Religion Past and Present
Get access
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
| Help us improve our service |
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
Shabbetai Tzevi/Shabbetaianism
(386 words)
[German Version] The messianic movement (Messiah) that erupted in 1665 around Shabbetai Tzevi (Jul 23, 1626, Smyrna – presumably Sep 30, 1676, Dulcigno, Albania) was the most widespread such movement in medieval and modern Judaism. Shabbetai Tzevi’s charismatic personality sparked great interest even beyond the Jewish world. Having announced his messianic identity (1648), he was excommunicated by the rabbinic authorities. Only after meeting Nathan of Gaza did he re-assert his messianic identity. He returned to Smyrna (1665) on a wave of ¶ rumor and publicity. When he entered …
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shadow Economy
(330 words)
[German Version] In principle goods and services are provided, paid for, and cleared in markets (Market/Markets) according to prevailing rules. In recent years, however, goods and services provided in the shadow of the legal markets have played an increasingly important role. According to one current definition, the shadow economy comprises all those activities that create value in terms of the national accounts but are not (or only partly) reported in the official statistics. In particular, neith…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shaftesbury, Lord
(750 words)
[German Version]
1. Anthony Ashley Cooper (Feb 26, 1671, London – Feb 4, 1713, Naples), third Earl of Shaftesbury, major Enlightenment philosopher, moralist, and pioneer of aesthetics. His grandfather of the same name, a renowned politician, entrusted Shaftesbury’s education to J. Locke; through his governess Elizabeth Birch, he received thorough training in the classical languages along with ancient and modern literature. After a period at Winchester College (1683–1686), travels through Europe (1686–…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shakers
(365 words)
[German Version] (United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing) are the followers of Ann Lee (1736–1784), an English charismatic and visionary who joined an enthusiastic sect sometimes called “Shaking Quakers.” She led a handful of followers to America in 1774 and within a few years formed a community, attracted converts throughout eastern New York and New England, and aroused considerable opposition among the populace. “Mother Ann” demanded celibacy of her followers and also the shari…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shakespeare, William
(1,792 words)
[German Version] (baptized Apr 26, 1564, Stratford-upon-Avon, England – Apr 23, 1616, Stratford), poet and playwright, actor and director. Shakespeare entered the world as a third child and first son in the county of Warwickshire in the english midlands. His father John was a glove-maker and merchant, who had achieved a degree of prosperity and held various honorary positions in Stratford (alderman, chief alderman, mayor) even before he was granted a family crest by the royal College of Arms in 15…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shamanism
(1,110 words)
[German Version]
I. In the Narrower Sense A shaman in the sense described here is a religious specialist (male or female) among the Evenks, taiga dwellers in eastern Siberia (Siberian religions); most of the Turkic peoples call a shaman a
qam. Other peoples have other names. A shaman typically works in the context of a worldview that believes in the possibility of communication or conflict with spirits that can influence what happens on earth. In this worldview, there is a heavenly plane, and earthly plane, and also an underworld. On …
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shamash
(290 words)
[German Version] (“Sun”; see also sun: II) belongs typologically to the group of gods representing the major natural phenomena and forces. He provides light (Light and darkness: I) and warmth, which are indispensable for human beings and all kinds of life; at night he illuminates the netherworld. In the genealogical hierarchy of the gods developed from the Sumerian conception, he occupies fourth place, after Anu, the god of the heavens, Enlil, the ruler of the world, and Sin, the moon god, whose c…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shame
(1,346 words)
[German Version]
I. Religious Studies A sense of shame is a fundamental element of being human. It is a social feeling that ensues when one becomes aware of a shortcoming that might offend others. Unlike a sense of guilt, it does not presuppose an actual transgression. Shame is therefore not just a concomitant of behavior subject to social condemnation, such as violation of a sexual taboo, dishonesty, cowardice, or disloyalty; it is also a reaction to situations for which the individual has no respon…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shammai ha-Zaken/School of Shammai
(292 words)
[German Version] Shammai, called “the Elder,” lived around the turn of the eras. According to the chain of tradition in
m. ’Abot 1:1ff., he and Hillel formed one of the so-called pairs who received and handed on the Torah revealed to Moses. The rabbinic texts that mention him are highly stylized and must be considered literary constructs with little basis in historical reality. He is rarely mentioned in isolation (
Mek. ŠbY on Exod 20:8 [ed. Epstein & Melamed, 148]). Usually he serves as a foil to Hillel (
b. Šabb. 30b–31a: Hillel’s patience in contrast with Shammai’s testiness; thei…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shape-note Hymnals
(186 words)
[German Version] The American invention of shape notes arose around 1800 as a way of simplifying music reading for singers. Intended for teaching in singing schools, each shape-note hymnal had an opening section of musical rudiments followed by up to several hundred pages of psalm and hymn tunes, fuguing tunes, and anthems. In shape notation, each shape represents a solmization syllable, which represents a specific note in the scale – in practice as a sung syllable. There are two main systems. The…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shape-note Singing Traditions
(187 words)
[German Version] (fasola). The shape-note tradition or “fasola” or four-shape tradition (Shape-note hymnals) covers a mixture of various spiritual music genres that were published in songbooks for American singing schools in the South and mid-West between 1810 and 1860, including psalm and hymn tunes, fuguing tunes, and anthems. In addition to the present non-denominational fasola songs from these songbooks (e.g.
The Sacred Harp), this tradition has also been practiced in important American church hymnbooks since the end of the 20th century, particularly i…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Sharp, Granville
(110 words)
[German Version] (Nov 10, 1735, Durham, England – Jul 6, 1813, Fulham, a borough of London), evangelical and abolitionist (Slavery). In 1765 he became involved in opposing the slave trade, advancing numerous legal ¶ cases on behalf of slaves held in England. His efforts culminated in the famous “Fall Somerset” case of 1772 which outlawed the forcible removal of slaves from the country. Sharp also developed an interest in African culture and assisted in the relocation of a number of freed slaves to Sierra Leone. Grayson Carter Bibliography
Memoirs of Granville Sharp, ed. T. Burgess, 1820 E.…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shaw, George Bernard
(304 words)
[German Version] (Jul 26, 1856, Dublin – Nov 2, 1950, Ayot St. Lawrence), the most important English playwright of modern times, of Irish Protestant background, theater critic, socialist, and critic of Victorian society, which he treated with mockery and irony in his works. Shaw championed a rationalistic optimism, a perspective from which he unemotionally examined the standards of humanity and society in order to improve them as a kind of reformer. He rejected Darwinism and determinism; under the…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shawn, Ted
(182 words)
[German Version] (Oct 21, 1891, Kansas City, MO – Jan 9, 1972, Orlando, FL), co-founder of the Denishawn School and Dancers with R. Saint Denis whom he married in 1914. He choreographed biblical stories, spirituals, and prayers in training with M. Graham, Doris Humphrey and male modern dancers. Breaking with Saint Denis, he began Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festi-¶ val in Lee, Massachusetts in 1933 where he hosted the Sacred Dance Guild’s first festival in 1959. Originally intending to be a minister, Shawn called his dance a ministry and often performed in ch…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shechem
(593 words)
[German Version] Shechem, Heb. שְׁכֶם/
šĕkem, “shoulder,” a city in the hill country of central Palestine between Ebal and Gerizim. Since the excavations by Sellin and G.E. Wright between 1913 and 1969, it has been identified with Tell Balāṭa, near Nablus. The earliest Middle Bronze settlement of the city, initially unfortified, dates from c. 1900 bce. It includes a courtyard complex which Wright interpreted as a temple but was more likely a palace (Otto, 133–150). In the 17th century, Shechem was fortified with a massive cyclopean wall in combinat…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Sheen, Fulton John
(188 words)
[German Version] (May 8, 1895, El Paso, IL – Dec 1, 1979, NY), the leading public voice for American Roman Catholicism for much of the 20th century. He was ordained a priest in 1919 and then did doctoral study at Louvain, Rome, and Washington, DC. From 1926 to 1950 he lectured in philosophy at the Catholic University of America, and from 1966 to 1969 he served as bishop of Rochester, New York. Sheen’s public renown began in 1930 as the featured speaker on “Catholic Hour Broadcasts” for NBC radio. …
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shekel
(8 words)
[German Version] Weights and Measures, Numismatics
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shekhinah
(1,527 words)
[German Version]
I. Old Testament The word
shekhinah (שְׁכִינָה), a postbiblical noun from the root שׁכן/
škn, “settle, dwell,” denotes an aspect of God’s presence in the world, usually translated as “indwelling” or “habitation.” The term
indwelling suggests the Egyptian theology of cultic images, according to which the deity in heaven “descends” upon his image in the earthly temple and “unites” with it (Assmann). The earliest reference to the Old Testament shekhinah theology is in 1 Kgs 8:12f., in Solomon’s words at the dedicatio…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Sheldon, Charles Monroe
(172 words)
[German Version] (Feb 26, 1857, Wellsville, NY – Feb 24, 1946, Topeka, KS), American clergyman. Sheldon was educated at Brown University (B.A. 1883) and Andover Theological Seminary (M.D. 1886). In 1886 he entered the ministry of the Congregational Church in Waterbury, Vermont; from 1888 to 1919 he served at the Central Congregational Church in Topeka. He became famous for his Christian novel
In His Steps (1896). The book deals with how Christians reach decisions and solve problems by asking, “What would Jesus do?” Sheldon was an advocate of the liberal Soci…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shema
(879 words)
[German Version]
I. Antiquity The Shema (שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל) is named from the initial words of Deut 6:4–9 (“Hear, O Israel: The Lord your God is one”). Together with the ‘Amida (Prayer: XI, ¶ 1), it is one of the cornerstones of Jewish worship (II, 3.a; Liturgy: VII), being recited during morning prayers (
Shacharit) and evening prayers (
Ma‘ariv); on the basis of Deut 6:7, reciting the Shema is understood as a biblical commandment (cf. also Deut 11:19: “Teach [these words of mine] to your children, talking about them... when you lie down and when you …
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shembe, Isaiah
(404 words)
[German Version] (c. 1870, Ntabamhlophe – May 2, 1935, Mikhaideni), founder of the Nazareth Baptist Church (NBC), the largest Zulu-speaking church and ¶ one of the most controversial figures in the modern religious history of South Africa. Historically, researchers have considered Shembe a “Black Messiah,” usurping the place of Jesus Christ in God’s redemptive history; a revised view in the spirit of an iconic Christology suggests that he should be viewed as an African “mask of God.” After Shembe converted to Christianity during the Second Boer War (1899–1902), he served…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shemoneh Esreh
(738 words)
[German Version] Shemoneh Esreh, “Eighteen Benedictions,” so called for the number of its
berakhot; also called the Amida, “Standing,” since it is recited standing (Prayer: IX, 1), or
ha-tefilla “the prayer (
par excellence)”. Together with the Shema, it is one of the cornerstones of Jewish worship (II, 3; see also Liturgy: VII). In its present ¶ form, it comprises 19 benedictions, since in Babylonian Judaism the 14th benediction, a prayer for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the coming of the Messiah, was divided into two
berakhot. The original Palestinian version, with 18 benedi…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shemot Rabbah
(203 words)
[German Version] Shemot Rabbah, a haggadic midrash on Exodus in two parts; also called
Exodus Rabbah. Part 1 (
parashot 1–14) is an exegetical midrash on Exod 1–10 (supplementing the Mekhilta beginning with Exod 12); its division into sections follows the Palestinian sequence of pericopes, each introduced by a proem. The commentary is based largely on
Midrash Tanchuma, adapting and supplementing its text on the pericopes while also drawing on the Talmud Bavli. Part 2 (
parashot 15–52) is a homiletical midrash on Exod 12–40, based on the Palestinian lectionary cycle. It …
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shenoute of Atripe, Saint
(156 words)
[German Version] (c. 350–465 ce), Coptic author and saint (feast day 1 Jul); from 385 he was abbot of the so-called “White Monastery” in Upper Egypt; he accompanied Cyril of Alexandria to the Council of Ephesus (431). Shenoute was the most important Coptic writer of all time. His extensive writings, not yet fully published, offer invaluable insight into various areas of religious life in Late Antiquity, above all coenobitic life, relations between monasticism, church, state, and society, and the fight against paganism or for orthodoxy. Stephen Emmel Bibliography Works (incompletely…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shepherd of Hermas
(589 words)
[German Version] This document is an extended revelatory text classified with the Apostolic Fathers that probably originated in or near Rome in the first half of the 2nd century ce. It borrows heavily from Jewish parenesis, and it has been questioned whether it is really a Christian text, given the absence of even the name of Christ. Yet occasional discussions of the Son of God secure its Christian position. Structured as an apocalypse, it lacks many of the characteristics of that genre. The repetitive and paratactic struct…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shepherds
(358 words)
[German Version] (in the history of religion) “Pastoralism” is built on the management of herds. For 3,000–4,000 years, sheep and goats were kept for meat and milk in the Middle East and around the Mediterranean, supplementing hunting (Hunters) or horticulture. Milk-based economies built on cattle/small stock in East Africa and on camels/flocks in Arabia (Arabian Peninsula) and the Horn of Africa are equally old. To get a picture of early religious relations in shepherd cultures is difficult as th…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Sherira Gaon
(407 words)
[German Version] (Sherira ben Chanina Yehuda; c. 906–1006), between 968 and 1004 Gaon of the rabbinic academy (Yeshivah) of Pumbedita in Baghdad, one of the most important Geonim. During his tenure (and that of his son Hai Gaon), the academy enjoyed a renaissance. He placed relationships with the Jewish Diaspora communities outside Babylonia on a new footing, demanding their material support and recognition of the spiritual leadership of the Babylonian gaonate; he also played a decisive role in es…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Sherlock, Thomas
(156 words)
[German Version] (1678, London – Jul 18, 1761, London), Anglican bishop. Sherlock served as Fellow and Master of St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge, and (in succession to his father) as Master of the Temple in London where he gained a wide reputation for his preaching. A Tory representative of the High Church movement, he led the opposition to bishop Benjamin Hoadly during the famous Bangorian Controversy (1717) and fell out of favor at Court. After the death of George I his fortunes changed and h…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shevachim
(167 words)
[German Version] (Heb. שְׁבָחִים, from שֶׁבַ, “praise”). The term
shevachim applies to both praise of God formulated privately in spontaneous individual prayer and to individual expressions of praise. A familiar example is the string of 15 terms for the praise of God at the end of the
Pesuqe de-Simra (
yishtabbach), meant to be recited in a single breath. Because
shevachim are pure praise of God, not associated with petitions or thanksgiving, they are subject to fewer formal rules. The otherwise mandatory repetition of the benediction formula
barukh can ¶ be reduced to a single occur…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shields, Thomas Todhunter
(149 words)
[German Version] (Nov 1, 1873, Bristol, England – Apr 4, 1955, Toronto, Canada), immigrated in 1888 with his family to Ontario, Canada. In 1910 he became pastor of the Jarvis Street Baptist Church in Toronto. During his career he was involved in the modernist-fundamentalist controversy that led to his expulsion from the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec in 1927. He then formed the Union of Regular Baptist Churches in Ontario and Quebec (see also Baptists II, 2). In 1927 he founded the Toron…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shiloh
(301 words)
[German Version] (Ḫirbat Sailūn, Heb. שִׁילה), some 30 km north of Jerusalem. The biblical narrative makes Shiloh the religious center of the tribes of Israel in the premonarchic period; there the “tent of meeting” (Tabernacle, Jewish) was set up, the land was divided among the tribes, and the Levitical towns were assigned (Josh 18:1, 8–10; 21:2). Religious festivals were celebrated annually. The priestly families of Eli and Samuel were associated with Shiloh. After Israel’s defeat by the Philistine…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shinran
(431 words)
[German Version] (also called Shakkū, Zenshin; 1173–1262), Japanese monk, considered the founder of the True Pure Land School (Jōdo shinshū; Japan: III, 5). Shinran was born to a family in Hino near Kyoto. At the age of nine, he traveled to Mount Hiei, the center of Buddhist learning (Monasteries: III), where he was ordained by the renowned priest Jien (1155–1225) and studied the teachings of Tendai Shū. He served as a simple temple priest at the Jōgyō-dō, a temple dedicated to the cult of Amitābh…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shintoism
(2,455 words)
[German Version]
I. Historical Development As a coherent system, the religion of Japan known to us as Shintoism (or better: Shintō) emerged in the course of Japan’s reception of cultural elements from China, especially the Confucian (Confucianism) administrative system, Buddhism (I, 2.d), and writing. The name
shin-tō itself consists of two Chinese characters meaning “gods” or “spirits” and “way.” Put in Japanese, it is the “Kami Way” (
kami no michi). The
kami (=
shin), or with the honorific
kami-sama, are supernatural beings that appear in great number in the ancient Jap…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Ship
(357 words)
[German Version] While the ecclesiological interpretation of the ship as a symbol was already well-developed in early Christianity (2nd cent.; Tert.
Bapt. 12; CSEL 20, 212), the earliest representations of ships on sepulchral steles of the 3rd and 4th centuries reflected Greek concepts of the hereafter (II, 4) and the journey of the departed in ¶ Charon’s ferry. That these reliefs can be interpreted in a Christian sense is shown by the motifs of the chi-rho on the mast and the dove with a branch symbolizing the departed soul. In the 4th century, the …
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shir ha-Shirim Rabbah
(267 words)
[German Version] or
Song of Songs Rabbah is a haggadic midrash on the Song of Songs; it is also called
Midrash (or
Aggadat)
Chazita after its opening verse, quoting Prov 22:29. In its five proems and verse-by-verse exposition, it provides a typological interpretation of the Song of Songs, understood as representing the relationship between God and Israel. Especially in t…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shir ha-Yihhud
(173 words)
[German Version] (“The Poem of Divine Unity”) is a long theological poem which was written by an unknown Jewish scholar in the 12th century. It became one of the main expressions of the new conception of the divine world in this culture. The
Shir ha-Yihhud expresses a radical transcendental conception of God the Creator, and at the same time insists on his immanence in all realms of creation. One of its sources was an early Hebrew translation (11th cent.) of the 10th-century rationalistic work, “Emunot we-De’ot” by Saadia Gaon. The poem h…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shneur/Schneerson
(527 words)
[German Version]
I. ben Baruch of Liadi (1745–1813, Piena, Bezirk Koisk),founder of the Hasidic community of Habad (Lubavich, Hasidic movement, Hasidism). Schneur was a disciple of the great Maggid rabbi Dov Baer of Mezhirech. His two closest colleagues, Menachem Mendel of Vitepsk and Abraham of Kalisk, immigrated to Zefat in 1777, and he took it upon himself to lead the community in southern Russia. His influence grew, and thousands flocked to his court. He tried to seek a resolution of the conflict b…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Sholem Aleichem
(195 words)
[German Version] (pseudonym of Salomon Naumovich Rabinovich; Mar 2, 1859, Pereyaslav, Ukraine – ¶ May 13, 1916, New York), Yiddish writer. After training as a rabbi, Aleichem worked initially as a private tutor, while publishing essays and features for Hebrew newspapers, increasingly in Yiddish, the vernacular of East European Jews. In 1883 he married Olga Loev and moved to Kiev to earn a living as an independent writer and journalist. In 1905 he left Russia and lived in various places until finally emigrating to New York. His plays, satires, and especially his prose – including
Tevye de…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shortcomings
(378 words)
[German Version] Thanks to our capacity for self-reflection, we human beings can recognize our deficiencies on all levels of our being. We are finite, limited, mutable, contingent, and imperfect. In almost all philosophies and religions, this human self-perception contrasts with an ontological realm, free of these limitations, seen as being infinite, unlimited, immutable, absolute, and perfect. The concept of humans as “deficient beings,” introduced into philosophical anthropology by A. Gehlen, is based on comparison to animals. It denotes the disadv…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shrine
(318 words)
[German Version] (from Lat.
scrinium, “case, capsule”), in the sense discussed here, can mean either (1) the box-like central section of a carved reredos (Retable: II) or (2) a reliquary in the form of a box, house, or church, originating as a sarcophagus. Such shrines are major works of medieval goldsmithing; they reached their apogee in the area of the Rhine and Meuse in the 12th and 13th centuries. Crafted from precious materials (gold, silver, ivory, decorated with gems) and employing elaborate …
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras
(454 words)
[German Version] The earliest evidence for the celebration of Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras, Carnival) comes from the towns and cities of the 12th and 13th centuries; the nature of the celebration was based on its contrast with Lent: sumptuous, rich foods, copious drink, dancing, sporting events and games (often with a special role for butchers; cf. the
Schembartlauf [“run of the hairy/bearded men”] in Nuremberg), special festivities of the nobility and dignitaries, allegorical plays and entertainments, weddings, and legal proceedings (payment of taxes). Earlier scholarship gener…
Source:
Religion Past and Present