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Bunyan, John

(Encyclopedia)Bunyan, John bŭnˈyən [key], 1628–88, English author, b. Elstow, Bedfordshire. After a brief period at the village free school, Bunyan learned the tinker's trade, which he followed intermittently ...

excommunication

(Encyclopedia)excommunication, formal expulsion from a religious body, the most grave of all ecclesiastical censures. Where religious and social communities are nearly identical it is attended by social ostracism, ...

Fogazzaro, Antonio

(Encyclopedia)Fogazzaro, Antonio äntôˈnyō fōgät-tsäˈrō [key], 1842–1911, Italian novelist and poet. His first work was a verse romance, Miranda (1874). Primarily concerned with moral issues, he was parti...

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America

(Encyclopedia)National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America, cooperative agency of 35 Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican denominations. Formed in 1950, with headquarters in New York Cit...

Patmore, Coventry Kersey Dighton

(Encyclopedia)Patmore, Coventry Kersey Dighton, 1823–96, English poet. Patmore's first poetry, published in 1844, led to an assistant librarianship (1846–65) at the British Museum. His principal works are The A...

Penry, John

(Encyclopedia)Penry, John, 1559–93, British Puritan author, an instigator of the Marprelate controversy, b. Wales, grad. Cambridge and Oxford. While at college he became an ardent Puritan. In 1587 his pamphlet as...

Romero, Francisco

(Encyclopedia)Romero, Francisco fränsēsˈkō rōmāˈrō [key], 1891–1962, Argentine philosopher and essayist, b. Seville, Spain. One of the most prominent philosophers of Latin America, he was the leading repr...

Tu Fu

(Encyclopedia)Tu Fu do͞o fo͞o [key], 712–70, Chinese poet. In Pinyin, his name is romanized as Du Fu. Tu Fu is often considered the greatest of Chinese poets. He did not pass the imperial civil service examinat...

Randi, James

(Encyclopedia)Randi, James (Randall James Hamilton Zwinge), 1928–2020, Canadian-American illusionist and psychic investigator, b. Toronto. Performing as “The Amazing Randi,” he was a conjurer and escape artis...

Unification Church

(Encyclopedia)Unification Church, church founded (1954) in South Korea by Sun Myung Moon; officially the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification for World Christianity. Moon moved to the United States in 1971. ...