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
Felix of Urgel
(222 words)
[German Version] Felix of Urgel, bishop of Urgel (d. 818 in Lyon), is known primarily as an advocate and propagator of the doctrine of adoptionism, as formulated by Elipandus of Toledo around 785. This doctrine may have been ¶ developed to reintegrate segments of the population that had converted to Islam. According to this position, Christ in his human aspect was God's adoptive son. Pope Hadrian I rejected this doctrine in 787 as “Nestorianism”. Whether Felix was appointed to his episcopacy as a consequence of Mozarabic (Mozarabs) o…
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Religion Past and Present
Felix, Roman Governor
(228 words)
[German Version] (Roman Governor; according to Tacitus,
Historiae V 9: Antonius Felix), freedman of the royal family, brother of the imperial minister of finance Pallas (Suet.
Cl. 28), and governor of Judea between 52 and 55–60 ce (the date of his replacement is uncertain). His term of office was marked by inner-Jewish disputes, the appearance of prophetic leaders (Acts 21:38; Jos.
Bell. II 13.5) and the beginnings of the Jewish opposition to Rome (
Bell. II 13;
Ant. XX 8.5–8). While Felix used the rebel movement of the Sicarii (Zealots) to have the high priest Jonathan …
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Religion Past and Present
Felix V, Anti-pope
(154 words)
[German Version] (Amadeus VIII, count and duke of Savoy; Sep 4, 1383, Chambéry – Jan 7, 1451, Geneva). After a largely successful rule as Prince of Savoy, Amadeus was elected pope by the Council of Basel on Nov 5, 1439, following the deposition of Eugenius IV by the church assembly. He was only able to secure recognition temporarily in some parts of Europe. Felix did not share the conciliarism of Basel, although he had attained his office through its agency. After 1442, he resided largely in Lausa…
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Religion Past and Present
Feller, Henrietta Odin
(183 words)
[German Version] (Apr 2, 1800, Montagny, Switzerland – Mar 29, 1868, Grande-Ligne, Canada), missionary and educator. After her conversion during the Geneva Revival (Revival/Revival Movements: I, 3), Feller became active in evangelistic work herself and became a leader in an independent church in Lausanne, which adopted the practice of believer's baptism in the late 1820s. In 1835, Feller sailed for North America as a missionary with the Swiss Independent Missionary Society (Swiss Missions). She in…
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Religion Past and Present
Fellowship and Community
(382 words)
[German Version] With the phrase “communion of saints,” Christianity confesses a fellowship in faith that is homogeneous in creed and conduct and transcends place and time. As important as this notion of the faith is, it cannot be hidden in earthen vessels without resulting in fractures, tensions and material ¶ fatigue. As early as 1 Cor the degree to which strife, jealousy, and pagan indecency (1; 3; 5–8) dominated in the community of those “called to be saints” (1:2) is evident. Aware of this problem, Zwingli distinguished between the invisib…
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Religion Past and Present
Feminism and Feminist Theology
(4,420 words)
[German Version] I. Cultural History – II. Philosophy of Religion – III. Fundamental Theology – IV. Dogmatics – V. Ethics – VI. Practical Theology – VII. Feminism, Art, and Religion – VIII. Religious Feminism in North America
I. Cultural History
1. The term Feminism is a theory, a praxis, and a worldwide movement whose goal is to achieve equal influence for women in all areas of the state, society, and culture, ¶ together with equal rights for women and men. The term was probably coined by the early socialist Charles Fourier (1772–1837), who was the first to…
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Religion Past and Present
Fendt, Leonhard
(294 words)
[German Version] (Jun 2, 1881, Baiershofen – Jan 9, 1957, Augsburg), Protestant theologian. He studied Catholic theology in Munich, was ordained a priest in ¶ 1905, chaplain, and received his doctorate in Straßburg, where he studied with A. Ehrhard. In 1911, he became sub-dean of the seminary in Dillingen, in 1915, professor of dogmatics and apologetics in Dillingen. In 1918, he converted to the Evangelical Church in Halle/Saale. In 1918, he became a Protestant pastor (Gommern, Magdeburg, Berlin), in 1934, professor of …
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Religion Past and Present
Feneberg, Johann Michael
(302 words)
[German Version] (Feb 7 or 8, 1751, Marktoberdorf – Oct 12, 1812, Vöhringen/Iller), after studies in Kaufbeuren and Augsburg, became a novice in the Jesuit College in Landsberg/Lech in 769. He began the study of philosophy in Ingolstadt in 1771, and became a Gymnasium teacher in Regensburg in 1774. In 1779, ordained a priest, he was granted the early benefice in his home congregation. Through the mediation of J.M. Sailer he became Gymnasium professor in Dillingen in 1785, where he became involved …
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Religion Past and Present
Fénelon, François de Salignac de la Mothe
(595 words)
[German Version] (August?, 1651, Sainte-Mondane, France – Jan 7, 1715, Cambrai, France) was a prelate, theologian, author and teacher of the Duke of Burgundy. Fénelon devoted himself initially to preaching, which inspired him to his
Dialogues sur l'éloquence (ET:
Dialogues on Eloquence, 1951), written in 1695 and published in 1718, and, in the context of a mission in the Saintonge after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (Huguenots), was concerned for the conversion of Protestants. As an adherent of the circle surrounding J.B. Bossu…
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Religion Past and Present
Feodosy Pechersky, Saint
(165 words)
[German Version] (d. May 3, 1074 in the Kiev Cave Monastery). From about 1062, abbot of this monastery, he gave it the rule of the Studios Monastery in Constantinople. Individual asceticism in subterranean caves was replaced by the cenobitic lifestyle (Cenobites, Monasticism) with particular emphasis on community worship and physical work. This order became the model for many Russian monasteries. Since 1108 venerated in the cult throughout Russia, Feodosy become the first Russian monastic saint and is considered, even today, one of the greatest fathers of Russian monasticism. Ludol…
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Religion Past and Present
Fernandez, Alonso
(188 words)
[German Version] (1573, Malpartida de Plasencia – c.1633, Plasencia, Spain), OP (1587), historian and preacher. He was honored in 1618 at the General Chapter of Lisbon with the title Preacher General. Fernandez authored works on the history of the Dominicans in Spain, of which a few remain unpublished. He was prior in Zamora, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Cáceres and finally in Plasencia. Heinz Ohme Bibliography Works:
Historia ecclesiastica de nuestros tiempos, 1611
Historia y anales de la devoción y milagros del Rosario, 1613
De los servicios que a los Reinos de España ha hecho la …
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Religion Past and Present
Ferrandus
(148 words)
[German Version] (d. 546/47), deacon in Carthage. In 508, he accompanied his teacher Fulgentius of Ruspe into exile in Sardinia (until 523). He is considered the author of the
Vita Fulgentii (transmitted anonymously). He authored 12 letters: 1–5 deal with theological questions (on the Trinity, Monophysitism [Monophysites/Monophysitism], Theopassionism [Theopaschite Controversy], of which 1f. are addressed to Fulgentius); 6 is a report on the Three Chapters Controversy; 7 contains seven rules for a
dux religiosus; 8–12 deal with miscellanea. The
Breviatio canonum is the firs…
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Religion Past and Present
Ferrar, Nicholas
(155 words)
[German Version] (Feb 22, 1592, London – Dec 4, 1637, Little Gidding, England), took a B.A. and M.A. at Cambridge University. After serving in Parliament prior to 1624, Ferrar retired from the world. In 1625 he and his family purchased the remote manor of Little Gidding and repaired the small church there that had been used as a hay barn and pigsty. About 30 people made up the Little Gidding household. Volunteers maintained a vigil with prayers and psalms, anticipating Christ's second coming. The …
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Religion Past and Present
Ferrata, Domenico
(169 words)
[German Version] (Mar 4, 1847, Gradoli, Italy – Oct 10, 1914, Rome), cardinal. After studying and teaching in Rome, Ferrata entered the papal diplomatic service in 1877 with missions to Switzerland (1883, 1888) and Belgium (nuncio 1885–1889). As secretary of the Congregation for Extraordinary Affairs (1889–1891) and nuncio in Paris (1891–1896), he promoted Catholic cooperation with the laicist French Republic (“realliement”). Elevated in 1896 to cardinal by Leo XIII, he worked as prefect of variou…
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Religion Past and Present
Ferry, Paul
(182 words)
[German Version] (Feb 24, 1591, Metz, France – Dec 28, 1669, Metz). After attending the Jesuit college in Metz, Ferry, from a leading Huguenot family (Huguenots) began his study of the liberal arts in 1607 (
artes liberales ) in La Rochelle and transferred in 1609 to Montauban, to study Protestant theology there until 1611. He was ordained a pastor in Metz on Jan 1, 1612. J.B. Bossuet attacked his
Catéchisme général de la réformation et de la religion (1656), and the two were engaged in dialogue thereafter. Ferry eventually rejected Bossuet's attempts at denominational
rapprochement. Ferr…
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Religion Past and Present
Fertility
(510 words)
[German Version] Traditional societies (Society: II) see fertility as a special aspect of the life-force or the vital soul ¶ responsible for the organism's capacity to function, i.e. to move, and as, therefore, “measurable” by reduced or raised temperature. Transferred in procreation primarily through the father's sperm, it first fully develops during puberty and is then concentrated especially in moving organic substances (blood, breath), the sexual organs and their secretions, indirectly also in other bodily excr…
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Religion Past and Present
Feßler, Ignaz Aurelius
(180 words)
[German Version] (May 18, 1756, Zurndorf an der Leitha, Austria – Dec 5, 1839, St. Petersburg), Capuchin monk (Capuchins), priest, orientalist, and historian. In 1791, he converted to Lutherism, in 1796, went to Berlin, in 1809 to St. Petersburg, in 1811 to the Volga. Here, under the influence of Herrnhut (Bohemian and Moravian Brethren) he was converted. In 1819, he was the superintendent of the Lutheran consistory in Saratow. Consecrated a bishop, he was later active as the church councilor in S…
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Religion Past and Present