The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1357 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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Lamaism
.
A now antiquated term used by early W. commentators (as L. A. Waddell,
The Buddhism of Tibet
, or
Lamaism
, 1895) to describe Tibetan Buddhism. Although the term is not accurate (because not all Tibetan monks are
lamas
), ‘Lamaism’ does at least convey the great emphasis placed on the role of the spiritual teacher by this religion.
Lamb
.
Christian symbol for
Christ
. Its basis is the biblical
Passover
lamb (Exodus 12. 1–13; 1 Corinthians 5. 7), the
suffering
servant who was led as a lamb to slaughter (Isaiah 53. 7), and the words of
John the Baptist
pointing out Jesus as ‘the lamb of God’ (John 1. 29–36). See also
AGNUS DEI
;
AGNES, ST
.
Lambeth Conferences
.
Assemblies of the bishops of the whole Anglican Communion held about once every ten years under the presidency of the archbishop of
Canterbury
(whose London residence is Lambeth Palace). The first one was convened in 1867.
The ‘Lambeth Quadrilateral’, approved at the conference of 1888, remains the Anglican statement of the fourfold essential basis for a reunited Church:
(i) the Bible as the ultimate rule of faith,
(ii) the
Apostles'
and
Nicene creeds
,
(iii) the
sacraments
of baptism and Lord's supper, and (iv) the ‘historic episcopate’
.
Lambeth Quadrilateral
(basis for ecumenicism):
Lam Drey
(siddha system):
see
SAKYA
.
Lamed Vav Zaddikim
(Heb., ‘36 righteous men’, appearing in Yiddish as Lamedvovniks), according to Jewish legend, the minimum number of righteous men alive in any one generation required to prevent the destruction of the world. For the novel,
The Last of the Just
, based on this legend, see
HOLOCAUST
.

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