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
Renovabis
(192 words)
[German Version] the solidarity initiative of German Catholics with people in Central and Eastern Europe, established in 1993 by the German Bishops’ Conference. The name Renovabis is derived from Ps 104:30:
renovabis faciem terrae, “you will renew the face of the earth.” Renovabis provides assistance in 29 countries, helping to renew the living conditions of people in society and churches, and thereby to overcome spiritual and material distress. To this end, Renovabis promotes East-West dialogue, initiates and assists partners…
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Religion Past and Present
Repartimiento
(104 words)
[German Version] (Span.) was a system for the exploitation of Latin American Indians as workers. It stipulated that the communities must provide a certain number of workers annually, who then carried out work for the Spanish over a legally defined period of time. Often used as a synonym of
encomienda, repartimiento actually refers to a distinct form of compulsory labor.
Repartimientos for the performance of personal services existed before the system of
encomiendas was established and continued to exist after its introduction. Maria Cristina Bohn Martins Bibliography R. Konetzke,
Am…
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Religion Past and Present
Repentance
(11,471 words)
[German Version]
I. Religious Studies Examination of repentance from the perspective of religious studies must confront the problem that the term itself has no culturally neutral meaning. Many of the phenomena in other religions that Christians tend to call repentance appear in a different light when viewed in the context of different anthropological presuppositions, ¶ so that due weight must be given to the religious anthropology in question. Generally speaking, it is true to say that in almost all non-Christian religions the notion of repentance c…
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Religion Past and Present
Repression
(406 words)
[German Version] a concept formulated by J.F. Herbart (1806); cf. also “controlled forgetting” (Hermann Ebbinghaus,
Über das Gedächtnis, 1885; ET:
Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology, 1913). From the perspective of psychoanalysis, repression is not an arbitrary act for the avoidance of frustration (“suppression”) but a distinct defense mechanism that prevents from reaching consciousness libidinous, aggressive or self-(esteem-)related representations, drive impulses, and feelings that are conflict-laden or …
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Religion Past and Present
Reproaches (Improperia)
(179 words)
[German Version] chanted during the Good Friday liturgy, in which the crucified Christ pronounces reproaches (Lat.
impropria) against the assembled congregation, identified with the people of God, for the injustices suffered in the Passion. The Reproaches go back to the lamentation of Christ and to corresponding passages in the Old Testament. In the medieval Roman Catholic tradition they were sung by two choirs during the Veneration of the Cross. They consist of twelve verses which ask questions about Christ’s …
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Religion Past and Present
Reproductive Science
(1,215 words)
[German Version]
I. Medicine Reproductive medicine encompasses research into female and male sterility and its treatment. The importance of reproductive medicine has greatly increased in recent years owing to the introduction of new diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. It has long been known that various morphological changes (e.g. malformations of the uterus, occlusions of the Fallopian tubes and seminal ducts) lead to male and female sterility. One possible therapy is attempted correction of the…
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Religion Past and Present
Requerimiento
(112 words)
[German Version] (“requirement, admonition”). Authored in 1512 by the Castilian royal councilor and jurist Palacios Rubios (1450–1524), the
Requerimiento was written for the purpose of introducing a legally valid formula for the recognition of Spanish rule in the New World. Read aloud before the indigenous communities by the ¶ expeditionary captains, the
Requerimiento established the formalities of a war of conquest: it demanded submission to Catholicism and threatened military conflict in the event of non-compliance. Maria Cristina Bohn Martins Bibliography B. Fernández He…
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Religion Past and Present
Requiem Mass
(1,102 words)
[German Version]
I. Liturgy Until the liturgical reform that followed upon Vatican II, every celebration of mass for the deceased began with the Latin antiphon to the introit,
Requiem aeternam, borrowed from
4 Ezra. This is why the term “requiem” came to designate any mass for the dead (also: mass for souls) that is celebrated with chant. The other special chants of the masses celebrated for the deceased were also fixed. Especially the sequence
Dies irae and the offertory
Domine Iesu Christe, along with other particularities (omission of Ps 43 [42] in the prayer at the foot …
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Religion Past and Present
Rescript
(310 words)
[German Version] Following the example of Roman law, canonical law developed the rescript as a legal institution which differentiates between
rescriptum iustitiae and
rescriptum gratiae (cf.
Corpus Iuris Canonici: Liber extra 1.3;
Liber sextus [VI] 1.3). The rescript was regarded as a quasi-contractual relationship; the petitioner was required to accept it (cf. VI 3.7.1; 3.4.17).
CIC/1917 abolished this requirement (c. 37) and the rescript became a unilateral act of jurisdiction in the ambit of the ordinaries (
CIC c. 36 §1).
CIC/1983 limits the concept of the rescript to th…
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Religion Past and Present
Research Facilities
(566 words)
[German Version] With the emergence of the modern German research university in conjunction with the founding of the University of Berlin (1810), in which the three scientific units (the units of knowledge, of research and teaching, and of teachers and students) were established, various types of research witnessed a rapid development and led to the creation of various research facilities both within and outside the university. While the
Seminar (which originally referred to the teaching method of scholarly debate between teachers and students, and later also de…
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Religion Past and Present
Resen, Hans Poulsen
(311 words)
[German Version] (Feb 2, 1561, Resen, Jutland – Sep 14, 1638, Copenhagen). After studies in Copenhagen (from 1581), Resen went to Rostock in 1584 and to Wittenberg in 1586 (M.A., 1588); this was followed by stays in Italy and Geneva. Appointed professor for dialectics in 1591 and of theology in 1597 in Copenhagen, he then became bishop in Zealand in 1615. Resen’s theology was on the one hand rooted in Philippist tradition, which was predominant in Denmark, while on the other hand he also displayed…
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Religion Past and Present
Reservation
(324 words)
[German Version] is the restriction or deprivation of powers of a subordinate officeholder in accordance with an objection (devolution, prevention) pronounced by a higher authority (pope, bishop, episcopal conference). Decisions regarding ecclesiastical offices and church governance are reserved to the pope or Holy See (public associations:
CIC/1983 c. 312 §1; particular churches: c. 373; ecclesiastical provinces: c. 431 §3; episcopal conferences: c. 449 §1; ecumenical councils: c. 338; the episcopal synod: c. 344; cardinals: c. 351; nuncio…
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Religion Past and Present
Reservatrechte (Reserved Rights in German Empire)
(187 words)
[German Version] In the Holy Roman Empire, reserved rights were the epitome of the (historically varying) rights enjoyed by the emperor without any requirement of approval by electors and the Reichstag. Borrowing from this usage, in the 19th century
Reservatsrechte were those rights of church governance, rooted in the summepiscopate of the territorial prince, that he had reserved to be exercised personally (i.e. not by church officials acting in his name). The most important were: approbation of ecclesiastical legislation passed by synods, in ¶ some cases including the right to…
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Religion Past and Present
Resh Galuta
(282 words)
[German Version] The Aramaic title רֵישׁ גַלוּתָא, “head of the Diaspora” (Diaspora: II, 1; also called exilarch), and its Hebrew equivalent
rosh ha-gola denoted the official representative of Babylonian Judaism. As in the case of the nasi, his rival, the office was dynastic and was associated with a claimed descent from David (III). In the Babylonian Diaspora, the
resh galuta was considered the highest legal authority and the supreme authority for appointment to office. His competence was nevertheless challenged by competing claims, for example those o…
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Religion Past and Present
Residence Obligation
(524 words)
[German Version]
I. Church Law Residence obligation is the requirement that people, especially clergy, live at their place of employment and if necessary move into an official residence, usually a ¶ parsonage. This obligation must be distinguished from mandatory presence, i.e. the obligation not to be away from one’s place of employment for extended periods except as specifically provided (vacation, special permission). Canon law and Protestant church law treat this obligation similarly. In both,
stabilitas loci is intended to make sure the clergy can be reached at any…
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Religion Past and Present
Resistance, Indigenous
(839 words)
[German Version] The independence movements which began to emerge by the late 19th and early 20th century in Asia and Africa seriously challenged imperial colonialist policies (Imperialism, Colonialism/Neocolonialism). Furthermore, they encouraged resistance to the missionary enterprise that had been in operation since the 16th century (Colonialism and mission) and gave impetus to the establishment of churches independent of mission (Independent church movements, African Independent Churches). The…
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Religion Past and Present
Resistance, Right of
(2,921 words)
[German Version]
I. History Ever since classical antiquity, the theory of resistance and the right of resistance have been linked inseparably to the understanding of sovereignty and its limits in both civil society and the church.
1. In the Germanic tribal kingdom of Western, Central, and Northern Europe, three overlapping legal concepts legitimated a right of resistance: (1) the conviction that the ruler is not above the law but subject to the law (grounded in the tradition of the administration of justice by the community of all …
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Religion Past and Present
Resistance to National Socialism
(2,021 words)
[German Version] Resistance to National Socialism included measures and actions aiming to overthrow the Nazi system together with actions to save Jews and other persecuted groups. Resistance fell into four phases. From 1933 to 1938, it came from groups that formed around parties and organizations associated with the Weimar Republic. From 1938 to 1942, opposition was led by public figures who joined together in 1938 to try to prevent war. The civil opposition that developed after 1939 endeavored to persuade the generals to stage a
coup d’état. The period from 1942 to Jul 20, 1944,…
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Religion Past and Present