Glossary - L

laity/lay person: ordinary person; non-ordained religious adherent (i.e. not a monk, nun, renunciant, or religious specialist).

lama: honorific title of an accomplished Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader; some lamas known as tulkus are thought able to control their rebirth and continue to occupy high religious office, such as the Dalai Lama.

liminal: (limen – threshold); term popularized by the American anthropologist, Victor Turner, which refers to a transition period or state, often characterized by the absence of structures that sandwich it.

literalist: one who interprets the content of texts at their face value, rather than discerning other meanings (e.g., symbolic, metaphoric, allegorical, hyperbolic) within them.

liturgy: formal prescriptions typically for the performance of religious rituals.

logical positivism: rejects metaphysics and restricts philosophical problems to those that can be solved through logical analysis.

logos: Greek for word; in Christianity it is described as a principle of absolute, divine reason and order that is embodied in Jesus Christ.

100. (C)Hillary Rodrigues and John S. Harding 2008; Courtesy Routledge
     

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