Divinity Atlas

Open Questions

Things this atlas does not know. Each entry is a question that specialists have posed and not settled, recorded with what would actually resolve it and which expertise the answer needs.

These are kept deliberately, rather than quietly omitted. An atlas that shows only what it is sure of implies a confidence it has not earned, and the gaps are often where the interesting work is. Several sit exactly where two fields fail to meet: identifying the hyssop of the Hebrew Bible needs a botanist and a philologist of Biblical Hebrew, and neither one settles it alone.

You can send evidence on some of these. A pilot is open on 55 questions in one field, Palaeography. Each says what would resolve it; send something that meets that bar, with a source anybody can check, and an editor will weigh it. Sending evidence does not guarantee the question will be resolved, and it does not have to be your field to read what is being asked. See what is open.

Grouped by the shape of the gap rather than its subject: what sort of thing is unresolved.

Filter By Specialty 99 fields

Showing 121 to 140 of 608 open questions, page 7 of 31.

data-gap 167

Recorded as unresolved.

Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Does the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Hold a Formal Personal Member Giving Obligation, Distinct From the Historical State-Administered Asrat Land Tithe?

Open Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church

Why It Is Open The word asrat, literally "tithe", is well documented historically, but as a state-administered land tax of one tenth of agricultural produce collected by secular officials (mesle, gult gash, cheqa shum), administered separately from the Church's own monastic gult land holdings, per a peer-reviewed regional economic history of one Ethiopian ruler's own early-20th-century tax system. Two bands across this axis have now searched (scholarly databases, the Fetha Nagast, the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica) and found no canonical or doctrinal Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church text stating a personal member giving percentage. A modern US diaspora parish's own fundraising campaign uses the word "Asrat" in its title, showing the term is in living use, but a single campaign title is not a doctrinal statement of what the Church formally expects.

What Would Settle It A direct reading of a canonical Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church text, a Holy Synod statement, or a scholarly ethnography of contemporary EOTC parish finance (in Ethiopia or in the diaspora) stating whether an ordinary member is expected to give a set percentage of income and what follows if they do not.

Expertise Needed Ethiopian studies, primary source review of Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church canonical texts

Question posed in The Taxation System of Ras Haylu Taklu Haymanot of Gojjam: 1907-1932, Geremew Eskezia.

Georgian Orthodox Church Does the Georgian Orthodox Church Hold a Formal Personal Member Giving Obligation?

Open Georgian Orthodox Church

Why It Is Open A named-author 2021 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace policy report on the Georgian Orthodox Church's political and financial position documents its state funding channels in real detail, annual budget transfers, land, buildings and vehicles from the Georgian government and local municipalities, and never once addresses ordinary parishioner or member giving. Two bands on this axis have now searched specifically for a Georgian Orthodox tithe, due or stewardship norm (the 2002 state concordat, general Orthodox stewardship literature, Georgian-language donation terminology) and found nothing that names the Church's own practice.

What Would Settle It A primary Georgian Orthodox Church source (a parish or diocesan stewardship statement, a Patriarchate financial policy) or a scholarly study of Georgian parish-level finance specifically, stating whether an ordinary member is expected to give a set amount or percentage.

Expertise Needed Georgian religious studies, primary source review of Georgian Orthodox Church financial governance

Question posed in The Orthodox Church in Georgia's Changing Society, Archil Gegeshidze and Mikheil Mirziashvili.

Ukrainian Orthodox Church Does the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Hold a Formal Personal Member Giving Obligation?

Open Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Why It Is Open The Ukrainian Orthodox Church's jurisdiction is genuinely contested (the Orthodox Church of Ukraine under the 2019 Tomos of Autocephaly against the church previously under the Moscow Patriarchate), and no single source found across two bands establishes a giving norm for either reading of it. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA's own institutional announcement of a general stewardship resource promotes giving only in general spiritual terms, "the deep spiritual roots of Orthodox stewardship", with no stated percentage, due or consequence for a member who does not give, distinct from the codified due-with-consequences shape already recorded on this axis for Serbian and Armenian parish practice.

What Would Settle It A primary source from a specific Ukrainian Orthodox jurisdiction (the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA, or the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada) stating a specific dues, pledge or tithe structure and what follows, if anything, when a member does not meet it; or a scholarly study of Ukrainian Orthodox parish finance addressing member giving specifically.

Expertise Needed Slavic Orthodox studies, primary source review of Ukrainian Orthodox jurisdictional finance

Question posed in New Blog: Office of Stewardship.

The Würzburg Witch Trials What Was the Death Toll of the Wurzburg Witch Trials?

Open The Würzburg Witch Trials

Why It Is Open Contemporary execution lists survive for parts of the Wurzburg episode, but the trials ran across the city, the surrounding prince-bishopric and its wider territory, and different surviving lists count these differently; the records are incomplete and no modern historian has reconciled them into a single agreed total, unlike the single well documented parish record behind the Torsaker toll or the court record behind Salem's.

What Would Settle It A systematic reconciliation of the surviving city, diocesan and territorial execution lists against one agreed boundary for what counts as the Wurzburg trials, of the kind regional archival historians have already carried out for other German territories.

Expertise Needed Early modern German history; archival history of the witch trials

Question posed in Witches and Witch-Hunts: A Global History, Wolfgang Behringer.

The Yellow Turban Rebellion How Many Died in the Yellow Turban Rebellion?

Open The Yellow Turban Rebellion

Why It Is Open Historians frequently repeat casualty figures in the millions for the rebellion, but these numbers, where they can be traced at all, describe the population loss of the following decades of civil war, famine and displacement across northern China rather than deaths in the rebellion itself, and no modern historian has isolated a defensible toll for the rising and its suppression alone.

What Would Settle It A modern historian's attempt to separate combat and reprisal deaths during the 184 CE rising itself from the much larger population loss of the decades of civil war, famine and displacement that followed it and that the rebellion helped set in motion.

Expertise Needed Han dynasty history; historical demography of early imperial China

Question posed in The Encyclopedia of Taoism, Fabrizio Pregadio (ed.).

Chachapoya What Were the Chachapoya's Own Deities and Cosmology?

Open Chachapoya

Why It Is Open The Chachapoya left no deciphered writing system, and Spanish chroniclers who might have recorded their beliefs encountered them only after Inca conquest had already reshaped their political and religious institutions in the late fifteenth century. Their monumental architecture, sarcophagi and mummy bundles are extensively documented archaeologically, but the specific deities, cosmology and ritual meaning behind that material record are not confidently known from any surviving account.

What Would Settle It Further bioarchaeological and iconographic study of undisturbed Chachapoya funerary sites, such as the Laguna de los Condores mausoleums, that could recover painted or carved religious imagery predating Inca influence, together with any Chachapoya-specific vocabulary that might survive embedded in later colonial-era Quechua or Spanish records of the region.

Expertise Needed Andean archaeology and bioarchaeology

Question posed in Chachapoyas: Cultural Development at an Andean Cloud Forest Crossroads (Church and von Hagen), Warren B. Church and Adriana von Hagen.

Yarsanism What would a dated, sourced count of Yarsani adherents over time require, given that no state census counts them as a distinct category?

Open Yarsanism

Why It Is Open Yarsani adherents are folded into Iran's broader Muslim population in its national census, and no other government or denominational body maintains a count of them; every published figure is an undated snapshot from fieldwork, advocacy or journalism rather than one point in a tracked series.

What Would Settle It A dedicated demographic study, most plausibly built from community register data the Yarsani community itself might keep informally, or from a specially commissioned survey, giving dated counts that could be compared over time the way this axis compares other bodies.

Expertise Needed Demography, Iranian religious minority studies

Question posed in The Religious Textual Heritage of the Yarsan (Ahl-e Haqq), Philip G. Kreyenbroek.

Numerology Guidance Cards Does the guidebook for Michelle Buchanan's Numerology Guidance Cards offer reversed card meanings?

Open Numerology Guidance Cards

Why It Is Open No review checked, including the publisher's own product page, states whether the guidebook offers a reversed meaning for its numeric and symbolic cards. Reviewers describe reversal as left up to the reader's own approach, with no official guidance found stated either way.

What Would Settle It The deck's own guidebook, examined directly for a stated position on reversed cards.

Expertise Needed Deck design and cartomancy practice

Question posed in Numerology Guidance Cards, A 44-Card Deck (Penguin Random House listing), Michelle Buchanan.

Sacred Geometry Activations Oracle Does LON's guidebook for the Sacred Geometry Activations Oracle offer reversed card meanings?

Open Sacred Geometry Activations Oracle

Why It Is Open No review checked states whether the guidebook offers a reversed meaning alongside its stated Activations. A similarly named deck by a different creator, Francene Hart's Sacred Geometry Oracle Deck, is recorded elsewhere in this registry as offering reversed meanings for non-symmetrical cards, and the two are easily confused, but they are not the same deck and this one's own practice was not found stated anywhere.

What Would Settle It The deck's own 160-page guidebook by LON, examined directly for a stated position on reversed cards.

Expertise Needed Deck design and cartomancy practice

Question posed in Sacred Geometry Activations Oracle (Blue Angel Publishing product page), LON.

The Crystal Wisdom Healing Oracle Does Judy Hall's guidebook for the Crystal Wisdom Healing Oracle offer reversed card meanings?

Open The Crystal Wisdom Healing Oracle

Why It Is Open An independent review's own deck-data table records the card backs as reversible, but no review checked, including one that engages closely with the guidebook's own structure of Vibration groupings, states whether the guidebook itself offers a distinct reversed meaning for any card. A reversible back alone does not settle the question.

What Would Settle It The deck's own 119-page guidebook by Judy Hall, examined directly for a stated position on reversed cards.

Expertise Needed Deck design and cartomancy practice

Question posed in Deck Review: The Crystal Wisdom Healing Oracle (Tarot Elements), Tarot Elements.

Zodiac Reading Cards Does the guidebook for Patsy Bennett's Zodiac Reading Cards offer reversed card meanings?

Open Zodiac Reading Cards

Why It Is Open No review checked states whether the guidebook offers a reversed meaning for its sun, moon and eclipse cards, and creator Patsy Bennett's own product page for the deck, read directly, is silent on card orientation as well.

What Would Settle It The deck's own guidebook, examined directly for a stated position on reversed cards.

Expertise Needed Deck design and cartomancy practice

Question posed in Zodiac Reading Cards, Guidance from the Sun, Moon and Stars (Simon and Schuster official page), Patsy Bennett and Richard Crookes.

Salomone Rossi When and How Did Salomone Rossi Die?

Open Salomone Rossi

Why It Is Open Rossi is last documented in Mantuan court records around 1628. No source names a date or cause of death; he disappears from the record along with his sister Europa during the 1630 Austrian sack of Mantua and the plague that followed it, either of which could plausibly have killed him, and neither of which is confirmed to have.

What Would Settle It A burial record, a parish or ghetto register entry, a will, or a documented later sighting of Rossi in Venice, where some Mantuan Jewish refugees are known to have fled, any of which would fix either a date and place of death or evidence that he survived the sack.

Expertise Needed Archival research, Italian Jewish history of the War of the Mantuan Succession

Question posed in Wikipedia, "Salamone Rossi", Wikipedia contributors.

Nanak Shah Fakir (2015) Are the 2018 Ban on Nanak Shah Fakir and Its Producer's Excommunication Still in Force?

Open Nanak Shah Fakir (2015)

Why It Is Open In April 2018 the Akal Takht declared the film banned and excommunicated producer Harinder Singh Sikka for proceeding with its re-release regardless. Every source consulted for this entry stops there: none records whether the ban or the excommunication were later upheld, formally lifted, or quietly left unaddressed by Sikh religious authority.

What Would Settle It A later Akal Takht or SGPC statement, resolution or press record addressing either the ban or Sikka's excommunication after April 2018, or a current interview or public record confirming Sikka's present standing within the Sikh religious community.

Expertise Needed Contemporary Sikh institutional history, South Asian religion journalism

Question posed in SBS Punjabi, "Controversial Movie 'Nanak Shah Fakir' to Be Released Despite Protests," 2018, Paramjit Singh Sona.

Thelema How many people practise Thelema worldwide, across Ordo Templi Orientis, A A and its other initiatory orders?

Open Thelema

Why It Is Open Thelema has no single organisation: its chief initiatory orders keep their own membership rolls, some of it oathbound material, and no outside survey covering the tradition as a whole was found.

What Would Settle It A survey of the major Thelemic orders' own reported membership, or an independent sociological study using a stated, defensible definition of practice, aggregated across the tradition's known organised currents.