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
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