structure in most settings for Dungeons and Dragons (Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, etc).  People live under influence of several gods, picking one whose profile is relevant to them, or whose philosophy they agree with, to be the sole object of their worship.  

Pantheism:  The belief that "all is god." Pantheism assumes a divine presence that is simply the sum of all that exists, rather than a separate creator.  Magic and the divine essence can exist, but is not guided by a specific agenda.  God is a nebulous, reactive force, rather than an active intelligence.

• Nature Worship: Worship of the elements and the natural world, often through the personification of "Mother Earth." Adoration and belief in the power of nature as an impersonal force.
• The Law of Attraction: The idea that "like attracts like" and that by putting energy towards desires to make them manifest.

Panentheism:  Like in pantheism, the entire universe makes up God.  However, very unlike pantheism, God is MORE than the sum of its parts.  It is an intelligence that created itself and the universe.  It is a part of everything, everything is a part of it, and it rules itself completely.  Magic and the divine are omnipresent, but there is an active agenda to the divine that is lacking in Pantheism.

Other related ideas
Afterlife: The place, or form of existence the soul undergoes after the death of the body.  
Animism: The belief that everything, from humans to wolves, from oak trees to dandelions, from mountains to pebbles, has a soul.  
Reincarnation: The belief that the soul is not destroyed upon death, and that this soul returns to the world in a new body.
Soul: That part of us that is eternal.  Removal of the soul from the body results in death (or at least a death-like coma).
Orthodoxy: Belief in the importance of "right belief" in achieving salvation or enlightenment.  It also refers to the accepted norms and creeds of a religion.  Religions that view orthodoxy important are likely to consider divergent opinions and interpretations as dangerous and "heretical."
Orthopraxy: Belief in the importance of "right practice" in religious rites.  Holds its members to standards of behavior, and places a high importance on ritual and its correct execution.
Heterodoxy: Beliefs and opinions that are at variance with orthodoxy. 

• Heresy: Strong variance with established beliefs and customs, or beliefs and actions that actively undermine said beliefs and customs. 

Ancestor Practices, sometimes as a primary religion, and often as a contributing one, is worth mentioning.,

Not so much a type as a flavor, but right-handed versus left-handed paths, the more technical terms for which are orthodoxy and heterodoxy. The terms themselves come from Western esoteric tradition but the dichotomy exists in other religions as well.

Quote from: Seraphine_Harmonium
Greek polytheism had the gods as clearly defined metaphysical entities who ruled over certain things.

I find the claim of their being clearly defined questionable. Especially so when you look at the other gods besides the Olympians. It's not like there's a single clear death god, for example, what with Hades, Thanatos, the Keres, etc...

Asura has a belief system called "Antitheism" whose main premise is that the gods are actively hostile to human interests, and they must be actively opposed, and maybe even destroyed if possible. Of course, this relies on a setting where the gods are provably real entities with clearly defined powers, as well as human technology being to the point that it can oppose those powers, so this kind of limits the applicability of something like antitheism.

Then again, high-level classic D&D where you go could go to a god's home plane and punch him in the face would also support it. :grin:

Well Kaidan's Zaoism religion is based on Buddhism, and arguably Buddhists are practicing athiests, more philosophers than followers of deities - though some beings are designated 'deities', though not directly worshipped.

Kaidan also features Yokinto, based on Shinto, although some might consider this a form of polytheism.

Some smaller faiths of Kaidan (like Shugendo) are derivatives or combined versions of these two unrelated religions.

Quote from: Gamer Printshop
Well Kaidan's Zaoism religion is based on Buddhism, and arguably Buddhists are practicing athiests, more philosophers than followers of deities - though some beings are designated 'deities', though not directly worshipped.

I hear that a lot, but really, the bodhisattvas are essentially deities and sometimes worshiped as such, especially in Vajrayana Buddhism.

Quote from: Superbright

Quote from: Gamer Printshop
Well Kaidan's Zaoism religion is based on Buddhism, and arguably Buddhists are practicing athiests, more philosophers than followers of deities - though some beings are designated 'deities', though not directly worshipped.

I hear that a lot, but really, the bodhisattvas are essentially deities and sometimes worshiped as such, especially in Vajrayana Buddhism.

I'll clarify saying Zaoism is based on Japanese Buddhism, somewhat like Zen. Zaoism isn't truly Buddhism though, rather just the Wheel of Life without any hope for enlightenment. It is travelling on the doomed reincarnation cycle - eternal movment through the various Buddhist hells. My Kaidan setting is Japanese horror.

Updated the OP

Shinto is probably okay for what you're talking about there, but animistic systems in general do not believe in "gods", or at least not gods in the sense that they have anything human-like about them. Many animistic systems have things we might recognize as "gods", but even these are not at all like even what we'd find among the gods of ancient Roman mythology, for instance.

Sure, there are "spirits", but not all of these spirits have agency. They are just things that exist, independent of anything else in the world. They can affect the world with their presence, but since they are not volitional, they do not and cannot take interest in the world. If you receive the blessing of a sacred waterfall, for instance, it is only because you yourself didn't do something to muck it up. And usually, these "blessings" are not personal things--it could be that the waterfall is somehow related to the harvest, either literally or not, but if you do something to mess it up, you won't have a good harvest any more.

And even when they do have agency, they are not necessarily powerful. The Ainu, for instance, held bears in high regard, to the point where they usually called them the general term for spirits, kamuy, rather than by the real name for bears. Bears are smart and powerful, but their supernatural power--which isn't a direct part of this world--is much more. In fact, the physical shell of the bear's body traps their power in the real world, and they must be sent back to this ill-defined place call "the land of the spirits". This is done in a ceremony called iyomante (lit. "sending it back") by a community capturing a bear cub, raising it to maturity, and then ritually slaughtering it with an arrow to the heart. The meat is then divided up among the community. Other animals were sent back as well.

Bears have power in the real world, but only what their physical shell provides them. It would be unthinkable or even impossible to kill a god, but for the Ainu it was regular practice. Of course, the Ainu themselves would say that the sending only discards the physical shell of whatever animal spirit they were sending back, not actually killing it, but there's still a huge difference.

It's very dangerous to assign one size fits all labels to particular religious traditions. I think it is very important to address indigenous religious in this sort of way, because it is not something that people first of all even bother considering, and second of all it isn't really something that's easy to wrap your head around even once you do. But it seems that this sort of idea was the thing that most humans have.

Quote from: LT
It's very dangerous to assign one size fits all labels to particular religious traditions. I think it is very important to address indigenous religious in this sort of way, because it is not something that people first of all even bother considering, and second of all it isn't really something that's easy to wrap your head around even once you do. But it seems that this sort of idea was the thing that most humans have.

To that point, after spending so much time in history classes looking at how religions change and mutate and split and relate, the one-dimensional version of many of the older RPGs made me go the exact other way.  I wanted the PCs to feel the depth and weight of history in the faiths of the world, as well as feeling the efect of human agency. 
(Which also makes necromancy and Ancestor worship a mix that must be looked at....)

" And as with any institution run by mortals yet fueled by the passion of belief, players in Celtricia find sects, cults, and power-bases in a state of growth, change, or upheaval, as often as in a stable state.  In Argus, the Vernadalian worship takes the form of the Church of the Serpent Queen, while in Igbar the Serpent Queen cult has been banished and repudiated, replaced by the Church of the Green Mother.  The different foci and different morality systems of these related groups creates a conflict more bitter than a typical rival. "

Quote from: sparkletwistAsura has a belief system called "Antitheism" whose main premise is that the gods are actively hostile to human interests, and they must be actively opposed, and maybe even destroyed if possible. Of course, this relies on a setting where the gods are provably real entities with clearly defined powers, as well as human technology being to the point that it can oppose those powers, so this kind of limits the applicability of something like antitheism.

A related term to consider is "maltheism" (in the modern monotheist context, "God exists, and he's out to get you").  I suppose the difference would be that maltheism is merely descriptive, while antitheism as you're describing it is maltheism with a prescriptive element - in other words, it doesn't just describe how things are, it tells you what to do about them.  The maltheist knows the gods are bad; the antitheist says that because the gods are bad, you must oppose them.  You must be maltheist to be antitheist, but you need not be antitheist to be maltheist.

It's possible to take maltheism in the other direction, of course - the gods are bad, and therefore we must appease them!  In a world in which gods are more powerful and/or inscrutable, denying mortals the realistic possibility of contesting their wills (let alone destroying them altogether), the wisest course of action might just be to do your best to make them happy enough not to smite you.  The Gheen, one of my CJ races, are generally of the "appeasement" school of maltheism, in large part because CJ gods are generally remote and uncertain entities who may or may not be real.  The logic goes something like this:

A.  There are gods, and they are more powerful than us.
B.  We can't be sure of who the gods really are or what they really want.
C.  Only we have our own interests at heart.  There is no reason to assume that any entity that is not us has a genuine interest in our welfare.
D.  Therefore, the gods should be assumed to be indifferent at best and hostile at worst, and because we are inferior to them in power, the only means by which we have to protect ourselves from the hostility of gods is to make them pleased with us.

That's not the only place you could go with it, though.  If there are multiple gods who have their own issues with one another, this could start becoming quite complex, as perhaps appeasing one necessarily entails insulting another.  That assumes the gods have a more humanlike, capricious nature, which is not necessarily true just because the gods are bad guys - they could be legitimately evil guys, who are not motivated by jealousy but simple malice or cruelty.  Alternately, they could be supremely indifferent to the interests of mortals and hurt them only inadvertently; mortals are "collateral damage" in whatever heavenly chess is being played by the gods.  If that's truly the case than appeasement may be futile, and if mortals suspect this to be so I'd anticipate seeing a more resigned approach to religion - what the gods want is what the gods want, and there's nothing we can do about it, so why bother?

I think it's also important to consider how the setting approaches religion, not just the people inhabiting the setting. For example, do the gods really exist? Do they make themselves known? Do gods interact with mortals? With other gods? Do divine powers spring from faith alone or are they granted by a worshipped deity? Are they inaccessible, do they live on other planes, or do they wonder the earth in disguise?

I remember from high school religion studies classes that many primitive civilizations had a concept of "essence". What the polynesians (I think) called mana. And this essence would carry over through touch. This is the reasoning behind hunters being able to "steal" the attributes of animals by ingesting different body parts and also lead to ideas of (im)purity - e.g. your essence was befouled if you touched a woman on her period. I also believe I can recall that chiefs were sometimes considered to have such powerful essence that it could be dangerous to touch them.   

cults and sects are also very important and interesting - just consider how many different versions there are of each mayor faith in our world, and their relations haven't always been peaceful. This is a great source for conflict in any setting. Syncretism (the blending and merging of religious ideas) is also cool. 

Which of the categories we have discussed would voodoo fall under?

What little I know of voodoo is more "magic system" than belief system, but those mystical concepts are sometimes relevant to religious thoughts. Things like essence, sympathy, the magical nature of language/numbers, emanation, etc. are relevant as much as divinity is.

From what I understand, Voodoo is a specific animistic religion from West Africa that mixed heavily with christianity when slaves were brought to the Carribean and Louisiana.  It also goes by the name Santaria in Cuba.  This is the stuff of chicken sacrifices and police prosecutions of people for improperly disposing of goat coprses by the train tracks near NE 62nd Street (it is a sanitation issue, after all).  Ttah's the public side that I've seen, at least.  The prisests/ministers/holy men and women dress completely in white linens.  I couldn't tell you much else, though.  There seem to be a lot of superstitions among Cubans and Haitians regarding them, but the line between faith and folklore has been pretty blurred in my experience.  You'll probably get more information out of wikipedia, though.