Core Glossary
Core Glossary
translation_memory.json is the enforced glossary for every Phase 2 translation in this curriculum. This document summarizes its shape and the principles behind it; see the Glossary Risk Groups for the full per-term entries.
Composition
The glossary holds 47 terms spanning all four risk tiers, drawn from the doctrines identified in Doctrine Analysis and grounded in the cultural risks identified in Culture Analysis. Every term entry records:
- The approved Portuguese translation
- The doctrine risk tier (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
- Explicitly rejected alternatives, with reasons specific to Kardecist Spiritism, Afro-Brazilian tradition, or Tridentine Catholic doctrine as relevant
- Notes explaining any non-obvious translation choice
Governing principles
- Established usage over invention — where the Almeida tradition already has a settled rendering (evangelho, salvação, graça, Espírito Santo), this glossary follows it rather than proposing an alternative, even where that word has been reappropriated by Kardecism.
- Explicit contrast, not silent avoidance — because so much of this glossary’s vocabulary has been actively reused by Kardecist Spiritism and Afro-Brazilian traditions, every Critical-risk term records exactly which rival framework it must be distinguished from (see Comparative Theology), not just that a risk exists.
- Version-controlled and append-only in Phase 2 — if a new term is discovered during document translation, it is added to translation memory and the version number incremented, never silently improvised per-document.
Relationship to the Doctrine Risk Registry
Every glossary term’s doctrine field links back to an entry in doctrine_risk_registry.json, so a term’s risk tier is always traceable to the specific doctrine it protects — the glossary enforces vocabulary and its contrastive teaching burden, the doctrine registry explains why that vocabulary matters.
Critical Risk Terms
Father
Approved rendering: Pai
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
God as personal Father; standard and unambiguous.
God
Approved rendering: Deus
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
Standard and unambiguous. Note for pastoral awareness in Afro-Brazilian contexts: Candomblé/Umbanda orixás are sometimes syncretized with Catholic saints (e.g. Iemanjá with Our Lady of Navigators), which can blur exclusive monotheism if not addressed directly.
Holy Spirit
Approved rendering: Espírito Santo
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: espíritos guias ou mentores espirituais (espiritismo), orixás e guias (Candomblé/Umbanda)
CRITICAL: must be taught as the personal third Person of the Trinity, explicitly distinguished from Kardecist ‘espíritos guias’/‘mentores espirituais’ and from Candomblé/Umbanda orixás and spirit guides invoked and incorporated by mediums — both are mainstream, organized religious frameworks in Brazil, not marginal folk belief.
Imputed Righteousness
Approved rendering: justiça imputada
Doctrine: Justification by Faith
Rejected alternatives: justiça infundida (categoria tridentina), justiça conquistada por mérito próprio ao longo de vidas sucessivas
CRITICAL: credited righteousness received by faith (Romans 4), rejecting both the Tridentine Catholic ‘infused righteousness’ category and the Kardecist notion of righteousness or merit earned by the spirit’s own effort across successive reincarnations.
Incarnation
Approved rendering: encarnação
Doctrine: Incarnation
Rejected alternatives: encarnação como uma entre muitas vidas sucessivas de um espírito (sentido espírita)
CRITICAL: unlike Spanish, where ‘encarnação’/‘encarnación’ carries essentially no rival meaning, in Brazilian Portuguese ‘encarnação’/‘encarnar’ is the everyday Kardecist term for a spirit taking on a body for one of its many successive lives. This is a direct terminological collision: the same word Christian tradition uses for the eternal Son’s once-for-all assumption of human nature is the standard Spiritist word for routine reincarnation. Every occurrence must be paired with explicit teaching distinguishing the unique, non-repeating incarnation of the Son from the Spiritist doctrine of repeated encarnações.
Jesus
Approved rendering: Jesus
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Standard across all Portuguese Bible traditions; the risk is not the name but the doctrinal content around it (see Messiah, Incarnation).
Justification
Approved rendering: justificação
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: progresso espiritual gradual
CRITICAL: a forensic declaration of righteousness received by faith (Romans 3-5), not a gradual process of moral or spiritual improvement — a reading both Tridentine Catholic and Kardecist Spiritist frameworks would independently suggest by analogy to their own systems of gradual merit.
Lord
Approved rendering: Senhor
Doctrine: Lordship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: Senhor apenas em sentido devocional, sem reivindicação de senhorio total
CRITICAL: Romans 10:9, ‘Jesus é o Senhor,’ is the salvation confession. Must convey exclusive, supreme lordship over the whole of life.
Messiah
Approved rendering: Messias
Doctrine: Messianic Promise
Rejected alternatives: um espírito superior ou mais evoluído (leitura espírita de Jesus como ‘o mais evoluído dos espíritos’)
CRITICAL: Kardecist doctrine explicitly teaches Jesus as the most morally evolved spirit ever incarnated on Earth, a model and guide, rather than the unique, eternally divine Messiah promised in the Old Testament and confirmed by bodily resurrection. This distinctly Brazilian theological collision deserves the same weight as an avatar-theology risk in a Hindu-majority context.
Resurrection
Approved rendering: ressurreição
Doctrine: Resurrection of Christ
Rejected alternatives: reencarnação
CRITICAL: NEVER reencarnação. Bodily, historical, once-for-all resurrection, sharply distinct from the Kardecist Spiritist doctrine of reincarnation. Unlike most languages in this pipeline, this is not a fringe or foreign-religion risk: Brazil has the world’s largest self-identified Spiritist population, and reincarnation is a mainstream, textually codified, culturally normalized belief there, not a marginal folk notion.
Righteousness
Approved rendering: justiça
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: mérito conquistado por esforço moral próprio
CRITICAL: right standing before God granted through faith. Both the Tridentine infused-merit reading and the Kardecist self-earned moral-progress-across-lifetimes reading must be excluded.
Saints
Approved rendering: santos
Doctrine: Sainthood
Rejected alternatives: santos venerados e invocados como intercessores
CRITICAL: in popular Luso-Brazilian Catholic piety, ‘santos’ overwhelmingly denotes canonized figures venerated and petitioned for intercession. Romans 1:7 applies the word to every believer. Requires an explanatory note in every occurrence.
Salvation
Approved rendering: salvação
Doctrine: Salvation
Rejected alternatives: evolução espiritual através de reencarnações sucessivas
CRITICAL: the single highest-risk term in this Language Package. Kardecist Spiritism, practiced or culturally influential for tens of millions of Brazilians, explicitly teaches ‘salvação’ as the spirit’s gradual evolução espiritual achieved through its own moral effort, charity, and correction across many successive reincarnations, not a decisive reconciliation accomplished by Christ and received by faith. Romans’ argument for salvation as God’s finished work directly confronts this framework.
Son Of God
Approved rendering: Filho de Deus
Doctrine: Sonship of Christ
Rejected alternatives: filho de Deus no sentido genérico aplicado a todo crente
CRITICAL: full phrase required. Unique, eternal, divine Sonship, distinct from the adoptive ‘filhos de Deus’ language Romans 8 applies to believers generally.
High Risk Terms
Calling
Approved rendering: chamado
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: vocação (narrow sense of a call to priesthood or religious life)
As in other Catholic-heritage Romance languages, ‘vocação’ in Luso-Brazilian culture narrows to a call to the priesthood or consecrated religious life. Use ‘chamado’ for the universal divine calling of every believer.
Covenant
Approved rendering: aliança
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Rejected alternatives: contrato legal
Unlike Spanish’s pacto/alianza split by tradition, Portuguese Catholic and Protestant Bibles converge more on ‘aliança.’ Convey a relational covenant bond, not a mere legal contract.
Election
Approved rendering: eleição
Doctrine: Effectual Calling
Rejected alternatives: mérito conquistado ao longo de reencarnações
God’s sovereign personal choice, not a status earned through accumulated merit across lifetimes as in Kardecist doctrine.
Faith
Approved rendering: fé
Doctrine: Faith
Rejected alternatives: convicção espírita, fé genérica em forças espirituais
Personal trust in Christ, not generic belief in ‘the spirit world’ or confidence in one’s own moral and spiritual progress, both common framings in Brazilian folk religiosity.
Gospel
Approved rendering: evangelho
Doctrine: Gospel
Rejected alternatives: mensagem de evolução moral (Kardecist ethical-progress framing)
Standard term shared by Catholic and Protestant Portuguese Bibles. Distinctive Brazilian risk: Allan Kardec’s 1864 book ‘O Evangelho Segundo o Espiritismo’ is a bestselling, widely known Brazilian Spiritist text that explicitly reinterprets ‘evangelho’ as ethical teaching compatible with reincarnation and mediumship. This curriculum’s ‘evangelho’ must be taught as the New Testament proclamation of salvation through Christ’s death and resurrection, not the Spiritist ethical-progress reading.
Grace
Approved rendering: graça
Doctrine: Grace
Rejected alternatives: mérito espiritual acumulado ao longo de vidas sucessivas
Unmerited favor received by faith. The Trent-Reformation infused/imputed tension applies here as in other Catholic-heritage Romance languages, but the more acute Brazilian risk is Kardecism’s doctrine of merit accumulated through moral effort across successive reincarnations, which ‘graça’ must be sharply distinguished from.
Intercession
Approved rendering: intercessão
Doctrine: Prayer and Intercession
Rejected alternatives: comunicação com espíritos de mortos por meio de médiuns, intercessão exclusiva dos santos e de Maria
Romans 8:26-27 and 8:34 describe the Spirit’s and Christ’s direct intercession. In Brazil this must be distinguished both from Catholic saint/Marian intercession and, more distinctively, from Kardecist mediumistic communication with the spirits of the dead, a mainstream rather than fringe practice.
Law
Approved rendering: lei
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
The Mosaic law/Torah. When ‘lei’ appears near providence or justice language, distinguish clearly from the Kardecist ‘lei de causa e efeito,’ a moral law governing a spirit’s progress across reincarnations.
Obedience Of Faith
Approved rendering: obediência da fé
Doctrine: Obedience of Faith
Rejected alternatives: cumprimento de preceitos religiosos, disciplina moral espírita de autoaperfeiçoamento
Romans 1:5 and 16:26. Obedience flowing from faith, not compliance with church precepts or Kardecist ethical discipline aimed at self-improvement across lifetimes.
Providence
Approved rendering: providência
Doctrine: Providence
Rejected alternatives: lei de causa e efeito espírita (regência cármica das reencarnações)
God’s personal, purposive governance, not the Kardecist ‘lei de causa e efeito,’ an impersonal moral law governing a spirit’s progress across reincarnations that functions similarly to karma but originates in 19th-century French Spiritism rather than Hindu thought. Romans 8:28 is especially vulnerable to this reading.
Sanctification
Approved rendering: santificação
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: purificação cármica ao longo de reencarnações (leitura espírita)
The Spirit’s ongoing work of making believers holy in this life, not the Kardecist doctrine of a spirit’s gradual purification across multiple incarnations.
Spiritual Gifts
Approved rendering: dons espirituais
Doctrine: Spiritual Gifts
Rejected alternatives: mediunidade (dom mediúnico espírita), dons de incorporação (Candomblé/Umbanda)
Spirit-given enablements for the church. In Brazil specifically, ‘dons espirituais’ risks conflation with Kardecist mediunidade (mediumship, communicating with discarnate spirits) or Afro-Brazilian Candomblé/Umbanda ‘dons de incorporação’ (gifts of spirit possession/channeling orixás). Must be tied explicitly to the Holy Spirit equipping the church for ministry, not communication with the dead or spirit possession.
Medium Risk Terms
Abba
Approved rendering: Abba
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Aramaic term of intimacy preserved in Romans 8:15, paired with ‘Pai’ following Almeida precedent (‘Aba, Pai’).
Adoption
Approved rendering: adoção
Doctrine: Adoption into God’s Family
Full son-status with complete inheritance rights; lexically unambiguous.
Called
Approved rendering: chamado
Doctrine: Divine Calling
Rejected alternatives: convocado (bureaucratic register)
Context-sensitive: Romans 1:1 (called to apostleship), 1:7 (called to be saints), 8:28-30 (effectual calling to salvation).
Church
Approved rendering: igreja
Doctrine: Church as God’s People
Rejected alternatives: a Igreja (institutional-hierarchical sense)
Distinguish Romans 16’s gathered people of God from the capitalized institutional sense foregrounded in Catholic usage.
Glory
Approved rendering: glória
Doctrine: Deity of Christ
God’s radiant honor and presence; standard usage.
Holy
Approved rendering: santo
Doctrine: Sanctification
Rejected alternatives: puro em sentido ritual
Set apart for God and morally pure; applies to all believers, not only the canonized.
Kingdom Of God
Approved rendering: reino de Deus
Doctrine: Kingdom Mission
God’s sovereign reign, not a political state or the institutional church.
Mission
Approved rendering: missão
Doctrine: Mission to the Nations
Standard term.
Peace
Approved rendering: paz
Doctrine: Peace with God
Rejected alternatives: tranquilidade emocional
Relational peace with God through justification, not merely inner calm.
Power Of God
Approved rendering: poder de Deus
Doctrine: Power of God for Salvation
Standard, unambiguous rendering.
Seed Of David
Approved rendering: descendência de Davi
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Romans 1:3; conveys physical lineage and covenant fulfillment.
Sin
Approved rendering: pecado
Doctrine: Universal Human Accountability
Rejected alternatives: erro a ser corrigido em vidas futuras (leitura espírita)
Moral transgression before a personal, holy God requiring atonement in this life, not a correctable ‘erro’ to be worked off across future incarnations as Kardecism frames moral failure.
Low Risk Terms
Apostle
Approved rendering: apóstolo
Doctrine: Apostleship
Established, unambiguous term.
David
Approved rendering: Davi
Doctrine: Davidic Covenant
Standard proper name.
Exhort
Approved rendering: exortar
Doctrine: Mutual Edification
Standard term.
Fellowship
Approved rendering: companheirismo
Doctrine: Christian Fellowship
Rejected alternatives: comunhão dos santos (specific Catholic liturgical formula)
Use ‘companheirismo’ or contextual ‘comunhão’ for Romans’ general fellowship sense; avoid conflating with the specific creedal phrase.
Gentiles
Approved rendering: gentios
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Rejected alternatives: pagãos (pejorative)
Standard term.
Israel
Approved rendering: Israel
Doctrine: Unity of Jews and Gentiles
Standard proper name.
Prophecy
Approved rendering: profecia
Doctrine: Fulfillment of Prophecy
Rejected alternatives: psicografia (spirit messages transcribed through mediums)
God-inspired declaration, not psicografia, the well-known Kardecist practice of mediums transcribing messages purportedly from the dead.
Prophet
Approved rendering: profeta
Doctrine: Inspiration of Scripture
Rejected alternatives: médium (channeler of spirit messages)
God’s spokesperson, not a Kardecist medium channeling messages from discarnate spirits, a common alternate frame for ‘revelation’ in Brazil.
Thanksgiving
Approved rendering: ação de graças
Doctrine: Thanksgiving
Standard term. No significant risk.
Referenced passages