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
Rauschenbusch, August Christian Ernst
(137 words)
[German Version] (May 27, 1777, Bünde, Westphalia – Apr 19, 1840, Altena), 1801 pastor in Lüdenscheid, 1802 in Kronenberg, 1808 head of the Bürgerschule in Schwelm, between 1815 and 1840 pastor in Altena on the Lenne, from 1824 to 1827 superintendent in Iserlohn (1808 Dr.phil., Heidelberg). Rauschenbusch published numerous theological and historical works, including the
Leben Jesu im Zusammenhange dargestellt (1837 [The life of Jesus presented in context]). He was joint editor of the hymnal,
Bergisches Gesangbuch (1808), and author of a small reform education manual (
Erziehungsbü…
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Religion Past and Present
Rauschenbusch, Walter
(279 words)
[German Version] (Oct 4, 1861, Rochester, NY – Jul 25, 1918, Rochester), pastor, theological teacher, and leading theologian of the Social Gospel ¶ movement. Rauschenbusch graduated in 1884 from Rochester University and in 1886 from Rochester Theological Seminary. During his studies he absorbed the critical tendencies of the writings of A. Ritschl and A. v. Harnack. As pastor in a rough area of Manhattan, he helped his church members to cope with the effects of poverty. This work led him into a circle of like-minded f…
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Religion Past and Present
Rautenberg, Johann Wilhelm
(174 words)
[German Version] (Mar 1, 1791, Moorfleth near Hamburg – Mar 1, 1865, Hamburg); between 1820 and 1865 pastor at Sankt Georg (Hamburg); an outstanding preacher, hymn writer, and source of ideas for J.H. Wichern’s Inland Mission. Rautenberg’s revival piety developed during his theological studies. He studied from 1813 to 1816 in Kiel under A. Twesten, and from 1816 to 1817 in Berlin under F.D.E. Schleiermacher and A. Neander. In 1817 he took the regional church examination in Hamburg. In 1825, togeth…
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Religion Past and Present
Rautenstrauch, Franz Stephan
(173 words)
[German Version] (Jul 29, 1734, Blottendorf, Bohemia – Sep 30, 1785, Erlau), entered the Benedictine monastery of Brevnov (Braunau) near Prague in 1750, and became its abbot in 1773. He was appointed director of the Vienna theological faculty, and in 1774, under the influence of Jansenism, put forward an outline for the improvement of theological schools according to the principles of Josephinism: the minister should be first of all an educator of the people. In 1782 Rautenstrauch, as a member of …
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Religion Past and Present
Raven, Charles Earle
(145 words)
[German Version] (Jul 4, 1888, London – Jul 7, 1964, Cambridge), was a leading Modernist theologian in the Anglican Church (England, Theology in) who promoted a natural theology based on a liberal interpretation of Christianity and a non-materialistic view of nature. He was ordained in 1909 and served as canon of Liverpool 1924–32 and as Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge from 1932. He wrote popular books on natural history, a biography of the 17th-century naturalist John Ray, and numerous accounts of his own teleological vision of nature and evolution. Peter J. Bowler Bibliograp…
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Religion Past and Present
Ravenna
(800 words)
[German Version]
I. Early Church and Archbishopric Ravenna is one of the earliest churches (2nd/3rd cent.), but its founding by Apollinaris of Ravenna is legendary. The beginnings go back to the city itself, not the harbor town of Classe (Deichmann). The earliest secure date is 343 (Bishop Severus at the imperial council in Sardica [Homoeans]). Before the middle of the 5th century, the city had already achieved the status and jurisdiction of a metropolitan see, subordinate to Rome. Peter Chrysologus (from 432) composed numerous homilies. The temporary presence of the imperial court ¶ (G…
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Religion Past and Present
Rawls, John
(436 words)
[German Version] (Feb 21, 1921, Baltimore, MD – Nov 24, 2002, Lexington, MA). The English-speaking world owes to the philosopher Rawls the most important 20th-century contribution to political ethics. His monumental work
A Theory of Justice (1971, 21999) succeeds in making a change of paradigm comprising five aspects: 1.While meta-ethical studies had dominated up to that point, Rawls turned directly to a normative theme, namely justice (II; IV; VI). 2. Inasmuch as the anglophone world discussed normative questions, it favored utili…
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Religion Past and Present
Raymond of Aguilers
(92 words)
[German Version] (died after 1100), a canon in Le Puy (France) and he took part in the first Crusade as chaplain to Duke Raymond IV of St-Gilles. In his
Liber (
Historia Francorum qui ceperunt Iherusalem, before 1105), he wrote about the Crusade and especially about the duke, stressing the religious background: visions, discoveries of relics, and the intervention of God and the saints. Ernst-Dieter Hehl Bibliography
Le “Liber” de Raymond d’Aguilers, ed. J.H. Hill & L.L. Hill, 1969 J. Riley-Smith,
The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading, 1986.
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Religion Past and Present
Raymond of Capua
(196 words)
[German Version] (de Vineis; c. 1330, Capua – 10 May, 1399, Nuremberg), important reformer of the Dominican order. While Raymond was studying law from 1345 to 1348 in Bologna, he entered the order in Orvieto. From 1363 to 1366, and in 1374, he was chaplain to the sisters in Montepulciano, where he completed the
Legend of Agnes in 1366. From 1367 to 1370, and in 1378, he was prior of Sta. Maria sopra Minerva in Rome, and from 1374 lector in Siena. There he was the confessor and later biographer of Catherine of Siena. In 1379 he became provincial in …
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Religion Past and Present
Raymond of Peñafort, Saint
(184 words)
[German Version] (c. 1180, Villafrance del Panadés, near Barcelona – Jan 6, 1275, Barcelona), important canonist. Raymond studied law in Barcelona and Bologna, where he is believed to have taught from 1218 to 1221 as
doctor decretorum. In 1222 he entered the Dominican order in Barcelona. From 1238, as master general, he reworked the constitutions of the order. From 1240 he assumed tasks in the areas of pastoral care, the politics of the order, and mission. Gregory IX entrusted Raymond in 1230 with the compilation of the Decretals, which from 1234, as
Decretales Gregorii IX or
Liber Extra (C…
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Religion Past and Present
Raymond of Sabunde
(194 words)
[German Version] (Sebundus, Ramon Sibiuda; died Apr 29, 1436, Toulouse), taught philosophy, medicine, and theology in Toulouse, where he was also rector of the university. In his main work,
Scientia libri creaturarum (1434/1435; in later eds.,
Theologia naturalis), he develops a natural theology based on experience, in the Franciscan tradition and oriented to Augustine and Anselm of Canterbury: since humanity is the center of creation, self-knowledge is the key to knowledge of God; theology is a practical science, necessary because…
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Religion Past and Present
Raymond of Toledo
(166 words)
[German Version] (died Aug 20, 1152, Toledo), originally from Gascony; he was appointed to the chapter of Toledo. Raymond became bishop of (Burgo de) Osma in 1109, and in 1124/1125 archbishop of Toledo and primate in Spain. In 1148 he took part in the Synod of Reims. After the end of Islamic rule (1085), Toledo became a center for translation from Arabic to Latin, around 1136, with Plato of Tivoli. The
Corpus Toletanum, inaugurated by Peter the Venerable, includes the complete Qurʾān translated in 1143 by Robert Ketton and Hermann Dalmata. Still more than Raymond, h…
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Religion Past and Present
Raynaldi, Oderico
(91 words)
[German Version] (Reinaldus; 1595, Treviso – 1671, Rome), theologian, historian, from 1680 Oratorian, between 1650 and 1656 superior general. He continued¶ the 12-volume
Annales ecclesiastici of the Oratorian C. Baronius with nine further volumes, bringing it up to 1564 (Rome, 1676f.; his ninth vol., vol. XXI of the
Annales, appeared posthumously). The quality of his work is superior to that of his predecessors. Thus Catholics could put forward a work equal in value to the Protestant
Magdeburg Centuries. Rolf Decot Bibliography
Annales ecclesiastici, ed. G.D. Mansi, 15 vols.,…
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Religion Past and Present
Ray, Satyajit
(169 words)
[German Version] (May 2, 1921, Calcutta – Apr 23, 1992, Calcutta). At the age of 20, Ray took over an advertising agency; he then had the opportunity to study Shantiniketan art at the university directed by R. Tagore. His first film,
Pather Panchali (1955), was already a world success. It forms the first part of the
Apu trilogy (
Aparajito, 1956;
Apur Sansar, 1959). In the style of Indian Neorealism, based on work with non-professional actors, it recounts the life of Apu, the son of a Brahman, who cannot feed his family, and discovers by a circuitous route…
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Religion Past and Present
Reader (Lector)
(672 words)
[German Version]
I. Catholic Church It seems that there was a synagogue tradition in antiquity of lay persons undertaking the reading in public worship of lessons other than those taken from the Gospels. From the early Middle Ages, readers were given clerical status (Clergy and laity), and assigned to one of the so-called minor orders at the preparatory stage before ordination of priests. Since the reordering of liturgical services by Paul VI’s apostolic decree
Ministeria quaedam (Aug 15, 1972), readers are assigned to the laity (as they were orig.), the office of read…
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Religion Past and Present
Reading Tone
(206 words)
[German Version] The reading tone is the model for musical recitation of liturgical lessons (cantillation). The speaking of lessons was unknown in the Early Church; recitation with “raised voice” denotes the special nature and standing of the Word of God and promotes better understanding. Elements of the reading tone are: recitation tone (
tenor); intonation; and¶ cadences (
flexa for short phrases,
metrum for half-verse or long phrases,
punctum for the end of the verse). These clarify the grammatical structure of a sentence acoustically, as also in the oration …
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Religion Past and Present
Realism
(4,743 words)
[German Version]
I. Philosophy Realism in a given area B means the ontological thesis that names or terms used in a theory of B refer to things that exist independently of human thought. For example, in natural realism the existence of stones, trees, and ¶ tables is assumed; in scientific realism, that of electrons, force fields, and quarks (see V below); in mathematical realism, that of numbers and quantities; or in ethical realism, that of moral values. Critics of realism object, for example, that moral values are an expression of value…
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Religion Past and Present
Reality
(1,324 words)
[German Version]
I. Philosophy of Religion Meister Eckhart used a term corresponding to “reality” to translate the Aristotelian ἐνέργεια/
enérgeia (Capacity). According to Aristotle, reality derives its name from working, from having an effect (cf.
Metaphysics Θ 1050 a 21ff.). The form that a living being produces or brings about through the power of the soul’s ¶ entelechy, and within the possibilities it aims for, is hence real. Because of this, two meanings always resonate in
Wirklichkeit, the German word for “reality.” In the most general sense, it denotes on the o…
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Religion Past and Present
Real Presence
(638 words)
[German Version] In the first instance, the expression
real presence means a position that takes the words of institution (“This is my body/blood”) literally, arguing that “in, with, and under” the elements of the Eucharist, the body and blood of Jesus Christ are actually received, in contrast, say, to the position of Berengar of Tours and Zwingli, which interprets the words of institution metaphorically and considers the elements signs representing the humanity of Christ, seated at the right hand of God…
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Religion Past and Present
Reason
(3,956 words)
[German Version]
I. Philosophy Traditional epistemology considers reason primarily to be a discursive faculty (Gk διάνοια/
diánoia; λόγος/¶
lógos; Lat.
ratio), in part to distinguish it from intellect as an intuitive faculty (Capacity). This distinction also implies a ranking: the discursive faculty either proceeds syllogistically as “demonstration” (ἀπόδειξις/
apódeixis) based on ultimate principles that cannot themselves be deduced by reasoning (Arist.
Eth. Nic. 1139b) or else leads to them, roughly in the sense of movement from the presuppositions made…
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Religion Past and Present