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
Parish Administrator
(180 words)
[German Version] (
administrator paroecialis) is a priest whom the diocesan bishop has to appoint if a parish is vacant (cf.
CIC c. 538, 1983;
CCEO c. 297), or the parish priest is prevented from fulfilling his pastoral duties (
CIC c. 539, 1983;
CCEO c. 298). Until the parish administrator is appointed, the
Pfarrvikar (Chaplain) assumes direction of the parish (cf.
CIC c. 541, 1983;
CCEO c. 300). As a rule, the parish administrator has the same privileges, duties, and rights as the parish priest, and has to give account of his office (cf.
CIC c. 540, 1983;
CCEO c. 299). The installation of a…
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Religion Past and Present
Parish Center
(401 words)
[German Version] In the second third of the 19th century the parish center, Ger.
Gemeindezentrum, arose as the architectural answer to the differentiation of structures in the German People’s church into forms specific to particular groups. The parish center reflects the concern of the parish movement to bring members of the parish together beyond acts of public worship. The program for use of space (in urban areas) includes a room divisible into larger and smaller areas by the use of folding screens, with up…
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Religion Past and Present
Parish Council
(8 words)
[German Version] Presbyter/Presbytery, Church Polity
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Religion Past and Present
Parish Council (Germany)
(286 words)
[German Version] The parish council (Ger.
Pfarrgemeinderat), as it at present exists in the bishoprics of Germany (and similarly in other German-speaking ¶ bishoprics), owes its self-understanding and essential structure to the resolution “Councils and Associations” of the joint synod of bishoprics in the German Federal Republic (1972–1975), and the framework order for structures of co-responsibility in the diocese, passed at the same time. The resolution draws (a) on the traditional structure of the lay apostolate of…
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Religion Past and Present
Parish Education
(807 words)
[German Version] In 1974 the concept of “parish education” (Ger.
Gemeindepädogogik) was introduced into academic discussion by Hessler (Naumburg) and Rosenboom (Kiel), at much the same time but independently of one another. In 1976 Adam conceived of parish education as a new subdiscipline within practical theology. Foizik has expertly presented the first phase of development until 1992. In 1987 Adam and Lachmann brought out the first compendium on the subject. Ruddat went further with an “inventory” of th…
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Religion Past and Present
Parish Educators
(296 words)
[German Version] The relatively recent professional group of parish educators in Germany is a result of the reform movements of the 1960s. The call for theologically and pedagogically better-qualified fellow-workers came in response to increasing challenges in both Protestant and Catholic churches, in East and West Germany. The Protestant churches in the former German Democratic Republic founded a “training center for parish educators” in Potsdam. In the German Federal Republic, courses in theolog…
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Religion Past and Present
Parish Law
(283 words)
[German Version] is the embodiment of legal obligations that arise from the division of a church area or a diocese into parishes (Parish/Diocese) territorially separated from one another. In parish law, the holder of a benefice is solely responsible for all public worship activities taking place in the parish (Pulpit qualification), and thus also for all official activities (Ministerial offices) requested by church members living in the parish. For the members, parish law means that they do not ha…
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Religion Past and Present
Parish Office
(370 words)
[German Version] Parishes (VII) as complex organizations must maintain their internal functions and guarantee accessibility. The parish office has been created ¶ within the parish infrastructure as a place where these tasks are taken care of. The team of church workers has developed differentiated functions; the position of parish secretary has acquired independent importance. This process is comparable with developments in medical practices or lawyers’ offices, where the workload of professionals is lightened by the activity of support staff, and …
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Religion Past and Present
Parish Sociology
(495 words)
[German Version] The parish is the smallest legal unit of church structure, initially referring to an area. It sets the boundaries of the territory in which Christians, under the leadership of clergy, live with one another, affecting both internal and external matters. When the Christians in the area are included in the definition, this gives rise to the notion of parish community. A legal ¶ structure of this sort can also be considered sociologically. Then the parish community is to be understood in terms of interactions and a consciousness of belonging (René König). Parish structure m…
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Religion Past and Present
Parish Worker
(503 words)
[German Version] In the 19th century, in the course of differentiation of church work in parishes, a readiness developed on the part of parish members to undertake voluntary work in “parish care,” especially in social and educational areas. The need for specialist skills led to the establishment of church training, making it possible for women to be appointed as paid parish workers. Up to the 1950s, in various regional churches Bible schools and seminaries for church service were set up, comparabl…
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Religion Past and Present
Parity
(428 words)
[German Version] denotes the equal status in law of religious communities in the state; it therefore presupposes the dissolution of confessional homogeneity within the state. Parity had been practiced earlier, but in Germany it first gained legal form through the (still limited) equality granted to the Catholic and Protestant parties, particularly in the Peace of Augsburg. It gained an explicit basis in constitutional law in the Peace of Westphalia as
aequalitas exacta mutuaque (“complete and mutual equality”). At the same time, the previously excluded Reformed beli…
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Religion Past and Present
Parker, Matthew
(290 words)
[German Version] (Aug 6, 1504, Norwich – May 17, 1575, Lambeth), son of a well-to-do weaver, studied at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge from 1522 to 1528; he remained close to the college throughout his life, being elected master in 1544. His collection of medieval manuscripts became the core of the college’s Parker Library. At Cambridge Parker was won to the Protestant cause (T. Bilney, H. Latimer). In 1535 Anne Boleyn, the mother of Elizabeth I, appointed Parker, now a well-known preacher, a…
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Religion Past and Present
Parker, Peter
(170 words)
[German Version] ( Jun 18, 1804, Framingham, MA – Jan 10, 1888, Washington, DC), eminent American ¶ missionary and physician, who also served from 1855 to 1857 as official representative of the United States in China. After studying theology and medicine at Yale in New Haven, he became a Presbyterian minister; in 1834 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions sent him to China. In 1835 he opened a hospital in Canton (Guangzhou), which met with unexpected popularity among the Chinese and thus came…
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Religion Past and Present
Parker, Theodore
(128 words)
[German Version] (Aug 24, 1810, Lexington, MA – May 10, 1860, Florence), Unitarian theologian and preacher. Greatly influenced by transcendentalism (III), he developed a theology based upon intuition, according to which authority and truth had their ultimate sources not in the church nor in the Bible, but in conscience, which Parker often labeled as the voice of God or higher law. Most Unitarians in his time considered him heretical, but Parker’s thoughts mark the emancipation of Unitarianism from…
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Religion Past and Present
Parliamentarianism
(965 words)
[German Version] Generic term for the theory and practice of intermediation of interests between citizens and their government in which a parliament, the body representing the people, exercises significant or exclusive legislative power (Law and legislation: V; Legislative), writes the budget, oversees responsible articulation and aggregation of interests, recruits personnel for positions of political leadership, monitors the government, and – in contrast to a presidential system – chooses the government and can vote it out of office. In present-day constitutional democr…
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Religion Past and Present
Parmenianus
(167 words)
[German Version]
Parmenianus, Donatist bishop of Carthage, where he died in 391/392. Probably not born in Africa, he was ¶ consecrated in exile during the time Donatism was being suppressed as the successor to Donatus the Great, went to Africa in 361 with the other bishops of his church and served as the Donatist primate until c. 391. In response to his polemical writings against the Catholics, c. 364 Optatus of Milevis wrote a work in seven books against Parmenianus, from which along with Augustine’s
Contra epistulam Parmeniani we can reconstruct the basics of his ecclesiology an…
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Religion Past and Present
Parmenides
(437 words)
[German Version] (probably not before 510 – after 450 bce). Alongside Heraclitus, Parmenides was the most important thinker before Socrates and Plato. Nothing is known of his life apart from his birthplace, Elea in southern Italy. By contrast, his philosophy is well attested; the poem in hexameters, in which he presents it, has been preserved in large part, particularly in quotations given by Simplicius. Parmenides is the discoverer of the unity of being. This does not mean a unity imposed on being from outside; rather, it is imparted directly with the sense of “being” (ἐόν/
eón): everyth…
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Religion Past and Present
Parody
(143 words)
[German Version] In church music,
parody does not have the pejorative or humorous sense it has in general usage. The Renaissance parody mass (IV) gained its unity by using religious or secular melodies or parts from polyphonic compositions in all its sections (e.g. the masses written on
L’homme armé). Parodic composition turning secular vocal works into sacred works has been discussed particularly in the case of J.S. Bach, the best-known example being his
Christmas Oratorio. The technique is based on similarity of affect and often on linguistic parallels in the text. …
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Religion Past and Present
Paroemia
(141 words)
[German Version] (Gk παροιμίαι/
paroimíai) are the Old Testament lections of the Orthodox Liturgy of the Hours (IV). While the usual Sunday Vespers does not include lections, on the eves of feasts of Christ, the Theotokos, and saints, up to three paroemia are generally read, which often interpret OT events as types of the saving events of the New Testament. On the eve of Christmas eight paroemia are read, on Epiphany 13, and on Holy Saturday 15. On feasts of the apostles, they are replaced with readings from the
Apostolos. OT paroemia are also read during morning worship (II, 7) on…
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Religion Past and Present
Parousia
(2,661 words)
[German Version] I. Classical Antiquity – II. The New Testament – III. Dogmatics
I. Classical Antiquity The common Greek verb παρεῖναι/
pareínai, “be present, assist,” has a special sense when used with reference to deities. In the Hellenistic period, the noun παρουσία/
parousía became a technical term, referring to a ritual staging of the advent in which a god or king comes to dwell among his people (e.g. Tegea celebrates Hadrian’s visit as the advent of God: IG 5.2, 50). The emphasis on presence presupposes the preceding absence of the deity (ἀποδημεῖν/
apodēmeín) when other gods rul…
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Religion Past and Present