world religion

world religion (plural world religions)

1. An internationally widespread religious belief system which has become generally recognized as having independent status from any other religion, but which nonetheless may have many, sometimes mutually antagonistic, sects or denominations.
   • 1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 16:

     It is seen that religious evolution through the ages has been practically One thing - that there has been in fact a World-religion, though with various phases and branches.

   Christianity is a world religion consisting of Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestants.

   • 1995, Carl Sagan, “The Most Precious Thing”, in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark‎, 1st edition, New York: Random House, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 19:

     While vast barriers may seem to stretch between a local, single-focus contention of pseudoscience and something like a world religion, the partitions are very thin.