Book of Discipline

A Book of Discipline (or in its shortened form Discipline)^[1] is a book detailing the beliefs, standards, doctrines, canon law, and polity of a particular Christian denomination.^[2][3] They are often re-written by the governing body of the church concerned due to changes in society and in the denomination itself.^[4] As many Christian denominations are global, a Book of Discipline may be multilingual.

By Christian denomination

Methodism

Methodist connexions have been using a Book of Discipline since 1784, which contains canon law and doctrine:^[5]

• The Discipline of the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection^[6]
• The Discipline of the Evangelical Wesleyan Church^[7]
• Book of Discipline of the Free Methodist Church^[8]
• Book of Discipline for the United Methodist Church
• Discipline of the Immanuel Missionary Church^[9]
• The Discipline of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection^[10]

Presbyterianism

• Book of Discipline of the Church of Scotland and Book of Common Order of the Church of Scotland

Quakerism

Within Quaker Christianity, the text may be known as a Book of Discipline or a Manual of Faith and Practice:

• Book of Discipline of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) - each Yearly Meeting (national organisation of Quakers) publishes its own Book of Discipline, which may be titled the Book of Discipline or Faith and Practice or some other name.

See also

• Code of conduct, a set of rules outlining the norms, rules, and responsibilities or proper practices of an individual party or an organization.
• Confessionalism (religion), belief that full assent to official teachings is important
• Creed, a statement of the shared beliefs of a community which summarize its core tenets
• Ordnung, the set of rules for church members in the Anabaptist tradition
• Rule of life, a ruleset describing a lifeway of a religious group
• Social norm, a shared standard of acceptable behavior by a group