The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2457 page)

(Chin., ‘power’, ‘virtue’). The means in Chinese thought, and especially in Taoism, through which the
Tao
becomes manifest and actualized. The underlying character is made up of three elements, moving ahead, the eye, and ‘heart-and-mind’. Philologically this suggests an underlying sense of a self-aware arising and disposition in a particular direction; but it may also include the sense of going in a straight direction. Te is thus the making particular of the potency of Tao, and is the inherent nature or quality which makes a thing what it is and what it ought to be. In Confucianism, Te is the quality possessed by wise and civilized people who are a model to their fellow-citizens.

 
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see
CHAD
.

 
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Teacher of Righteousness
.

The title given to the organizer of a Jewish sect in some of the documents of
Qumran
. Attempts have been made to identify the Teacher, and possible candidates have included
Ezra
, Onias III (the last Zadokite
high priest
), Judah b. Jedidiah (a
sage
martyred by Alexander Jannai), or Mena
em b. Judah (killed by the captain of the
Temple
in 66 CE).

 
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see
ALMEMAR
.

 
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Te Deum
.

A Latin hymn to the Father and the Son, in rhythmical prose, beginning
Te Deum laudamus
(‘We praise thee, O God’). According to tradition, it was a spontaneous composition of
Ambrose
and
Augustine
, who sang it antiphonally on the occasion of the baptism of Augustine by Ambrose. In fact, it is evidently a composition of at least three parts, only loosely connected.

 
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