Encyclopedia of Christianity Online
Get access
Subject: Religious Studies
Editors: Erwin Fahlbusch, Jan Milič Lochman, John Mbiti, Jaroslav Pelikan and Lukas Vischer
The Encyclopedia of Christianity Online describes modern-day Christian beliefs and communities in the context of 2000 years of apostolic tradition and Christian history. Based on the third, revised edition of the critically acclaimed German work Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon. The Encyclopedia of Christianity Online includes all 5 volumes of the print edition of 1999-2008 which has become a standard reference work for the study of Christianity past and present. Comprehensive, reflecting the highest standards in scholarship yet intended for a wide range of readers, the The Encyclopedia of Christianity Online also looks outward beyond Christianity, considering other world religions and philosophies as it paints the overall religious and socio-cultural picture in which the Christianity finds itself.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
| Help us improve our service |
The Encyclopedia of Christianity Online describes modern-day Christian beliefs and communities in the context of 2000 years of apostolic tradition and Christian history. Based on the third, revised edition of the critically acclaimed German work Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon. The Encyclopedia of Christianity Online includes all 5 volumes of the print edition of 1999-2008 which has become a standard reference work for the study of Christianity past and present. Comprehensive, reflecting the highest standards in scholarship yet intended for a wide range of readers, the The Encyclopedia of Christianity Online also looks outward beyond Christianity, considering other world religions and philosophies as it paints the overall religious and socio-cultural picture in which the Christianity finds itself.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
Poland
(2,864 words)
1. Change At the end of World War II, for the first time since the 14th century, Poland became a relatively united country again nationally and religiously (Nation, Nationalism). The ceding of eastern territories to the USSR reduced the number of Orthodox, who mostly belonged to Ukraine or Belarus by nationality. The extermination of millions of Jews in German concentration camps (Holocaust) had left only a remnant of adherents to Judaism. The flight of Germans, most of them Protestant, reduced the size of Protestantism by about …
Polemics
(273 words)
Traditionally the term “polemics” has been used for theology after the Reformation that serves to uphold a confessional or denominational position (Ecumenical Theology 4). It can be used more broadly, however, for any militant theology. It presupposes a basic confessional decision, inquires into specific dissent in theological discourse, and examines the points at issue. In the comparative study of denominations its task is to examine denominational differences critically and to overcome them by…
Political Parties
(1,541 words)
1. Term Political parties today are organizations that mobilize eligible persons to vote in legislative, executive, and sometimes even judicial elections for candidates approved or put forward by the parties. In most democratic countries these are mass parties, in the sense that they seek to mobilize large numbers of people to vote at election time. Increasingly in the West, however, and also in much of the rest of the world, the number of people who function actively as members of parties is very…
Political Theology
(3,118 words)
1. Origins The tradition of political theology has its deepest Western philosophical roots in Plato (427–347 b.c.) and Aristotle (384–322), who influenced subsequent Stoic thought (e.g., Varro [116–27] and Cicero [106–43]), where the concept is not clearly distinguished from civil religion. Paralleling such philosophical roots, it has its deepest sociohistorical roots in ancient regimes that were dominated by either hierarchy (ancient India) or theocracy (ancient Israel). The belief that either the priestly representative of the divine order of the universe or…
Politics
(3,386 words)
1. Term The term “politics” may be defined as the practical engagement in the formation of political structure (polity) by the use of political means (power) in order to accomplish political ends (purposes) by coordinated political actions (policies). Such engagement is necessary if a society is to survive and its members are to flourish. The term also applies to the study of these dynamics. While politics is sometimes thought of only in regard to governments and the bureaucracies established to carry out their policies, the dynamics are similar in all commu…
Polity, Ecclesiastical
(6,522 words)
Overview The term “polity” refers to the ways any particular social organization or institution is governed, although it is most frequently used in connection with ecclesiastical bodies (Church Government). Governance involves both the authority to determine the standards of behavior that shall be controlling and the power to engender conformity to those standards. In voluntary associations, of which most contemporary churches are examples, polity may consist of stated rules, conformity to which …
Polytheism
(616 words)
1. Term From Thales, the Greeks believed that “all things are full of gods” (Aristotle,
De anima 1.5, 411a8–9; Aristotelianism). Only in concrete cases, however, did they call this idea polytheism (e.g., Aeschylus
Supp.
424 mentions
polytheos hedra, “seat of many gods,” for an altar; Greek Religion). Neither they nor other peoples made of polytheism an abstract concept. The Jews did so when, distancing themselves from polytheism, they criticized the lovers of
polytheïa (Philo
De mut. nom.
205). So too did Christians, for whom Orpheus taught the Greek
polytheotēs (thus the asc…
Pontificals
(152 words)
In the Roman Catholic Church pontificals (Lat.
pontificalia) are official acts by the chief clergy at which bishops, cardinals, abbots, or prelates carry the pontifical insignia of miters and staffs (e.g., at High Mass and confirmation; ¶ Initiation Rites). They include the ordination of deacons, priests, and bishops; the consecration of oil, altars, churches, and virgins; and certain blessings, visitations, and solemn jurisdictional acts. In these cases there is a uniform worldwide liturgical order (Liturgical Books). In the Roman Catholic Church and also in other den…
Pope, Papacy
(8,276 words)
1. Historical Aspects 1.1.
General 1.1.1. To present a history of the popes, church historians must pay particular attention to the distinction between specific historical situations and a presumed logical development (Philosophy of History). Are we to understand the papacy as a divine institution and its history as the entelechy of this nature? Or are we to deal with it as a historical phenomenon with a place in history that we cannot differentiate in principle from that of any other? Even if we ado…
Popular Catholicism
(900 words)
Within the Roman Catholic Church the popular religion of ordinary believers concerns the practice of rites and customs in the life cycle and festivals in the church year. 1. Pre-Vatican II Before Vatican II the faithful typically attended Sunday mass, did penance and took communion at Easter, observed daily, weekly, and annual times of devotion and piety, and participated in festivals, pilgrimages, and other events. Catholic piety covered the whole of life and found expression biographically at baptism, First Communion, confi…
Popular Religion
(1,818 words)
1. Sociological Data 1.1.
History of the Term Historically, “popular religion” (a term coined in the late 18th cent.) has been distinguished from “popular piety.” The Enlightenment used “popular religion” for a form of Christianity that fell short of the demands of rational religion (§2.2). Protestant theology, deriving from M. Luther (1483–1546; Luther’s Theology), dismissed traditional late medieval forms of piety as superstitious. In the 19th century the Kulturkampf, with its nationalism, anticlericalism, and…
Populism
(918 words)
The vague term “populism,” which is used as a political slogan, has had a long career in social history but is rarely defined very precisely. Deriving from Lat.
populus (people), it denotes a social movement from below, or political mobilization from above, which takes on force by harnessing the opposition of the (common) people to the established political elite or the political system. In the language and self-understanding of populist politicians, the “little people,” a group not sociologically defined, confront those …
Portugal
(1,606 words)
1. General Situation Portugal became a republic in 1910. Freedom of the press was promulgated, along with the right to strike and the separation of church and state. Church property was confiscated, and the religious orders (§1) were dissolved and banished. In 1926 a military regime was set up, and then, in 1932, António de ¶ Oliveira Salazar (1889–1970) established a dictatorship. Portugal was then said to be a Catholic state (see 4), and democratic freedoms were abolished. Salazar’s retirement in 1968 plunged the country into crisis, made worse by the social immobility …
Porvoo Common Statement
(2,330 words)
The Porvoo Common Statement (in the following: “Porvoo”) is a theological text that serves as a foundation of church unity between the British and Irish Anglican churches, on the one hand, and the Nordic and Baltic Lutheran churches, on the other. The text was completed in Porvoo, Finland, an old diocesan town near Helsinki, and was published in 1993. The participating churches approved it in their synods between 1994 and 1995. The Lutheran churches of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and Lithu…
Positivism
(2,256 words)
1. Nature and Origins Positivism as an intellectual attitude emerged clearly in early 19th-century social theory. Henri de Saint-Simon (1760–1825), the founder of French socialism, was the first to use the term. Auguste Comte (1798–1857), “the founding father of modern sociology,” developed positivism into a comprehensive worldview that spread to other disciplines, in particular philosophy and natural science. The positivist outlook restricts the domain of knowledge to verifiable facts about the world (what is “posited,” from Lat.
positus, something “laid down” or “set …
Postmodernism
(6,691 words)
1. Terms Attempts to define or delimit the meaning of the term “postmodernism” often falter in light of the lack of sufficient clarity concerning the scope and meaning of “modernism.” It is helpful, then, to distinguish between “modernity” and “postmodernity,” terms that refer to particular historical eras or periods, and “modernism” and “postmodernism,” terms that are used to refer to particular theoretical or philosophical discourses. Because postmodernism is an heir to “modernism,” as postmoder…
Poverty
(2,306 words)
1. A Global Phenomenon Poverty represents a global mass phenomenon. According to consistent estimates of the World Bank, U.N. authorities, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), nearly half the world’s population lives in poverty. In a world population of 6.1 billion people, 2.8 billion live either on the edge or beneath the minimum level of existence, and 1.2 billion—that is, one-fifth of all persons in the world—live in extreme poverty. Poverty is generally understood as designating social circumstances that structurally exclude certain people or groups f…
Power
(5,188 words)
1. Sociological Aspects 1.1.
Term Viewed from the perspective of its etymology (Lat.
posse, potestas), power involves ability, possibility, and capacity. It is the potency inhering in all doing or making (Action Theory) and relates to motive and the use of means. Action is inconceivable without means, that is, the command of resources and potential. This statement applies equally to the natural, physical, cultural, symbolic, individual, and social aspects of action. In all these areas there is a tendency to …
Practical Theology
(5,506 words)
1. Development in Protestant Germany 1.1.
Historical Development “Practical theology” is the term for a theological discipline that has church activities as its theme and that alongside biblical studies, church history, and systematic theology forms an independent department of theology on Protestant faculties. This understanding of practical theology and the organizing of theological education developed in the 19th century and became the common rule in European Protestantism. Roman Catholicism preferre…
Pragmatism
(700 words)
1. Origin American pragmatism arose as an effort to oppose both scientism and academic philosophy by holding together the world of practical effects with the world of critical reasoning. 2. Development The word “pragmatism” first appeared in an 1878 paper by Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Peirce asked about the practical conditions that make a term meaningful and then answered: A term’s meaning is the operation one performs and the experiential results one learns to expect from such an operati…