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
Raabe, Wilhelm
(280 words)
[German Version] (pseudonym: Jakob Corvinus; Sep 8, 1831, Eschershausen, Lower Saxony – Nov 15, 1910, Brunswick [Braunschweig]). Thanks primarily to his historical novel
Das Odfeld (1888; ET:
The Odin Field, 2001), Raabe is considered one of the most important representatives of literary realism (IV, 2). After leaving an apprenticeship to a book dealer in Magdeburg, during the following stay in Berlin he wrote his first novel,
Die Chronik der Sperlingsgasse (1856), an instant success. After a few years in Stuttgart, he spent the rest of his life in Brunswick. His…
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Religion Past and Present
Rabanus Maurus
(326 words)
[German Version] (Hrabanus; c. 780, Mainz – Feb 4, 856, Winkel near Mainz), came from a noble family in the mid-Rhine area. He lived as a monk in the monastery at Fulda, was consecrated deacon in 801, studied for a brief period under Alcuin in Tours from 800, then taught in Fulda, was consecrated priest in 814, became abbot of Fulda in 822, resigned as abbot in 842 after Emperor Lothar I was defeated by Louis the German and Charles the Bald, then was elevated to ¶ archbishop of Mainz in 847 by Louis the German. As abbot of Fulda, Rabanus not only composed numerous poems, letters, …
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Religion Past and Present
Rabaut, Paul
(313 words)
[German Version] (Jan 29, 1718, Bédarieux, Département Hérault – Sep 25, 1794, Nîmes). At an early age, he joined with Jean Bétrine (1718–1756) and for four years shared with him the dangerous life of an itinerant preacher of the “church in the desert.” In 1738 he was formally admitted as a preacher in Nîmes; in 1740/1741 he studied with A. Court for six months at the theological seminary in Lausanne. During the following 40 years of his ministry as a pastor of the persecuted Reformed Church in Fr…
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Religion Past and Present
Rabbath Ammon
(414 words)
[German Version] The toponym
Rabbah or
Rabbath Ammon, “the great (city) of Ammon” (Josh 13:25; 2 Sam 11:1; 12:26, 29; Ezek 25:5; etc.) is a shorter form for רַבַּתבְּנֵיעַמּוֹן/
rabbat bĕnêʿammôn (Deut 3:11; 2 Sam 12:26; etc.); it can be identified with the citadel and portions of the lower city of modern ʿAmmān. Settled since prehistoric times, Rabbah developed into a city state during the Middle and Late Bronze Age. According to 2 Sam 8:12; 10:1ff.; etc., Rabbah was conquered by David. Arab traditions speak of Lot as the r…
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Religion Past and Present
Rabbi
(1,285 words)
[German Version]
I. Terminology The Hebrew title רַבִּי/
rabbî is derived from the nominalized adjective רַב/
rab, “great, of high rank,” which in postbiblical Hebrew took on the meaning “master” (Rav) in contrast to a slave or student/disciple (
m. Sukk. 2:9;
m. Giṭ. 4:4;
m. ʾAbot 1:3). The honorific
rabbi (“my master/teacher”) became a title, associated with the names of Palestinian men of learning (e.g. Rabbi Akiba ben Joseph), while
Rav was used for Babylonian rabbis.
Rabbi is also found as a name for Judah ha-Nasi. The Aramaic form
rabban (“our master”) is associated with some…
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Religion Past and Present
Rabbinic Literature
(2,896 words)
[German Version]
I. General Rabbinic literature comprises the majority of Jewish materials written in the millennium following the destruction of the temple in 70 ce: Mishnah, Tosefta, Talmud, and Midrash. The rabbis were not the only authors of these works and their traditions, but they are constantly cited as oral sources and tradents. They are also held up as models of an ideal life based on the Torah, as illustrated by numerous episodes from their lives. In a broader sense, rabbinic literature also includes the Ar…
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Religion Past and Present
Rabbinic Literature Abbreviations
(1,582 words)
[German Version] Mishnah, Tosefta, Talmud tractates
ʿAbod. Zar.
ʿAbodah Zarah
ʾAbot
ʾAbot
ʿArak.
ʿArakin
B. Bat.
Baba Batra
B. Meßiʿa
Baba Meßiʿa
B. Qam.
Baba Qamma
Bek.
Bekhorot
Ber.
Berakhot
Beßah
Beßah (= Yom Ṭob)
Bik.
Bikkurim
Demai
Demai
ʿErub.
ʿErubin
ʿEd.
ʿEduyyot
Gi†.
Gi††in
Óag.
Óagigah
Óal.
Óallah
Hor.
Horayot
Óul.
Óullin
Kelim
Kelim
Ker.
Kerithot
Ketub.
Ketubbot
Kil.
Kilʾayim
Maʿaś.
Maʿaśerot
Maʿaś. Š.
Maʿaśer Šeni
Mak.
Makkot
Makš.
Makširin
Meg.
Megillah
Meʿil.
Meʿilah
Menaḥ.
Menaḥot
Mid.
Middot
Miqw.
Miqwaʾot
Mo'ed
Moʾed
Mo'ed Qa†.
Moʾed Qa†an
Naš.
Našim ¶
Naz.
Nazir
Ned.
N…
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Religion Past and Present
Rabbūlā
(222 words)
[German Version] (Qēnnešrīn – Aug 8, 436, Edessa). Rabbūlā was elected bishop of Edessa at a synod in Antioch in 412. In Edessa he undertook various ecclesiastical reforms (including imposing an ascetic life on the clergy); he also incorporated heterodox groups like the Arians (Arius), Audians, and Messalians into the Catholic church. In Christology he became an early supporter of Cyril of Alexandria, triggering a conflict with the “Persian school” (Nisibis), whose teachers favored Theodore of Mop…
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Religion Past and Present
Rabelais, François
(272 words)
[German Version] (c. 1494?, La Devinière, near Chinon – Apr 9, 1553, Paris), French Humanist. His life as a clergyman – Franciscan, Benedictine, finally a secular priest –, writer, and physician took him to Lyon, Montpellier, Paris, Rome, and Turin. Despite severe criticism by many, including Calvin and the Sorbonne theologians (escape to Metz in 1546 to evade charges of heresy), throughout his lifetime he found support from secular and ecclesiastical patrons like Cardinal Jean du Bellay and Pope …
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Religion Past and Present
Rachmaninoff, Sergey Vasilyevich
(332 words)
[German Version] (Apr 1, 1873, Semyonovo – Mar 28, 1943, Beverly Hills, CA), Russian composer, pianist, and director. His mother gave him his first piano lessons; from 1882 he studied piano at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and from 1895 with Nikolai Zverev. In 1888 he began studying composition ¶ in Moscow with Sergey Taneyev and Anton Arensky. He composed his earliest works in 1890 (Piano Concerto no. 1, Prelude in C# Minor, a one-act opera
Aleko as an examination piece). The concerto’s failure brought on a deep depression, for which he underwent psychotherapy. In 1…
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Religion Past and Present
Racine, Jean
(411 words)
[German Version] (Dec 21, 1639, La Ferté-Milon near Soissons – Apr 21, 1699, Paris), playwright and Louis XIV’s historiographer, the most important representative of French classical tragedy (II). After his parents’ early death, Racine was received into the abbey of Port-Royal, where he was brought up in the spirit of Jansenism. This early religious influence was, however, less important for his literary work than the broad Humanist education that he received at Port-Royal. Unlike his competitor a…
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Religion Past and Present
Racism
(2,031 words)
[German Version]
I. Religious Studies Racism is a political ideology that traces cultural and social differences back to racial causes, thus making them seem natural and unchangeable. In racism’s hierarchical ordering, racists always occupy the highest rank. Everything they declare to be of lesser value is subjected to their rightful rule. Since racism has no scientific basis, it has recourse principally to conventional patterns of prejudice that yield its preconditions and its most important support…
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Religion Past and Present
Racovian Catechism
(161 words)
[German Version] has become the widely accepted title of the most important doctrinal text of the Antitrinitarian Church of the Polish Brethren. Valentin Schmalz, Johannes Völkel, and Hieronymus Moskoszowski were the authors of this catechism, which includes preliminary work by F. Socinus; they worked as teachers in the secondary school founded in 1603 in the small town of Raków near Sandomierz. It was also there that the catechism was printed in Polish in 1605, in German in 1608, and in Latin in …
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Religion Past and Present
Rada, Fray Martín de
(219 words)
[German Version] (Jul 20, 1533, Pamplona – Jun, 1578, on the high seas near Manila). In 1554, de Rada entered the Order of St. Augustine. He was a missionary, linguist, geographer, mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer. After studying in Paris and Salamanca, he became a missionary in Mexico (1561); on Nov 21, 1564 he accompanied the expedition of Miguel López de Legazpi to the Philippines, with Father André de Urdaneta; between 1565 and 1572 he was a missionary in Cebu, where he became provinc…
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Religion Past and Present
Rade, Martin
(554 words)
[German Version] (Apr 4, 1857, Rennersdorf, Oberlausitz – Apr 8, 1940, Frankfurt am Main), theologian, publicist, and politician, representing liberal-social Protestantism. After attending school in Zittau, Rade studied in Leipzig, where he found a teacher and lifelong friend inA. v. Harnack, then a
Privatdozent. In 1881 he gained his doctorate with a dissertation on Pope Damasus, in 1882 he became minister in Schönbach, and in 1889 he married Dora Naumann, sister of F. Naumann. Rade was the author of a popular biography of Luther that a…
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Religion Past and Present
Rad, Gerhard von
(386 words)
[German Version] (Oct 21, 1901, Nuremberg – Oct 31, 1971, Heidelberg), Old Testament theologian. Von Rad was a pupil of A. Alt; he became a
Privatdozent in Leipzig (1930–1934), full professor in Jena (1934–1945), Göttingen (1945–1949), and Heidelberg (1949–1967). Von Rad “rediscovered” the OT theologically. The exegetical preconditions for this rediscovery lay (a) in the form-critical work of H. Gunkel, and (b) in the picture of Israel’s early history outlined by Alt and developed by M. Noth, with the significant corner…
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Religion Past and Present
Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli
(329 words)
[German Version] (Sep 5, 1888, Tiruttani, India – Apr 16, 1975, Madras), philosopher of religion and politician, an important exponent of neo-Hinduism. Radhakrishnan studied at Madras Christian College; he was professor at various Indian universities; from 1946 he was a statesman; from 1962 to 1967, president of India. His apologetic and nationalistic interpretation of Hinduism was to give it a new self-understanding in dealing with Christianity; this included, among other things, a positive recep…
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Religion Past and Present
Radicalism, Social
(605 words)
[German Version] The expression “social radicalism” is used in everyday language, in the technical terminology of various academic disciplines, and in political discourse. In German political terminology it is first attested in the ideological debates of the Vormärz (I) and the closely related religious party conflicts. At that time, 18th-century British and French discourse had a decisive influence. In Britain, from c. 1740 all political programs were described as radical that wished to make far-…
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Religion Past and Present
Radio and Television
(1,784 words)
[German Version]
I. Law
1. “Broadcasting” has a wider, meaning in law than in everyday language. State broadcasting agreements typically define broadcasting as “the organization and distribution of presentations of any kind in word, sound, and image by the use of electrical oscillations . . .” (Ger. State Broadcasting Agreement, §2, para. 1 [June 7, 2002 ed.]). This covers not only radio and television (including Pay-TV), but also sound and moving picture services, screen texts etc. (the inclusion of…
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Religion Past and Present
Radio and Television Preaching
(418 words)
[German Version] The organization of radio and television in Germany has been under ¶ state direction since the start of its use as a public medium in 1926. From the beginning, the churches were involved, and pursued conceptually preventive-reactive and positive goals in broadcasting. On the one hand, they tried to oppose undesirable tendencies toward loss of individuality, and superficiality; but it was particularly in warding off socialist ideas, and the influence of the “other” confession, that both Cathol…
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Religion Past and Present
Radowitz, Joseph Maria von
(209 words)
[German Version] (Feb 6, 1797, Blankenburg – Dec 25, 1853, Berlin), Prussian general, minister of state, and confidant of Frederick William IV. Radowitz, from the Hungarian Catholic nobility, entered Prussian service in 1823, where his military and diplomatic career advanced rapidly. Until they parted company he was a member of the Gerlach circle. In 1831 he was co-founder of the
Berliner Politisches Wochenblatt, and from the 1830s he was the closest friend of Frederick William IV. As a reforming conservative, he supported the religious and social monarchy…
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Religion Past and Present
Radziwill
(362 words)
[German Version]
1. Nicholas the Red (Mikołai Rudy Radziwiłł; Apr 27, 1512 – Apr 27, 1584, Vilnius), high chancellor and high hetman of Lithuania, from 1566 (following his cousin Nicholas the Black [see 2 below]) voivode of Vilnius; he became a Calvinist c. 1564. His descendants remained faithful to the Reformed confession and, until the line failed in 1667, ensured the continuation of Reformed parishes on the Radziwill estates (of the Birse branch) in Lithuania. Peter Hauptmann Bibliography T. Nowakowski,
Die Radziwills. Die Geschichte einer großen europäischen Familie, 1968, 79–…
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Religion Past and Present
Rāga
(177 words)
[German Version] (lit. “dye, passion, red”) denotes in both North and South Indian music the musical mode. The definition of a
rāga covers the fixed base tone, the central tones, and the group of permitted tones that make possible the improvised development of a theme or the composition of multi-part art songs (South India), as long as specific rules and stylistic features (ornamentations and melisma) are observed. Moreover, the emotional mood plays an important part: in North Indian music it is related to times of …
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Religion Past and Present
Ragaz, Leonhard
(290 words)
[German Version] (Jul 28, 1868, Tamins, Graubünden/ Grisons – Dec 6, 1945, Zürich), studied theology in Basel, Jena (under R.A. Lipsius), and Berlin (under O. Pfleiderer); he was pastor in Graubünden and Chur, then in 1902 at the Basel Minster, where he distanced himself from theological liberalism and relinquished its optimistic philosophy of history – which was much influenced by G.W.F. Hegel, R. Rothe, and A. Ritschl – in favor of a theology, eschatological in tone, in which the kingdom of God is “hope for the earth” and the purpose and goal of Christian ethics, and ¶ religion and the so…
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Religion Past and Present
Rahlfs, Alfred
(185 words)
[German Version] (May 29, 1865, Linden near Hanover – Apr 8, 1935, Göttingen), became a
Privatdozent (OT) in 1891, extraordinary professor in 1901, full professor in 1919, in Göttingen; he was director of the Septuagint project of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences, a project founded in 1908 by Rudolf Smend (1851–1913) and J. Wellhausen (Septuagint research). Rahlfs, an important Greek and Semitic philologist, was mainly concerned with scholarly editing of the LXX (see esp. his edition of the LXX, still in use,…
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Religion Past and Present
Rahner
(787 words)
[German Version]
1. Hugo (May 3, 1900, Pfullendorf, Baden – Dec 21, 1968, Munich), theologian, historian, and humanist; brother of Karl. In 1919 he became a Jesuit; he studied theology in Valkenburg (the Netherlands) and Innsbruck, earning his doctorate in 1931. From 1931 to 1934 he studied history in Bonn with F.J. Dölger and ¶ Wilhelm Levison. In 1935 he received his Dr.Phil. and gained his habilitation in Innsbruck in patrology, Early Church history, and the history of dogma. After appointment as full professor in 1937, he spent the years from 19…
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Religion Past and Present
Rahtmann, Hermann
(287 words)
[German Version] (1585, Lübeck – Jun 30, 1628, Danzig [Gdansk]), completed his schooling under Georg Rollenhagen in Magdeburg and studied in Rostock and Cologne, where he earned his living as a printer’s reader. Educated to be a Lutheran and/or Jesuit theologian, Rahtmann obtained an M.A. and continued his studies in Leipzig. He became a deacon in Danzig in 1612, and pastor in 1626. Starting from a dualism of spirit and flesh, and influenced by K. v. Schwenckfeld and a spiritual interpretation of …
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Religion Past and Present
Raiffeisen, Friedrich Wilhelm
(334 words)
[German Version] (Mar 30, 1818, Hamm/Sieg – Mar 11, 1888, Neuwied), was influenced by the Siegerland revival movement (Revival/Revival movements: I, 7), through his mother. He was founder of the rural cooperative system. As mayor of Weyerbusch in the Westerwald (1845), in Flammersfeld (1848), and in Heddesdorf (1852), he became familiar with the poverty of the people in the famine years of 1846/1847 and later. Moneylenders exploited the farmers’ plight by charging extortionate rates of interest. M…
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Religion Past and Present
Raikes, Robert
(164 words)
[German Version] (Sep 14, 1735, Gloucester – Apr 5, 1811, Gloucester), founder of the Sunday School movement. Raikes inherited a successful newspaper, the
Gloucester Journal, and used the proceeds to promote a variety of philanthropic causes, especially prison reform. In 1780 he and a local curate established a Sunday School in Gloucester, and Raikes publicized its opening in the
Journal. The idea attracted wide attention, and Sunday Schools were quickly set up throughout Britain, Ireland, and America. J. Wesley remarked that the schools were “one of th…
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Religion Past and Present
Rain
(352 words)
[German Version] The value accorded to rain is related to whether cultures practice agriculture based on irrigation or on rain. There may be a focus either on preventing uncontrolled flooding that destroys growth, or on anxiety lest there be no rain, and on desire for rain. Rain is seen as a gift of mountain and weather gods (e.g. in the Near East, where YHWH, too, displays traits of such gods; Indra in the Vedic pantheon [Vedic and Brahmanic religion]; Chac or Tlaloc [Aztec religion: V] in Centra…
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Religion Past and Present
Rainbow
(242 words)
[German Version] As a sign of God’s covenant (Gen 9:12–17; according to Zenger, God’s war bow) after the Flood, the rainbow has largely positive connotations in Western history; this causes the ancient Greek tradition, according to which the rainbow is considered an ominous sign of future continuous rain (Ovid,
Met. I, 270), to recede into the background. Both traditions, as omen and as link between the cosmic regions, are widespread in religious history. The rainbow is thought of as a bridge on which the gods walk across the sky, down to the …
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Religion Past and Present
Raiser, Ludwig
(195 words)
[German Version] (Oct 27, 1904, Stuttgart – Jun 13, 1980, Tübingen), lawyer. The historical experience of National Socialism impressed on Raiser the need for active civil co-responsibility in democratic society. Therefore, as full professor and rector from 1945 to 1952 in Göttingen, and from 1955 to 1973 in Tübingen, and in many roles in academic and university politics, he took an active part in shaping university reforms during that time. The recurrent theme of his legal writings was the orderin…
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Religion Past and Present
Ramah
(311 words)
[German Version] The Hebrew word רָמָה/
rāmāh means “height” and was a commonplace name for elevated places. Several biblical places are called various derivatives of the noun (Ramatayim, Ramoth, Ramoth-Gilead, Ramoth-Negev, Ramath-Lehi, Ramath-Mizpeh). It is not always easy to distinguish between them and establish their locations.
1. The best known place is the Ramah of Benjamin which is often mentioned (Josh 18:25; Judg 19:13; 1 Kgs 15:17, 21f.; Isa 10:29; Jer 40:1). The town is identified with modern er-Rām, situated 9 km north of Jerus…
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Religion Past and Present
Rāmakrishna
(400 words)
[German Version] (Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa, birth name Gadadhar Chattopadhyay; Feb 18, 1836, Kamarpukur, India – Aug 16, 1886, Calcutta), is considered the most important holy figure of Hinduism in the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1847 Rāmakrishna, who was born into a rural Bengal Brahman family, came to ¶ Dakshineshvar where he served as a Kālī priest from 1856 and was taught Vedānta by the ascetic Totāpurī. His ecstatic worship and mystical show of the goddess Kālī became widely known and, from the 1870s on, attracted primarily young Calcut…
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Religion Past and Present
Rāmānuja
(384 words)
[German Version] (also Uṭaiyavar; traditional dates: 1017, Śrīperumputūr [Tamil Nadu] – 1137). In his commentary (
Śrībhāṣya) on the Brahma Sutras, Rāmānuja systematized the philosophical teachings of his predecessors Nāthamuni (10th cent.) and Yāmuna (11th cent.), thereby establishing the Viṣṇu-oriented philosophical direction of the Viśiṣṭādvaita (“qualified non-duality” [monism]; Hinduism: II, 2), in which non-duality (advaita) is qualified in the sense that the world and the ¶ individual soul each receive their own weight. This school teaches devoted…
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Religion Past and Present
Rāmāyaṇa
(436 words)
[German Version] ̣The
Rāmāyaṇa is one of Hinduism’s two most important Sanskrit epics; the other is the Mahābhārata. The oldest parts of the epic date from the 5th century bce; by the 3rd century ce, the text of the
Rāmāyaṇa probably existed in a relatively complete form. It describes the life of Rāma, the hero after whom the text is named. For many Hindus the
Rāmāyaṇa is a religious text; its main figures, Rāma, Sītā, and Hanumat (also known as Hanumān), have divine status. Sītā is considered the ideal of a faithful wife. Indian tradition lauds the metrical text, which comprises some 24,000 ¶…
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Religion Past and Present
Rambach
(367 words)
[German Version]
1. Johann Jakob (Feb 24, 1693, Halle – Apr 19, 1735, Giessen). From 1712, Rambach studied in Halle; in 1715 he worked on J.H. Michaelis’s edition of the
Biblia Hebraica; from 1719 (together with G.A. Francke), he studied in Jena (esp. under J.F. Buddeus), where in 1720 he gained his M.A.; in 1723 he became assistant in the Halle faculty of theology; in 1726, assistant professor; in 1727, full professor of theology in Halle; in 1731, Dr.theol.; from 1731, professor and general superintendent in Giessen. Ramba…
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Religion Past and Present
Ramin, Günther Werner Hans
(119 words)
[German Version] (Oct 15, 1898, Karlsruhe – Feb 27, 1956, Leipzig), German organist, harpsichordist, choirmaster, and composer; in Leipzig from 1910. Ramin studied under K. Straube; he was organist at Sankt Thomas and at the Gewandhaus (Leipzig) from 1933 to1938, and from 1945 to 1951, he directed the Gewandhaus choir; and from 1935 to 1943, the Berlin Philharmonic Choir. He was cantor at Sankt Thomas from 1940 to 1956. Ramin composed works for organ and choir, and wrote about the organ and the Bach tradition; he also published practical editions. Christian Finke Bibliography L. v. Koer…
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Religion Past and Present
Ramón Martí
(170 words)
[German Version] (Eng.: Raymond martini, c. 1215/1220, Subirats, Catalonia – c. 1292, Barcelona), Dominican. In 1263 Ramón was present at a Christian-Jewish disputation (I) in Barcelona, and preached in Murcia to Jews and Muslims. In 1269 he was expelled from Tunis after a short stay. He maintained relations with the court of St. Louis IX in Paris, and with Thomas Aquinas. He spent his last years in Barcelona. His polemical
magnum opus, Pugio fidei, written in 1278, is based on excellent knowledge of Jewish and Islamic sources and treats the following subjects: the e…
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Religion Past and Present
Ramsay, Andreas Michael
(303 words)
[German Version] (Chevalier Ramsay; 1686, Ayr, Scotland – May 6, 1743, St. Germain en Laye, near Paris), son of a baker, Ramsay was repelled while still a youth by the controversy between presbyterianism (Presbyterians) and Episcopalianism. As a student he tended towards Deism, but also formed links with mystical and spiritualist circles, which he intensified while a private tutor in London. He was on the continent from 1710, first with P. Poiret in Rijnsburg. Then he worked as secretary to F. Fén…
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Religion Past and Present
Ramsay, Paul
(153 words)
[German Version] (Dec 10, 1913, Mendenhall – Apr 29, Princeton), was a Protestant ethicist and student of H.R. Niebuhr at Yale. Ramsay taught at Princeton University from 1944 to 1982. His early writings show his gifts as a moral philosopher and theological ethicist. However, Ramsay is best known for his penetrating analysis of particular moral issues. His study of the just war tradition led him grudgingly to support limited nuclear deterrence and the Vietnam War. Ramsay used the doctrine of coven…
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Religion Past and Present
Ramsey, Arthur Michael
(136 words)
[German Version] (Nov 14, 1904, Cambridge, UK – Apr 23, 1988, Oxford, UK), archbishop of Canterbury, was a much beloved and admired priest, theologian, and bishop of broad, yet traditional, Anglo-Catholic leanings. After Cambridge Ramsey was ordained in the Church of England and served in both parish and university appointments. In 1952 Ramsey became bishop of Durham, in 1956 archbishop of York, and in 1961 archbishop of Canterbury, where he labored tirelessly in mission work and the wider Anglica…
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Religion Past and Present
Ramus, Petrus
(516 words)
[German Version] (Pierre de la Ramée; 1515, Cuts, Picardy – Aug 28, 1572, Paris), came from an impoverished aristocratic family; he attended the Collège de Navarre in Paris from the age of 12, and gained his M.A. in 1536. His polemics against Aristotelianism caused a sensation; in 1544 King Francis I prohibited him from teaching and publishing on philosophical subjects. Until this ban was lifted in 1547 by King Francis II, Ramus devoted himself to mathematics. From 1551 he ¶ held important administrative posts at the University of Paris. From the early 1560s he was a Protes…
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Religion Past and Present
Rancé, Armand-Jean Le Bouthillier de
(194 words)
[German Version] (Jan 9, 1626, Paris – Oct 27, 1700, La Trappe), founder of the La Trappe reform (Trappists), son of Maria de’ Medici’s secretary, and godchild of Cardinal Richelieu. He held many benefices. In 1651 he was ordained priest, and in 1654 gained his Dr.theol. He became a rigorous ascetic, renounced his benefices, retired to La Trappe, and from then on subjected this Cistercian abbey to the strictest observance as regular abbot (1664–1695), attracting monks who were willing to reform. H…
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Religion Past and Present
Rang, Martin
(178 words)
[German Version] (Nov 6, 1900, Wolfskirch near Posen – Mar 14, 1988, Frankfurt am Main), decided after studying Protestant theology in Marburg to follow a teaching career. In 1930 he became a tutor, and in 1931 professor of religious education at the Halle Pedagogical Academy. After the academy’s closure in 1933, he was suspended. He had affinities with Gerhard Bohne’s concept of proclamation, but gave it a new church basis: religious education is “church in the school.” Rang’s biblical didactics …
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Religion Past and Present
Ranke, Leopold von
(576 words)
[German Version] (ennobled in 1865; Dec 21, 1795, Wiehe an der Unstrut – May 23, 1886, Berlin), historian. After studying theology and philology in Leipzig and Halle and teaching in the Gymnasium in Frankfurt an der Oder, Ranke was appointed associate professor of history in Berlin in 1825; he taught as full professor from 1834 to 1871. Ranke helped make the study of history (Historiography: V, 2) an independent discipline based on critical analysis of sources, but he also viewed the work of a his…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Rank, Otto
(170 words)
[German Version] (Apr 22, 1884, Vienna – Mar 31, 1939, New York), pupil and secretary of S. Freud; from 1919, editor of the
Internationale Zeitschrift für Psychoanalyse.¶ Rank’s book
Das Trauma der Geburt (1924; ET:
The Trauma of Birth, 1929) marked the beginning of an estrangement from Freud. In it, Rank develops the thesis that the trauma of birth and the fantasy of returning to the mother’s womb are more important than subsequent traumas, such as the Oedipus complex. His later work acquired speculative philosophical features; he …
Source:
Religion Past and Present