Religion Past and Present
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Subject: Religious Studies
Edited by: Hans Dieter Betz, Don S. Browning†, Bernd Janowski and Eberhard Jüngel
Religion Past and Present (RPP) Online is the online version of the updated English translation of the 4th edition of the definitive encyclopedia of religion worldwide: the peerless Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG). This great resource, now at last available in English and Online, Religion Past and Present Online continues the tradition of deep knowledge and authority relied upon by generations of scholars in religious, theological, and biblical studies. Including the latest developments in research, Religion Past and Present Online encompasses a vast range of subjects connected with religion.
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Religion Past and Present (RPP) Online is the online version of the updated English translation of the 4th edition of the definitive encyclopedia of religion worldwide: the peerless Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG). This great resource, now at last available in English and Online, Religion Past and Present Online continues the tradition of deep knowledge and authority relied upon by generations of scholars in religious, theological, and biblical studies. Including the latest developments in research, Religion Past and Present Online encompasses a vast range of subjects connected with religion.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
Aachen,
(290 words)
[German Version] since the 1st century ce a Roman settlement (Lat.
Aquis, Aquisgrani) with thermal baths (hot springs). In the Frankish Period, the town became a royal possession. After King Pippin spent the winter of 765/766 there, it became a palatinate and was expanded by Charlemagne, who resided there more often and longer as he grew older. He also convoked imperial assemblies and church synods there next to the palace, …
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Religion Past and Present
Aalto, Alvar
(266 words)
[German Version] (Hugo Alvar Henrik; Feb 3, 1898, Kuortane, Finland - May 11, 1976, Helsinki), architect. After studying at the Helsinki University of Technology, from 1923 he practiced as a free-lance architect. From 1946 to 1948 he was a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, and from 1963 to 1968 he served as president of …
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Religion Past and Present
Aaron
(576 words)
[German Version] I. Old Testament - II. Early Judaism
I. Old Testament The origin of the name is uncertain. In the Old Testament Aaron is the brother of Mose and his spokesman (Exod 4:14f.). He was reputed to be a “Levite” (priest; Exod 4:14), and the traveling companion and deputy of Moses (Exod 7:1–7), a miracle-worker (Exod 8:1f.), a charismatic leader (Exod 17:10–12…
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Religion Past and Present
Aaronic Blessing
(431 words)
[German Version] I. Old Testament – II. Early Judaism – III. Liturgy
I. Old Testament The priestly Blessing, transmitted within the framework of the so-called Priestly Source (Pentateuch) in Num 6:23-26, which is also attested in some inscriptions (e.g. in Ketef Hinnom near Jerusalem), consist of traditional blessing formulae, linked together in three stair-stepped lines. …
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Religion Past and Present
Abba
(290 words)
[German Version] represents the Greek transliteration (ἀββά) of the Aramaic address to God as Father in three bilingual invocations, Mark 14:36, Gal 4:6, and Rom 8:15. Since J. Jeremias explained it in 1953 as a unique, diminutive address to God in the language of small children, it has been attributed particular theological and christological significance as an e…
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Religion Past and Present
Abbadie, Jacques
(128 words)
[German Version] (1656, Nay, Béarn – Nov 25, 1727, London). Educated in Huguenot academies (Huguenots), Abbadie was an important leader of the refugee community in Berlin from 1680 to 1689. As a field chaplain, he participated in the Ireland campaign of William III of England, and lived thereafter on benefices of the Anglican Church (beginning in 1699, he was …
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Religion Past and Present
Abbey
(281 words)
[German Version] From the 7th century, the word
abbatia originally designated the office of the abbot/abbess of a cloister or a non-monastic basilica. From the 9th century onward, it often referred to the cloister's property as a benefice. Additionally, it acquired the connotations of monastery and coenobium as the designation for the buildings and the living space of a community. They ere usu…
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Religion Past and Present
Abbo of Fleury
(123 words)
[German Version] (940/945 - Nov 13, 1004) was from 965 on the head of the school and the abbot from 988 on of the monastery of Fleury (St.-Benoît-sur-Loire, east of Orléans). Abbo authored,
inter alia, lives of saints and a collection of canons, as well as works of grammar and chronology whose major significance for the scholarship of his time only became evident through the recently published critical editions. In chu…
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Religion Past and Present
Abbot/Abbess
(431 words)
[German Version] The head of an independent monastery or nunnery under Rule of St. Benedict, sometimes, also, of other communities, in the East of almost all monasteries. Abbás (Gk άββάς; Aram.
abba, Copt.
apa) originally designated the experienced monk as a spiritual father, although Pachomius was already also a superior. At first charismatic in character (still so in Basil the Great), the abbot concept …
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Religion Past and Present
Abbot, George
(121 words)
[German Version] (Oct 10, 1562, Guildford - Aug 4, 1633, Croydon), from 1611 archbishop of Canterbury, Abbot played a leading role in the translation of the Authorized Version of the (King James) Bible, convinced the Scottish Church (Church of Scotland) to adopt the office of bishop and sent a delegation to the Synod of Dort (1618). His critical attitude toward the party of W. Laud, his refusal to yield to one of the king's favorites in the so-called Essex nullity suit (1616), and the accidental shooting of a warden during a hunt robbed him of his influence. Christopher FitzSimons Allison Bibl…
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Religion Past and Present
Abbott, Edwin
(127 words)
[German Version] (Dec 20, 1838, London – Dec 10, 1926, Hampstead), teacher and scholar. He studied at St. John's College in Cambridge (1857–1861), became fellow in St. John's in 1862, resigning the office, however, when he married in 1863. Ordained a deacon in the Church of England in 1862 and a priest in 1863, he dedicated his life, however, primarily to educ…
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Religion Past and Present
Abbott, Lyman
(74 words)
[German Version] (Dec 18, 1825, Roxbury, MA – Oct 22, 1922, New York) was a Congregationalist pastor (Congregational Christian Churches) and perhaps America's most influential proponent of liberal Protestantism. The lawyer who had not studied theology at university continually downplayed religious and confessional differences in order to seek fellowship with all who were engaged for a better society. Ferenc Szasz Bibliography Works include:
The Theology of an Evolutionist, 1897
Reminiscences, 1923.
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Religion Past and Present
Abbreviations
(541 words)
[German Version] I. Medieval Abbreviations – II. Catholic Orders
I. Medieval Abbreviations Medieval abbreviations are based on the principles of suspension and contraction developed in antiquity (epigraphical, juridical-administrative abbreviations, sacred names). In the 6th–7th/9th centuries, the book scripts that developed variously by region (Printing and publishing) developed different traditi…
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Religion Past and Present
Abelard, Peter
(922 words)
[German Version] (Abailardus, Baiolardus; “Peripateticus Palatinus”) was born in 1079 in Le Pallet near Nantes, and died on Apr 21, 1142 in St-Marcel near Chalon-sur-Saône. In order to devote himself to scholarship, he renounced his rights as firstborn in his equestrian family. From 1095 to 1102, he studied logic under Roscelin of Compiègne and under …
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Religion Past and Present
Abercius, Inscription of
(390 words)
[German Version] In 1883, two fragments of an altar slab with portions of a lengthy Greek epitaph of a certain Abercius were discovered at Hieropolis on the Glaucus, near Synnada in Phrygia (western Turkey). The fragments were given to Pope Leo X by Sultan Abdülhamid II in 1888 and are now in the Museo Pio Cristiano in the Vatican, with a reconstruction of the altar. The inscription comprises 18 incomplete lines, with nine verses (7–15). The entire inscription (a distich and 20 hexameters) is preserved in the legendary
Life of a Bishop Abercius, which may go back to …
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Religion Past and Present
Aberhart, William
(96 words)
[German Version] (Dec 30, 1878, Kippen, Ontario – May 23, 1943, Vancouver), fundamentalist minister, radio preacher, and politician. Having established a reputation in Calgary, Alberta, as a representative of Darbyite evangelical theology (Plymouth Brethren), he shifted to politics during the depression of the 1930s. He supported the “social credit” program of Clifford Hugh Douglas (1879–1952) as a means of redistributing wealth. As leader of the Social Credit Party, Aberhart was twice elected (1935, 1940) prime minister of the province of Alberta. Mark A. Noll Bibliography D.R.…
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Religion Past and Present
Abjuration
(77 words)
[German Version] designates in canon law renunciation in cases of apostasy (Apostate), heresy and schism (c. 2314
CIC/1917), as well as the conversion of a non-Catholic Christian (Church membership). Today, reconciliation in offences of the faith, leaving the church, and conversion, as regulated by local church law (cc. 751 and 1364
CIC), requires the deposition of a confession of faith. Wilhelm Rees Bibliography W. Rees, “Die Strafgewalt der Kirche,”
KStT 41, 1993, 88–96, 228f., 426–429.
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Religion Past and Present
Åbo
(140 words)
[German Version] (Finnish Turku). Åbo lies at the mouth of the Aura River, on the southwest coast of Finland. The ancient commercial center took on increased importance in the 13th century, when it became the religious and political center of Finland (Swedish Eastland). Until 1554, the diocese of Åbo encompassed all of Finland. The cathedral, the burial site o…
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Religion Past and Present
Abolitionism,
(311 words)
[German Version] the movement to abolish slavery in the USA, derived its power from its emphasis on the equality of all people before the law, which was a heritage of the Enlightenment, and the high regard for moral perfectibility typical of 19th-century evangelicalism. While some religious groups, primarily the Quakers and Methodists, had attacked slavery as early as the 18th century, the actual movement to abolish slavery began in 1831 with the appearance of W.L. Garrison's newspaper
The Liberator. The movement to free the slaves, sparked by Garrison …
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Religion Past and Present
Abortion
(866 words)
[German Version] I. The Unborn and Personhood – II. Bodily Rights – III. Legal Arguments The procured or spontaneous premature termination of pregnancy Unlike spontaneous abortion (or miscarriage), procured abortion is
intended to terminate a pregnancy. Its moral and legal permissibility depends on the nature of the unborn, the mother's bodily rights, and/or how the law ought to address controversial matters of life and death.
I. The Unborn and Personhood The dominant view is that abortion's permissibility depends on the nature of the u…
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Religion Past and Present
Abrabanel
(544 words)
[German Version]
1. Isaac ben Judah (1437, Lisbon – 1508, Venice) was an important Jewish leader, diplomat, exegete and philosopher in the period before and after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain (1492). Abrabanel was from a prominent family who were reputed to stem from the house of David. He was a financial advisor to King Alfonso V of Portugal, although he was forced …
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Religion Past and Present
Abraham
(3,604 words)
[German Version] I. Old Testament – II. New Testament – III. Judaism – IV. Qur’ān
I. Old Testament
1. Name. The name אַבְרָהָם/
'abrāhām is a by-form of אַבְרָם/
'abrām or אֲבִירָם/
'abîrām (Num 16:1, etc.). With the meaning "Father (= God) is exalted," it corresponds to a widely dispersed West-Semitic name pattern and, as a praise or confessional name, belongs in the realm of personal piety. The otherwise unattested extended form is interpreted in Gen 17:4f. in a popular etymology as "Father (אָב/
'āb) of a multitude (הָמוֹן/
hāmôn) of nations" - in an entirely …
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Religion Past and Present
Abraham a Sancta Clara,
(258 words)
[German Version] Catholic preacher and writer (Aug 2, 1644, Kreenheinstetten, Swabia – Dec 1, 1709, Vienna; secular name Johann Ulrich Megerle). The son of a tavern keeper, he received a thorough humanistic education in Ingolstadt and Salzburg. In 1662, at the monastery of Mariabrunn near Vienna, he joined the order of Augustinian Hermits and …
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Religion Past and Present
Abraham ben Azriel
(152 words)
[German Version] was one of the major authors belonging to the Kalonymus circle of 13th-century Rhineland esoterics and mystics; he was among the third generation of scholars produced by this school. He came to Speyer from Bohemia to study with Rabbi Judah the Pious (died 1217) and especially with Rabbi Eleazar ben Judah of Worms, whom he referred to as his immediate teacher. He is the author of
Arugat ha-bosem (“Bed of Spices”: Song 5:13), completed in 1234, an exhaustive commentary on the piyuttim of the Jewish prayer book. Its encyclopedic compass makes
Arugat ha-bosem unique …
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Religion Past and Present
Abraham Ecchellensis
(101 words)
[German Version] (Feb 18, 1605, Ḥāqil – Jul 15, 1664, Rome). The name is Latinized from the Arabic (al-)Ḥāqilānī (“from Ḥāqil” in Lebanon). A Maronite, he studied in Rome, was deacon, teacher of Syriac and Arabic in Rome, Pisa, and Paris, a collaborator in the Parisian Polyglot Bible, and from 1660 scriptor in the Vatican Library. Through editions and translations, he acquainted Europe with many Arabic and Syriac works. Hubert Kaufhold Bibliography G. Graf,
Geschichte der christlichen arabischen Literatur, vol. III, 1949, 354–359 N. Gemayel,
Les échanges culturels entre les …
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Religion Past and Present
Abrahamic Religions
(90 words)
[German Version] are not the Abrahamists (according to Sozomen [5th cent.], known at least in Gaza: cf. Crone), and not the Abrahamites of Bohemia (18th cent.). Abrahamic religions are the monotheistic religions that trace themselves to Abraham: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. These religions argued over him (cf. John 8:30–47; Gal 3:7–10; 4:22–31; Qur'ān 2:135–141; 3:67–68), but he could still form a bridge between them. Adel-Theodor Khoury Bibliography P. Crone,
Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam, 1987, 190–191, n. 4 H.J. Kuschel,
Streit um Abraham, 1994.
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Religion Past and Present
Abrahamic Writings
(539 words)
[German Version] I. Apocalypse of Abraham – II. Testament of Abraham
I. Apocalypse of Abraham The
Apocalypse of Abraham is one of several Apocalypse written in reaction to the destruction of the second temple. The text begins with a description of Abraham's rejection of idol worship while assisting his father in the fabrication of idols. God then dispatches the angel Iaoel to fetch Abraham. With the…
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Religion Past and Present
Abraham I of Aghbatan
(84 words)
[German Version] was Armenian Catholicos from 607 to 610. His time saw the schism of the Georgian church from unity with the other Caucasian churches, the Armenian and the Albanian. While the Georgian Catholicos, Kyrion, joined with the Chalcedonians (Chalcedonian Definition), Abraham insisted on the positions of monophysitism. Christian Hannick Bibliography F. Tournebize,
DHGE I, 1912, 163 E. Boshof, ed.,
Bischöfe, Mönche und Kaiser, vol. IV, 1994 R.W. Thomson,
A Bibliography of Classical Armenian Literature to 1500 AD, 1995.
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Religion Past and Present
Abraham Maimuni
(209 words)
[German Version] (Abraham ben Moses ben Maimon; 1186, Cairo – 1237, Cairo), son of M. Maimonides, inherited the position of his father as the leader of the Jewish community in Egypt; he extended the philosophical work of his father. When the great controversy over the rationalistic work of Maimonides arose in 1232–1235 in northern Spain and the provinces, Abraham responded with “The War of the Lord” (
Milchamot ha-Shem), an apology for the rationalistic style of writing of his father; he defended vigorously …
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Religion Past and Present
Absolute Necessity
(881 words)
[German Version] I. Philosophy of Religion – II. Philosophy
I. Philosophy of Religion The German word
das Unbedingte (lit. “the unconditional”) is first found in philosophical texts from the last third of the 18th century, as a translation of the Latin
absolutum. It was I. Kant (see II below) who gave this concept its specific connotation, which had a long-lasting influence on subsequent theology and the philosophy of religion. The absolute necessity is the ultimate principle, which is not conditioned by any…
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Religion Past and Present
Absolute, The
(937 words)
[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Philosophy of Religion
I. Philosophy Etymologically, the word “absolute” means something separate from and independent of everything that is only relative. In this sense, the absolute can be understood ontologically as substance, logically as principle. If the absolute is taken as a
singulare tantum, then it refers to something apart from which there is nothing that exists independently. This raises the question of how to conceive the …
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Religion Past and Present
Absolution
(712 words)
[German Version] I. Dogmatics – II. Practical Theology
I. Dogmatics Absolution is the assurance, in the context of confession (II; III), that sins have been forgiven. The history of absolution traces back to Matt 16:19; 18:18; John 20:22f. Drawing on Thomas Aquinas (
Summa theologiae III, q. 84), the Councils of Florence (
DH, 1323) and Trent (
DH, 1673) defined absolution as the form of the sacrament of penance or repentance (IV), which has as its matter the actions of…
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Religion Past and Present
Absolutism
(646 words)
[German Version] From the middle of the 16th century to the last third of the 18th, when absolutism was the dominant form of government in Europe, the term itself was not used. Not until the 1790s, when absolutism was fundamentally challenged by the outbreak of the French Revolution, did people in France begin to use the term “absolutisme” to describe the noti…
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Religion Past and Present
Abstract Expressionism
(1,005 words)
[German Version] is the internationally acknowledged American art movement of the 1940s/1950s, which developed mainly independently of Europe and which is of singular importance since it signals the shift of the Western art center from Europe to the United States. Abstract expressionism is also known by the names “New York School,” stressing its geographical l…
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Religion Past and Present
Absurd, The
(312 words)
[German Version] Absurd (Lat. “dull-sounding”) is widely understood as “ridiculous,” cf. “reductio ad absurdum”. In literary contexts the term Absurd has been in great demand since existentialism. 20th-century literature frequently testifies (often in a grotesque way) to the experience of the Absurd; cf. F. Kafka, Eugène Ionesco, S. Beckett, Harold Pinter, Luigi Pirandello, Thomas Bernhard, Elfriede Jelinek and others. In the 19th century, S. Kierkegaard is the respected thinker of the Absurd (partly synonymous with …
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Religion Past and Present
Abulafia, Abraham
(284 words)
[German Version] (1240, Saragossa – 1291, Italy). Abulafia, one of the most important mystics among the medieval Kabbalists, created a highly individual form of mystic contemplation, based on a mystical interpretation of language. Leaving Spain, he journeyed through many lands until reaching Akko in 1260; he lived and taught in Sicily, Greece, and Italy. G. …
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Religion Past and Present
Abuna
(83 words)
[German Version] The title “abuna” (“our father”), given to hierarchs of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and also used as a form of address, expresses trust and confidence. Formerly it was associated particularly with the Coptic metropolitan for Ethiopa and after the granting of autocephaly with the five patriarchs Baselyos (1959–1970), Tewoflos (1971–1975; murdered in 1992), Täkla Haymanot (1976–1988), Marqorewos (1988–1992; deposed), and Paulos (1992–). Monastic saints are also given the title. Friedrich Heyer Bibliography F. Heyer,
Die Kirche Äthiopiens, 1971, 2–15.
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Religion Past and Present
Abū Rāʾiṭa,
(165 words)
[German Version] Ḥabīb ibn Ḫidma (died after 828), often called at-Takrītī on account of his association with the Mesopotamian city of Takrit. He was active in the first half of the 9th century as a scholar and teacher of the Syrian Orthodox Church (Jacobites, Syria). Many modern scholars believe he may even have been a bishop. Abū …
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Religion Past and Present
Abu Ṣāliḥ,
(86 words)
[German Version] historian. Armenian by birth, he wrote a description of the churches and monasteries of Egypt in Arabic around 1300. His ties with the Coptic Church explain his interest in this church and the language he used. His work is a rich source of information about the demography and economy of the Copts as well as ecclesiastical and monastic life in Christian Egypt. Christian Hannick Bibliography Works:
The Churches and Monasteries of Egypt and Some Neighbouring Countries, trans. B.T.A. Evetts, 1895
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Religion Past and Present
Acacius of Beroea
(160 words)
[German Version] (c. 330 – c. 433), originally a monk, was consecrated bishop of Beroea (= Aleppo) in 378. He first came to prominence in church politics as an adherent of Meletius of Antioch (also as a participant in the Council of Constantinople in 381), he was to be found later among the opponents of John Chrysostom (probably because of his rigorism). He so…
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Religion Past and Present
Acacius of Caesarea
(220 words)
[German Version] (died c. 366) was a student and then, after c. 340, the successor of Eusebius of Caesarea as bishop; he was one of the outstanding theologians and church politicians leading the Eastern theologians under the reign of Emperor Constantius II who were critical of Nicea in the tradition of Origen. He was a participant in the Synod of Antioch (341); in Sardica (342, Arius/Ari…
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Religion Past and Present
Acacius of Constantinople/Acacian Schism
(229 words)
[German Version] Acacius of Constantinople (died 489) was patriarch of Constantinople (471–489); from 474, he guided the church policy of Emperor Zenon (471–91), and in 475/476 opposed the anti-Chalcedonian measures (Chalcedonian Definition) of the usurper Basiliscus. In 482, on Zenon's commission and in the context of the policy of compromise in relation …
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Religion Past and Present
Acacius of Melitene, Saint
(179 words)
[German Version] (before 431 bishop of Melitene in lesser Armenia, died before 439) was lector in Melitene around 384 (educated Euthymius, who was later abbot), a dedicated follower of Cyril of Alexandria, and at the Council of Ephesus (431) a determined opponent of Nestorius (ACO I/2, 40, 44, 52f.; cf. his homily, also in the Ethiopic
Qērellos). His struggle after 433, together with Rabbula of Edessa, against the distribution of the works of Theodore of Mopsuestia in…
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Religion Past and Present
Academy
(4,712 words)
[German Version] I. General – II. Academies of the Arts and Sciences
I. General
1. Term, Platonic Academy. The word “academy,” employed in almost all European languages with only minor variants, derives from the Greek term ἀκαδήμεια, ἀκαδημία (
akadēmeia, akadēmia); it designates, first, a park-like, walled, sacred precinct probably primarily dedicated to Akademos, a local Athenian god and heros, then also to Athena. In this enclosed precin…
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Religion Past and Present
A cappella
(112 words)
[German Version] (Ital.: in the manner of a chapel) historically refers to choral music accompanied by instruments
colla parte; today to unaccompanied choral music of any genre (sacred or secular). The practice of unaccompanied singing stems from ancient prohibition of musical instruments in church. Via reforms of the Council of Trent (1545-1564). The choral singing in the Sistine Chapel became the mode…
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Religion Past and Present
Acclamation
(149 words)
[German Version] A liturgical term used to refer to (sometimes spontaneous) responses of people in the congregation to an announcement, a reading or a prayer. These include such occasions as acclaiming candidates for ordination as “worthy,” ratifying the election of a bishop, and permitting the consecration of an abbot, or the coronation of a pope. In recent y…
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Religion Past and Present
Accommodation
(742 words)
[German Version] I. Dogmatics, Fundamental Theology - II. Missiology
I. Dogmatics, Fundamental Theology The term “accommodation” (from Latin
accommodatio, “accommodation, adaptation”) originated in classical rhetoric (I); it denotes the adaptation of an object to its environment – in rhetoric (II), the adaptation of linguistic expression to its subject matter, purpose, and …
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Religion Past and Present
Acedia
(168 words)
[German Version] (Gk. ἀκηδία/
akēdia) originally meant “indifference, apathy.” From the fourth century on, monastic spirituality used the term to denote the fundamental temptation of a monk: spiritual surfeit that finds expression in melancholy and inward desolation. Athanasius was the first to associate acedia with the “noonday demon” (Ps 91:6). The classic description of acedia is that of Evagrius Ponticus, who lists it among the eight evil “thoughts” (
logismoi). Cassian transmitted to western spirituality Evagrius's schema of eight…
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Religion Past and Present
Achelis
(287 words)
[German Version]
1. Ernst Christian (Jan 13, 1838, Bremen – Apr 10, 1912, Marburg). Studied theology in Heidelberg (1857–1859) and Halle (1860); served as a Reformed curate in Arsten and pastor in Hastedt (1862) and Wuppertal-Unterbarmen (1875); 1882–1911 as professor of practical theology at Marburg. Achelis first made his mark as a biblical homiletician and as an …
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Religion Past and Present
Achievement
(1,279 words)
[German Version] I. Ethics – II. Education – III. Practical Theology
I. Ethics With regard to processes in general, “achievement” refers to their efficacy. Ethics, however, speaks of achievement only with regard to actions (Action) – and not actions in general, but only actions that are ethically justified. This is possible only when two conditions are met. First: It must be possible …
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Religion Past and Present
Achzib,
(188 words)
[German Version] called Casal Imbert by the Crusaders, is situated on the Mediterranean coast 14 km north of Akko. As a strategically located city on the Way of the Sea, it controlled access to the so-called Ladder of Tyre. Achzib was settled from the Middle Bronze period (c. 2000 bce) to the time of the Crusades. The characteristic “Sea People” pottery and weapons from around 1150 bce are probably associated with the destruction of the fortifications at the end of the Late Bronze period. Achzib, which th…
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Religion Past and Present
Acknowledgement and Recognition
(882 words)
[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Dogmatics and Ethics
I. Philosophy The concept of “acknowledgment” (German:
Anerkennung) has always played an essential role in practical philosophy. Thus, in ancient ethics the conviction prevailed that a good life could be led only by those persons whose behavior could find social esteem in the
polis. The Scottish moral philosophers took their lead from the idea that public acknowledgment or disapproval represents the social mechanism by which the indiv…
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Religion Past and Present
Acoemetae
(180 words)
[German Version] (Gk. ἀκοίμητοι, “the sleepless”) was the designation of a Byzantine monastic community in Late Antiquity consisting of Greeks, Romans, and Syrians (originally also Copts), which came after 404 with its founder, Alexander (355–430), from Syria to Constantinople and lived, until its condemnation as Messalian …
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Religion Past and Present
Acolyte
(167 words)
[German Version] Section 65 of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (41975) describes the primary function of an acolyte (Gk. ἀκολουθέω/
akoloutheō, “accompany”; original function to accompany the bishop): “The acolyte is instituted to serve at the altar and to assist the priest and deacon.” “In particular it is for him… as a special minister of the eucharist, to give communion to the faithful.” Paragraph 70 emphasizes that “laymen, even if they have not received institution as ministers, may perform all the functions below those reserved to deacons.” The
motu proprio …
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Religion Past and Present
Acontius, Jacobus
(282 words)
[German Version] (Giacomo; before 1515, Ossana, Val di Sole, or Trient – 1566/1567, presumably London). After studying law and a period as notary (attested 1540 in Ossana and 1548 in Trient), Acontius entered the service of Count Giovanni Francesco Landriano and Cardinal C. Madruzzo from 1549 to 1557. Because of his Protestant convictions, he fled in 1557 to Basel and Zürich, where he ma…
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Religion Past and Present
Acosta, José de
(142 words)
[German Version] (Oct 9, 1540, Medina del Campo– Feb 5, 1600, Salamanca) entered the order of the Jesuits in 1552, and went as a missionary to Peru, in 1572 was provincial there (1576–1581), and participated as theologian in the 3rd Council of Lima in 1582 (Lima, Provincial Councils); he was the co-author of a trilingual catechism. In 1587, he returned to Spain via Mexico, was active there and in Rome in diplomacy and writing, and died as rector of the college of Salamanca. His accomplishments include the organization of the mission in Peru, an influential theory of mission (
De procuranda In…
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Religion Past and Present
Acquoy, Johannes Gerhardus Rijk
(132 words)
[German Version] (Jan 3, 1829, Amsterdam – Dec 15, 1896, Leiden). Theological studies in Amsterdam 1850; doctorate Leiden, 1857. Teacher of Hebrew at Amsterdam grammar school, 1854–1857. Pastor in Eerbeek, Koog aan de Zaan, and Zaltbommel. Church professor of church history and practical theology at Leiden from 1878. University professor of church history and …
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Religion Past and Present
Acrostic
(105 words)
[German Version] Word, name, clause, or alphabet consisting of the initial letters (syllables, words) of sequential verses or strophes of a poem. Acrostics have Eastern roots (for instance
Hymnos Akathistos, including the alphabetic acrostics in the OT and in Latin hymns). They originally had magical, mnemonic and protective significance. They were a literary art form in the Middle Ages and in the Baroque period, also in hymns; for example,
EG 523 (names of authors), 525 (commemorative names), 70, 147, 367 (dedicatory initials), 242, 361, 402 (proverb, motto). Ada Kadelbach Bibliogr…
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Religion Past and Present
Act and Potency
(1,153 words)
[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Philosophy of Religion
I. Philosophy Act and potency (
actus, realization, reality –
potentia, predisposition, possibility), one of the pairs of concepts introduced by Aristotle. It is intended to do justice to the circumstance that not only that which actually exists belongs to the category of being as a whole, but also the sphere of tendencies, dispositions, and cap…
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Religion Past and Present
Action
(1,873 words)
[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Theology – III. Ethics – IV. Practical Theology
I. Philosophy The concept of action is of central importance for philosophical ethics and anthropology. It is closely related to the concept of person, since persons are the subjects of action and cognition (the latter always itself an action, since it necessarily involves judgment). We may distinguish …
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Religion Past and Present
Action, Philosophy of
(393 words)
[German Version] Several empirical disciplines (esp. psychology and sociology) deal in different ways with the theory of action. Their approaches often do not distinguish sharply between mere behavior and action in the strict sense. The philosophy of action, on the other hand, is concerned to explicate the concept of action particularly in contrast to mere beh…
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Religion Past and Present
Action, Science of (Handlungswissenschaft)
(884 words)
[German Version] I. Terminology – II. Social Sciences – III. Practical Theology
I. Terminology From the 18th century on, the German term
Handlungswissenschaft denoted the study of trade (
Handel). It thus came to represent one of the precursors of modern economics. Nowadays it has this meaning only in historical contexts. Its present-day usage refers to the disciplines that deal with action in the broadest sense, from trade through pedagogy …
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Religion Past and Present
Action, Types of
(496 words)
[German Version] In his
Philosophical Ethics, F.D.E. Schleiermacher distinguished between “symbolizing action” and “organizing action”; in his
Christliche Sitte, he further distinguished “representative” and “effective” action, as well as “purgative” and “broadening action.” Habermas, in his recent
Theory of Communicative Action, uses analogous language to indicate the difference between teleological, strategic, norm-based, dramaturgical, and communicative action. Both authors po…
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Religion Past and Present
Activity and Passivity
(1,353 words)
[German Version] I. Philosophy of Religion and Fundamental Theology – II. Dogmatics
I. Philosophy of Religion and Fundamental Theology From the perspective of fundamental theology, the relationship between activity and passivity thematizes the constitution of the christian certainty of
Dasein. Its theoretical description in terms of consciousness or personhood must be examined for its ontological presuppositions and understood within their framework. Only …
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Religion Past and Present
Acton, Lord John Emerich Edward Dalberg
(434 words)
[German Version] (Jan 10, 1834, Naples – Jun 19, 1902, Tegernsee), Roman Catholic layperson and historian. His openness to the world led him to Munich to study for six years with J.J.I. v. Döllinger. From Döllinger he adopted a liberal attitude and a critical yet development-capable view of history. He learned to see Christianity, not as a collection of dogmas and …
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Religion Past and Present
Acts of Andrew
(167 words)
[German Version] (
Acts And.). The
Acts of Andrew recounts the missionary journeys of the apostle Andrew from Pontus to Achaia. The theme of his preaching, which is accompanied by healings and exorcisms, is a world-denying and ascetic form of Christianity. His conversion of Maximilla, the wife of the Roman governor Aegeas, enrages the latter. Facing crucifixion at Patras, he sings the praises …
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Religion Past and Present
Acts of Paul
(620 words)
[German Version] (
Acts Paul). As with most apocryphal acts of the apostles, the text of the
Acts Paul is also only preserved in fragments. Its content, Paul's missionary activity, depicted in the form of only a single journey from Damascus via numerous intermediate stations in Asia Minor, Macedonia and Greece, etc. to Rome accompanied by equally numerous miracles, can be reconstructed primarily with the aid of two papyri, a Greek (PH) and a Coptic (PHeid), although significant lacunae remain (
NTApo II, 198–211). Only three texts (already indepen…
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Religion Past and Present
Acts of Peter
(554 words)
[German Version] (
Acts Pet.). Only a few fragments of
Acts Pet., first attested (and rejected as non-canonical) with certainty by Eusebius of Caesarea (
Hist. eccl. III 3.2), are preserved. Among these, a Latin translation, the so-called
Actus Vercellenses, which originated in the 3rd/4th century and adheres rather closely to the original Greek version of the Acts, represents the most important fragment offering about two-thirds of the original account of the
Acts Pet. The
Martyrdom of Peter (
Mart. Pet.) is chiefly transmitted in Greek. A text dealing with his daughter (
Papyrus …
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Religion Past and Present
Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles (NHC VI,1; Acts Pet. 12 Apos.)
(18 words)
[German Version] Apocrypha/Pseudepigrapha
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Religion Past and Present
Acts of the Apostles
(2,891 words)
[German Version] I. Introductory Issues – II. Genre – III. Structure and Purpose– IV. Content – V. Rhetorical and Narrative Criticism
I. Introductory Issues
1. Author and date. Acts is the second part of a two-volume work, the first of which is the Gospel of Luke. Neither of the two prologues names the author, although Luke 1:1–3; Acts 1:1 use the first person pronoun, which also occurs in the “we…
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Religion Past and Present
Acts of the Martyrs
(852 words)
[German Version] In his new edition of the
Martyrologium Romanum (1583–; cf. esp. the appended “De martyrologio Romano praecapitulatio dicendorum”), C. Baronius borrowed the expression
acta martyrum from Pontius's
Vita Cypriani 11 (cf. Cyprian
Epis. 77, 2), understanding the martyr literature handed down in protocol form as original trial transcripts or as protocols recorded by ecclesiastical
notarii (combining Cyprian
Epis. 12, 2, 1 with
LP 1, 148) to serve as documentation for liturgical commemoration. In 1643 the
Acta sanctorum of the Bollandists …
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Religion Past and Present
Acts of Thomas
(390 words)
[German Version] (
Acts Thom.). The
Acts Thom. report the missionary journeys of Thomas Didymus toward and in India. The complete text is preserved in two manuscripts, one Syriac from the 10th century and one Greek from the 12th century. Abbreviated forms exist in the Greek, Syriac, Latin, Armenian, Coptic and Arabic languages. The Syriacisms in the Greek indicate …
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Religion Past and Present
Actualism
(99 words)
[German Version] (Grace, Act and potency). The concept of actualism originated with Gentile. Theology treats the proper order of nature and grace under the heading actualism, with the tendency to allow nature as an independent and pre-existent entity to merge where possible into the constantly creative and active gracious behavior of God. K. Barth expounded a thoroughgoing actualism. To the extent that anthropological structures are permitted and only an objectifying scholastic metaphysics is excluded, one can speak of moderate actualism. Gregor Zasche Bibliography G. Gentile,
D…
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Religion Past and Present
Adalbert of Bremen
(193 words)
[German Version] (c. 1000 – Mar 16, 1072) was a member of the family of the count of Goseck. From 1032 on, he was cathedral provost in Halberstadt and was elevated to archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen in 1043 by Henry III (Hamburg, Bremen). He was responsible for the expansion of sovereign rule in his diocese. From 1062 to 1066, he was influential on imperial polic…
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Religion Past and Present
Adalbert of Prague
(209 words)
[German Version] (Vojtîch; c. 956 – 997) was the second bishop of Prague. Adalbert, who was educated in the cathedral school in Magdeburg, was elevated to bishop in 983. Rigorously, but unsuccessfully, he tried to gain acceptance for church norms among the still half-pagan population of Bohemia, yet he succeeded in founding the first monastery at Břevnov. His …
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Religion Past and Present
Adam and Christ
(993 words)
[German Version] I. New Testament - II. Dogmatics
I. New Testament In 1 Cor 15:21f., 45-49 and Rom 5:12-21, Paul draws a contrast between Adam as the primal, earthly-material human being and Christ as his eschatological, heavenly-spiritual counterpart. 1 Cor 15:45f. indicates that Paul reached this conclusion by performing - within the context of an apocalyptic concept of time and body - an escha…
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Religion Past and Present
Adam and Eve
(931 words)
[German Version] I. Ancient Judaism – II. Art
I. Ancient Judaism According to Gen 1–5, Adam and Eve were the first human couple. Although the two figures play a major role in ancient Judaism, their importance is often overrated. The tendency to see a widespread myth of Adam in Second Temple sources is connected with the pivotal role of Adam in the Pauline epistles (Rom 5; 1 Cor 15). The fall of Adam and Eve does not play a role in all schools of ancient Judaism. One significant strand of tradition, represented by
Jubilees, 1 Enoch, and the Dead Sea Scrolls (cf. …
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Religion Past and Present
Adamantius, Dialogue of
(124 words)
[German Version] Adamantius (“Man of Steel”) is the name of the orthodox principal speaker in a Greek dialogue (subtitled
De recta in deum fide) that attacks Marcion, Bardesanites (Bardesanes), and Valentinians (Valentinianism). It was composed some time after 325 ce in Asia Minor or Syria. As early as the 4th century, Adamantius was identified with Origen and considered the author of the dialogue (cf. the Latin translation by Rufinus). The work is dependent on Methodius. Its value as a source of information concerning the heresies attacked is disputed. Gerhard May Bibliography CPG 1,…
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Religion Past and Present
Adam, Books of
(208 words)
[German Version] . The Books of Adam are a group of apocryphal sources which portray the life of Adam and Eve after their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. They have been preserved in six different languages: Greek (
Apoc. Adam), Latin (
Vita Adam), Armenian, Georgian, Slavonic, and Coptic. The date and origin of these texts are difficult to determine. There are indications of Christian authorship between 100 and 600 ce. The Latin text begins with the history of the repentance of Adam and Eve immediately after the expulsion. During …
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Religion Past and Present
Adamites
(161 words)
[German Version] (Adamians). A type of heretic encountered in Early Church authors that corresponds to no historically identifiable persons. Since Epiphanius, it refers primarily to nude worship in subterranean cult sites called “Paradise.” The primal purity presumably sought after had ascetic significance, also certain eschatological elements, but was underst…
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Religion Past and Present
Adam Kadmon
(140 words)
[German Version] (Qadmon; אדם קדמון, lit. primordial man). In 13th-century Kabbalah and later as well, Adam Kadmon articulated in anthropomorphic terminology the idea of the highest, concealed nature of the totality of divine powers, namely, of the
plḗroma (Gk.
πλήρωμα ). The antithetical concept is that of
shiʾur qoma in Hekhalot mysticism (with which it belongs together in the Kabbalah). In the
Zohar and in the Lurianic myth of the late 16th century, in which it represents the first emanation …
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Religion Past and Present
Adam, Karl
(164 words)
[German Version] (Oct 22, 1876, Pursruck, Oberpfalz– Apr 1, 1966, Tübingen) became a priest in 1900, received his doctorate in 1904, and was habilitated as professor of Latin patristics in 1908 at the University of Munich; he was professor of Catholic dogmatics at Tübingen 1919–1949. Adam revived the theology of the perception of faith with a phenomenological …
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Religion Past and Present
Adamnan
(186 words)
[German Version] (Adomnán; c. 624–704), associated with Columba (Columcille). Adamnan, a learned Irish monk, was the ninth abbot of Iona (679–704). Around 686/87 he was sent on a diplomatic mission to ransom Irish prisoners of war from King Aldfrith of Northumbria. He was the author of a law, passed at the Synod of Birr in 697, forbidding the war-time killing of women, children, and clergy (
Cáin Adomnáin). He also urged acceptance of the Roman date for Easter (Paschal /Easter Calendrical Controversies). His major works are
De locis sanctis, an itinerary through the Holy Land based…
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Religion Past and Present
Adam of Bremen
(182 words)
[German Version] (died Oct 12 before 1085). Educated at the cathedral school of Bamberg, he worked in Bremen from 1066/67 (become cathedral scholar in 1069); in 1067/68, he was at the Danish royal court, where he took instruction on conditions in the nordic countries. This information was recorded in the fourth volume of his Church History,
Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum, which was the first thorough report in the Middle Ages concerning Scandinavia, Iceland, and Greenland. The first two …
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Religion Past and Present
Adams, Ansel
(119 words)
[German Version] (Feb 20, 1902, San Francisco – Apr 22, 1984 Carmel, CA), photographer, best known for his impeccably printed black-and-white photographs of the American wilderness. These technically accomplished but nevertheless poetic images, mainly of landscapes in western America, display incredible beauty in tone, texture, and detail, while inspiring an a…
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Religion Past and Present
Adam Scotus
(116 words)
[German Version] (Adam of Dryburgh; 1127/40 – 1212) was abbot-coadjutor in Dryburgh (OPraem) from 1184. In 1188/89, he moved to the Carthusian monastery in Witham, where, like other representatives of the reform orders of his time, he considered life as a hermit to be the highest form of religious life. In his writings, which were primarily devoted to questions of monastic life, contemplation, and asceticism, there is evidence of deep familiarity with the Bible and tradition (esp. Augustine), as well as the influence of the Victorines. Marie-Luise Ehrenschwendtner Bibliography A. Wi…
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Religion Past and Present
Adams, Henry
(126 words)
[German Version] (Feb 16, 1838, Boston, MA – Mar 27, 1918, Washington DC), descendant of the great family of American statesmen. Towards the end of his life he was deeply preoccupied with the religious origins of his family. The medieval French imaginaire of the Virgin Mary was an aesthetic replacement for his own agnosticism and an aesthetic way of coming to terms with his wife's suicide. If Adams's highly stylized autobiography,
The Education of Henry Adams (1906), was a meditation on his intellectual and public life, the visionary
Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres (1904) …
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Religion Past and Present
Adamson, Patrick
(222 words)
[German Version] (Mar 15, 1537, Perth – Feb 19, 1592), Scottish clergyman and archbishop of St. Andrews. He studied at St. Mary's College in the University of St. Andrews (M.A. 1558) and supported the Reformation. In 1560 he was appointed by the General Assembly (the supreme court of the Scottish Reformed church) for service in the …
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Religion Past and Present
Adam von St. Victor
(111 words)
[German Version] (apparently died Jan 14, at the latest in 1146) was the author of hymn-like sequences (“later style”). His background, biographical data, and works attributed to him are disputed. While earlier scholarship (
LMA I, 1990, 110f.) equated him with Adam Brito mentioned in the necrology of St. Victor – who, according to later sources, died in 1192 –, Fassler sees him as the canon Adam attested as the “praecentor” of the cathedral chapter of Notre-Dame (Paris) from 1107 to 1133, who withdrew to St. Victor around 1133. Mathias Lawo Bibliography M.E. Fassler, “Who Was Adam of …
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Religion Past and Present
Adam Wodham
(87 words)
[German Version] (Woodham, Godham, Goddamus; c. 1298–1358), OFM, was an important student of William of Occam. He was educated in the order's school in London, c. 1325–1329 in Oxford; he lectured on the
Sentences in 1330 in Norwich, until 1333 in Oxford, also in London; until 1339, when he journeyed to Basel, he was the director of studies for the OFM in Oxford. His doctrine of grace was attacked in Oxford and Paris as semi-Pelagian (Pelagius/Pelagians/Semi-Pelagians). Christoph Burger Bibliography W.J. Courtenay,
Adam Wodham, 1978.
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Religion Past and Present
Adaptation
(318 words)
[German Version] The fact that all living creatures are almost perfectly adapted to their environment in their form, physiology, sensorium, and behavior is explained by the natural sciences as the result of an evolutionary process extending over millions of years (Evolution). According to C. Darwin, natural selection may be considered a primary agent of evolut…
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Religion Past and Present