"Well the Protestants hate the Catholics
And the Catholics hate the Protestants
And the Hindus hate the Muslims
And everybody hates the Jews!"
And the Catholics hate the Protestants
And the Hindus hate the Muslims
And everybody hates the Jews!"
—Tom Lehrer, "National Brotherhood Week", That Was the Year That Was
Tropes about religion, non religion, spirituality, divinity, and the afterlife.
Tropes:
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Religion in general
- Against My Religion: Someone refuses to do something because they claim it goes against their religious beliefs.
- All Hail the Great God Mickey!: When secular pop-culture icons become worshiped like gods.
- Ancestor Veneration: The veneration, exaltation, and/or outright worship of one's ancestors.
- Angels, Devils and Squid: Heaven versus Hell versus... Lovecraftian cosmic horrors?
- Angel Unaware: An angel, deity, or similar being masquerades as a regular mortal in order to test people's goodwill.
- Animal Religion: When non-human beasts develop religious beliefs.
- Answer to Prayers: A character prays, and gets results
- Apocalypse Cult: A religious movement which is centered around the observance of a doomsday prophecy.
- Appease the Volcano God: A Human Sacrifice is thrown into a volcano to appease the volcano god.
- Artistic License – Religion: A work of fiction features an inaccurate portrayal of real-life religion.
- Badass Preacher: A priest who is brave or awesome.
- Bad Habits: When villains disguise themselves as clergy.
- Bald Mystic: Draws greatly from the practice of tonsure, so religious mystical characters are often bald.
- Belief Makes You Stupid: A story portrays people with religious beliefs as being dumb and gullible.
- Blasphemous Boast: Someone brags about themselves in a way that insults a deity.
- Blasphemous Praise: Someone compliments another person in a way that insults a deity.
- Book Burning: The physical desecration of literature, which may be done as an act of religiously motivated censorship (or protest).
- Boring Religious Service: Religious services are presented as dull or tedious.
- Breeding Cult: A religious movement which is centered around sexual procreation.
- Burn the Witch!: When (real or alleged) magic users are persecuted by religious authorities who consider witchcraft to be an unholy sin.
- The Cardinal Virtues
- Cargo Cult: A religion which worships an inanimate object that is mistaken for a deity or divine artifact.
- Caught Up in the Rapture
- Celestial Paragons and Archangels: High-ranking biblical angels.
- The Church: A religious organization with centralized authority (especially, but not limited to, many various Christian denominations).
- Churchgoing Villain: A bad guy who is devoutly religious despite their sinful lifestyle.
- Church Lady: A female character is noted for her involvement in her local religious community.
- Church Militant: Fanatical religious warriors.
- Church of Happyology: A not-so-subtle parody of Scientology (a new religious movement founded by L. Ron Hubbard).
- Church Police: Religious law enforcement.
- Confess in Confidence
- Converting for Love: Changing one's religious beliefs to match those of their romantic partner or spouse.
- Corrupt Church: A religious organization that is run by hypocritical, self-serving priests.
- Cross-Melting Aura: Some demons are so powerful that holy objects have little or no effect on them.
- Cult: A minor religious sect, often relatively new, that doesn't get along very well with nonbelievers or mainstream society. The term "cult" is usually used with a negative connotation to refer to religions that are (considered to be) morally bankrupt.
- Cult Colony: A religious group establishes their own settlement that is isolated from other civilizations.
- Cult Defector: Someone who rebels against their brainwashing by a religious cult.
- The Day of Reckoning
- Demon Lords and Archdevils
- Devil in Disguise
- Dirty Old Monk: This perverted preacher is a Dirty Old Man who doesn't seem to take his own Vow of Celibacy too seriously.
- Divine Right of Kings: When monarchs claim that their political power is justified by God's will.
- Druid: An ancient Celtic pagan priest.
- Dueling Messiahs
- Egocentrically Religious: Someone whose religious beliefs are very fanatical and self-serving.
- Emergency Multifaith Prayer: When their life is in danger, someone starts pleading with multiple deities of different religions to save them.
- Faith–Heel Turn: Loss of religious faith leads to adopting a sinful lifestyle.
- Fake Faith Healer: A Con Artist who fools sick people into believing they can be cured through the powers of God instead of modern medicine.
- False Prophet: They claim to be the messenger of God or the gods, but they're actually charlatans.
- Fantastic Nirvana: Fictional religions in which an aspirant must reach a final state of ultimate bliss/freedom while still living.
- Fantastic Religious Weirdness: Real-world religions are practiced differently in fantasy or science-fiction settings.
- Fantasy Counterpart Religion: The religious beliefs held by a fictional nation or ethnic group.
- Female Angel, Male Demon
- First Church of Mecha
- The Fundamentalist: A super-fanatical religious person who believes everyone else should follow their strictly pious lifestyle, and derides anyone who disagrees with them.
- Giant Animal Worship: Revering big beasts as gods.
- Give Me a Sign: Someone asks for the god they believe in to show evidence that they're doing the right thing.
- God and Satan Are Both Jerks: The forces of Heaven and Hell are both evil and antagonistic towards humanity.
- Good Fortune from God
- Greedy Televangelist: A televangelist Only in It for the Money.
- Heaven Above
- Heaven Seeker: Someone who's trying to earn eternal salvation in Heaven.
- Heel–Faith Turn: A sinner turns good after finding religion.
- Heaven Versus Hell: The respective forces of Heaven (God, angels) and Hell (Satan, demons) are opposed to each other.
- Hell Has New Management
- Hell of a Heaven: Heaven isn't half the paradise it's said to be.
- Hell Seeker: Someone who's actually looking forward to eternal damnation in Hell.
- The Heretic: Someone who holds dissenting or unorthodox beliefs that are opposed to mainstream religious teachings.
- Hiding Behind Religion: A hypocritical sinner who is outwardly religious.
- High Priest: The top priest in charge of leading a religious organization.
- Hollywood Atheist: The stereotype that atheists either lost their belief in God because of misfortune they suffered or are close-minded jerks to everyone who has religious beliefs.
- Hollywood Dreamtime: Common stereotypes associated with followers of Aboriginal Australian religions.
- Hollywood Exorcism: Holy rituals that are performed by a priest to rid someone of an invasive evil spirit.
- Hollywood Satanism: Common stereotypes associated with people who worship the Devil.
- Hollywood Voodoo: Common stereotypes associated with followers of Voodoo religions.
- Holy Burns Evil: Religious objects can protect you from demons, vampires, and other unholy sinister creatures.
- Holy City: A city that is especially sacred to a particular religion.
- Holy Ground: A place that is considered to be religiously sacred, such as the site of a temple.
- Holy Halo
- Holy Hitman: A Professional Killer who happens to be quite religious.
- Holy Is Not Safe: Beings/entities/objects from Heaven are just as dangerous to mortals as anything from Hell can be.
- Holy Pipe Organ
- Holy Water: Water that has been specially blessed by a priest or comes from a sacred place.
- Hot for Preacher: Someone grows attracted to a priest. Which may cause complications if said priest is (supposed to be) a celibate monk or nun.
- Human Sacrifice: The ritualized murder of other people, done as an offering to the gods.
- Illegal Religion: A religion that is banned and persecuted by the government.
- Improvised Cross
- Incredibly Inconvenient Deity
- Inspiring Sermon: A religious sermon that deeply inspires the audience, in-universe
- Interfaith Smoothie: A syncretic religion that combines the beliefs of multiple different religions.
- Knocking on Heathens' Door
- Love Is Like Religion
- Machine Worship: Religious devotion to a mechanical entity.
- Martyrdom Culture: When it leads to people sacrificing themselves in the name of their god.
- Meditation Powerup
- Mystery Cult: A very secretive sect which keeps their beliefs and practices hidden from nonbelievers.
- Mythical Motifs
- Mythology Upgrade
- Not Afraid of Hell: Someone who is unconcerned that their sinful behavior may earn them eternal damnation.
- Offerings to the Gods: Religious rituals which involve appeasing a deity with some sort of "gift" (most commonly food or animal sacrifices).
- Oh, My Gods!: When just saying "Oh My God!" isn't sufficient if you're a polytheist.
- Outsourcing Fate
- Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: A story takes place in a future where (almost) nobody is really religious anymore.
- Painting the Frost on Windows: Natural phenomenon is attributed to gods or other mythic figures doing a mystical version of a mundane task.
- Parody Religion: A satirical fake religion.
- Pascal's Wager: Choosing to believe in God to avoid hell just in case He exists.
- Path of Inspiration: A seemingly benevolent religious movement which secretly has far more sinister goals.
- Pedophile Priest: A perverted preacher who tries to molest or rape children. Usually stereotyped as being (though not necessarily always) a Roman Catholic Christian minister.
- Pious Monster: When creatures who are considered to be "evil" or "monstrous" (if not outright demonic and unholy) still respect and worship God for some reason.
- Prayer Is a Last Resort: When someone who's not particularly devout or pious about their faith starts praying as a desperate measure to find solutions to their problems.
- Prayer of Malice: When a cruel and petty person prays to their god by asking for a divine curse on their enemies.
- Prayer Pose: Common poses and gestures made while praying, which varies by religion.
- Preacher Man
- Precursor Worship: When an ancient precursor civilization are revered as gods by people in the present day.
- Pre-Approved Sermon
- Purgatory and Limbo: The places where dead people who are neither good enough for Heaven nor bad enough for Hell end up going to.
- Real Men Love Jesus: A badass religious character (despite the name, not necessarily a Christian).
- Reflexive Remark of Reverence
- Religion is Magic: When prayers to your god can double as magical spells.
- Religion Is Right
- Religion Is Wrong
- Religion of Evil: A religion that is explicitly evil and worships sinister deities or demons.
- Religion Rant Song: A song that attacks religion or religious figures.
- Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Naming someone or something after a deity, prophet, saint, or anyone/anything else of religious significance.
- Religious Bruiser: A fighter who takes their faith very seriously.
- Religious Horror: A subgenre of (supernatural) horror fiction that relies on theological or mythological themes.
- Religious Robot: A sapient machine with religious beliefs.
- Religious Russian Roulette
- Religious Stereotype: Stereotypes associated with followers of particular religions.
- Religious Vampire: Even vampires can choose to worship God and pray to Him.
- Robot Religion: An organized religion developed by mechanical beings.
- The Sacred Darkness
- Sacred Flames: Holy fire.
- Sacred Language: A particular language is of great religious significance.
- Sacred Scripture: Holy books and texts.
- Sadly Mythcharacterized: Inaccurate portrayals of particular mythical/religious figures.
- Sadly Mythtaken: When entire mythologies are radically altered in a fictional adaptation.
- Saintly Church: A religious organization that actually wants to do good and righteous deeds for the world.
- Save Your Deity
- Scam Religion: A fake religion that is founded by its leader solely to fool gullible people out of their money.
- Scary Amoral Religion: A religion founded on ruthless Blue-and-Orange Morality (as opposed to a Card Carrying Religion of Evil).
- Secret Circle of Secrets
- Seeking Sanctuary
- Sentient Cosmic Force
- Sermonette: A short message, usually delivered by a Christian clergyman, shown at the end of a TV station's broadcast day.
- Sexy Priest: A preacher who is quite handsome or beautiful.
- Shrines and Temples: Buildings and places that are dedicated to the worship of a deity.
- Silly Prayer: A prayer that is comedic in some way.
- Sin Eater: A person who literally or metaphorically takes on people's sins to purify them. Or who claims to be doing this by targeting people they believe to be sinners.
- Single-Precept Religion
- Sinister Minister: A corrupt, self-serving priest who may be outright evil.
- Song of Prayer: Singing and dancing to express one's thoughts to God.
- The Soul Saver
- Soul-Saving Crusader
- Staff of Authority
- Stern Sun Worshippers: Dogmatic devotees of solar deities.
- Suspiciously Specific Sermon
- Targeted Human Sacrifice: They can't just grab any random person to kill, they need a specific type of individual for the sacrifice.
- The Teetotaler: Someone who abstains from drinking alcohol. While there can be secular motives for teetotalism, many people do so because their religious beliefs frown upon getting intoxicated.
- Thank the Maker: A robot or A.I. worships its creator.
- The Theocracy: A system of government run by priests who rule through religious laws, as opposed to a secular government.
- Theotech
- There Is a God!: Someone is happy about something they wanted to happen and sees it as proof that God does exist.
- Token Religious Teammate: The one member of a group who is explicitly shown to have religious beliefs.
- Tribe of Priests: A whole community of religious preachers.
- Turbulent Priest
- Turn to Religion
- Universal Chaplain: Military chaplains are priests who provide religious services to fellow soldiers, regardless of their faith.
- Unwanted False Faith: Someone is dismayed that people worship them under the mistaken assumption that they're divine.
- Virgin Sacrifice: When a Human Sacrifice (usually a young woman or girl) is required to have never had sex before.
- Virtue/Vice Codification
- Vow of Celibacy: Some clergy (especially monks and nuns) have sworn to never marry or have sex, and instead devote their whole lives to practicing their religion.
- Warrior Monk: An ordained priest who is also a professional soldier.
Divinity
- The Almighty Dollar: A deity associated with money and wealth.
- Answers to the Name of God: Someone with a high opinion of themselves assumes that a person exclaiming "God" was referring to them.
- Anthropomorphic Personification: In many polytheistic religions, each deity in the pantheon is associated with their own specific concepts related to human society or the natural world; and they are often depicted or described as being very humanlike entities.
- Bolt of Divine Retribution: The gods punish people by having them struck with lightning.
- Borrowin' Samedi: An expy of Baron Samedi, the Voodoo god of death.
- Crossover Cosmology: In a world where All Myths Are True, multiple pantheons of deities from different religious mythologies all somehow coexist together.
- Dark Messiah
- Death of the Old Gods
- Deity of Human Origin: A god who was formerly a mortal.
- Deity of Mortal Creation: A god made by a mortal(s).
- Devil, but No God: Satan appears in the story, but there's no sign of God being around for some reason.
- Devil Complex: Someone believes themselves to be the Devil.
- Divine Date: A mortal is literally in love with an actual god.
- Divine Intervention: A god directly gets involved in mortal affairs.
- Divine Punishment: When a god punishes someone (justified or not) for perceived transgressions.
- Divine Race Lift: A deity's physical appearance is depicted differently depending on the adaptation.
- Divine Ranks: All the deities in a pantheon are classified into a hierarchy.
- Double Standard: Rape, Divine on Mortal: Being raped by a deity isn't considered as bad as being raped by another mortal.
- Everybody Hates Hades: The god of death is an outcast to the other gods.
- Everybody Loves Zeus: The leader of the gods gets all the positive attention.
- Fantasy Pantheon: A group of deities that are worshipped in a fictional religion.
- Fertility God: A god or goddess who can create life.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Gods and spirits may assume forms that humans are accustomed to, in order to keep from driving the mortals buggo with how they really look.
- A God Am I: Someone believes themselves to be a god.
- A God I Am Not: A person has great power but does not believe that this makes them special or above others.
- A God Is You
- God Before Dogma
- God Couple: When two deities fall in love or get married.
- God-Emperor: A monarch who is worshiped as a deity by their subjects.
- God Guise: A mortal is worshiped as a "god" under false pretenses.
- God Is Evil: God is portrayed as cruel and malevolent.
- God Is Flawed: God is not perfect and has the same faults as humans do.
- God Is Good: God is portrayed as kind and benevolent.
- God-Is-Love Songs
- God-Karting with Beelzebub: God and Satan are actually quite friendly to each other.
- God of Evil: A god who personifies all that is bad.
- God of Good: A god who personifies all that is good.
- God's Hands Are Tied: God has reasons why He can't just fix everything.
- Gods Need Prayer Badly: Gods can only exist or stay powerful just as long as there are people who still believe or worship them.
- God Test
- Godly Sidestep
- The Grim Reaper: A personification of death in Western pop culture, who may be identified with the Archangel Azrael.
- The Hand Is God: God or some similar all-powerful being is depicted as a disembodied hand.
- Healer God: A god or goddess whose specialty is healing or medicine.
- Hot God: A god or goddess who is very beautiful.
- Jerkass Gods: Arrogant deities who look down on mortals or cruelly abuse them.
- Love Goddess: A goddess associated with romantic love and/or sexual lust.
- Marriage to a God: A mortal is (figuratively) married to a deity.
- Messianic Archetype: A holy savior figure in the vein of Jesus.
- Nature Spirit: A deity associated with some aspect of the natural world.
- The Old Gods: The previous group of deities who ruled before the current pantheon came to power.
- Our Gods Are Different: Exactly what kind of being gets to be defined as a deity can vary greatly depending on the story.
- Pantheon Sitcom: The gods are up to some crazy antics.
- Patron God: A god or goddess regularly rewards his or her followers for their devotion and piety.
- Physical Religion
- Psychopomp: A deity or spirit who is associated with death, responsible for killing off mortals and/or bringing their souls over to the afterlife.
- Shinigami: A spirit of death, depicted as a kind of youkai in Japanese Mythology.
- Stop Worshipping Me: Not all deities are flattered by mortals praying to them.
- Trickster God: A deity who represents trickery and deceit, often fooling and manipulating both their fellow deities and mortals alike.
- Unusual Halo
- War God: A deity who represents warfare and violent conflict, whom soldiers and warriors are expected to pray to for winning battles.
- Yin-Yang Clash: Undefeatable absolutes come into conflict.
Spirituality
- Bargain with Heaven: Someone gets what they want by making a deal with God or some other divine being.
- Call It Karma
- Cosmic Keystone
- Crisis of Faith: Someone begins to doubt and question their religious beliefs.
- Deal with the Devil: Someone gets what they want by making a deal with Satan or some other demonic being.
- Evil Stole My Faith: Someone loses their religious beliefs because of a personal tragedy, or otherwise witnessing something grossly cruel and unfair.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: Someone disbelieves in deities, spirits, or other supernatural phenomena, even though it has been proven to unambiguously exist in the setting.
- Henotheistic Society: When it's the societal norm for someone or a group of people to worship one god of a Fantasy Pantheon far more than the others.
- Mission from God: When someone believes their goals were given to them by orders from God.
- The Missionary: A traveling priest who seeks to spread their faith by proselytizing and converting other people.
- Nay-Theist: A person who is aware of deities' existence, but denies their existence just to spite them.
- Rage Against the Heavens: Someone expresses anger and blame at God (or the gods) due to their life being so miserable.
- Rule of Symbolism: Something inserted for symbolic value.
- Sanctuary of Solitude
- Secular Hero: A hero who lacks religious beliefs.
- Smite Me, O Mighty Smiter
- Vision Quest
Christianity
Also see:
- Ambiguously Christian: A character is implied but not confirmed outright to follow some sort of Christianity.
- Ambivalent Anglican: A member of the Church of England who seems indifferent to Christian dogma.
- Anime Catholicism: Inaccurate portrayals of Catholic Christianity in Japanese media.
- Artistic License – Traditional Christianity
- As the Good Book Says...: A character quotes verses from the The Bible.
- Bigger Than Jesus
- Big Red Devil
- Caught Up in the Rapture
- Christianity is Catholic: Roman Catholicism is the only Christian denomination that tends to get any depiction in most works of fiction.
- Church of Saint Genericus
- Clone Jesus
- Confessional: A private space in some churches where a priest listens to a parishioner confessing their sins.
- Creepy Cathedral: A big, dark, and foreboding church that you probably wouldn't want to ever visit alone at night.
- Creepy Catholicism: The Roman Catholic Church depicted as being evil or at least associated with scary things.
- Creepy Crosses
- Crucial Cross
- Crystal Dragon Jesus: A fictional religion inspired by Christianity.
- Culturally Religious: Someone who grew up reliigious, but no longer practices or believes it, yet their life is still influenced by it.
- Dark Shepherd
- The Descendants of Cain
- Easter Bunny
- Easy Evangelism
- Everyone Is Christian at Christmas: The holiday of Christmas is widely celebrated even beyond the Christian world.
- Evil Jesuit: A Roman Catholic Sinister Minister.
- Fallen Angel
- Fantastic Catholicism: The Roman Catholic Church are directly connected to the supernatural world.
- Good Shepherd: A priest who only wants what's best for the people he's guiding.
- Hijacked by Jesus
- Hippie Jesus
- Hollywood Apocrypha: Someone erroneously quotes a fake biblical verse.
- Hollywood Jehovah's Witness: Common stereotypes associated with members of the Jehovah's Witnesses sect.
- Hollywood Nuns: Common stereotypes associated with Roman Catholic nuns.
- Horsemen of the Apocalypse
- In Mysterious Ways
- Irish Priest: An Irish Catholic priest.
- Jesus Taboo
- Jesus: The Early Years
- Jesus Was Crazy
- Jesus Was Way Cool
- Kung-Fu Jesus
- Locked Away in a Monastery
- Madonna Archetype
- Naughty Nuns: Sexually seductive nuns who don't take their own Vow of Celibacy too seriously.
- New England Puritan: A particular group of English Protestant settlers who migrated to colonial America, whose super-strict religious practices gave rise to the term "puritanical".
- Nuns Are Funny
- Nuns Are Mikos
- Nuns Are Spooky
- Nuns 'n' Rosaries
- Nun Too Holy: A character who looks and is treated like a nun (or a priestess, shrine maiden, etc.), but acts nothing like you'd expect.
- Passion Play
- Patron Saint
- Religious Redub
- Santa Clausmas: A secularized version of Christmas without any religious elements. Typically revolves around Santa Claus instead of Jesus Christ.
- Seven Deadly Sins
- Seven Heavenly Virtues
- Symbolic Baptism
- Taking the Veil
- Twisted Eucharist
- The Vicar
Judaism
Also see:
- All Jews Are Ashkenazi: The inaccurate stereotype that every Jew is an ethnic Ashkenazi from Central/Eastern Europe.
- Ambiguously Jewish: A character is implied but not confirmed outright to be a Jew or follower of Judaism.
- Golem: Clay sculptures made by rabbis in imitation of God's creation of humans. Its origins are based on the legendary tale of a clay creature that was said to have been brought to life by a rabbi in 16th century Prague.
- Gratuitous Use of the Tallit
- Greedy Jew: An Antisemitic stereotype and conspiracy theory, of Jews all being greedy money fetishists who control every major business industry (especially finance), and they often secretly manipulate politics in their favor as well.
- Informed Judaism: A character is stated to be (religiously) Jewish, but doesn't really act much like it.
- Magical Jew: A wise Jewish person, often a rabbi or mystic.
- Moses Archetype: Stock Parodies of Moses.
- Tzadikim Nistarim: Hebrew for "The Hidden Righteous Ones", a number of people whose existence keeps the world going. (The idea also exists in other religions, but this is the one which is most widely known.)
Islam
- All Muslims Are Arab: The inaccurate stereotype that every Muslim is an ethnic Arab or speaks Arabic.
- Eurabia: An Islamophobic stereotype and conspiracy theory, of Muslims all being fanatical religious extremists who really wish to take over the (Western) world through immigration and terrorism, and then convert or destroy every single non-Muslim.
- Hiding in a Hijab: Wearing a headscarf, face veil, or full-body cloak in order to disguise oneself as a devoutly religious Muslim woman.
- Middle Eastern Terrorists: Although secular or even non-Muslim examples exist, the most common variation of this trope usually involves mujahideen (or jihadists) — Islamist religious militants who commit acts of violence in hopes of spreading their fundamentalist ideology, which demands the creation of an Islamic state governed by religious laws.
- Mistaken for Terrorist: Most variations of this trope involve innocent Muslims (or non-Muslim people mistaken for being such, especially Sikhs) getting mistaken for violent Islamic extremists.
South/East Asian Religions (including Hinduism and Buddhism)
- All Monks Know Kung-Fu: Buddhist monks are often stereotyped as being Warrior Monks that are proficient in the martial arts (especially if they're Chinese).
- Asian Rune Chant
- Asleep, Not Meditating
- Festival Episode
- The Four Gods: A quartet of deities associated with Chinese Mythology.
- Hand Seals
- Levitating Lotus Position: Person/being levitates while in Lotus Position.
- Lotus Position: A common meditation pose that is often used by Hindus and Buddhists.
- Meditating Under a Waterfall: If one wishes to meditate in a place with nice scenery.
- Miko
- Paper Talisman
- Zigzag Paper Tassel
