Governing Bodies

Governing Bodies gathers the Beit Din, a Jewish rabbinical court, the Shura, an Islamic consultative council, the Synod, a deliberative and governing assembly used across several Christian traditions, and the Takhts, the seats of temporal authority in Sikhism. All four exercise some form of collective religious authority, but the traditions do not use the phrase "governing body" of themselves; it is the comparative label under which the atlas files them.