The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (352 page)

 
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Basilica of Notre Dame de Paix
.

A vast church built at Yamoussoukro in the Ivory Coast, at the instigation of President Felix Houphouet-Boigny. It is 17 metres taller than St Peter's in Rome, and its dome is about three times the size of St Paul's in London.

 
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(2nd cent. CE).
An Alexandrian Christian theologian who inclined to
gnosticism
. According to
Hippolytus
he taught that under the supreme God were various good world-rulers, including the God of the Jews. Jesus was endowed with a heavenly light to summon the elect, who will ascend to the highest heaven.

 
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Basketmakers Church
:

see
AFRICAN APOSTLES
.

 
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Basle, Council of
(1431–49).

The council which inherited the problems of the council of
Constance
, convened by Martin V and dissolved by his successor, Eugenius IV, later in the year. It refused to be dissolved and reaffirmed the decrees of Constance on the superiority of a general
council
over the
pope
. The continuing council of Basle deposed the pope and elected the
anti-pope
, Felix V, in 1439. After his abdication, the council submitted to the pope in 1449.

 
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(Arab.). The saying of
Bismi'llah
, ‘in the Name of
All
h
’, invoking a blessing upon every action and undertaking of a Muslim. The full form is
bismill
hi (ar-)ra
m
ni (ar-)ra
m
, ‘in the Name of Allah the merciful the compassionate’. Cf. also
AMDALA
, the saying of
al
amdu li 'ill
h
, ‘praise belongs to All
h’, which precedes the writing of any formal document.