The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (735 page)

(Gk.,
en
+
telos
, ‘end’, +
echein
, ‘to have’). Aristotelian term pointing to the capacity of an entity to have complete reality and also the power to achieve through development completeness or perfection. The term was adopted by
Leibniz
to describe his monads.

 
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Enthusiasm
.

A religious attitude of extreme commitment, frequently leading to acts and utterances which (in the eyes of those outsiders who regard themselves as more sober) seem extraordinary.
Holy
fools often exhibit those characteristics which evoke the word.

 
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Entia non sunt multiplicanda …
(‘entities ought not to be multiplied …’)
:

see
WILLIAM OF OCKHAM
.

 
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Entrance, Little and Great
.

In Orthodox Christianity, the processions which

(i) lead up to the reading of the
gospel
, and
(ii) bring up the
elements
to be consecrated.

 
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(Germ., ‘detraditionalization’). The phenomenon of the erosion of tradition in society in general and in religion in particular. Tradition has been a strong source of constraint and order, since religions are systems which protect information (both verbal and non-verbal) which has been tested through millennia and has proved effective (i.e. effective in relation to goals, some of which are set by evolution and natural selection at one extreme, others of which are set by ultimate attainments, such as the
beatific vision
or
nirv
na
at the other). The endorsement of individual choice and responsibility in democratic societies (which have had dominant economic power, and have thus increasingly made choice realizable), followed far more recently by the revolution in communications, has threatened and eroded the security of traditional boundaries which hitherto have protected (and often coerced) the transmission of information from one generation to another.

 
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Environment
:

see
ANIMALS
.

 
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