The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1928 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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gh (d. 1990), and Gurinder Si
gh Dhillon. There are now branches throughout India and in other countries.
Radical Reformation
.
In Christianity, the ‘left wing’ of the 16th-cent.
Reformation
, whose leaders maintained that the ‘magisterial’ Reformers were not sufficiently radical in their quest for a renewed Church life.
Luther
,
Calvin
,
Zwingli
, and
Bucer
asserted that reformation must be effected either under the direction, or at least with the approval, of the secular rulers or civil authorities, whereas more radical Reformers were persuaded that the implementation of necessary changes in doctrine and practice were matters for the Church and did not require the co-operation of the State.
The Radical Reforming groups defy neat classification and include revolutionaries claiming direct inspiration of the
Holy Spirit
(
Carlstadt
,
Münzer
, and the Zwickau prophets), evangelical
Anabaptists
,
adventists
, mystics, and anti-trinitarian rationalists.
R
fi
ites
(Arab.,
al-R
fi
ah
or
al-Raw
fi
, ‘the repudiators’). A name given by
Sunni
Muslims to the
Sh
‘a
in general, as a term of disapproval or abuse. They are called ‘repudiators’ because they reject the first three of the four al-R
shid
n, the first four caliphs (
Khal
fa
) after
Mu
ammad
, holding that the fourth of them,
‘Al
, should (as Mu
ammad's son-in-law) have succeeded in the first place.

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