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
Law and Gospel
(2,755 words)
[German Version] The distinction between law and gospel has its theological setting in Luther's discovery at the dawn of the Reformation; from that beginning, it informed the debates within Lutheranism during the Reformation, the attempt to resolve them in the Lutheran articles of faith (I), and the deliberations of Reformed theology. Only in the context of the theological confessionalization in the 19th century and even more in the theological, ecclesiastical, and political debates of the 20th ce…
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Religion Past and Present
Law and Jurisprudence
(7,535 words)
[German Version] I. Concept and Legal Definition – II. History of Religion – III. Ancient Near East and Old Testament – IV. Greco-Roman Antiquity – V. New Testament – VI. Dogmatics – VII. Ethics of Law – VIII. Sociology of Law
I. Concept and Legal Definition There is no generally accepted definition of law. At most, there is a consensus that law is basically to be understood as the politically institutionalized order of human relations. The observance of the (general) rules (i.e. compliance or sanctioning of transgressions) emanatin…
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Religion Past and Present
Law and Legislation
(7,555 words)
[German Version] I. History of Religion – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Dogmatics and Ethics – V. Politics and Jurisprudence
I. History of Religion Laws are generally regarded as formulated, i.e. sentential and often codified rules of life and coexistence; this ¶ refers especially to principles of nature (Law/Natural law) and norms of action (Commandment, Ethics). For the modern age, the validity of natural laws arises from hypothetical laws that have been verified through observation and experiments, and have thereby been proven or j…
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Religion Past and Present
Lawes, William George
(273 words)
[German Version] (Jul 1, 1839, Aldermaston, England – Aug 6, 1907, Waverly, Australia). Lawes was sent to Niue (Savage Island, dependent on New Zealand) by the London Missionary Society (LMS). During his time there (1861–1872), he taught, translated biblical texts, and developed a local craft organization. He took his experience on Niue with him to Papua (Papua New Guinea) in 1874, where he strengthened the newly begun work of the LMS. In cooperation with Polynesian missionaries, especially Ruatok…
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Religion Past and Present
Law/Natural Law
(1,619 words)
[German Version] I. Natural Science – II. Dogmatics – III. Ethics
I. Natural Science The term “natural law” refers to a general norm of the order of nature that reveals regularities or causal relationships between the phenomena of a specific process area. A natural law has an explanatory and prognostic function, and thus constitutes the basis of calculated intervention in the processes it describes. In the natural sciences, a natural law is understood as the norm of a constant relationship between different classes of natural phenomena that can be depicte…
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Religion Past and Present
Lawrence, David Herbert
(151 words)
[German Version] (Sep 11, 1885, Eastwood, Nottinghamshire, England – Mar 2, 1930, Vence, France) was a controversial writer and the son of free-thinking Congregationalists (Congregationalism). An enquiring spirit led Lawrence quickly to dissent. He explored evolutionary thinkers like C. Darwin and W. James, but eventually himself rebelled against materialism. Thereafter, he formulated no settled opinions but remained passionately committed to the spiritual significance of sexuality, articulated wi…
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Religion Past and Present
Lawrence of Brindisi (Saint)
(264 words)
[German Version] (Giulio Cesare Rossi; Jul 22, 1559, Brindisi – Jul 22, 1619, Lisbon) was proclaimed Doctor apostolicus of the Church on Mar 19, 1959, having been canonized on Dec 8, 1881 (commemoration day: July 21). A Capuchin friar (from 1575), he officiated as provincial superior (Tuscany: 1590–1592; Venice: 1594–1596; Genoa: 1613–1616), commissary general of the Austrian-Bohemian province (founding monasteries in Innsbruck, Salzburg, Prague, Vienna, and Graz), as well as definitor general and…
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Religion Past and Present
Lawrence of Novara
(189 words)
[German Version] was probably, in the second quarter of the 5th century, bishop of Novara (northern Italy). Three homilies are preserved:
De duobus temporibus (also:
De paenitentia),
De eleemosyna, and
De muliere chananaea, the latter probably being the free translation of a sermon of J. Chrysostom (PG 52, 449–460). In
De duobus temporibus, Lawrence of Novara developed a theology of penance according to which two different modes of the remission of sins correspond to two different periods of time: in the first instance, remission is ¶ granted as a gift by God in baptism through t…
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Religion Past and Present
Lawrence of Rome (Saint)
(222 words)
[German Version] (died 258 ce). Lawrence, a deacon under the Roman bishop Sixtus II, died as a martyr in the Valerian persecution (Persecutions of Christians: I) and was buried in a crypt on the Via Tiburtina. As early as the reign of Constantine the Great, a chapel had already been erected on the saint's tomb – later San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, today one of the seven principal churches of Rome. Very early on, Lawrence was revered as a saint in both East and West (feast day Aug 10) and included in th…
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Religion Past and Present
Law, William
(253 words)
[German Version] (1686, King's Cliffe, Northamptonshire – Apr 9, 1761, King's Cliffe), Nonjuror and English theologian. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow in 1711. In 1714, upon the accession of George I, Law refused the Oath of Allegiance, was deprived of his fellowship, and joined the Jacobites (Jacobitism). He later served as private tutor to the Gibbons family in Putney. In 1740, he retired to his birthplace, where he became domestic chaplain to a small ho…
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Religion Past and Present
Lay Abbot
(106 words)
[German Version] A lay abbot in the narrow sense, is a layman who is entrusted with the conduct and use of a monastery without being a member of its convent or even a monk. In the Frankish Empire of the 9th and 10th centuries and its successor states, members of the nobility were particularly frequently vested with this function. In a secondary meaning, lay abbot also designates the clerical holder of a commendam, who does not have the status of a monk (frequent from the High Middle Ages to the early modern period). Ulrich Köpf Bibliography F.J. Felten,
Äbte und Laienäbte im Frankenreich, 1980.
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Religion Past and Present
Lay Apostolate
(1,005 words)
[German Version] The term “lay apostolate” became common at the turn of the 19th to the 20th centuries in the Catholic Church for the manifold activities that Catholics had developed in the first half of the 19th century. The Enlightenment and secularization had ¶ brought significant restrictions on the church and the clergy. On the other hand, they opened possibilities for the Catholic laity to avail themselves of the new rights of freedom that were gradually being offered to the benefit of the life of the church. A number of association…
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Religion Past and Present
Lay Brothers
(426 words)
[German Version] (
conversi) are, in the narrower sense, members of a religious community who are not ordained. In the course of history, however, the name
fratres laici or
conversi has designated various groups of persons. In the early medieval period,
conversi were monks who, in contrast to (
pueri)
oblati (Oblates: I) who were consigned to a monastery already as children, entered the monastery only as adults. In addition to this so-called “older institution of
conversi,” a “younger institution of
conversi” arose in the 11th century. It included members of the monastic
familia who wer…
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Religion Past and Present
Lay Church Drama
(412 words)
[German Version] Religious amateur theater as a way of dramatizing biblical motifs of the Christian faith has its roots in the liturgy. There is evidence of Easter plays as early as the 9th century; their nucleus was the so-called Easter trope (
Quem queritis: Luke 24:5b). Later passion plays and Christmas plays were presented, as well as eschatological plays (portraying the Antichrist and the Last Judgment) and saints' plays. In the Middle Ages, liturgical and didactic interests rendered obsolete the earlier Christian polemic against the
ludi theatrales; as a rule, clergy provid…
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Religion Past and Present
Lay Communities/Lay Orders
(273 words)
[German Version] Lay associations within the Catholic Church trace their traditions far back in the church's system of orders, confraternities, and communities. Vatican II emphasized the importance of lay communities for implementation of a Christian vocation and participation in the apostolate (PC 10, AA 18–21). The faithful are urged quite generally to hold such associations in high esteem (
CIC/1983 cc. 327, 574 §1;
CCEO c. 411). Canon law distinguishes lay communities recognized as religious orders (lay religious and secular institutes, societies of the …
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Religion Past and Present
Lay Confession
(400 words)
[German Version] Since biblical times, the community of believers has considered the experience that sins hidden within the heart burden sinners, robbing them of vital energy and nurturing fears of divine judgment (Ps 32:3–6). Candid confession of guilt restores confidence and assurance. Talking about sins brings insight into implications that would otherwise remain hidden, opens paths to reconciliation, and gives comfort in situations of hopeless despair. Mutual confession of sins has therapeutic power (Jas 5:16). In the history of theology, lay confession has gone th…
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Religion Past and Present
Laye, Camara
(240 words)
[German Version] (Jan 1, 1928, Kouroussa, Guinea – Feb 4, 1980, Dakar, Senegal) was one of the first African novelists of international repute. A member of one of the most influential casts, Laye was educated in Guinea and France. His award-winning first novel
L'enfant noir (1953; ET:
The Dark Child, 1954) is a romanced autobiography staged in an idyllic African village.
Le regard du Roi (1954; ET:
The Radiance of the King, 1956) is a phantasmagoric story of Clarence, a white man without qualities, going a long way toward initiation into the mystery of grace. Clare…
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Religion Past and Present
Laying-On of Hands
(1,802 words)
[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Practical Theology
I. Religious Studies The laying-on or imposition of hands is a physical gesture usually performed in the context of a ritualized series of actions or as a symbol by itself. It can be ascribed to a divine being conceived anthropomorphically. The ritual gesture is attested in many cultures, especially in the ancient Near East, but it is not universal – it is unknown, for example, in Buddhism and Islam. Its mean…
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Religion Past and Present
Laymen's Foreign Missions Inquiry
(222 words)
[German Version] (1932). The so-called Laymen's Report comprises
Re-Thinking Missions: A Laymen's Inquiry after One Hundred Years, by a commission chaired by W. Hocking, and a seven-volume Supplementary Series, containing detailed reports from the Protestant missions to Asia and their American sponsors. The report, which provoked much controversy, is a masterpiece of missiology (Mission studies) in both method and substance. Written by and for laymen, it sought to define the meaning of Christianity and missions…
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Religion Past and Present
Lay Movement
(1,253 words)
[German Version] I. Catholicism – II. Protestantism
I. Catholicism The Catholic lay movement is understood as the joint involvement of Catholic men and women in political, social, and cultural issues of the day, based on premises that have been worked out in discussion and dialogue. The beginnings of the organized Catholic lay movement in Germany came in the middle of the 19th century. In 1848 Franz Adam Lennig founded the first Piusverein für religiöse Freiheit (Pius Association for Religious Freedom,…
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Religion Past and Present
Laynez, Diego
(237 words)
[German Version] (Lainez; 1512, Almazán, Castile – Jan 19, 1565, Rome) studied at the University of Alcalá from 1528 onward (B.A., 1531; M.A., 1532), and later went to Paris, where he soon became the most zealous and closest disciple of Ignatius of Loyola. He did the spiritual exercises and took his vows on Montmartre on Aug 15, 1534. After further theological studies in Paris and Rome and ordination in Venice in 1537, he was dispatched to the Council of Trent in 1546, where he participated in all the Council's sessions. There, he strongly opposed the (Augustinian) doctrine of the
duplex iust…
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Religion Past and Present
Lay Offices
(605 words)
[German Version] In Catholic theology the term “office” is reserved primarily for the office of the ordained, that is, the office of the bishop, the priest, and the deacon (Office VI, 3). In addition, there are traditional ecclesiastical duties, especially in the realms of administration and diakonia, that are performed voluntarily on a full or part-time basis, and that are understood in the broader sense of the word “office.” Officially they are called “services” or “ministries” as distinct from offices. Although biblically the term “laity” refers to all believers in Chris…
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Religion Past and Present
Lay Preaching
(533 words)
[German Version] Because preaching is tied to Scripture and liturgy, the question whether individuals without ordination (and usually also without theological training) may preach in worship always raises the question whether those who preach have special status and how they should be trained. The Methodists have been most consistent in adhering to the insight of the early Reformers that baptism ordains all the faithful through the Holy Spirit. With respect to proclamation of the gospel, however, …
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Religion Past and Present
Layritz, Friedrich
(178 words)
[German Version] (Lairitz; Jan 30, 1808, Nemmersdorf – Mar 18, 1859, Unterschwaningen), Lutheran theologian and hymnologist. After studying theology and philosophy in Leipzig (Dr.phil. 1829) and Erlangen, where he was tutor at the faculty theology from 1833 to 1837, Layritz served as a parish priest in Merkendorf-Hirschlach, Bayreuth (St. Georgen), and Unterschwaningen. In a programmatic “Open Missive” and the edition of compilations of church hymns, Layritz spoke out for a revival of church music…
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Religion Past and Present
Lay Theology, Russian
(358 words)
[German Version] The expression
Russian lay theology is really inadequate to describe a phenomenon that is unique to Russian Orthodoxy. It is neither a theology by and for laity as such nor a theology contrary to the doctrinal decisions reached by episcopal synods. It is in fact antonymic to the Russian scholastic theology that in the 19th century was still strongly shaped by the doctrinal content and ways of thinking of Western Scholasticism and was felt to be cut off from reality. There was a desire…
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Religion Past and Present
Lazarus
(346 words)
[German Version] Lazarus, is a literary figure in Luke and John (Gk from Heb.
Eleazar, “God helps”; cf. Matt 1:15). While John 11:1–12:11 identifies Lazarus as the brother of the sisters Mary and Martha (cf. Luke 10:38ff.), the parable in Luke 16:19–31 portrays him as a fictitious person whose fate after death is contrasted with that of an unnamed rich man. Since the use of a personal name in parables is atypical and unique in the New Testament, the significance of the theophorous sentence-name “Lazarus” (“Go…
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Religion Past and Present
Lazarus, Moritz
(160 words)
[German Version] (Sep 15, 1824, Filehne, Poznán – Apr 13, 1903, Meran), was initially professor at the University of Bern, where he later became director of the department of philosophy and finally rector of the university. In 1873, he was appointed honorary profes-¶ sor at the University of Berlin, while he also lectured at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Colleges and universities, Jewish). Together with his brother-in-law H. Steinthal, he published the journal
Zeitschrift fürVölkerpsychologie und Sprachwissenschaft (1860–1886). In
Ethik des Judenthums (189…
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Religion Past and Present
Leade, Jane
(311 words)
[German Version] (
née Ward; 1623/1624, Norfolk – Aug 19, 1704, London). Born as the twelfth child of a wealthy tobacco trader, Leade soon developed an exceptional religious sensibility and attained a secure faith after years of inner conflict. In 1644, she married the London tradesman William Leade (died 1670). From 1663 onward, she began studying the writings of J. Böhme under the guidance of J. Pordage, in the course of which she came into contact with the Philadelphians. Since the death of her …
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Religion Past and Present
League of Nations
(394 words)
[German Version] The notion of a league of nations – drawn in part from motifs of Judeo-Christian eschatology (Isa 2:2–4) – goes back to widely broadcast plans for an organization devoted to world peace that were developed in the early 14th century (Pierre Dubois), in the 17th century (Maximilien de Sully, W. Penn), and at the beginning of the 18th century (Abbé de St. Pierre), but above all in I. Kant's philosophical tract
Zum ewigen Frieden (1795; ET:
Perpetual Peace, 1915). Against this background, even during World War I but especially in his Fourteen Points of Jan 18,…
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Religion Past and Present
Leander of Seville (Saint)
(235 words)
[German Version] (c. 540, Cartagena, Spain – Mar 13, between 599 and 601 [on this, see Fontane, 113], Seville), was the brother of St. Florentina, of Fulgentius (bishop of Ecija), and of the church father Isidore of Seville. He was the son of an illustrious Romanized family and became archbishop of Seville after the death of Pope Stephen II around 578. He succeeded in converting the Visigoth (Goths) Hermenegild to the Catholic faith, who led an ultimately unsuccessful revolt against his father Leo…
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Religion Past and Present
Learning
(880 words)
[German Version] I. Concept and History – II. The Present – III. Religious Education and Theology
I. Concept and History It has often been observed that the term
learning is highly ambiguous, in large part because until recently it has only been used colloquially. Since ancient times, the shifting concepts of learning have derived from the concepts of teaching and instruction, as well as the concepts of education, formation (Education/Formation), ¶ and school. The concepts of knowledge and understanding (Epistemology) debated in Greek philosophy (Sophistic schoo…
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Religion Past and Present
Learning, Autonomous
(442 words)
[German Version] Both the German term
Freiarbeit (“free work”) and the concept of autonomous ¶ learning have their roots in the pedagogical reform movement (Progressive education). M. Montessori (Montessori education), Peter Petersen, Hugo Gaudig, and Célestine Freinet advocate – with differing emphasis – the basic thesis that learning should be conceived as an open process in which, with self-direction, children (Child/Childhood) and young people (Youth/Adolescence) appropriate what they need for their development (III) and orientation in life. Contemporary approaches t…
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Religion Past and Present
Lebanon
(1,209 words)
[German Version] The name “Lebanon,” if from the Semitic, could be translated as “white” mountain, but it may also be of pre-Semitic origin. The Lebanon Mountains, together with the coastal plain and the Bekaa Valley, constitute the heartland of the modern state of Lebanon. The crest of the Anti-Lebanon Mountains is the border with Syria, which also constitutes the northern boundary. In the south, Israel is the border. With a length of 220 km and a width of 40–70 km, the state of Lebanon has a surface area of 10,400 km2. The highest peak rises to 3,088 m. The majority of the populati…
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Religion Past and Present
Lebbe, Frédéric Marie
(256 words)
[German Version] (also Frédéric-Vincent, Chinese name Lei Mingyuan; Aug 17, 1877, Ghent , Belgium – Jun 24, 1940, Chongqing, China) was one of the most prominent China missionaries of the 20th century. He was ordained priest in Peking in 1901. In 1923, he created the Unio Catholica Iuventutis Sinensis in Paris, and in 1927 the Société des Auxiliaires des Missions ¶ (SAM) in Belgium. Lebbe fought against Europeism and introduced a modern (so-called “Tianjin”) mission strategy. He founded the Chinese-language daily newspaper
Yishibao (Social Welfare) in 1915. In 1928, he founde…
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Religion Past and Present
Lebedev, Aleksey Petrovič
(183 words)
[German Version] (1845, Governorate of Moscow – Jul 14, 1908, Moscow), earned his Dr.theol. at the Moscow Spiritual Academy (Moscow: II) in 1879 with a dissertation on “The Ecumenical Councils of the 4th and 5th Centuries.” He was professor of the history of the Early Church at the Academy from 1874 to 1896 and accepted an appointment at the University of Moscow in 1908. Lebedev is one of the most prominent representatives of the Historical School of Russian theology (A. Gorsky). In his patristic …
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Religion Past and Present
Le Bouthillier de Rancé, Armand-Jean
(13 words)
[German Version] Rancé, Armand-Jean Le Bouthillier de
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Religion Past and Present
Le Bras, Gabriel
(343 words)
[German Version] (Jul 23, 1891, Paimpol, Côtes-du-Nord, France – Feb 18, 1970, Paris), jurist, historian, and sociologist of religion. Le Bras studied jurisprudence and philosophy in Rennes from 1908 to 1911 as well as at the university and the École des Hautes Études in Paris from 1911 to 1914. He earned a doctorate in politics and business sciences in 1920, and in jurisprudence in 1922. He was professor of Roman law in Strasbourg from 1922 and in Paris from 1929, where he was awarded a professor…
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Religion Past and Present
Lebus
(291 words)
[German Version] Lebus, a small town approx. 10 km north of Frankfurt an der Oder, on the left bank of the river, shares its name – which recalls the Lutiz prince Lub (Lubosłav) in the 9th century – not only with its vicinity but also with the diocese bequeathed in 1124 by the Polish duke ¶ Bolesłav III Krzywousty. The diocese kept the name, although in the years 1276 to 1326 the see was in Göritz (Górzyca), to the right of the Oder approx. 10 km upstream, and since 1385 it was in Fürstenwalde on the Spree, where the Marienkirche was elevated to a ca…
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Religion Past and Present
Leclercq, Henri
(198 words)
[German Version] Leclercq, Henri, OSB (Dec 4, 1869, Tournai, Belgium – Mar 23, 1945, London, England), church historian and historian of liturgy. After briefly serving in the French army, he entered Solesmes Abbey in 1893 and transferred to the daughter house of Farnborough in Hampshire in 1896. With the superior there, F. Cabrol, he edited, from 1902, the
Reliquiae Liturgicae vetustissimae and from 1903 the (initially unnamed)
Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie. The career he had thus begun as lexicographer and editor – which was connected with th…
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Religion Past and Present
Leclercq, Jean
(248 words)
[German Version] (Jan 31, 1911, Avesnes, France – Oct 27, 1993, Clervaux, Luxembourg), a Benedictine monk, was one of the most prolific medievalists of the second half of the 20th century. Having studied in Rome and Paris, he also lectured in various places (esp. in Rome). In 1941, after conducting research on the Scholasticism of the 13th to 15th centuries, Leclercq turned to the partly still unpublished monastic literature of the Middle Ages, especially of the 11th and 12th centuries. His extens…
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Religion Past and Present
Le Corbusier, Charles-Édouard Jeanneret
(321 words)
[German Version] (actually Charles-Édouard Jeanneret; Oct 6, 1887, La Chaud-de-Fonds, Switzerland – Aug 27, 1965, Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, near Nice). Le Corbusier educated himself by means of reading, traveling and practical activity in the architects' offices of Auguste Perret in Paris and Peter Behrens in Berlin and settled in Paris in 1917, where he initially worked as a painter and sculptor with Amédé Ozenfant. In 1922 he founded an architects' office with his nephew Piere Jeanneret, and in 192…
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Religion Past and Present
Lecot, Victor Lucien Sulpice
(196 words)
[German Version] (Jan 8, 1831, Montecourt-Lizerolles – Dec 19, 1908, Chambéry), French cardinal. In 1886 he was appointed by the French government as bishop of Dijon, and in 1890 he became archbishop of Bordeaux. Lecot became the most important mediator between the Holy See and the French Republic. He founded worker kitchens, took the part of the working class, and promoted the newly growing socio-political activities of French Catholics within the framework of the
Raillement policy of Leo XIII, in order to overcome – through practical social engagement – the ideologi…
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Religion Past and Present
Lectern
(342 words)
[German Version] (Lat.
analogium, lectorium, pulpitum), a support for liturgical books, either as a free-standing piece of church furniture (choir and altar lecterns) or as a permanent attachment affixed to an ambo, jube or pulpit for the Gospel readings on ecclesial feast days. In the case of free-standing choir lecterns, a distinction must be made between the onesided lecterns flanking the altar or the choir entrance, which are used during the Gospel and Epistle readings, and the frequently two- to…
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Religion Past and Present
Lectio divina
(307 words)
[German Version] Monastic
lectio divina is the prayerful, holistic reading of Scripture; together with the liturgy and labor, it shapes the everyday monastic routine. It is the basis of monastic theology, which reached its highest development in the 12th century (William of Saint-Thierry). Repetitive reading with the goal of memorization was already among the mental exercises cultivated as a way of life by ancient philosophy. It continued on in early Christian monasticism and in the Jewish practice of murmured meditation of the Psalms. Central to
lectio divina was the passion of …
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Religion Past and Present
Lectionary
(1,230 words)
[German Version] I. Bible – II. Liturgy
I. Bible A lectionary is a book containing biblical readings or lections for the services of the church year. The lectionaries of the Greek church are the
Synaxarion , with readings for all the moveable feasts, starting with Easter Sunday, and the
Menologion (Menologies) for the fixed saints' days of the secular calendar, starting with Sep 1. For the period from Easter to Pentecost, the
Synaxarion provides daily readings from Acts and John. After Pentecost readings are provided only for Saturday and Sunday: to the Feast of t…
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Religion Past and Present
Ledesma, Martin de
(122 words)
[German Version] (c. 1509, Ledesma, Spain – Aug 15, 1574, Coimbra), Dominican friar and Spanish theologian. A student of F. of Vitoria and the teacher of M. Cano in Salamanca, he was professor of theology in Coimbra from 1540 to 1562, a major representative of the School of Salamanca in Portugal, and a commentator of Thomas Aquinas (
Expositiones in universam D. Thomae Summam, unpubl.;
Commentaria in quartum librum Sententiarum, 2 vols., 1555–1560). Manuel Augusto Rodrigues Bibliography F. Stegmüller,
Filosofia e teologia nas Universidades de Coimbra e Évora no século XVI, 1956 M.A. Ro…
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Religion Past and Present
Leese, Kurt
(389 words)
[German Version] (Jul 6, 1887, Gollnow [Goleniów], Pomerania – Jan 6, 1965, Hamburg), Protestant theologian and philosopher of religion; friend of Paul Tillich. From 1906 to 1910 Leese studied theology at Bethel, Rostock, Strasbourg, and Berlin, where in 1910 he passed his first examination in theology and in 1912 his second. In 1912 he also received his Lic.theol. from Kiel. From 1912 to 1932 he served as pastor in Danzig (Gdansk), Berlin, and Hamburg, with a military chaplaincy during the war. I…
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Religion Past and Present
Leeser, Isaac
(149 words)
[German Version] (Dec 12, 1806, Neuenkirchen, Westphalia, Germany – Feb 1, 1868, Philadelphia, PA), Jewish preacher and journalist. After attending the Gymnasium in Münster, Leeser emigrated to Richmond, Virginia, in 1824. Between 1829 and 1850 he served as Hazzan (cantor) and preacher at the congregation Mikveh-Israel in Philadelphia. Leeser attempted to unite American Jewry on an institutional level. He founded the first national American-Jewish paper, the monthly
The Occident (1843–1869). As editor and author of
The Occident Leeser visited many Jewish communities in …
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Religion Past and Present
Leeuw, Gerardus van der
(305 words)
[German Version] (Mar 18, 1890, The Hague, The Netherlands – Nov 18, 1950, Utrecht, The Netherlands) was professor in Groningen (1918–1950) and studied theology and religious studies in Leiden under William Brede Kristensen and others, in Berlin, and in Göttingen under J. Bousset. In 1916 Van der Leeuw received his doctorate in Leiden with a dissertation on images of gods in ancient Egyptian pyramid texts. His interest lay in the universal structure in religious thinking. To this end he compared E…
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Religion Past and Present
Lefebvre, Marcel
(393 words)
[German Version] (Nov 29, 1905, Tourcoing, France – Mar 25, 1991, Martigny, Switzerland) studied at the Gregoriana in Rome from 1923 to 1930 (Dr.phil. 1925; Dr.theol. 1929), was ordained to the priesthood in 1929, and subsequently served as parish curate in a suburb of Lille. He joined the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (Spirit; Order of the Holy Spirit, CSSp, Spiritans) in 1931 (member until 1968) and worked as a missionary in Gabon from 1932 to 1947. In 1948, he was appointed apostolic delegate…
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Religion Past and Present
Lefèvre d'Étaples, Jacques
(407 words)
[German Version] (Faber, Jacob Stapulensis; c. 1455/1460, Étaples – 1536, Nérac). Lefèvre d'Étaples, a humanist and Reform theologian, is credited with having rediscovered Aristotle, whom he considered to be divinely inspired and whose texts he edited in newer translations beginning in 1492 with commentary added partly in his own hand and partly by his student, Jodocus Clichtoveus (c. 1472–1543). Lefèvre also edited writings by the church fathers (Patristics) and medieval authors. He was especiall…
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Religion Past and Present
Leffler, Siegfried
(168 words)
[German Version] (Nov 21, 1900, Azendorf – Nov 10, 1983, Hengersberg, Bavaria). Together with J. Leutheuser, the pastor Siegfried Leffler moved from Bavaria to Thuringia in 1927, where in 1928/1929 they both founded the National Socialist Church Party of the (Thuringian)
Deutsche Christen (German Christians), who propagated an interdenominational German national church. He became its
Reichsleiter (Reich chairman) in 1936. In 1933, Leffler was granted leave from his ecclesial duties and joined the ministry of national education in Weimar. In 1939, he…
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Religion Past and Present
Le Fort, Gertrud, Baroness von
(628 words)
[German Version] (Oct 11, 1876, Minden, Westphalia – Nov 1, 1971, Oberstdorf) was a prominent representative of the literary
Renouveau catholique (“Catholic Revival”). Her poetic oeuvre envisages the divine order of the world as being configured under the sway of love for Christ and his cross, ¶ and expresses the hope for a renewal of Christian-Western humanity. Le Fort was a student of E. Troeltsch, whose “doctrine of faith” she published posthumously in 1925. She converted to Catholicism in Rome in 1926, a step already hinted at in her
Hymnen an die Kirche (1924; ET:
Hymns to the Church, 1…
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Religion Past and Present
Legal Capacity of the Church
(145 words)
[German Version] As juridical persons, ecclesiastical corporations (Protestant regional churches, Catholic dioceses, local churches, etc.) are recognized by law as having legal rights and duties. In the context of the churches' own law this goes without saying (Legal capacity under church law). Germany's Basic Law, art. 140, with Weimar Constitution (WRV) art. 137, IV, recognizes the legal capacity of “religious bodies” “according to the general provisos of civil law”; WRV art. 137, V recognizes t…
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Religion Past and Present
Legal Capacity under Church Law
(302 words)
[German Version] The legal capacity under church law is the ability to be addressed as a subject of rights and duties by the norms of church law. It neither presupposes nor necessarily follows from legal capacity under state law (Legal capacity of the church). The intrinsic criterion for the legal capacity under church law is involvement in the mission and promise of the church. It manifests itself in baptism (Matt 28:19–20: “Go” – “I am with you”). People thus acquire the legal capacity under chu…
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Religion Past and Present
Legal Policy
(827 words)
[German Version] I. Definition – II. Actors and Procedure – III. Criteria and Context
I. Definition Legal policy is the guiding force behind legislation in the modern state (III). It seeks to respond to social situations, interests, and needs by analyzing and assessing the situations, defining the interests, and evaluating the needs. Today the shaping of society embodied in policy (Politics) is largely accomplished through legislation. The tax policy that affects the revenue of the state is embodied in tax legislation. The policies with the ¶ greatest expenditures involve the …
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Religion Past and Present
Legal Positivism
(393 words)
[German Version] Legal positivism is the jurisprudential doctrine that only effective statutory (“positive”) law (Law and jurisprudence) can be called “law in the strict sense” (see also positivism). Here there is a need to distinguish between sociological and normative legal positivism. Sociological positivism examines the facts of the real organization of a society. Normative positivism emphasizes instead the deontic aspects of positive law. Current debate is focused on normative positivism. ¶ In his posthumous (1861)
Lectures on Jurisprudence, Austin, building on Gust…
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Religion Past and Present
Legal Protection
(269 words)
[German Version] is the – especially judicial – assertion of subjective rights, i.e. of individual, legally guaranteed claims to the realization of an interest. Legal protection is an essential feature of the rule of law. The legal protection of the claims established by civil law has always been a central aspect of judiciary. Legal protection against governmental actions only became a practicable legal construction from the second half of the19th century with the dogmatic conception of public leg…
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Religion Past and Present
Legates
(197 words)
[German Version] (apostolic), from Lat.
legare (“to dispatch/send someone”), are representatives of the Apostolic See in local churches, states, as well as at international organizations and conferences. Conciliar reform impulses (
CD art. 9f.) led to a reorganization through Pope Paul VI's
motu proprio
Sollicitudo Omnium Ecclesiarum (Jun 24, 1969; AAS 61, 1969, 473–484) and the
CIC/1983 (cc. 362–367). The primary function of the legates is to enable communication between the pope and the local churches (c. 364); their secondary function is to act as…
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Religion Past and Present
Legend
(1,218 words)
[German Version] The word
legend (from Middle Lat.
legenda [
sc. vita or
acta]) originally denoted a text to be read during worship or within a monastic community, especially at mealtime, in walkways set aside for reading, or in the chapter house. The subject matter was the life and deeds of one or more saints (Saints/Veneration ¶ of the saints: II). For the most part, the legend was regularly read in whole or in part on the festival of the particular saint. In conjunction with the functionalization of the cult of the saints, which had already begun i…
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Religion Past and Present
Legio fulminata
(165 words)
[German Version] (or
fulminatrix, fulminea), literally “thunderbolt legion,” the name given to the Twelfth Legion since the time of Augustus. The name is associated with a meteorological miracle: during the Marcomannic Wars, thanks to a prayer, a thunderstorm blew up that saved the Roman army from dying of thirst and drove back the enemy. The event itself is probably historical, since it is represented on the column of Marcus Aurelius. Interpretations varied according to the religion of the interpre…
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Religion Past and Present
Legion of Mary
(458 words)
[German Version] The Maria Legio Church of Kenya, also known as Legio Maria) is one of the largest African Instituted Churches (AICs) to have broken away from the Roman Catholic Church. Its base is in western Kenya, but it extends to the neighboring districts of Tanzania. The majority of adherents belong to the Luo people, but the Church understands itself to be a multi-ethnic community and includes adherents from the Kisii and Luyia peoples. It has parishes in urban areas, including the Kenyan ca…
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Religion Past and Present
Legislation, Church
(1,397 words)
[German Version] I. Historical Development – II. Current Church Polity
I. Historical Development
1. A distinctly legislative function within the church became common only after a long process of development. From the start, the church established rules, commonly called canons, governing the behavior of its members and the performance of their duties. These rules were not understood as the result of legislative decisions but as an expression of what was considered mandatory by virtue of the authority of Chr…
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Religion Past and Present
Legislative
(535 words)
[German Version] In addition to its general adjectival use in relation to legislation, this term is used of law-giving authority as a function of the state, also designating the institutions that enact laws (Law and legislation: V) through specific procedures (for the ecclesiastical legislative, cf. Legislation, Church). Rooted in common usage, the generally accepted precedence of the “good old law” in the Middle Ages was replaced by the priority of state legislation, which – following the ideas o…
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Religion Past and Present
Legitimacy
(427 words)
[German Version] Legitimacy relates to the justification of norms, institutions, legal entitlements, and claims to authority, together with their basis in moral and legal philosophy. With specific reference to the acceptance of authority (Dominion/Rule), M. Weber distinguished sociologically between traditional, charismatic, and rational or legal legitimacy. The discussion of the Sophists as to whether right is based solely on convention (
thései) or is established by nature (
phýsei) already distinguished between the positivistic reduction of legitimacy to lega…
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Religion Past and Present
Lehmann, Gottfried Wilhelm
(91 words)
[German Version] (Oct 23, 1799, Hamburg – Feb 21, 1882, Berlin) was a copperplate engraver and a Baptist preacher. In 1837, he established the first Prussian Baptist congregration (Baptists) in Berlin. He cofounded the German branch of the Evangelical Alliance in 1852. Together with J. Oncken and Julius Köbner, he was one of the founding fathers of the continental European Baptists. Carsten Claußen Bibliography Works include:
Offenes Sendschreiben an den Deutschen Evangelischen Kirchentag, 1854 On Lehmann: H. Luckey,
Gottfried Wilhelm Lehmann und die Entstehung einer deut…
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Religion Past and Present
Lehmann, Johannes Edvard
(228 words)
[German Version] (Aug 19, 1862, Copenhagen – Mar 23, 1930), earned a Dr.phil. in 1896 with a dissertation on the Avesta, the sacred scripture of Zoroastrianism (Zarathustra/Zoroastrianism), and was lecturer in the history of religion at the University of Copenhagen from 1900 onward. In 1910, he was appointed to the first German professorship for the “general history of religion and philosophy of religion” at the Protestant theological faculty of the University of Berlin, from which he resigned in …
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Religion Past and Present
Lehmus, Adam Theodor Albert Franz
(249 words)
[German Version] (Dec 2, 1777, Soest – Aug 18, 1837, Nuremberg), theologian. As a student in Halle an der Saale and Jena, Lehmus was enthused by Rationalism, I. Kant's criticism, and J.G. Fichte's idealism. A deacon from 1807 in Dinkelsbühl and Ansbach, he initially espoused, with F. Schelling and G. Hegel, a speculative theology in order to prove the internal rationality of the symbols of faith. After his appointment in 1814 as associate professor of theology and preacher at the university church…
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Religion Past and Present
Lehnin Prophecy
(161 words)
[German Version] These 100 rhymed Latin hexameters were first attested in 1693 and became better known in the early 18th century. They were attributed to the Cistercian monk Hermann von Lehnin in Brandenburg (c. 1300). The verses describe suggestively the Brandenburg rulers beginning with the house of Askanier; the last figures with identifiable traits are Prince Elector Friedrich Wilhelm I and his successor. The Reformation, with the abolition of the monastery, marks the turn for the worse. Until…
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Religion Past and Present
Leibholz, Gerhard
(265 words)
[German Version] (Nov 15, 1901, Berlin – Feb 19, 1982, Göttingen) was an expert in constitutional law and a representative of German Cultural Protestantism in exile. Leibholz studied philosophy and law. In 1925, he supported the position – new at the time – that legislators were also bound by the equality clause of the constitution. In
Das Wesen der Repräsentation (1929), he declared that “genuine” representation is incompatible with political parties and mass democracy. He also wrote studies on fascist constitutional law (1928), studies on the right to vote (1931), and on the
Auflösung…
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Religion Past and Present
Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm
(1,166 words)
[German Version] (Jun 21/Jul 1, 1646, Leipzig – Nov 14, 1716, Hanover). As the son of a Leipzig professor of ethics, Leibniz came from orthodox Lutheranism. After studying in Leipzig and Jena, he was awarded the Dr.iur. in Altdorf in 1667. He turned down the professorship offered to him, and entered the service of the prince elector of Mainz as a legal adviser. In 1672, he went to Paris on a diplomatic mission; the four years spent there, in contact with A. Arnauld, Christian Huygens, N. Malebranc…
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Religion Past and Present
Leibowitz, Yeshayahu
(262 words)
[German Version] (Jan 28, 1903, Riga – Aug 18, 1994, Jerusalem). Born into an orthodox Jewish family, Leibowitz studied in Berlin and Cologne. He emigrated to Palestine in 1935 and worked as a biochemist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, although he became known as a philosopher. Leibowitz's philosophy may be characterized as a synthesis of ¶ his scientific insights, of his extensive knowledge in the field of Jewish philosophy and Jewish literature, and of the European intellectual tradition in general. Influenced by M. Maimonides and I. Kant in …
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Religion Past and Present
Leiden, University
(559 words)
[German Version] Wishing that the formation of pastors and jurists should not be left to the Catholic University of Leuven, William of Orange founded the first university of the northern Netherlands in Leiden in 1575. In addition to the theological and juridical fields of study, departments of philosophy and literature as well as medicine were also planned. From the very beginning, the university was characterized by a strong orientation to Humanism (III) and Calvinism. The Humanist philologists J…
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Religion Past and Present
Leile, George
(144 words)
[German Version] (Liele; 1750?–1825?) was the first black ordained minister in the United States. Born a slave in Virginia, Leile was converted in 1773 at his master's church, where he was baptized and accepted into membership. Shortly thereafter he was given a license to preach. In 1775 he was ordained, although he had already organized the first black Baptist church in the USA in 1773. (D. George was among the members.) Granted his freedom, Leile went to Jamaica in 1783, where his preaching to slaves there met with immediate success. By …
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Religion Past and Present
Leipoldt, Johannes
(192 words)
[German Version] (Dec 20, 1880, Dresden – Feb 22, 1965, Ahrenshoop). Dr.phil. in 1903, Lic.theol. in 1905,
Privatdozent in church history in Leipzig from 1905, then in Halle from 1906, associate professor in Halle in 1909, professor of New Testament in Kiel from 1909, in Münster from 1914, in Leipzig from 1916, made professor emeritus in 1959, visiting lecturer in Rostock from 1959. Leipoldt was one of the most distinguished historians of religion in his time, had a command of several Near Eastern languages, and…
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Religion Past and Present
Leipzig Disputation (1519)
(8 words)
[German Version] Luther, Martin
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Religion Past and Present
Leipzig Disputation (1827)
(8 words)
[German Version] Hahn, August
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Religion Past and Present
Leipzig Mission
(269 words)
[German Version] Leipzig Mission, a mission society founded by Lutherans in Dresden on Aug 17, 1836, as a follow-up to a support association that had been organized in 1819 to assist the Basel Mission and which moved to Leipzig in 1848. From 1832 to 1848, as a “preliminary school” it began training missionaries for the Basel Mission. Following the intention of its first director K. Graul (1844–1860), the society was to become the mission-dedicated rallying point of German-speaking Lutheranism. The…
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Religion Past and Present
Leipzig, University
(1,215 words)
[German Version] The rising commercial city of Leipzig was shaped by the development of the land by the Wettins, with recognition as a city c. 1165, as well as by the founding of St. Thomas, a seminary of Augustinian Canons, in 1212 and of the Dominican monastery in 1229. The establishment of the University of Leipzig on Dec 2, 1409 (confirmed by Pope Alexander V on Sep 9, 1409), as a consequence of the Western Schism of 1378, bundled the interests of the masters of the Prague Schools of Arts and …
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Religion Past and Present
Leisure Time
(1,098 words)
[German Version] I. Concept; Social History – II. Social Ethics – III. Practical Theology
I. Concept; Social History
1. The concept of free (or leisure) time derives from a period of legal immunity in the Middle Ages. The German word
Freizeit still used today for a religious retreat (E. Wunderlich, “Freizeiten,”
RGG 3 III, 1958, 1122–1124). The notion of leisure time made its appearance in the context of industrialization and the struggle of trade unions for extended periods of rest for workers. Sociology treats it as the opposite of labor, wi…
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Religion Past and Present
Le Maistre Family
(187 words)
[German Version] The three Le Maistre brothers were Jansenist theologians (Jansenism). The oldest,
Antoine (May 2, 1608, Paris – Nov 4, 1658, Port Royal), was a successful lawyer in Paris and came under the influence of J. Duvergier de Hauranne, one of the first hermits in Port-Royal Abbey. Known for his piety, Antoine wrote apologies and, among other writings, also a biography of Bernard of Clairvaux. He began a Bible translation that was continued by the youngest brother,
Isaac Louis (Mar 29, 1613, Paris – Jan 4, 1684, Pomponne; called Le Maistre de Sacy), who was the mo…
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Religion Past and Present
Leme da Silveira Cintra, Sebastião
(188 words)
[German Version] Leme da Silveira Cintra, Sebastião, (1882, Pinhal, São Paulo – Oct 17, 1942, Rio de Janeiro) was ordained priest in 1904 and consecrated bishop in 1911 in Rome. From 1916 to 1921, he was archbishop of Olinda and Recife, then bishop in 1921, and on Apr 18, 1930, he became archbishop of Rio de Janeiro. On Jun 5, 1930, he was appointed cardinal. He had a considerable influence on the shape of Catholic life in Brazil during the First Republic (1889–1930) and the authoritarian regime o…
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Religion Past and Present
Lempp, Albert
(141 words)
[German Version] (Feb 13, 1884, Heutingsheim, Württemberg – Jun 9, 1943, Starnberg) became the owner of the Christian Kaiser publishing house in Munich in 1911. At first Lempp's emphasis was on Bavarian liberal Protestantism (C. Geyer, F. Rittelmeyer), but then he became – with G. Merz as his theological consultant – the publishing pioneer and promoter of the works and series of K. Barth and his friends (Dialectical theology), without neglecting the Bavarian tradition and Lutheran theology. In the so-called
Kirchenkampf (National Socialism: I), a circle of critical theologi…
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Religion Past and Present
Lenau, Nikolaus
(105 words)
[German Version] Lenau, Nikolaus, (actually Niembsch Edler von Strehlenau; Aug 13, 1802, Csatád, Hungary – Aug 22, 1850, sanatorium Oberdöbling, Austria) was an Austrian lyric poet and writer of epic verse, who combined melancholy with traits of rebellion and social criticism, and was thus exemplary of the inner conflict of his epoch (Biedermeier,
Vormärz ). He wrote atmospheric nature lyrics of great musicality, but also wrote poetry with a commitment to intellectual and political freedom. He employed material from the history o…
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Religion Past and Present
Lengeling, Emil Joseph
(178 words)
[German Version] (May 26, 1916, Dortmund – Jun 18, 1986, Münster), a Catholic theologian. In 1941, he was ordained priest; in 1959, he became professor of liturgical studies at the University of Münster; from 1962 to 1965, council adviser at Vatican II. In 1964, he was consultant to the committee for carrying out the liturgical constitution
Sacrosanctum Concilium and to the Roman Congregation for Divine Worship. He was also the facilitator of several study groups on the renewal of the liturgy, which, as the dialogue between God and human beings, was for him the basic accom-¶ plishment of t…
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Religion Past and Present
Leninism
(967 words)
[German Version] I. Concept – II. Marxism-Leninism as a Worldview – III. The Leninist Concept of the Party – IV. The Leninist Theory of Revolution – V. Assessment
I. Concept In various writings immediately after the death of V. Lenin, J. Stalin coined the term “Leninism” to characterize Marxist theory as elaborated by Lenin. Since the 1920s, the communist parties (Communism) have placed Lenin's writings, in canonical fashion, alongside the works of K. Marx and F. Engels. In the self- concept of the Soviet Communist move…
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Religion Past and Present
Lenin, Vladimir Ilich
(440 words)
[German Version] (Apr 22, 1870, Simbirsk [now Ulyanovsk] – Jan 21, 1924, Gorki [now Gorki Leninskiye], near Moscow; pseudonym since 1901 of V. Ilich Ulyanov). On Nov 8, 1917, after the successful October Revolution, the theoretician, organizer, and widely influential spokesman of the radical, Bolshevik wing of Russian social democracy was elected “chairman of the Council of People's Commissars,” thus becoming the head of the Soviet Russian government. In his theoretical works and through his political activity, he laid the foundations of Soviet communism. When he began to study…
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Religion Past and Present
Lenten Pastoral Letters
(180 words)
[German Version] Lenten pastoral letters are a special form of episcopal communication at the beginning of Lent (Fasting). The earliest prototypes are the Epistles of the apostles and the letters to local communities in the post-apostolic period. Beginning in the 18th century, these letters took on increasing importance in Germany as Lenten pastoral letters. It is important to distinguish didactic letters from those dealing with ethical, pastoral, and social questions. These letters go back to the…
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Religion Past and Present
Lentulus, Letter of
(247 words)
[German Version] The
Letter of Lentulus is an apocryphal “contemporary” description of Jesus' personality and appearance: long, dark brown hair, parted in the middle and curling below his ears, a short, slightly forked beard, bluish-gray eyes; a handsome, serious radiance (cf. Ps 45:3*). First mentioned c. 1350 by Ludolf the Carthusian, it probably dates from the 13th or 14th century (Italy?). It is preserved in manuscripts dating from the 14th through the 16th century. In the 14th and 15th centuries…
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Religion Past and Present
Lenz
(564 words)
[German Version]
1. Christian David (Dec 26, 1720, Köslin [Koszalin], Pomerania – Aug 14, 1798, Riga), Lutheran theologian. In 1737 he began theological studies in Halle. In 1739 he was appointed tutor at the girls' school of the Halle orphanage; in 1740/1741 he served as a private tutor in Livonia and from 1742 held various pastorates there. In 1779 he was appointed general superintendent of Livonia. Beginning in 1741, he kept a journal based on the blood-and-wounds theology of N. v. Zinzendorf. In …
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Religion Past and Present
Leo Baeck Institute
(158 words)
[German Version] The Leo Baeck Institute was established in Jerusalem, London, and New York in 1955 by the Council of Jews from Germany in order to promote the study of German Jewish history (L. Baeck). The New York institute has a library of 60,000 volumes, ¶ a large art collection, and extensive archives. A branch has been housed since 2001 in the Jewish Museum Berlin. The institute's
Yearbook has been published in London since 1956, while its
Bulletin has been published in Jerusalem, joined recently by the
Jüdischer Almanach. In Germany the institute supports a Wissenschaftliche…
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Religion Past and Present
Leo, Heinrich
(361 words)
[German Version] (Mar 19, 1799, Rudolstadt – Apr 24, 1878, Halle), Protestant historian. After studying classical philology, philosophy, theology, and history, Leo was appointed associate professor in Berlin in 1825; in 1830 he was appointed full professor in Halle, where he served as rector from 1854 to 1856. After 1832 he was a political conservative and a pietist with catholicizing leanings. He conceptualized his ideal of an organic and systematic state in accordance with the Romantic notion of…
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Religion Past and Present