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.
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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
Hadrian VI, Pope
(474 words)
[German Version] Jan 9, 1522 (coronation Aug 31, 1522) – Sep 14, 1523 (Adrianus Florensz Boeyens, Adrian of Utrecht, b. Mar 2, 1459, Utrecht). Hadrian probably received his early education from the Brothers of the Common Life. In 1476, he began his studies at the University of Leuven (1491 Dr.theol.) where he held a professorship from 1489. He was twice rector of the University of Leuven (1493 and 1500–1501) and chancellor from 1497. Although he was more traditionally oriented himself, he supporte…
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Religion Past and Present
Haeckel, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August
(493 words)
[German Version] (Feb 16, 1834, Potsdam – Aug 9, 1919, Jena) was a doctor of medicine, a zoologist, and a natural philosopher who became an advocate of C.R. Darwin's teachings (
On the Origin of Species, 1859) as early as 1862. He was highly instrumental in securing the acceptance of the theory of evolution in German-speaking countries ¶ and contributed to its further elaboration and expansion over and above Darwin, notably in the direction of an ideology and “monistic religion” (Monism). He became associate professor of comparative anatomy in 1862 and…
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Religion Past and Present
Haecker, Theodor
(187 words)
[German Version] (Jun 4, 1879, Eberbach – Apr 9, 1945, Usterbach), author and essayist. Throughout his life, Haecker was a close collaborator with his friend, the publisher Ferdinand Schreiber. Beginning in 1914, his work appeared in the journal
Der Brenner published by Ludwig v. Ficker and from 1923 to 1941 in the
Hochland published by Carl Muth. Haecker's translations include works by S. Kierkegaard, F. Thompson and Virgil. Influenced by Cardinal J.H. Newman's works, Haecker converted to Catholicism in 1921. Haecker's Christian philosophy was d…
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Religion Past and Present
Haemstede, Adriaen Cornelisz van
(161 words)
[German Version] (c. 1525, Zierikzee/Zeeland [?] – c. 1562, Emden) studied law in Leuven, was ordained priest in 1552, and assumed leadership of the Reformed congregation in Antwerp in dangerous circumstances in 1556. Having sojourned in Aachen and Emden, Haemstede pastored the expatriate Dutch congregation in London from 1559. Here, he was excommunicated by archbishop Grindal in 1560 because of his tolerant attitude toward the Anabaptists. Finally expelled from England in 1562, he again worked in…
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Religion Past and Present
Haendler, Otto
(141 words)
[German Version] (Apr 18, 1890, Komsomolsk [Ger. Löwenhagen], Russia – Jan 12, 1981, Berlin). After pastoring in Gumtow, Prignitz and Stralsund, Haendler was director of the seminary in Stettin (1931–1935), pastor in Neuenkirchen near Greifswald (1935–1949) and professor of practical theology at Greifswald (1945–1951) and East Berlin (1951–1959). Marked by ¶ the depth psychology of C.G. Jung and the Evangelische Michaelsbruderschaft, he became an early proponent of pastoral psychology in Germany before its broad acceptance after 1970. His 1941 textbook
Die Predigt [The sermo…
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Religion Past and Present
Hafenreffer, Matthias
(179 words)
[German Version] (Jun 24, 1561, Lorch – Oct 22, 1619, Tübingen) studied philosophy and theology in Tübingen and became a deacon in Herrenberg in 1586, pastor in Ehningen in 1588, and court preacher and consistorial counselor in Stuttgart in 1590. He received his doctorate in theology and became professor of theology in Tübingen (1592) and then chancellor (1617) and provost of the university. He was an important representative of post-Concord Lutheran theology. In contrast to J. Kepler, who valued …
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Religion Past and Present
Hagar
(180 words)
[German Version] (Heb. הָגָר) was Sarah's slave, Abraham's (Abraham: I) concubine and Ishmael's (I) mother in Gen 16; 21:9–21 and 25:12. On the ethnographical level, the origins of Ishmael's mother may have been (a) the city and region of Hagar in eastern Arabia attested from the late 2nd millennium bce to the end of the 1st millennium ce, modern t̲āg in al-ḥasā; (b) the extension of this geographical designation by the Achaemenid administration to all of northern Arabia and its inhabitants, which is certainly reflected in the designation Hag(a)rites …
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Religion Past and Present
Hagenbach, Karl Rudolf
(198 words)
[German Version] (Mar 4, 1801, Basel – Jun 7, 1874, Basel) studied philosophy, then theology in Basel (1815–1818), Bonn, especially with F. Lücke, and Berlin with A. Neander and F.D.E Schleiermacher (1820–1823). W.M.L. De Wette invited him to obtain his habilitation in Basel in 1823. Already associate professor of church history and the history of dogma by 1824 (1829, full professor), Hagenbach shaped the faculty in Basel for more than 50 years (Basel: II). As a member of the church council and the educational authority, since 1848 of the Grand Council, and as editor of the
Kirchenblatt fü…
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Religion Past and Present
Haggadah
(360 words)
[German Version] (Aramaicized form,
Aggada), derived from Hebrew נגד/
ngd “to recount,” “to tell,” is already defined in medieval Jewish tradition, mostly negatively, as the non-legal branch of rabbinic literature and was employed as a complement to Halakhah. The source for the Haggadah is the material of the Hebrew Bible, which is presented – sometimes simply retold, sometimes supplemented with many new details – with educational, parenetic, promissory or some other homiletic intention and interpreted i…
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Religion Past and Present
Haggai/Book of Haggai
(936 words)
[German Version] I. Prophet and Setting – II. Literary Aspects – III. Message
I. Prophet and Setting Very little is known about the prophet Haggai as a historical figure. What is known comes mainly from the book that bears his name, the tenth book in the Book of the Twelve (Prophetic Books) according to the Masoretic ordering. The name Haggai (Heb. חַגַּי/
ḥaggay), which is derived from חָג/
ḥag (“feast” or “holiday”), means “festal.” Together with his contemporary (First) Zechariah, Haggai is also mentioned in the book of Ezra (5:1; 6:14). In both Haggai and…
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Religion Past and Present
Hagia Sophia
(367 words)
[German Version] (“Holy Wisdom”) is the name of a few churches in the Byzantine Empire and in neighboring lands, including churches in Constantinople, Thessalonica, Ohrid and Kiev. The most important, the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople/Istanbul, was erected in 532–537 under Emperor Justinian I by Anthemios of Tralles and Isidoros of Mileto. Two previous structures had burned down (dates of dedication: 360, 415). Justinian's new structure is considered to be the most outstanding achievement of Byza…
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Religion Past and Present
Hagiography
(2,226 words)
[German Version] I. Western Hagiography – II. Eastern Hagiography – III. Medieval and Modern Judaism
I. Western Hagiography Western hagiography, as a literature that has no scholarly purpose but serves to venerate saints, first followed Greek examples. Its most important genre, the lives of the saints, is shaped less by the panegyric biography of the martyr bishop Cyprian of Carthage, written by the deacon Pontius (2nd half of 3rd cent. ce), than by the
vitaes of the desert father Anthony of Padua, written by Athanasius (with two Latin translations), and of Martin …
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Religion Past and Present
Hague Society, The
(319 words)
[German Version] Hague Society, The, (Het Haagsch Genootschap) was originally subtitled “tot verdediging van de christelijke godsdienst” (“for the defense of the Christian religion”; dropped in 1998) “tegen deszelfs hedendaagse bestrijders” (“against its contemporary detractors”; dropped in 1835). It was founded in 1785 in opposition to the spirit of the Enlightenment (notably in opposition to J. Priestley). Initially characterized by an orthodox-supernaturalistic orientation and an apologetic mot…
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Religion Past and Present
Hahn, August
(304 words)
[German Version] (Mar 27, 1792, Großosterhausen – May 13, 1863, Wrocław [Ger. Breslau], Poland), Protestant theologian. At the age of eight, Hahn lost his father, a cantor. His pietistic mother shaped his religion. In rationalist Leipzig, he studied Protestant theology and oriental philology. After three years as tutor, Carl Ludwig Nitzsch, Johann Friedrich Schleusner and Heinrich Leonhard Heubner in the Wittenberg seminary brought him back to revivalist piety and supranaturalism in 1817. In 1819,…
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Religion Past and Present
Hahn, Carl Hugo
(154 words)
[German Version] (Oct 18, 1818, Riga, Latvia – Nov 24, 1895, Cape Town, South Africa). Sent by the Rhenish Mission to southwest Africa (Namibia) in 1842, Hahn studied the Herero language, wrote the first Herero grammar and translated first sections of the Bible. In 1844, he founded a so-called “mission colony” in which Christian life was to be shared and into which the converted Herero were to be incorporated. During his activity, Hahn laid the cornerstone for the Lutheran stamp on mission and chu…
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Religion Past and Present
Hahn, Johann Michael
(259 words)
[German Version] (authentically, only Michael; Feb 2, 1758, Altdorf near Böblingen – Jan 20, 1819, Sindlingen near Herrenberg), from a peasant background and, by profession even a farm hand, became within Württembergian Pietism, under the influence of J.A. Bengel, F.C. Oetinger and P.M. Hahn, a high-profile theosophic systematician (Theosophy) and an adherent of J. Böhme, with whom he shared the constitutive experience of the central view in which God is intuitively grasped in his will to create a…
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Religion Past and Present
Hahn, Philipp Matthäus
(298 words)
[German Version] (Nov 25, 1739, Scharnhausen – May 2, 1790, Echterdingen), pastor and engineer. He pastored in Onstmettingen (1764), Kornwestheim (1770) and Echterdingen (1781). In Onstmettingen, Hahn disputed with E. Swedenborg and began, along with Philipp Gottfried Schaudt, the construction of astronomical works that earned Hahn the benevolence of the duke. In Kornwestheim, Hahn constructed a calculating machine and clocks; devotional classes enlivened his congregational work. In 1779, J.W. v. …
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Religion Past and Present
Hai Gaon
(187 words)
[German Version] (also: Hai ben Sherira; 939–1038), gaon of the Academy (Yeshivah) of Pumbedita from 1004 to 1038. Having already assisted his father Sherira Gaon as a young man, he became ab bet din (“Father of the Court,” the second highest in the hierarchy of the academy) in 985 and was appointed gaon during his father's lifetime. With the latter's help, he reestablished the “worldwide” authority and spiritual leadership of the Babylonian gaonate. Hai's prominence is largely due to the approx. 1,500 complete, fragmentary, or quoted ¶ responsa (representing ab…
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Religion Past and Present
Hair
(343 words)
[German Version] The care and style of one's hair is governed by the conventions prevailing at any one time, and a full head of hair is regarded everywhere as a sign of health, while its loss through violence or age is seen as dishonor or as powerlessness and decreasing vitality. This has resulted in hair being ascribed with a fairly constant symbolic and magical significance. As the hair (and nails) also continue growing shortly after death, they are seen as bearing the power to maintain and rais…
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Religion Past and Present
Haiti
(1,047 words)
[German Version] With an area of 27,750km2, Haiti occupies the western third of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, ¶ which was discovered by C. Columbus on Dec 5, 1492, and whose larger, eastern part belongs to the Dominican Republic. Haiti's indigenous population was virtually wiped out during Spanish rule. In 1697, Haiti became a French possession through the Treaty of Ryswick. With the approval of the French revolutionary government, the black population rose up against the white upper class on Aug 23, 1791, a…
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Religion Past and Present
Hakhamim
(156 words)
[German Version] In Wisdom and Sirach, Palestinian students of the Torah are already referred to as
ḥakhamim, “wise men,” since wisdom is identified with the Torah (cf. e.g. Sir 24:19–29). The same meaning is attached to the term “wise” in the Qumran texts (Qumran) and in the NT. In rabbinic literature,
ḥakhamim appears as a self-designation of the Tannaim. In the Mishnah and the Tosefta, halakhic teachings (Halakhah) are handed down in the name of these Hakhamim, who are presented as teachers of the Torah. They are regarded as moral authorities…
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Religion Past and Present
Halakhah
(1,115 words)
[German Version] (from the Heb. הלך/
hlḥ; literally “to go, to walk”) described, in rabbinic usage, “the (particular) standardized religious rule, the prevailing precept” (Bacher), and later it also stood for Judaism's entire legal system. In addition to the Haggadah, i.e. the non-legal matters, the Halakhah represents one of the two main strands of rabbinic tradition. In this, the former is not of a legally binding character, and no Halakhah may be derived from the Haggadah. As for the derivation of the term Halakhah, the biblical usage of the verb הלך, as especially encountered in …
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Religion Past and Present
Halberstadt, Bishopric
(283 words)
[German Version] Under Charlemagne, Halberstadt was the eastern base for the forced conversion of the Saxons (establishment of the diocese, 804). In 989, Halberstadt obtained market, mint and tariff rights. Conflicts arose between the bishopric or the cathedral chapter (Canons Regular of St. Augustine, until 1810) and the city concerning jurisdiction, administration and property ownership. In 1179, Henry the Lion partially destroyed Halberstadt. In the 12th and 13th centuries, many orders took up …
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Religion Past and Present
Haldane
(519 words)
[German Version]
1. Robert (Feb 28, 1764, London – Dec 12, 1842, Edinburgh). After an education in Dundee and Edinburgh and a brief naval career, Haldane settled on his estate at Airthrey near Stirling for ten years. By 1796 he sought to establish a mission to India by selling his estate. Thwarted in his efforts by the East India Company, Haldane turned his attention to home mission. In 1799 he left the Church of Scotland. He joined his brother James (2.) in Edinburgh and set about establishing tabernacles and training courses throughout Scotland. By ¶ 1810 he had spent over £70,000. In 1…
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Religion Past and Present
Hales, John
(156 words)
[German Version] (Apr 19, 1584, Bath – May 19, 1656, Eton) was an English clergyman and Greek scholar. He received his B.A. at Corpus Christi College in Oxford, and his M.A. at Merton College, being elected fellow there in 1606. In 1612 he was made professor of Greek at Oxford. Hales's great academic achievement was working with Sir Henry Savile to prepare a superb edition of Chrysostom. In 1618 Sir Dudly Caleton, the English ambassador to Holland, sent him to the Synod of Dort to report on its proceedings. This report was published in his book
Golden Remains in 1659. Influenced by the syno…
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Religion Past and Present
Halieutica
(355 words)
[German Version] Halieutica, derived from Mark 1:17 (Gk ἁλιεὺς ἀνϑρώπων/
halieús anthrṓpôn, “fisher of men”), was the term for a sub-discipline of practical theology in the 19th century. G.A.F. Sickel introduced it in 1829. Against the background of the loss of pastoral effectiveness, he wanted to establish a “science… that, with greater attention to the inner being of a person, would instruct young theologians in how one could win people for the Kingdom of God through preaching that followed the laws of …
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Religion Past and Present
Haller, Albrecht von
(390 words)
[German Version] (Oct 16, 1708, Bern – Dec 12, 1777, Bern), a pioneer of modern medicine and botany and an important 18th century poet and thinker. After studying in Tübingen, Leiden (Dr.med.), London, Paris and Basel, Haller was a physician in Bern (1729–1736). As professor of anatomy, botany and surgery in Göttingen (1736–1753), he contributed significantly to the rise of the young university (editor and author of the journal
Göttingische Gelehrten Anzeigen, president of the Akademie der Wissenschaften [Academy of Sciences]). From 1753 until his death, he held pu…
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Religion Past and Present
Haller, Berchtold
(295 words)
[German Version] (1494 [1490?], Aldingen – Feb 25, 1536, Bern), schooled in Rottweil and Pforzheim (here with Melanchthon and S. Grynaeus), received the Bacc. artium in Cologne in 1511, became provisor of the Latin School in Bern (1513) and secular priest and canon of the Minster in 1520. Haller's historical importance consists in the trustworthy, persistent and circumspect manner in which he represented the Reformation impulse that reached Bern from Wittenberg, Zürich and Upper Germany. For years…
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Religion Past and Present
Haller, Johannes
(146 words)
[German Version] (II; Jan 18,1523, Amsoldingen, Switzerland – Sep 11, 1575, Bern), a pastor's son, studied in Zürich, Tübingen, Marburg and Leipzig. After pastorates in the canton of Zürich and in Augsburg (1545–1547), Zürich let the church in Bern have him, provisionally in 1547 and definitively in 1550. As superintendent (1552), reformer of Saanen (1555/1556), promoter of church music (1558), defender of orthodoxy (against the Anabaptists, against V. Gentile 1566), translator and editor of a num…
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Religion Past and Present
Halle, University of
(794 words)
[German Version] The initiative to establish a university in Halle goes back to Albert of Brandenburg, who in 1531 obtained the founding privilege from the papal legate cardinal L. Campeggio. Lack of money and the introduction of the Reformation in the archdiocese of Magdeburg forestalled these plans, which were directed against Wittenberg University (Wittenberg, University of). When in 1680 the archdiocese fell to Brandenburg as the Duchy of Magdeburg, the founding plans were revived and were rea…
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Religion Past and Present
Hall, Granville Stanley
(286 words)
[German Version] (Feb 1, 1844, Ashfield, MA – Apr 24, 1924, Worcester, MA) was a psychologist whose fame rested more on organizational and administrative than on scholarly contributions, though he published 489 works covering most of the major areas of psychology, including child study and developmental psychology. Hall grew up on a farm in New England. He experienced a religious conversion in his first year at Williams College. Later he enrolled at Union Theological Seminary, which he left after …
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Religion Past and Present
Hall, Joseph
(212 words)
[German Version] (Jul 1, 1574, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, England – Sep 8, 1656, Higham near Norwich, England) studied at Emmanuel College in Cambridge and began his career as a poet and satirist. In 1601 he became an Anglican clergyman, and, in 1616, chaplain to the English ambassador to France. Shortly thereafter Hall enjoyed the favor of James I, who sent him as his minister to the Synod of Dort in 1618. In 1627 Hall ¶ became bishop of Exeter and, in 1641, bishop of Norwich. For his book,
Episcopacy by Divine Right (1640), Hall was charged with treason for pro-episcopacy along with eleve…
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Religion Past and Present
Hall, Thomas
(186 words)
[German Version] (Jul 22, 1610, Worcester – Apr 13, 1665, Kings Norton) was a notable clergyman. He began his education at Balliol College in Oxford, but, disliking his tutor, he transferred to Pembroke College, Oxford, from which he graduated in 1629. Hall became curate in Kings Norton under his brother, John Hall, whom he later succeeded as pastor. At the same time he was master of the local Grammar School established by King Edward VI. During this time, Hall converted to Presbyterianism, influe…
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Religion Past and Present
Hallucination
(7 words)
[German Version] Vision/Visionaccount, Auditory Hallucination
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Religion Past and Present
Halo/Mandorla/Nimbus
(692 words)
[German Version] In the 4th century, Christian art adopted the pagan custom of using the nimbus in illustrations to distinguish gods and other figures. (Contrary to O. Perler,
Die Mosaiken der Juliergruft im Vatikan, 1953, there is no proof that the depiction of
Sol [Sun: III] with its radiant nimbus in the mausoleum of Julius beneath St. Peter's in Rome is supposed to represent Christ. Compare Sol and the Seasons with nimbus, Rome, Peter and Marcellinus catacomb, chambers 45 and 67). The nimbus is meant to represent the supernatural glo…
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Religion Past and Present
Halyburton, Thomas
(153 words)
[German Version] (Dec 25, 1674, Duplin, Perthshire – Sep 23, 1712, St. Andrews) was a Church of Scotland minister in Ceres (Fife) and was appointed professor of divinity at St. Andrews in 1710. He is known for his devotional and apologetic writings, all posthumously published. Halyburton combined academic rigor with a Calvinist piety that involved careful, though not fastidious, self-examination. His spiritual autobiography,
Memoirs of the Life (1714), never intended for publication but compiled from private papers, proved popular among evangelicals in the Eng…
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Religion Past and Present
Hamann, Johann Georg
(499 words)
[German Version] (Aug 27, 1730, Krolewiec [Ger. Königsberg], Poland – Jun 21, 1788, Münster) was a journalist and author who confronted the Enlightenment's self-conception with astute provocations. Stemming from the environment of a Pietism reconciled with the Enlightenment, Hamann underwent a decisive turn in his life during a personal crisis in London in 1758 in the context of intensive reading of the Bible. Without academic office, working briefly as editor for the
Königsbergsche Gelehrte und Politische Zeitungen, then as translator, and finally as administrator of a…
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Religion Past and Present
Hamath
(322 words)
[German Version] Hamath, city on the river Orontes in mid-Syria (modern Ḥamā) and an important regional center since the Bronze Age. Danish excavations (H. Ingholt, 1931–1938) document the existence of a settlement from the 5th millennium bce. A first historical mention of the city in the Ebla texts (3rd mill. bce) is controversial. The ancient name Hamath is not attested in the 2nd millennium bce, although archaeological remains of the Middle and Late Bronze Age have been uncovered. The settlement is mentioned in Assyrian texts from the 9th century onward (…
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Religion Past and Present
Hamburg
(2,853 words)
[German Version] I. City and Archbishopric – II. University
I. City and Archbishopric
1. Bishopric and archbishopric The origins of the mission center probably go back to the time of Charlemagne. The “Hammaburg” (
hamma = meadows;
burg = fortress, stronghold) was founded in 820 by Louis the Pious, and the church and, later, the cathedral were erected there. Ansgar was appointed bishop in 831 and archbishop in 834, and so the archbishopric of Hamburg was established, from which the evangelization of Denmark, Sweden, and the Slavic…
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Religion Past and Present
Hamelmann, Hermann
(208 words)
[German Version] (1526, Osnabrück – Jun 26, 1595, Oldenburg), Lutheran theologian. He attended school in Osnabrück, Münster and Dortmund and studied in Cologne and Mainz (1549/1550). He served as a chaplain in Münster, became a priest (1550) and pastor in Kamen (1552). Initially a Reform Catholic opponent of the Reformation, he became a Lutheran in 1553 and was removed from office. Hamelmann after-¶ wards worked as a preacher in Bielefeld (Neustadt) in 1554, but was removed from office in 1555. He then became a preacher in Lemgo (Marien). He studied in Rost…
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Religion Past and Present
Hamilton, John
(162 words)
[German Version] (c. 1511 – Apr 6, 1571, Stirling, Scotland) was an illegitimate son of the powerful first earl of Arran. After returning from his studies in Paris in 1543, he acquired political and ecclesiastical influence. In 1546 he was made archbishop of St. Andrews and primate of Scotland. From 1549 to 1559 Hamilton convened a series of synods to restore clerical standards, educate the laity, and drive back Protestantism. He had a catechism issued in Scottish dialect, whose tone was moderate …
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Religion Past and Present
Hamilton, Patrick
(173 words)
[German Version] (b. c. 1504 – executed St. Andrews, Feb 29, 1528) was an early Scottish reformer, who studied in Paris, then Louvain, and, in 1523, in St. Andrews. In St. Andrews he already showed sympathy with the ideas of Luther. In 1527 he visited first Wittenberg, then Marburg. There he wrote his
Loci Communes, in which he developed the principal points of Luther's theology of justification. They embody the contrast between law and gospel, an understanding of faith as
fiducia or trust in Christ as savior, and the doctrine that good works flow from faith. J. Frith revised the
Loci as treat…
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Religion Past and Present
Hammarskjöld, Dag
(160 words)
[German Version] (Jul 29, 1905, Jönköping, Sweden – Sep 17, 1961, near Ndola, Zambia), first held high government offices in Sweden. In 1953, he was appointed secretary-general of the UN. His negotiation skills enabled him to mediate in numerous conflicts. When he attempted to arbitrate in the Congo crisis, he died in an unexplained airplane crash. In 1961, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously. During his lifetime, he was known to have only a general interest in religion. After his death, however – in express accordance with his will – his spiritual diary
Vägmarken (1963; ET:
Ma…
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Religion Past and Present
Hammerstein, Wilhelm von
(161 words)
[German Version] (baron; Feb 21, 1838, Retzow – Mar 16, 1904, Berlin-Charlottenburg), politician. A member of the Prussian parliament (1873–1893) and the Reichstag (1881–1890, 1892–1895), and an executive editor of the Kreuzzeitung (1881–1895), he was, along with A. Stoecker, one of the leaders of the anti-Semitic Christian wing of the Deutschkonservative Partei (German Conservative Party). With his idea of a monarchial Christian state, he was in conflict with both O. von Bismarck and the agrarian wing of his own party. He opposed the policy of the
Kulturkampf ,…
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Religion Past and Present
Hammurabi
(440 words)
[German Version] Hammurabi, the most prominent ruler of the first dynasty of Babylon. His reign (1792–1750 bce) ¶ was dominated, first, by the successful struggle against Elam, which had claimed sovereignty over the states of Mesopotamia in order to gain control of the principal long-distance trade routes in the Near East. Second, his reign is also marked by numerous internal conflicts in Babylonia itself, especially in the context of the struggle for access to the waters of the Euphrates, which were of vital imp…
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Religion Past and Present
Hampton Court Conference
(167 words)
[German Version] A conference that took place at Hampton Court in 1604 in the presence of James I. Since the reign of Edward VI, groups dissatisfied with the
Book of Common Prayer and the perceived failure of the English authorities to instigate a ¶ thorough reformation had been pushing for further reforms in church polity and liturgy. The accession of James VI of Scotland in England raised new hopes among the Puritans and the Hampton Court Conference represented their attempt to push for a form of church government which would compromise…
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Religion Past and Present
Hamsun, Knut
(332 words)
[German Version] (Knut Pedersen; Aug 4, 1859, Garmostræet, Vågå, Norway – Feb 19, 1952, at Nörholmen near Grimstad, Norway), grew up in Hamsund (Hamarøy Island [Nordland]) after 1862. After years of wanderings as an agricultural worker and roadman, and as a postal aid in Norway and America (a treasure of experiences for his “Vagabond” novels), he became a pioneer of the literature of modernity with his early metropolitan novel
Sult (1890) (ET:
Hunger, 1908). He sensitively depicted the most nuanced emotions of his often provocative characters. He was a stylist with …
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Religion Past and Present
Hananias (Ananias)
(223 words)
[German Version] Hananias (Ananias), the son of Nedebaeus, was appointed high priest by Herod, king of Chalcis, in 47 ce (Agrippa I and II; Jos.
Ant. XX 5.2) and replaced by Ishmael under King Agrippa II in 59 ce (
Ant. XX 8.8). Following an altercation between Jews and Samaritans, Ananias was put in chains and sent with a delegation to the Roman emperor Claudius to give an account of himself (Jos.
Bell. II 12.6;
Ant. XX 6.2). In Acts 23:1–10, Paul faces Ananias during his interrogation by the Sanhedrin (the insult “whitewashed wall” is uttered according to Acts 23:3).…
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Religion Past and Present
Handel, George Frideric
(838 words)
[German Version] (Feb 23, 1685, Halle – Apr 14, 1759, London), English composer of German origin (German name Georg Friedrich Händel). The most significant 18th-century master of the oratorio, one of the most important opera composers of his period; he and J.S. Bach perfected late Baroque (V) instrumental music. After teaching himself to play the harpsichord and basic instruction in composition with Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, Handel, the son of a barber-surgeon, decided against the standard academic training of a professional musician. His cosm…
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Religion Past and Present