The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1983 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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Recusancy
(Lat.,
recusare
). Refusal to attend
Church
of England services as required by the 1559 Act of Uniformity.
Nonconformists
were therefore also recusants, but the term is more usually reserved for
Roman Catholics
. The offence of recusancy was abolished by the Catholic Relief Act of 1791.
Redeemer liveth
(mistranslation):
Redemption
Judaism
The Heb. words
padah
and
ga’al
were used originally of commercial transactions, implying the existence of prior obligations (for examples, see Leviticus 25, 27).
Ga’al
is also used of the brothers of someone who has died childless: they are under obligation to ‘redeem’ the name of the deceased (Ruth 4. 1–10; Deuteronomy 25. 5–10). The
go’el
is the blood-avenger of Numbers 35. 12–29; in Job 19. 25 (translated, of old, ‘I know that my redeemer (
go’el
) liveth’) it is a legal term: ‘I know that my advocate is active’. These basic meanings were all transferred as metaphors of God's activity, nature, and commitment.
In modern times, the emphasis has become more ‘this-worldly’, and redemption tends to be understood as the triumph of good over evil in human history or in the individual's personal life.
Christianity
In Christian theology the term is inherited from the New Testament, where it is associated with the death of Christ (e.g. Ephesians 1. 7). For this conception and its later developments see
ATONEMENT
.
More loosely, redemption is then applied to salvific processes and achievements in other religions—e.g. the work of
bodhisattvas
in Mah
y
na Buddhism.
Redemptorists
(Christian missionary order):
Red Hats
.
A loose term used by early W. commentators on Tibetan Buddhism to refer sometimes to the
Nyingma
school, sometimes to the students of the Zhamar (‘Red Hat’)
Rinpoche
as if these constituted a subschool within the Karma
Kagyü
, and sometimes to refer to all Tibetan Buddhist schools collectively, in contradistinction to the
Geluk
school who are colloquially called
Yellow Hats
. The term ‘Red Hats’ is not used among Tibetans themselves.

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