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
Bacon, Francis, Lord Verulam
(503 words)
[German Version] (London, Viscount St. Albans; Jan 22, 1561, London - Apr 9, 1626, London), an English philosopher and politician. After studying law, he received a seat in the House of Commons at the young age of 23. Initially barred from holding high offices because he criticized the tax policies of Elizabeth I, he later placed himself unconditionally at the…
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Religion Past and Present
Baden
(1,712 words)
[German Version]
I. Since 1112, when one of the two family branches of the (titulary) dukes of Zähringen (near Freiburg in Breisgau) began to title itself “Margrave of Baden” – after its (originally Roman) settlement “Baden on the Oos” (Aquae) –, the name of Baden has also been applied to its territories, including those that were later allotted to the lines o…
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Religion Past and Present
Bader, Augustin
(167 words)
[German Version] (died Mar 30, 1530, Stuttgart). The Augsburg weaver Bader, who was released from a brief imprisonment in 1527 following his tactical revocation of his anabaptist beliefs and who fled from Augsburg in 1528, prolonged the unfulfilled eschatological predictions of H. Hut from 1528 onward by means of his own isionary conception. With only a few followers, he expected the rul…
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Religion Past and Present
Bader, Johannes
(181 words)
[German Version] (c. 1470, Zweibrücken – Aug 10 or 15, 1545, Landau). Formerly a teacher and chaplain at the court of Zweibrücken, Bader became pastor in Landau in 1518. Because of his Reformational preaching from 1522 onward, the clerical court of Speyer banned him in 1524, but the council of Landau protected him. His work influenced the education of youths (…
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Religion Past and Present
Baeck, Leo
(405 words)
[German Version] (May 23, 1873, Lissa, Posen – Nov 2, 1956, London). A rabbi and theologian, Baeck had congregations in Oppeln (Silesia) in 1897, Düsseldorf 1907, Berlin 1913–1942 (army rabbi 1914–1917). Baeck played a leading role in German Judaism as the president of, among other things, Bnai Brith (Anti-Defamation League), the “Keren Hayesod,” the “Rabbinic…
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Religion Past and Present
Baeta, Christian Goncalves Kwami
(224 words)
[German Version] (May 23, 1908, Trans-Volta region, now Ghana – Dec 29, 1994, Accra, Ghana), university lecturer, churchman, ecumenicist and politician. He studied at the “Evangelisches Missionseminar” in Basel (Basel Mission) and at King's College, London, where he received his Doctor of Philosophy in 1959. After his ordination by Ewe (now Evangelical) Pr…
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Religion Past and Present
Baeumker, Clemens
(185 words)
[German Version] (Sep 16, 1853, Paderborn – Jul 10, 1924 Munich); in 1883, he became professor in Breslau, in 1900 in Bonn, in 1903 in Strasbourg, and in 1912 in Munich. A Catholic historian of philosophy, he drew attention to the historical development and diversity of medieval philosophy in opposition to the unhistorical tendencies of Neoscholasticism, and …
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Religion Past and Present
Bagot, Richard
(181 words)
[German Version] (1782, London – May 15, 1854, Brighton), a descendant of the Bolingbroke family. Bagot enrolled at Christ Church College, Oxford, in 1800, became a priest in 1806, Doctor of Divinity in 1829, and in the same year bishop of Oxford. Bagot was a High Churchman and published a number of “Charges to the Clergy” that became famous. In 1840 he was forced to condemn several views of E.B. Pusey, who had claimed his support. After the publication of J.H. Newman's
Tract XC, which allowed for the Thirty-Nine Articles to be interpreted in a Roma…
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Religion Past and Present
Bahāʾi
(964 words)
[German Version] I. History of Religion – II. Missiology
I. History of Religion Bahāʾism began as a trend within the Bābī sect of the Twelve Shiʾa. For the Bahāʾī, the establishment of Babism in 1844 marks the beginning of their era, but Bahāʾi in the proper sense originated in the 1860s. Babism was a militant messianic movement among the Iranian Shiʾites that was founded by …
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Religion Past and Present
Bahia, Provincial Council
(311 words)
[German Version] Convoked by the fifth archbishop of Bahia, Dom Sebastião Monteiro da Vide (1701–1722), the provincial council of Bahia convened in São Salvador on June 12–14, 1704; it was attended by the canons, the diocesan clergy, the religious orders, and the secular authorities. Of the suffragan bishops, two from Africa (Angola and São Tomé) and two from Brazil, only Dom Luís Simões Brandão of Angola attended. After the election of the procurators of the clergy, the congregations of the synod continued to meet from June 20 to July 8. The
First Constitutions of the Archdiocese of Bahia …
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Religion Past and Present
Baḥīrā Legend
(210 words)
[German Version] This Christian composition of apocalyptic and apologetic/polemics character, of which Syriac and Arabic versions exist, originates from the 1st half of the 9th century. The text was originally written in Syriac, probably in the area of western Syria. It begins with the account of an apocalyptic vision which is attributed to a certain Baḥīrā, a…
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Religion Past and Present
Bahir, Sefer ha-Bahir
(281 words)
[German Version] (“the Book of Brilliance”), also known as the Midrash of Rabbi Nechunia ben ha-Kanah (after the 2nd-cent. sage to whom the first paragraph in the book is attributed). It is the first work of the Kabbalah, and was written anonymously around 1185, probably in the Provence or in northern Spain. It contains around 200 paragraphs, which are attribu…
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Religion Past and Present
Bahrdt, Carl Friedrich
(281 words)
[German Version] (Aug 25, 1740 [not 1741], Bischofswerda – Apr 23, 1792, Nietleben near Halle) studied theology in Leipzig, became lecturer there in 1761, and professor in 1766, followed by Erfurt in 1769 and Gießen in 1771; in 1775, he became director of the Philanthropinum in Marschlins (Graubünden), then General Superintendent of Dürkheim on the Haardt in 1…
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Religion Past and Present
Baḫtīšūʿ
(165 words)
[German Version] The Baštishuʿ (Syro-Persian: “Jesus has redeemed”) were a Nestorian family of Syrian descent who practiced medicine in Gondeshapur (southern Iran) and (after 765) in Baghdad. Jurjis ibn Jibril ibn Baḫtishuʿ (died after 768) is reputed to have treated the caliph al-Manßūr. His son Baḫtishuʿ ibn Jurjis (died 801) was personal physician to …
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Religion Past and Present
Bahya ben Asher
(187 words)
[German Version] (ibn Halava; 2nd half of 13th cent., Spain), a prominent exegete, moral preacher, scholar in ethics, and kabbalist (Kabbalah), who, according to tradition, was a judge and preacher in Saragossa. Bahya wrote an extensive commentary on the Torah (pr. in Naples, 1492) and a widely circulated ethical work,
Kad ha-Qemach (“A Bowl of Flour”), which discusses alphabetically-arranged sermons on themes of Jewish morality. Bahya's model was Nachmanides. He…
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Religion Past and Present
Bahya ibn Pakudah,
(256 words)
[German Version] author of
Hovot ha-Levavot (“The Duties of the Heart”), the most popular and influential work of Jewish ethics from the Middle Ages. It was originally written in Arabic and remains to this day a classic of Jewish spirituality. Very little is known about the author. He probably lived in Saragossa and was, besides this work, also the author of several Hebrew religious poems (
piyyutim), of which two were appended to his book. Rabbi Judah ibn Tibbon translated the book into Hebrew around 116…
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Religion Past and Present
Baier, Johann Wilhelm, the Elder
(260 words)
[German Version] (Nov 11, 1647, Nürnberg – Oct 19, 1695, Weimar) began studying philosophy and (Near Eastern) philology at Altdorf in 1664 followed by Jena in 1669. He received his Dr. theol. in 1674 and was appointed professor in 1675. In 1694 he received an appointment at Halle. In 1695 he sat on the consistory and the church council, and was chief court pre…
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Religion Past and Present
Bailian Jiao
(329 words)
[German Version] (Pai-lien chiao), lit. “White Lotus teaching,” is the common term used by most Chinese sources to designate a popular sectarian tradition that attained great social and religious significance in China from the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) onward. Traditionally, the name Pai-lien (“White Lotus”) is traced back to a society founded by the Buddhist m…
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Religion Past and Present
Baillie, John
(183 words)
[German Version] (Mar 26, 1886, Gairloch, Scotland – Sep 29, 1960, Edinburgh) studied in Edinburgh, Jena, and Marburg. He taught at Auburn Theological Seminary 1919–1927, at the University of Toronto 1927–1930, at Union Theological Seminary, NY, 1930–1934, at the University of Edinburgh 1934–1956, and became the chairman of the General Committee of the Church of Scotland in 1943 as well …
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Religion Past and Present
Bainton, Roland Herbert
(267 words)
[German Version] (Mar 30, 1894, Ilkeston, Derbyshire, England – Feb 13, 1984, New Haven, CT). Historian and educator. Bainton's long and distinguished teaching career (1920-1962) was spent at Yale Divinity School, where he served as Titus Street Professor of Church History. An expert on the Protestant Reformation and author of thirty-two books, Bainton is perhaps best remembered for his landmark biography of Luther,
Here I Stand, and for his survey of Christian history,
The Church of Our Fathers, which sold more than a million copies. A commit…
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Religion Past and Present