country occupying the eastern half of the island of Timor, the small nearby islands of Atauro (Kambing) and Jaco, and the enclave of Ambeno surrounding the town of Pante Makasar on the northwestern coast of Timor. It is bounded by the Timo...

Copyright Page Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Second Edition Donald M. Borchert, Editor in Chief 2005018573 This title is also available as an e-book.ISBN 0-02-866072-2Contact your Thomson Gale representative for ordering information. Printed...

archipelago and state on the northwestern edge of the West Indies. Formerly a British colony, The Bahamas became an independent country within the Commonwealth in 1973. The name Bahamas is of Lucayan Taino (Arawakan) derivation, although s...

Christianity: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints FOUNDED: 1830 C.E.RELIGION AS A PERCENTAGE OF WORLD POPULATION: 0.19 percent Overview The Latter-day Saint movement began in the late 1820s during a time of religious ferment in the ...

large, predominantly Muslim country of North Africa. From the Mediterranean coast, along which most of its people live, Algeria extends southward deep into the heart of the Sahara, a forbidding desert where the Earth's hottest surface temp...

country of western Africa. It is bounded by Senegal to the north, by Guinea to the east and south, and by the Atlantic Ocean to the west. It includes the Bijagós (Bissagos) Archipelago and other islands lying off the coast. The capi...

the southernmost country on the African continent, renowned for its varied topography, great natural beauty, and cultural diversity, all of which have made the country a favoured destination for travellers since the legal ending of aparthe...

landlocked country of northeast-central mainland Southeast Asia. It consists of an irregularly round portion in the north that narrows into a peninsula-like region stretching to the southeast. Overall, the country extends about 650 miles (...

federation of seven emirates along the eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. The largest of these emirates, Abū &Zsubdot;aby (Abu Dhabi), which comprises more than three-fourths of the federation's total land area, is the centre of...

Shiʿite Muslims make up the second largest sect of the Islamic community after the Sunni Muslims, and they are the predominant Muslim population in Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iraq, and Iran. There are also significant Shiʿite minor...

Religious movement that has modified or abandoned many traditional Jewish beliefs and practices in an effort to adapt Judaism to the modern world. It originated in Germany in 1809 and spread to the U.S. in the 1840s under the leadership of...

Major form of Buddhism, prevalent in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. It is the only survivor among the Hinayana schools of Buddhism, and it is generally regarded as the oldest, most orthodox, and most conservative form of...

Bahaʾi is a relatively new world religion that was founded and initially developed in Iran in the 1860s. It emerged from Iranian Shiʾa Islam and drew most of its initial adherents from the earlier Babism movement in Iran. Adh...

religious beliefs and practices of the peoples of Africa. It should be noted that any attempt to generalize about the nature of “African religions” risks wrongly implying that there is homogeneity among all African cultures. In...

arid, sparsely populated kingdom of the Middle East. Extending across most of the northern and central Arabian Peninsula, Saudi Arabia is a young country that is heir to a rich history. In its western highlands, along the Red Sea, lies the...

country located in central Africa. It has a short 25-mile (40-kilometre) coastline on the Atlantic Ocean but is otherwise landlocked. It is the third largest country on the continent; only The Sudan and Algeria are larger. The capital, Kin...

member of a millennialist sect that developed within the larger 19th-century Adventist movement in the United States and has since spread worldwide. The Jehovah's Witnesses are an outgrowth of the International Bible Students Association, ...

island country of the southeastern West Indies. It consists of two main islands—Trinidad and Tobago—and several smaller islands. Forming the two southernmost links in the Caribbean chain, Trinidad and Tobago lie close to the co...

One of the three major branches of Christianity. Its adherents live mostly in Greece, Russia, the Balkans, Ukraine, and the Middle East, with a large following in North America and Australia. The titular head of Eastern Orthodoxy is the ec...

country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of a double chain of volcanic islands and coral atolls in Melanesia. The country comprises most of the Solomons chain, with the exception of Buka and Bougainville, two islands at the n...

Christianity: Unitarianism and Universalism FOUNDED: 1565 C.E. (Unitarianism) and 1723 C.E. (Universalism)RELIGION AS A PERCENTAGE OF WORLD POPULATION: 0.005 percent Overview Unitarianism and Universalism began as independent traditions eme...

landlocked, multiethnic country located in the heart of south-central Asia. Lying along important trade routes connecting southern and eastern Asia to Europe and the Middle East, Afghanistan has long been a prize sought by empire builders,...

small independent European coprincipality situated among the south slopes of the Pyrenees Mountains and bounded by Spain (south and west) and by France (north and east). It is one of the smallest states in Europe. The capital is Andorra la...

country located in southwestern Africa. A large country, Angola takes in a broad variety of landscapes, including the semidesert Atlantic littoral bordering Namibia's “Skeleton Coast,” the sparsely populated rainforest interior...

country of Transcaucasia, lying just south of the great mountain range of the Caucasus and fronting the northwestern extremity of Asia. To the north and east Armenia is bounded by Georgia and Azerbaijan, while its neighbours to the southea...