Religion Past and Present

Get access Subject: Religious Studies
Edited by: Hans Dieter Betz, Don S. Browning†, Bernd Janowski and Eberhard Jüngel

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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.

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Ubertino of Casale

(192 words)

Author(s): Schlageter, Johannes K.
[German Version] (1259, Casale Monferrato – after 1325), Spiritual Franciscan. After studying in Paris, he went to Sta. Croce in Florence from 1285 to 1289, where he came under the influence of Peter Olivi. His preaching in Perugia in 1304 led to monastic confinement at La Verna. There he wrote his major work Arbor vitae crucifixae Iesu (pr. 1485, repr. 1961), which combined Franciscan mysticism with Olivi’s teaching on poverty and apocalypticism. His commitment to reform of the order and the church in the spirit of the Franciscan ideal of poverty ma…
Source: Religion Past and Present

Ubiquity, Doctrine of

(7 words)

[German Version] Omnipresence
Source: Religion Past and Present

Uchimura, Kanzō

(430 words)

Author(s): Dohi, Akio
[German Version] (Mar 23, 1861, Tokyo – Mar 28, 1930, Tokyo). As the son of a samurai family, Uchimura grew up with an ethical orientation shaped by Confucianism and a sense of responsibility for his country. In 1877 he entered Sapporo agricultural college, where through the influence of Christian fellow students he was converted to the Christian faith and baptized. He identified Christianity with a legalistic Puritan ethics and suffered increasingly from a sense of sin. In 1884 he went to the Uni…
Source: Religion Past and Present

Uckeley, Alfred

(187 words)

Author(s): Domsgen, Michael
[German Version] (Aug 25, 1874, Kolberg, Pomerania [Kołobrzeg, Poland] – Dec 26, 1955, Marburg), Protestant theologian (practical theology and church history). After studying theology at Greifswald, Berlin, and Halle and serving as a pastor in Wildungen, he received his doctorate in 1902 from Greifswald, where he worked as a lecturer after he completed his habilitation in 1905. From 1910 to 1934, he was professor of practical theology at Königsberg (Kaliningrad); in 1923 he was also appointed cons…
Source: Religion Past and Present

Uemura, Masahisa

(390 words)

Author(s): Dohi, Akio
[German Version] (Jan 15, 1858, Tokyo – Jan 8, 1925, Tokyo) studied Western science taught by missionaries in Yokohama. The personalities and teachings of his teachers so impressed him that he was baptized in 1873. He studied at a theological seminary, was ordained in 1880, and worked until his death as pastor of the Fujimicho Church in Tokyo. He was a member of the Nippon Kirisuto Kyokai (“Church of Christ in Japan”), which stood in the Presbyterian and Reformed tradition (Presbyterians) but kept…
Source: Religion Past and Present

UFOs

(362 words)

Author(s): Peters, Ted
[German Version] (Unidentified Flying Objects), otherwise known as flying saucers, become a topic for theological analysis for two reasons: (1) directly, numerous cults (see New religious movements) incorporate UFOs into their religious worldview; and (2) indirectly, the UFO phenomenon provides a microcosm for understanding the hidden depths of religious meaning in a secularized and scientific culture. The contemporary UFO phenomenon began shortly after World War II and has continued into the 21st century in basically the same form. By the early 1950…
Source: Religion Past and Present

Uganda

(769 words)

Author(s): Ward, Kevin
[German Version] ¶ is a land-locked country in the Great Lakes region of East Africa (see map of Africa), with an estimated population of 22 million. The majority belong to Bantu speaking ethnic groups, but there are important Nilotic (Nuer and Dinka) and Sudanic peoples in the North. The staple crops are bananas and millet, with cotton and coffee as cash crops. Cattle keeping has cultural and economic importance. Uganda is named after the kingdom of Buganda, which occupies the central part of what became the British colonial state. From the 1840s, Arab and Swahi…
Source: Religion Past and Present

Ugarit

(3,117 words)

Author(s): Dietrich, Manfried
[German Version] I. Name and Geographical Settng Just 10 km north of the Syrian port of Laḏaqīye, excavations on the 32 ha Tell Ras Shamra (“fennel hill”) have ¶ so far revealed remains of the ancient port and commercial city of Ugarit (35°35' N, 35°45' E). To the north of the tell flows Nahr Ḫabayyeb, and to the south Nahr ed-Delbe. They are dry except in the rainy season. To the west of the tell they unite to form the Nahr el-Fēd, and about 800 m further, they empty into the bay of Mīnet el-Bēḍā (“White Harbor”, in Gk Λευκός λιμήν/ Leukós limḗn, in the MA Port Blanc), which is surrounded by…
Source: Religion Past and Present

Ugolino of Orvieto

(316 words)

Author(s): Eckermann, Willigis
[German Version] (born Orvieto after 1300, died Aquapendente 1373). Ugolino (or Hugolinus), an Augustinian Hermit, studied in Paris from 1335 to 1338. Between 1347 and 1348 he lectured as a stententiary, and in 1352 was awarded the Master of Theology degree. From 1357 to 1360 he headed the Studium Generale in Perugia. In 1360 he began teaching at Bologna as lector principalis; in 1364 he joined the theological faculty of Bologna as a professor and helped frame its statutes. In 1368 he was elected general of the Augustinian order in Avignon; in 1370 he was…
Source: Religion Past and Present