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.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
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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
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