Encyclopedia of Christianity Online
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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.
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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
Rabbi, Rabbinism
(2,099 words)
1. Definition The term “rabbi” denotes a Jewish scholar and minister. The origin of the term is to be found in Heb.
rab (master, great one). It seems originally to have been a form of address meaning “my master” or “my teacher” (see Matt. 23:7). In the second half of the first century a.d., it then became a title preceding the proper name. Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi (i.e., Judah the Patriarch, ca. 135–ca. 220) was simply known as the Rabbi. He was traditionally the redactor of the Mishnah. Other patriarchs held the honorary title
rabban, “our teacher,” for example, Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai (d. ca.…
Racism
(4,742 words)
1. Sociological Aspects 1.1.
Term and Types The term “racism” was coined around 1930 to define and criticize a doctrine holding that there are hereditary cultural and psychological differences between peoples that make those of Europe, especially Northwest Europe, biologically superior to all others. The inner distinctions of talent and character were believed to express themselves in external attributes such as skin color or the shape of the skull. This doctrine also included a belief that the superio…
Rahner, Karl
(832 words)
Karl Joseph Erich Rahner (1904–84) was a Roman Catholic dogmatician, a philosopher of religion, and a Jesuit. After completing the studies customary for the order in Feldkirch, Pullach, and Valkenburg (Netherlands), Rahner was directed to the study of philosophy and was able to participate in Martin Heidegger’s exclusive seminar in 1934–36. After failing to gain his doctorate under the neoscholastic philosopher M. Honecker in Freiburg, Rahner earned his doctorate and inaugural doctorate
(Habilitation) in theology in Innsbruck. After the National Socialist authoritie…
Ramayana
(430 words)
The Ramayana (Skt. “vehicle
or romance of Rama”) is, with the Mahabharata, one of the two great epics of ancient India. Tradition ascribes it to the poet Vālmīki. Written between the fourth century b.c. and the second century a.d., it contains some 40,000 couplets in Sanskrit, divided into seven books. The older books (2–6) describe an important episode in the life of the king’s son Rama. Because of an intrigue on the part of his stepmother, who wanted to see her own son crowned, he was banished for 14 years into the wilderness, where his wi…
Rastafarians
(638 words)
1. Background The Rastafarian movement is a new religion from Jamaica, with adherents also in Britain, the United States, and Africa. Its name comes from Ras (Prince) Tafari (family name), the name of Haile Selassie (lit. “might of the Trinity,” 1892–1975) of Ethiopia before he was crowned emperor in Addis Ababa in 1930, an event followed closely by the press in Jamaica. In 1928 he had assumed the title
negus (king) and was hailed as a descendant of King Solomon and as the Lion of Judah and King of Kings. Earlier the renowned Jamaican Paul Bogle (ca. 1822–65), a black preacher and freedo…
Rationalism
(2,563 words)
1. Term “Rationalism” and its cognates in European languages derived in the 17th century from Lat.
ratio, “reckoning,” also “reason,” “plan,” or “theory”; also “the faculty that calculates and plans.” In religion the term designates standpoints based on reason that are critical of beliefs and practices relying on authority and revelation. More broadly, rationalism is any philosophical position affirming the ability of thinking, apart from sensory experience, to discover fundamental truths about the world or re…
Rauschenbusch, Walter
(2,101 words)
Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) was the best-known exponent of the Social Gospel movement in North America. His formative theological writings reflected a distinctive synthesis of evangelical and liberal Protestantism that addressed systemically the social and economic problems of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Rauschenbusch’s theological writings helped define the Social Gospel movement at its point of greatest public influence in North America and played a major role in the subsequent development of theological liberalism and Christian social ethics. Rauschenbu…
Readings, Scripture
(4,532 words)
Readings taken from the Bible are a constituent element of worship services in the Christian church. This article treats readings for Sunday worship and feasts, touching only in passing upon those for weekdays, the sanctoral cycle (i.e., the cycle of saints days celebrated over the course of a calendar year; Saints, Veneration of), and monastic communities. It has as its primary focus readings in the liturgical traditions of the West. 1. Background 1.1.
Terminology Synonyms remind us that “readings” refers in the church to passages selected for the purpose of being re…
Realism
(1,543 words)
1. Term and Concept Realism in philosophy affirms that the objects of our senses and concepts exist independently of our sensing and conceiving them, and that they possess the properties we experience them as having. Normally these are spatiotemporal properties of physical objects, but not everything called realism fits this profile. Varieties of antirealism include idealism, phenomenalism, and critical perspectives lacking metaphysical commitment to any particular view of the nature of reality. Other disciplines use the term “realism” in ways paralleling its philos…
Reason
(2,628 words)
1. Term and Issues The term “reason” derives from Lat.
ratio. Earlier in history Gk.
nous and
logos expressed some of the same meanings. Reason is usually said to be an intellectual or mental ability or faculty, one distinguished from other psychological or bodily powers or activities of will, emotion, and sensation. Philosophers work with diverse concepts of reason and use the term in different ways. A number of issues arise in considering the nature, operations, and limitations of human reason. Is it a theoretical faculty, an ability to grasp the natures o…
Reception, Ecumenical
(1,767 words)
1. Term and Usage The English word “reception” traces its meaning back to Lat.
recipio, which can be translated “receive, accept, allow.” With these several meanings it can include the notion of receiving or accepting externally from something or someone
other. “Reception” has become a technical term in several different areas. In legal history it denotes the process by which Roman law was adopted in the German lands during the 13th through 15th centuries. In literary criticism of the late 20th century, “reception” has been employed t…
Reconciliation
(1,516 words)
1. Term The term “reconciliation” has been an important one in Christian theology, although it is used sparingly in the NT. It is most prominent in 2 Cor. 5:18–21. God has restored to himself the relationship with the world that human transgressions had irretrievably broken. Reconciliation really involves a new creation, in which a person “is in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17; New Self). God accomplished this new creation by redeeming the world “in Christ.” Reconciliation is the same as atonement, which strictly means “at-one-ment.” But atonement has come to have a narrower use…
Reductions
(625 words)
1. Caribbean and Central America As early as 1503 a law was passed for the gathering of Indians in Latin America into settlements called reductions, with the aim of introducing them to a “political and human life” as the precondition of their true Christianizing. A Spanish edict of 1578 describes the purpose as follows: “In order that, as the rational beings they are, they may be able to be truly Christian and political, it is essential that they be gathered and brought into settlements and not live scattered lives on the mountains and in forests.” We may distinguish three phases in the h…
Reformation
(17,221 words)
1. Term In contemporary historiography “Reformation” is a specialized (but not exclusive) designation for the complex series of ecclesiastical, theological, political, and academic events that led, in 16th-century Europe, to the emergence and establishment of Protestant churches (“confessions”), with their distinctive patterns of belief and practice. The present article will principally use this understanding of the term. The term also refers to a wide variety of religious protests and proposals for reform (of church and society, of theolog…
Reformation Principles
(524 words)
1. By the term “Reformation principles” the Formula of Concord and Protestant orthodoxy (§1) understand negatively slanted formulations of the doctrine of justification, above all
sola fide, “by faith alone,” on the basis of Martin Luther’s (1483–1546) rendering of Romans 3:28 (see
LW
¶ 35.187ff.; Faith 3.5.3). This exclusion of works as a ground of justification does not mean the isolating of faith but singles out justifying faith because it receives the righteousness of Christ that is given by grace alone. The formula thus has the implication of
solus Christus (Christ alone) and
sol…
Reform Councils
(1,721 words)
1. Term and Prior History The term “reform councils” in the broad sense refers to all councils that dealt with the matter of reform in the church and that made reforming decisions. In the narrow sense it refers to the 15th-century councils of Pisa, Constance, Pavia-Siena, and Basel, which viewed it as their chief aim to reform the church “in head and members.” All through the Middle Ages church reform had been linked to councils and synods. Already in the Merovingian age reforming synods had sought to restore the law of God and the church’s order. In the 11…
Reformed Alliance
(661 words)
The Reformierter Bund, or Reformed Alliance, was founded at Marburg, Germany, in 1884 as a free association of churches, congregations, and individuals. The first statutes stated its aim as the preserving and promoting of the Reformed church in doctrine, worship, and constitution. The main thrust of its work initially was to foster theological literature and education, for example, by means of study centers at Halle, Erlangen, and Göttingen, and later through a school of theology at Elberfeld (1…
Reformed and Presbyterian Churches
(5,200 words)
1. Term and Origins The adjective “reformed” refers first to what the Reformation was seeking to accomplish:
ecclesia reformata et semper reformanda, that is, the church reformed and always self-reforming. Later, usually beginning with capitals, it came into use for those churches reformed according to the Word of God that received official recognition in the empire by the 1648 Peace of Westphalia. In the English-speaking world churches of this kind have come to be known for the most part as Presbyterian because they rejected episcopalianism in favor of presbyterianism. The origins …
Reformed Ecumenical Council
(669 words)
The Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) in 2004 comprised 38 Reformed and Presbyterian denominations in 25 countries, with approximately 12 million believers in all. The REC began in 1946 as the Reformed Ecumenical Synod, an international body that grew to some 30 members over the next couple of decades. It appointed its first permanent staff in 1963, giving it more permanence and visibility. In 1988 it adopted its current name. Members of the REC agree to the basis and purpose of the council, as found in its constitution. The REC bases itself on the “Holy Scriptur…
Reformed Tradition
(5,782 words)
1. Terms All Christians share more in worldview and theology than they differ among themselves in distinctive beliefs. All Protestants and Catholics in the Western tradition rely, for example, on the theology of Augustine (354–430; Augustine’s Theology). In general use, the term “reformed” refers to all the portions of Western Catholicism that emerged in Protestantism during the European Reformation of the 16th century, frequently termed the triumph of Augustine’s doctrine of grace over his doctri…
Reformers
(5,590 words)
1. Term The term “Reformers” refers specifically to the 16th-century theologians and churchmen who were associated with the beginnings of Protestantism. As commonly used, this group includes first-generation leaders such as Martin Luther (1483–1546), John Calvin (1509–64), Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556), and Menno Simons (1496–1561) and extends (at most) to their immediate successors, such as Theodor Beza (1519–1605) in Geneva and the authors of the Lutheran Formula of Concord (1577). In traditional P…
Refugees
(1,522 words)
The church is well acquainted with the plight of refugees. The Holy Family fled to Egypt to escape the persecution of Herod (Matt. 2:13–23). Athanasius (ca. 297–373) was exiled from his diocese of Alexandria to live in far-off northern Gaul. John Calvin (1509–64) was forced to flee France, finding a home in Geneva. Cardinal József Mindszenty (1892–1975) was sheltered in the American embassy in Budapest for 15 years during the Communist era. And the Bible throughout calls on God’s people to show ¶ hospitality to the stranger: “When an alien resides with you in your land, you s…
Regeneration
(1,388 words)
1. NT 1.1. According to the history-of-religions school, the NT references to regeneration derived from the Hellenistic mystery religions, whose adherents thought that present salvation could be achieved by cultic participation in the death and regeneration of the deity (the myth of the dying god). The NT understanding of regeneration, however, differs from that of the mystery religions. For the latter, regeneration represented a magical, ritual transforming of human nature by the inflowing of div…
Rehabilitation
(845 words)
1. Term and General Survey The term “rehabilitation,” for which “resocialization” is often used as a synonym, is a central one in social work ( Social Services); it refers to the reincorporating of those who have been guilty of misconduct into society and its norms and values. In the process it is often overlooked that values and norms are also socially conditioned and mediated and that there may also be social causes for individual misconduct. Legally, resocialization describes the goal of remedial punishment. The point here is that prisoners are viewed as suffering f…
Reincarnation
(779 words)
1. Term The term “reincarnation” refers to doctrines of transmigration, which speak of the passage of the soul after death into another body (i.e., metempsychosis) or the migration of different souls into one body (metensomatosis). Transmigration may take place in the present world or in some future world. ¶ What is reincarnated may be the personal self or the spirit of the ancestors. 2. History of Religion 2.1. From the very beginning of religious history, belief in reincarnation found a place in many religions. It was part of the cult of ancestors among the E…
Relativism
(1,241 words)
¶ The term “relativism” came into vogue with the increasing importance of historicism at the end of the 19th century. It reflects insight into the fact that our theoretical and practical dealings with the world are conditioned historically, culturally, socially, economically, politically, and anthropologically. Relativism, then, contests the view that we have objective and universally valid criteria by which to say that our theoretical knowledge or moral action is true or right. True knowledge, a…
Relativity Theory
(1,546 words)
The theories of relativity arise from the study of the motion of objects in space and time, particularly from the fact that such motion may be viewed by observers who themselves might be in a state of motion. The result of this study has been three related and far-reaching theories, which provide the deepest picture yet of the nature of physical space and time. 1. Galilean Relativity Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) was the first to state the “principle of relativity,” which asserts that the state of rest and any state of uniform translational motion are indistingui…
Relics
(1,062 words)
In religion relics (Gk.
leipsana, Lat.
reliquiae) are artifacts that are related to deceased saints and that are venerated as a result. First we have bodily parts, then objects they touched, such as portions of silk or cloth
(brandea) or mantles
(palliola), then things connected with their graves (
eulogia, hagiasmata, e.g., dust from the grave). We find veneration of relics in Egyptian and Greek religion, as well as in Buddhism and Islam. 1. Christian History In the Christian world the development and understanding of relics was closely linked to the veneration of sa…
Relief and Development Organizations
(5,650 words)
Relief and development organizations (RDOs) of Christian origin belong to the 20th century. As humanity during that century lived through violence, oppression, and wars in a magnitude never before experienced, a Christian response was to organize relief and development organizations. Secular, government, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) also grew at an escalating pace in the middle of the 20th century as a response to disasters, wars, and oppression. One of the foremost tasks of the United Nations has been to set up specialized agencies for human needs generally, like the U…
Religion
(2,567 words)
1. Study of Religion 1.1.
Term In modern usage the term “religion” is a master concept primarily in the description of ideas, attitudes, and actions vis-à-vis the reality that we accept and call forces or power, spirits or demons, gods or God, the holy or the absolute, or simply transcendence. This reality is supremely important for us, meriting respect and in most cases worship (E. Feil, 29). Defining the term intellectually in this way shows plainly how related it is to time and space. The questions…
Religion, Criticism of
(2,802 words)
1. In Philosophy 1.1.
Basic Problem Insofar as thinking is part of faith, a critical and questioning element is involved in faith as well as an interpretive element. This form of criticism of religion is immanent or intrinsic, involving distinction between inalienable contents and those that are less central. We find examples in Wisdom literature, for example, Job and Ecclesiastes in Judaism or the Upanishads in Hinduism, then in the Enlightenment, with its interest in the philosophy of religion (e.g., G. Berkeley, G. E. Lessing, I. Kant), then in the modern philosophy of religion. Exter…
Religion, Legal Protection of
(693 words)
In the Middle Ages and Reformation and post-Reformation eras, most European states had strict laws against blasphemy and attacks on religion, whether verbal or physical, though enforcement might vary, as, for example, when the Reformers staged their assaults on the papal church. Even modern states that are religiously neutral (Church and State) may prohibit some attacks on religion, confessions, and worldviews when these actions might come under the rubric of disturbing the peace. A constitution…
Religionless Christianity
(794 words)
1. Background Many attempts have been made since the Enlightenment to differentiate essential Christianity from (1) the church and from (2) religion. Regarding the former, R. Rothe in 1862 raised the question whether, if Christ were again to come among us incognito, many of those who cannot accept the church’s confession would not feel attracted to him and be unwilling to forsake him, whereas many of those in the church would pass him by without recognizing him (E. Klinger, 165). If Christianity a…
Religion, Personal Sense of
(1,341 words)
1. General Concept Whereas the relationship between the individual and God or the gods in tribal religion is determined by participation in group-specific rituals (Rite), individual relationships with God become possible in the so-called high religions. Hence the personal sense of religion in the narrower sense (American usage refers more frequently to “spirituality”; P. B. Vaill, 177–88) is associated with modern subjectivity. Against the backdrop of the separation of society and religion and the …
Religious Drama
(982 words)
1. Origin Without question, drama in its origins was religious. In classical Greece theaters were built within the leading sanctuaries because the performances were deemed religious events. Indeed it was its connection with pagan deities that led the church to be so hostile to the stage. According to Tertullian (d. ca. 225), “The entire apparatus of the shows is based upon idolatry” (
De spec.
4), as well as promoting profligacy and immodesty. Not surprisingly, actors wanting to be baptized had to give up their profession. 2. Development 2.1. This negative attitude to plays per…
Religious Educational Theory
(4,327 words)
Religious educational theory can conveniently be divided into two parts, Protestant and Roman Catholic. Although nothing at the theoretical level makes this distinction necessary, it is helpful because of the markedly different settings of these two streams of Christianity. 1. Protestant The Protestant Reformation, because of its effect of producing difference and diversity within Christianity, created a new context for religious education. As a result, religious education became a focus of theoretical discussion. ¶ The concept of religious education embraces primaril…
Religious Foundation
(163 words)
The term “religious foundation” (Ger.
Stift) refers to a college of clergy (canons and prebendaries) who are responsible for choral services (Choir; Prayer) and who are supported by an endowment. In a diocese the chapter of the cathedral church is counselor of the bishop and, according to the relevant law, may have the right to elect the bishop. In the later Middle Ages the monasteries of the older orders (Benedictines; Cistercians) partially took over the organization of these foundations, with the…
Religious Instruction
(2,966 words)
1. Historical Data Religious instruction in schools occurred first in the Latin and native-language schools of the 16th century. It centered on the catechism, doctrine, and their biblical basis. J. A. Comenius (1592–1670), Pietism, and the Enlightenment regarded Holy Scripture as the alpha and omega in all schools. We see this value in the German tradition, for example. H. J. Hübner’s (1668–1731)
Zweymal zwey und funfzig auserlesene Biblische Historien (Twice 52 selected biblical stories, 1713/14), A. H. Francke’s (1663–1727)
Kurtzer und einfältiger Unterricht (Short and simp…
Religious Liberty (Foundations)
(6,384 words)
Overview In its most basic sense, religious liberty is the freedom of individuals and groups to make their own determinations about religious beliefs and to act upon those beliefs peaceably without incurring civil or criminal liabilities. More fully conceived, religious liberty embraces a number of fundamental principles of individual liberty—freedom of conscience, freedom of association, speech, worship, and exercise, equal protection and treatment under the law (Law and Legal Theory), freedom f…
Religious Liberty (Modern Period)
(9,260 words)
1. A Modern Consensus By the beginning of the 21st century, a broad consensus had emerged internationally among most human rights scholars and advocates, religious leaders, international organizations, and the majority of political officials that religious liberty and tolerance should be described as positive values. The rhetoric supporting religious liberty is now so pervasive that even those governments that do not respect it in theory or practice rarely repudiate it explicitly. Rather than reject…
Religious Orders and Congregations
(13,576 words)
Christian monasticism—the withdrawal of believers from other church members for the sake of prayer and ascetic devotion—is known from almost the earliest days of Christianity. In the Roman Catholic tradition, this practice led to the development and spread of an enormous variety of religious orders and congregations, many of which focused ultimately on vocations other than monastic (e.g., charity, education, mission, and social justice). Although not organizing its monastic life as the Roman Cat…
Religious Socialism
(2,129 words)
1. Beginnings Like socialism in general, religious socialism is a political and social movement that sought to replace the existing order by a new and more just social order. Triggered by the drastic social effects of the industrial revolution (Industrial Society) but largely irrelevant after World War II, it involved the idea that the Christian faith has crucial relevance for the carrying out of political, economic, and social tasks (Politics; Economy; Society). Rooted in the older Christian trad…
Religious Studies
(1,134 words)
1. Term The prophets of Israel with their criticism of Canaanite worship, as well as the philosophers of antiquity with their attacks on Greek myths, held aloof from what we now call religion, an attitude that is essential in the study of religion. The same applies to Islamic geographers, Christian missionaries, European explorers, and students of mythology from the days of the Enlightenment, also of comparative linguistics from the days of Romanticism, especially when new knowledge was brought to light. The whole complex of what might be called religion in the form of a
secta, lex, latr…