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
Wach, Joachim
(261 words)
[German Version] (Jan 25, 1898, Chemnitz – Aug 27, 1955, Locarno). After studying Protestant theology, philosophy, and Near Eastern languages with F. Heiler, E. Troeltsch, and E. Husserl, in 1922 he received his doctorate in religious studies from Leipzig, where he received his habilitation in 1924. In 1930 he received a doctorate in Protestant theology from Heidelberg. In 1935 racial politics forced him to give up his position at Leipzig. He emigrated to the United States, where he taught initial…
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Religion Past and Present
Wackenroder, Wilhelm Heinrich
(411 words)
[German Version] (Jul 13, 1773, Berlin – Feb 13, 1798, Berlin), German art theorist and writer, whose conception of art made him the forerunner of German Romanticism. At the Gymnasium he attended from 1786 to 1792, he formed a friendship with Ludwig Tieck (1773–1853); while studying law at Erlangen and Göttingen, he regularly attended lectures on art history and cultural history, immersing himself in the aesthetics of antiquity as mediated by Johann Joachim Winckelmann, the painting of the Italian…
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Religion Past and Present
Wackernagel
(320 words)
[German Version]
1. Philipp Karl Eduard (Jun 28, 1800, Berlin – Jun 20, 1877, Dresden) studied natural science and German language and literature in Breslau (Wrocław), Halle, and Berlin, encouraged by K. v. Raumer. From 1824 to 1861 he taught at various (private) schools and ¶ published works for teachers. In 1827 he received a doctorate from Erlangen on the basis of his work on mineralogy; in 1861 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the theological faculty of Breslau. After 1839 he devoted himself increasingly to hymnology, publishing …
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Religion Past and Present
Wagenseil, Johann Christoph
(167 words)
[German Version] (Nov 26, 1633, Nuremberg – Oct 9, 1705, Altdorf) received his Dr.phil. from Altdorf in 1665 and was appointed professor of history, law, and Near Eastern languages there in 1668. He published many pioneering translations from the Talmud and discovered Yiddish. After 1654 his contacts with Jewish scholars led him to criticize the status of the Jews. After 1693 he dismissed the charge that Jews engaged in ritual murder. In 1703 he began to sketch a design for peaceful coexistence of…
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Religion Past and Present
Wagner, Falk
(368 words)
[German Version] (Feb 25, 1939, Vienna – Nov 18, 1998, Vienna) was brought up in a middle-class family. After studying Protestant theology, primarily with H.W. Wolff and Wolfhart Pannenberg, and philosophy, especially with T.W. Adorno and Wolfgang Cramer, he quickly became active in the biblicistic, socially conservative Heliand scouting association. In 1969 he received his Dr.theol. at Munich with a thesis entitled
Der Gedanke der Persönlichkeit Gottes bei Fichte und Hegel. His habilitation followed in the winter semester of 1971/1972 with a critical interpretati…
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Religion Past and Present
Wagner, Peter Josef
(218 words)
[German Version] (Aug 19, 1865, Kürenz, near Trier – Oct 17, 1931, Fribourg), musicologist. After training with Michael Hermesdorff at the cathedral in Trier, he studied in Straßburg (Strasbourg) with Gustav Jacobsthal and in Berlin with Heinrich Bellermann and P. Spitta. In 1893 he received his habilitation from Fribourg and taught there as a lecturer; he was appointed associate professor in 1897 and full professor in 1902. In 1920/1921 he served as rector. In 1901 he founded the Gregorian Academ…
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Religion Past and Present
Wagner, Richard
(287 words)
[German Version] (May 22, 1813, Leipzig – Feb 13, 1883, Venice). After studying primarily as an autodidact, holding various positions as a conductor, and failing in an attempt to establish himself in Paris as an opera composer, in 1842 Wagner was appointed court conductor in Dresden. His participation in the 1848 Revolution forced him to take refuge in Switzerland. In 1864 King Ludwig II of Bavaria called Wagner to Munich and backed the production of his works. In 1872 Wagner moved to Bayreuth, where he built his
Bühnenfestspielhaus (“festival theater”) with the support of a circl…
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Religion Past and Present
Wagner, Valentin
(170 words)
[German Version] (c. 1510, Kronstadt [Braşov] [?] – Sep 2, 1557, Kronstadt), Humanist and Reformer in Transylvania. After studying in Krakow and Wittenberg (1542/1543, master’s degree in 1554), he continued the work of his teacher J. Honter as rector of a Gymnasium (1544/1545), magistrate (1546) and councilor (1547), city pastor of Kronstadt (1549–1557), dean of the Burzenland (1552), and printer (works of classical authors and German Reformers, a Gk grammar, textbooks, anthologies of poetry for s…
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Religion Past and Present
Wagnitz, Heinrich Balthasar
(177 words)
[German Version] (Sep 8, 1775, Halle an der Saale – Feb 28, 1838, Halle). In 1777 he was appointed assistant at the monastery Unser Lieben Frauen in Halle and in 1786 deacon; from 1809 to 1834 he served as senior pastor and superintendent. In addition he served from 1784 to 1817 as chaplain to the penal workhouse and from 1804 as associate professor of ethics and homiletics at the university. His proposals for reforming the penal system with an emphasis on training civil servants, the product of p…
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Religion Past and Present
Wahhabis
(288 words)
[German Version] Wahhabis, adherents of a theological school in Sunni Islam (II), founded in the center of the Arabian Peninsula by the Ḥanbalite scholar Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdalwahhāb (1703–1792). They originally called themselves
al-muwaḥḥidūn, “affirmers of the singularity of God.” The core of Ibn ʿAbdalwahhāb’s teachings is a more restrictive interpretation of the requirements for fulfilling the obligation to affirm the singularity of God (
tauḥīd) and eschew its opposite, the “partnering” of anyone or anything else with God (
širk), than the interpretation of the traditi…
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Religion Past and Present
Wahrmund, Ludwig
(216 words)
[German Version] (Aug 21, 1860, Vienna – Sep 10, 1932, Prague), Catholic professor of canon law. After his habilitation in law in Vienna (1889), he was appointed associate professor (1891) and full professor (1894) in Chernivtsi. In 1896 he was appointed to a professorship in the faculty of law at Innsbruck. Wahrmund, who had been noted for his studies on legal history, became really famous in the “Wahrmund affair.” He aggressively asserted the incompatibility of the “Catholic worldview” with mode…
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Religion Past and Present
Wake, William
(188 words)
[German Version] (Jan 26, 1657, Blandford Forum, Dorset, England – Jan 24, 1737, London), a clergyman of the Church of England, was a leading ecclesiastical figure in his day. He was educated at Christ Church College, Oxford (M.A. 1679) and later received the degrees of B.D. and D.D. in 1689. He held numerous offices: preacher at Gray’s Inn, London (1688–1696); canon of Christ Church, Oxford (1689–1702); rector at St. James’s, Westminster (1693–1706); canon residentiary at Exeter Cathedral (1702–1…
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Religion Past and Present
Wala
(183 words)
[German Version] (c. 755 – Aug 31, 836, Bobbio), brother of Adalhard of Corbie, with whom he founded the abbey of Corvey and the chapter of nuns at Herford. A cousin and adviser of Charlemagne, he was banished by Louis the Pious in 813 and forced to become a monk at Corbie Abbey. From 826 to 830 he was abbot of Corbie Abbey, succeeding his brother, and after 823 he was an adviser to Lothar I. Banished once more in 830, he went to Italy, where he was abbot of Bobbio Monastery from 833 to 836 and wrote its statutes. Paschasius Radbertus, abbot of Corbie from 843/844 to 851, wrote his
vita, the so-called
Epita…
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Religion Past and Present
Walachia
(387 words)
[German Version] Walachia, region in southern Romania divided by the Olt into Greater Walachia (Muntenia) and Lesser Walachia (Oltenia). An extension of the Eurasian Steppe, until well into the modern era Walachia was settled by various steppe peoples. In the context of the Danube Bulgarian Empire (Bulgaria), historical sources also mention Orthodox Vlachs/Walachians (Romanians) in Walachia, canonically under Ochrid or Târnovo. In the 12th century, pagan Cumans ruled Walachia; they were evangelize…
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Religion Past and Present
Walaeus, Antonius
(322 words)
[German Version] (Antoine de Waele; Oct 2, 1573, Ghent – Jul 9, 1639, Leiden), Dutch Reformed theologian. He began studies in theology in 1596 at Leiden; his teachers included F. Junius and F. Gomarus. ¶ After a study tour through France, Switzerland, and Germany, he was appointed pastor in Koudekerke in 1602 and in Middelburg in 1605. In 1619 he became professor of theology at Leiden. On many occasions, he served as theological adviser to Maurice of Orange. In the debate over the Calvinistic confessionalization of society, Walae…
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Religion Past and Present
Walahfrid Strabo
(334 words)
[German Version] (c. 807 – Aug 18, 849). Walahfrid, who grew up in poverty and suffered from a visual handicap (Strabo, “the cross-eyed”), was already writing Latin poetry on Reichenau at the age of 15. His first lengthy work was the metrical
Visio Wettini (c. Easter 825). Around 826 he wrote the metrical legends of Blathmac, an Irish king’s son slain by Danish Vikings on the island of Iona, and the Cappadocian martyr Mammas, a Christian Orpheus figure. Around 827 he was relocated to Fulda, where he wrote exegetical works under the influ…
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Religion Past and Present
Walatta Petros (Saint)
(316 words)
[German Version] (1594/1595, Samada, Tabor region, Ethiopia – Nov 23, 1644, Rema Island, Ethiopia), Ethiopian saint; feast day Nov 23. Walatta Petros is considered a defender of the faith of Ethiopian Orthodoxy and is venerated as a martyr. She received a theological education in school, married Malka Krestos, a confidant of Emperor Susenyos (1607–1632), became a nun around 1620, and fought against Catholic missionaries (Jesuits) and the emperor’s efforts at union with the Roman Church. Her action…
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Religion Past and Present
Walburga, Saint
(155 words)
[German Version] (Waldpurga, Walpurgis; c. 710, southern England – Feb 25, 779/790), of the Anglo-Saxon brothers Willibald (bishop of Eichstätt) and Wunibald (abbot of Heidenheim) and related to Boniface. She traveled to the continent in the 830s, possibly with Lioba, and may have lived in Tauberbischofsheim. After Wunibald’s death, she succeeded him as abbess of the double abbey of Heidenheim, where she encouraged the nun Hugeburc to write the
vitae of Willibald and Wunibald. She preserved the memory of her family by rebuilding churches, gathering the remains o…
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Religion Past and Present
Walch
(485 words)
[German Version]
1. Johann Georg (Jun 17, 1693, Meiningen – Jan 13, 1775, Jena). Walch began studying classical languages and ancient history in 1710 at Leipzig, where he delivered his first lectures on classical philology as
Magister. In 1718 he was appointed professor of philosophy and antiquities at Jena; in 1719 rhetoric was added and poetry in 1722. In 1724, even before he received his doctorate in theology (1726), he was appointed associate professor of theology. In 1728 he was made full professor. He took the lectures of hi…
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Religion Past and Present
Waldenses
(2,367 words)
[German Version]
I. Middle Ages Waldenses (Valdesi), supporters of the townsman Waldo from Lyon, made their first historical appearance in 1179 at the Third Lateran Council, where they vainly requested permission to preach freely. In 1180, Waldo and his companions (
fratres) committed themselves to an orthodox creed at a synod in Lyon and pledged to lead a life according to the counsels of perfection. By doing so, the community of the “Poor of Lyon” attained public visibility. In analogy to other religious movements of the 12th century…
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Religion Past and Present
Waldis, Burkard
(269 words)
[German Version] (c. 1490, Allendorf, Werra – 1556, Abterode). As a Franciscan in Riga, he sided with the Reformation early on and worked as a pewterer after 1524. In 1527 he produced
Die Parabell vam vorlorn Szohn, a play he had written in Low German, in Riga, contrasting the Reformation doctrine of justification with Catholic teaching. For reasons that are not entirely clear, he was imprisoned from 1536 to 1539; when he was released, he returned to Hesse. There is evidence of his presence as a student in Wittenberg in 1540; afte…
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Religion Past and Present
Waldo, Peter
(178 words)
[German Version] (Valdez; died c. 1205/1218). The scanty tradition concerning Waldo permits only a few safe statements about him. A baptismal name (
Petrus) is first mentioned in the second half of the 14th century. A prosperous citizen of Lyon, around 1176/1177 he appears to have been converted to an apostolic life by the legend of Alexius or biblical texts translated into the vernacular. Whether he was attracted primarily by the ideal of poverty or a desire to preach is disputed. After making provision for his wife …
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Religion Past and Present
Walenburch, Adrian and Peter van
(198 words)
[German Version] (Adrian: May 23, 1609, Rotterdam – Sep 12, 1669, Wiesbaden; Peter: 1610, Rotterdam – Dec 21, 1675, Cologne), theological controversialists and bishops. After completion of their legal studies in Angers, in 1641 the nuncio Fabio Chigo persuaded them to go to the confessionally unstable duchy of Jülich-Berg. Adrian went to Cologne in 1645, where he became a canon of the cathedral in 1647,
officialis in 1648, and auxiliary bishop in 1661. Peter was appointed auditor of the nunciature. In 1658 Johann Philipp v. Schönborn brought him to Mainz as a…
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Religion Past and Present
Wales
(817 words)
[German Version] (in Welsh
Cymru), a hilly peninsula jutting out into the Irish Sea (together with Anglesey 20,763 km 2), is bordered on the north by Liverpool Bay and on the south by the Bristol Channel. From 1536 it formed part of the kingdom of England, but since 1998 Wales has its own regional parliament (capital Cardiff). In 2001 it had about 2.93 million inhabitants, of whom about 575,000 speak Welsh (Cymraeg), a Celtic language. In 2001, 72% of the inhabitants described themselves as Christians, 22,000 as M…
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Religion Past and Present
Wallin, Johan Olof
(96 words)
[German Version] (Oct 15, 1779, Stora Tuna – Jun 30, 1839, Uppsala), pastor, poet, archbishop (1837). His classical ideal of poetry was later influenced by Romanticism, especially clear in the revision of
Den svenska psalmboken he headed. With 130 original hymns and many adaptations of the 500 hymns (Church song: I, 14.c), Wallin left his mark on the Swedish hymnal of 1819, which was not replaced until 1937. The 1986 hymnal still includes many of his hymns. Inger Selander Bibliography D. Andreae,
Johan Olof Wallin, 1956 (Swedish) H. Möller,
Den wallinska psalmen, 1997.
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Religion Past and Present
Walloon Church
(259 words)
[German Version] In the 16th century, Reformed communities emerged in the so-called Spanish Netherlands (today Belgium, northeastern France, southern Holland), which were under Catholic rule; in the middle of the century, they began to coalesce into an “underground church.” These francophone Walloon congregation were quickly exposed to persecution on the part of the authorities; large groups repeatedly fled to northern Holland (there are still Walloon congregations in the Dutch Reformed Church), E…
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Religion Past and Present
Walras, Marie-Esprit-Léon
(377 words)
[German Version] (Dec 16, 1834, Evreux, Normandy – Jan 5, 1910, Clarens, Canton of Vaud), French economist. Walras was born the son of Antoine August Walras, a teacher and amateur economist, and Louise Aline de Sainte Beuve, the daughter of a notary. After unsuccessful attendance at a mining school in Paris, he worked there as a writer and art critic until he discovered his love for the social sciences, especially economics. At an international congress on taxation in 1860, he became acquainted wi…
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Religion Past and Present
Walter, Johann
(185 words)
[German Version] (Blankenmüller; 1496, Kahla – before Apr 24, 1570, Torgau). After studying in Leipzig, he became a bass singer with the court musicians of Electoral Saxony in Altenburg (1520) and then composer in Torgau (1525). Walter served as Luther’s musical adviser, working with him on the
Deutsche Messe (1525), and wrote many hymn tunes. His polyphonic
Geystliche gesangk Buchleyn (1524) inaugurated the history of Protestant church music (IV, 3). When the court musicians in Torgau were disbanded in 1525/1526, he founded the first professional munic…
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Religion Past and Present
Walter, Johannes von
(152 words)
[German Version] (Nov 8, 1876, Petersburg – Jan 5, 1940, Bad Nauheim), church historian at Breslau (Wrocław), Vienna, and Rostock (from 1921). His edition of the commentary on the
Sentences by Gandulf of Bologna deserves special mention, along with his studies on the history of the Reformation, including his analysis of K. Holl’s interpretation of justification (
Mystik und Rechtfertigung beim jungen Luther, 1937) and the Diet of Augsburg (
Luther und Melanchthon während des Augsburger Reichstags, 1931). His strength was the elicitation and vivid description of the inte…
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Religion Past and Present
Walter, Johann Nepomuk
(218 words)
[German Version] (Walther v. Walthausen; Oct 28, 1713, Glogau an der Oder – Apr 22, 1779, Pulitz [Pulice], Moravia), Jesuit missionary in Chile. Walter entered the Bohemian Province of the Jesuits on Oct 20, 1731; between 1746 and 1748 he traveled to Chile, were he worked initially as a pastor in Santiago. From 1750 to 1755 he was a missionary to the Indians and superior of Arauco; in 1755 he was named procurator general of the province. Walter rendered great service in the mission to the Indians …
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Religion Past and Present
Walther, Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm
(222 words)
[German Version] (Oct 25, 1811, Langenchursdorf, Saxony – May 7, 1887, St. Louis, MO), Lutheran pastor and theologian. Educated in Leipzig, he was ordained in 1837 and emigrated to the United States in 1838. He became a leading voice of the “Old Lutheran” confessional position in America, serving until his death as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Louis, MO (1841), and editor of
Der Lutheraner (1844) and
Lehre und Wehre (1855). President of the Deutsch Evangelisch-Lutherische Synode of Missouri, Ohio and other states from its founding in 1847 to 1850 and ag…
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Religion Past and Present
Walther, Johann Gottfried
(110 words)
[German Version] (Sep 18, 1684, Erfurt – Mar 23, 1748, Weimar), organist, composer, music theorist, lexicographer. Appointed city organist of Weimar in 1707, he also served as court musician after 1721. In Weimar he worked closely for a time with J.S. Bach, who was related to him. Walther composed primarily organ works based on a
cantus firmus. His
Musicalisches Lexicon was published in 1732 (study ed. 2001). His ¶ 1707 manuscript
Praecepta der Musicalischen Composition was published in 1955 (ed. P. Benary). Barbara Lange Bibliography
Gesammelte Werke für Orgel, ed. M. Seiffert, 19…
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Religion Past and Present
Walther, Michael
(221 words)
[German Version] (Apr 6, 1593, Nuremberg – Feb 9, 1662, Celle). After studying at Wittenberg, Gießen, Altdorf, and Jena, in 1618 he was appointed court chaplain by Duchess Elisabeth of Brunswick; in 1622 he was also appointed professor of theology at Helmstedt. In 1626 he became general superintendent for East Frisia in Aurich, in 1642 in Celle. In 1629 Walther conducted visitations in East Frisia; in 1631 he composed a church order. His 1653 catechism was used in Lower Saxony until the Enlightenm…
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Religion Past and Present
Walther von der Vogelweide
(695 words)
[German Version] (c. 1170 – c. 1230) is considered the most significant lyric poet of the Middle Ages. His contemporary Gottfried of Strasbourg already praised him as the leader figure of minnesong (
Tristan, 4750ff.). With over 500 strophes attributed to him, his oeuvre surpasses that of every other singer of his time. His social status and regional origins are unclear (South Tyrol? Franconia?), as are the circumstances of his life. These uncertainties complicate the methodically already questionable attempt to reconstruct a c…
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Religion Past and Present
Walton, Brian
(193 words)
[German Version] (c. 1660, Cleveland, Yorkshire – 29 Nov, 1661, London), bishop of Chester and editor of the English Polyglot Bible (Polyglot Bibles). The matriculated at Magdalen College, Cambridge UK, in 1614. He entered Peterhouse, Cambridge (M.A. 1623; D.D. 1639) and was ordained in 1623. Walton conceived the idea for a new “Polyglot Bible” while residing in Oxford in the early 1650s. The plan was approved by John Selden (1584–1654) and J. Ussher, and many other eminent orientalists participat…
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Religion Past and Present
Walton, Sir William Turner
(149 words)
[German Version] (Mar 29, 1902, Oldham – Mar 8, 1983, Forio d’Ischia), English composer. He began his musical career as a choirboy in Oxford. In works like
Façade (1922–1929) to texts by Edith Sitwell, he gained recognition as a composer; with a basically eclectic approach, he drew on influences from A. Schönberg through I. Stravinsky and Maurice Ravel to jazz. His cantata
Belshazzar’s Feast (1930/1931) and further collaboration with Sitwell bore witness to his talent for musical humor. Besides composing operas, film scores (esp. for Laurence Olivier’s film…
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Religion Past and Present
Wangemann, Hermann Theodor
(170 words)
[German Version] (Mar 27, 1818, Wilsnack – Jun 18, 1894, Berlin). After studying theology (one of his teachers was J.W.A. Neander), he became director of the Berlin Mission in 1865; he also taught at the missionary seminary. Influenced by the revival movement (Revival/Revival movements) and a champion of confessional Lutheranism, he took part in developing the mission’s work in South Africa (later also in China and Tanzania). He encouraged missionary effectiveness through tight organization, layin…
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Religion Past and Present
Wang Yang-ming
(204 words)
[German Version] (Wang Shouren; 1472, Yüyao, in present-day Zhejiang Province – 1529, Nan’an, in present-day Jiangxi Province), Confucian teacher ¶ (Confucianism: I), philosopher, and high state official. According to Wang, the values of the Confucian scriptures are known to each person in their heart of hearts as principles inherent in the order of the cosmos. In contrast to the school of Chu Hsi, he taught that learning does not primarily mean studying texts but guiding every action by one’s innate knowledge of t…
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Religion Past and Present
War
(3,738 words)
[German Version]
I. Social Sciences
1. Concept. War is conflict between large groups, peoples, nations, and states conducted by force of arms. The more precise definition of the term and its differentiation from peace are disputed. Behavioral science tends toward a broad definition: war is a specifically human form of intergroup aggression, functional in the context of competition for scarce resources; in it the use of weapons decreases our instinctive inhibition against killing. The theory that war is…
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Religion Past and Present
Warao
(1,032 words)
[German Version] The Warao are a people of around 30,000 aboriginals who inhabit the wetlands of the Orinoco Delta in northeastern Venezuela. Traditionally, the Warao were foragers, subsisting on fish and moriche-palm sago as their staple foods. Since the early 20th century, there has been an increase in root-crop cultivation as the basis of their food economy. The present outline of Warao religion reflects, in particular, conditions from the 1950s to the 1980s in the lower central Orinoco Delta. …
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Religion Past and Present
Warburg School
(335 words)
[German Version]
I. While still a university student, Aby M. Warburg (Jun 13, 1866, Hamburg – Oct 26, 1929, Hamburg) was laying the foundations of the later Warburg Library for Cultural Studies, in whose setting he pursued his exploration of the art and civilization of the Renaissance and the “survival of antiquity.” Warburg’s painstaking, anti-classicist studies, often based on inconspicuous details, programmatically circumvented the “bias of the border police” of the individual disciplines; they …
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Religion Past and Present
Warburton, William
(90 words)
[German Version] (Dec 24, 1698, Newark, Nottinghamshire – Jun 7, 1779, Gloucester), bishop of Gloucester. He studied law before being ordained in 1723. In the controversial
Divine Legation of Moses (2 vols., 1737–38, 1741), he sought to defend the divine authority of the Old Testament against the Deists (Deism), arguing paradoxically that the lack of a belief in the afterlife in ancient Jewish religion stood as evidence of its divine origin. Peter Harrison Bibliography
Works, ed. R. Hurd, 7 vols., 1788 A.W. Evans,
Warburton and the Warburtonians, 1932.
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Religion Past and Present
War Crimes
(12 words)
[German Version] War, War, International Law of, Nuremberg Trials
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Religion Past and Present
Ward, Mary
(212 words)
[German Version] (Jan 23, 1585, Mulwith, near Ripon, England – Jan 30, 1645, Heworth, near York), founder of the Institutum Beatae Mariae Virginis (Congregatio Jesu). After joining the Walloon Poor Clares in St.-Omer (Flanders) in 1606, in 1609/1610 she founded an institute in St.-Omer for the education and pastoral care of girls, modeled on the Jesuits. She had already founded ten settlements with schools in several European countries when Urban VIII suppressed her work in 1631, citing absence of…
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Religion Past and Present
Warfield, Benjamin Breckinridge
(146 words)
[German Version] (Nov 5, 1851, near Lexington, KY – Feb 16, 1921, Princeton, NJ), American Presbyterian theologian. He was educated at Princeton (II) under J. McCosh and C. Hodge. ¶ Warfield was professor of New Testament at Allegheny (1878–1887) and systematic theology at Princeton (1887–1921). He exemplifies Princeton’s defense of supernatural Christianity against Deism, naturalism, and mysticism through critical review of contemporary European and American scholarship. He was a hero to fundamentalists and evangelicals for…
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Religion Past and Present
Warham, William
(173 words)
[German Version] (c. 1456, Church Oakley, Hampshire – Aug 22, 1532, Hackington, near Canterbury). After studying at New College, Oxford (fellow 1475; LL.D. 1488), Warham had a successful legal career in the civil and ecclesiastical administration and as a diplomat: principal of the School for Civil Law, Oxford (1490), Master of the Rolls (1494), archdeacon of Huntingdon (1496), bishop of London (1502), Lord Chancellor (1504). Appointed archbishop of Canterbury in 1503, in 1509 he crowned Henry VII…
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Religion Past and Present
War, International Law of
(507 words)
[German Version] Given the general prohibition of the use of violence in article 2 of the United Nations charter, the term
international law of war covers only the body of international regulations that impose limitations on combat operations on both parties (including in some cases the UN itself) in an armed conflict that has already broken out. The modern law of war includes ethico-legal principles that were normative for
ius in bello in the context of theories of a just war and have the force of customary law. Today, however, the international law of war is larg…
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Religion Past and Present
Warneck
(545 words)
[German Version]
1. Gustav (Mar 6, 1834, Naumburg – Dec 26, 1910, Halle). As the first occupant of a chair of missiology, Warneck gave the discipline its fundamental profile. At the turn of the 20th century, the work of Protestant mission societies in Africa and Asia was at its highpoint, but these societies were still controversial in Germany, both ecclesiastically and politically; Warneck played a decisive role in giving academic study of missions a recognized place within theological faculties. H…
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Religion Past and Present
Warnshuis, Abbe Livingston
(200 words)
[German Version] (Nov 22, 1877, Clymer, NY – Mar 17, 1958, Broxville, NY), missionary and hero of the ecumenical movement. Educated at Hope College, Holland, Michigan, and the New Brunswick Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church, he was influenced by the Student Volunteer Movement and his tutor John Gillespie to volunteer for a lifetime’s service in China (in actual fact from 1900 to 1921). He worked first in rural Siokhe, then in Amoy, a port city, training pastors and supporting the develop…
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Religion Past and Present
Warren, Max
(332 words)
[German Version] (Aug 13, 1904, Dun Laoghaire, Ireland – Aug 3, 1977, Eastbourne, England). Best known as the general secretary of the Church Missionary Society (CMS; 1942–1963) who equipped the largest British Protestant missionary society for post-colonial service and influenced the theology and practice of mission as a worthy successor to H. Venn. Warren also inspired generations of students as vicar of Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge (1936–1942) and the church more widely as canon of Westminste…
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Religion Past and Present
Warren, Robert Penn
(161 words)
[German Version] (Apr 24, 1905, Guthrie, KY – Sep 15, 1989, Stratton VT), American author, poet, and literary critic. His works, set primarily in the American South, center on interpersonal relationships and power struggles against the background of complex historical process. With the other members of the conservative literary group called the Fugitives, he was convinced of the need for a religious, political, and aesthetic counterpoise to a world dominated by technology and rationality. In works like his novels
Night Rider (1939) and
All the King’s Men (1946), which received th…
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Religion Past and Present
Warsaw
(314 words)
[German Version] (Warszawa), the capital of Poland, with a population of 1.71 million (2009), goes back to a trading settlement established in the 11th/12th century on the left bank of the Vistula; in 1413 it received Kulm rights. From 1406 to 1526, it was the official residence of the Piast dukes of Masovia. When the dynasty died out, Warsaw was incorporated into the crown of Poland. The Sejm met there for the first time in 1529; after 1569 it met there regularly, and as a result the royal court …
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Religion Past and Present
War Scroll
(543 words)
[German Version] What may have been the scroll’s original title may appear in 1QM, the complete manuscript: “For the Maskil: The Book/Rule of the War” (1QM 1). The manuscript dates from the Herodian period; its 19 columns (1Q33: 20) include the beginning of the text but not its end. The bottom edge is heavily damaged throughout; estimates of textual loss range between two and ten lines per column. Six manuscripts were found in Cave 4 (4Q491–496), four of which (4Q492, 494, 495, 496) represent the text type of 1QM, in addition to the War Scroll-Like Fragment (4Q497, 4Q471, and 4Q285). 4Q491 (Ma)…
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Religion Past and Present
War Sermon
(295 words)
[German Version] Study of war sermons has been able to identify the war sermon as a particular genre only in the context of World War I. Neither during World War II nor during the wars of the postwar period has there been a form of preaching involving what could appropriately be called war sermons. The content of war sermons is informed by the topoi of the just war and a clear conscience, along with appeals to duty and self-sacrifice. They interpret war as a formative and educational experience, i…
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Religion Past and Present
Wartburg Castle
(346 words)
[German Version] Wartburg Castle, above Eisenach, in the Free State of Thuringia. Built under Count Ludwig der Springer (“the Jumper”), it was first mentioned in 1080; it was expanded around the turn of the 13th century. The Wartburg takes its character as a memorial site from persons and events it was home to through many centuries of German history. Never forgotten for its associations with Luther, the memory of its cultural significance has been deliberately cultivated since the period of Roman…
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Religion Past and Present
Washington, Booker Taliaferro
(153 words)
[German Version] (May 5, 1856, Franklin County, VA – Nov 14, 1915, Tuskegee, AL). Born a slave, Washington became one of the most influential African American educators and leaders in the United States. In 1875, he graduated from Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Virginia. In 1881, Washington was hired as the organizer of Tuskegee Institute; an Alabama State legislature authorized the school for Blacks, which became one of America’s most successful colleges for Blacks. Washington’s fame a…
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Religion Past and Present
Washington, George
(194 words)
[German Version] (Feb 22, 1732, Wakefield, VA – Dec 14, 1799, Mount Vernon, VA) was the first president of the United States of America and recognized as the “Father of his country.” He served as the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolution and was instrumental in gaining independence for the 13 American colonies. Washington made invaluable contributions to the creation of the American Constitution and the establishment of the United States federal government. Wash…
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Religion Past and Present
Wastage
(324 words)
[German Version] The resources available for providing human beings with goods are scarce. It is impossible to fulfill all desires. It is therefore important to employ raw materials, land, labor, and capital in a way that enables them to provide the maximum prosperity for a country’s population. Goods should be supplied whose nature and quantity match human interests. They should be produced at the minimum cost made possible by the present state of technology. Allocation of scarce resources should…
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Religion Past and Present
Water
(1,157 words)
[German Version]
I. Throughout the world, water appears as the fundamental and original element of the world and life (cf. Earth, Fire, Wind), and thus plays an important role in religious protologies. In the form of a primordial ocean or subterranean lakes, cosmogonic myths describe it as a created or already preexistent original substance. From an anthropological perspective, other fluids or “humors” can also be distinguished as constitutive of the human being. The vital importance of water, its purifying power, but also its threatening aspects ¶ (floods, tidal waves, massive r…
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Religion Past and Present
Water, Blessing of
(207 words)
[German Version] The basis of the Orthodox blessing of water is the blessing of the water used in baptism (IV, 2), attested since the Early Church. In connection with the commemoration of Christ’s baptism on Jan 6, observed since the 5th century, there developed the separate rite of the Great Blessing of the Waters, in a double ceremony. After the liturgy on the eve of the festival, a blessing is recited over a vessel of water, which will supply holy water throughout the coming year. On the feast …
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Religion Past and Present
Waterland, Daniel
(173 words)
[German Version] (Feb 14, 1682/1683, Walesby, Lincolnshire – Dec 23, 1740, Twickenham, London), Anglican theologian. In 1699 Waterland entered Magdalen College (M.A. 1706; B.D. 1714; D.D. 1717). Waterland was actively engaged in the central theological ¶ issues of the age concerning the divinity of Christ, the Deist controversy (Deism), and the nature of the Eucharist. His
Vindication of Christ’s Divinity (1719) was directed against S. Clarke’s apparent Arianism, as was his most popular work,
Eight Sermons in Defence of the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ (1720). M. Tindal’s d…
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Religion Past and Present
Watson, Richard
(111 words)
[German Version] (Feb 22, 1781, Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire – Jan 8, 1833, London), Wesleyan Methodist theologian (Methodists: I). Watson was a member of a small group of clergy and laity that contributed to the formation of Wesleyan Methodist identity, following the death of J. Wesley and its separation from the Church of England. Appointed to a succession of influential positions in the Church, he also published widely, clarifying and extending Wesley’s theology. Grayson Carter Bibliography Works include:
Theological Institutes, 6 vols., 1823–1829 On Watson: T. Jackson,
M…
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Religion Past and Present
Watson, Thomas
(105 words)
[German Version] (c. 1620 – Jul, 1686, Barnston, Essex), Puritan divine. Educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Watson was appointed in 1646 as minister at St. Stephen’s, Walbrooke, where he gained fame as a great preacher. After he was ejected from his parish at the Restoration on account of his nonconformity (Dissenters), he continued to preach when he could and published his best-known work,
A Body of Practical Divinity (1692), which consists of 176 sermons on the lesser Westminster Catechism. Peter Harrison Bibliography Works include:
Sermons and Select Discourses on Impo…
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Religion Past and Present
Watt, Joachim von
(317 words)
[German Version] (Joachim Vadian; Nov 29, 1484, Saint Gall – Apr 6, 1551, Saint Gall), Humanist and scholar. He began his studies in Vienna in 1501, where he was influenced by C. Celtis. In 1516 he was appointed professor of rhetoric; in 1516/1517 he served as rector, and in 1517 he received a doctorate in medi-¶ cine. His travels took him to Trent, Venice, Padua, Leipzig, Posen (Poznań), Breslau (Wrocław), and Krakow. For unknown reasons, he returned to Saint Gall, where he served as mayor several times (first in 1526) and together with J. Keßler in…
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Religion Past and Present
Watts, Isaac
(244 words)
[German Version] (Jul 17, 1674, Southampton, England – Nov 25, 1748, Stoke Newington, London), one of the greatest English hymn writers (nearly 700 hymns and psalms), a brilliant scholar, Puritan clergyman (Puritans), son of a Dissenter. He was called the “liberator of English hymnody” in that his psalm paraphrases and hymns in vigorous, singable, Christocentric language replaced strict metrical psalmody in England and North America. His hymnody “celebrates the glory of God in the created world bu…
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Religion Past and Present
Waugh, Evelyn Arthur St. John
(212 words)
[German Version] (Oct 28, 1903, London – Apr 10, 1966, Combe Florey, Somerset), a great prose stylist, was the son of a publisher; he began his literary career early, as editor of his school magazine. After studying in Oxford and London, he worked briefly as a schoolmaster until his satirical social novels (
Decline and Fall, 1928;
Vile Bodies, 1930;
A Handful of Dust, 1934) brought him financial success. In 1930, after the failure of his first marriage, he became a Catholic. The problems of faith in the midst of a world he experienced as godless informed his subsequent works. Besides historic…
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Religion Past and Present
Wayang
(235 words)
[German Version] (Javanese). Etymologically, the Indonesian word
wayang means “shadow”; today it generally refers to puppet theater, especially theater that employs painted two-dimensional figures (
wayang kulit). Other forms are
wayang golek (with three-dimensional rod puppets),
wayang klitik (with painted wooden figures carved in low relief),
wayang beber (with painted scrolls),
wayang topeng (pantomimes performed by masked actors), and
wayang wong (actors without masks). Originally probably all
wayang kulit performances were purely cultic in nature, as is sti…
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Religion Past and Present
Wayland, Francis
(140 words)
[German Version] (Mar 11, 1796, New York City – Sep 30, 1865, Providence, Rhode Island) was a Baptist minister and president of Brown University from 1827 to 1855. Wayland was also responsible for spreading Scottish Common Sense philosophy (Common Sense Realism) and natural theology in some of the best-selling college textbooks of the era. In
The Elements of Moral Science (1835) he argued that just as God-given scientific laws governed the natural world, moral laws governed human behavior; as he explained in
The Elements of Political Economy (1837), economic laws governed commerc…
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Religion Past and Present
Wayyiqra Rabba
(166 words)
[German Version] Wayyiqra Rabba, a homiletic midrash on Leviticus. It comments only on the initial verses of the individual pericopes in Leviticus. It also compiles various literary homilies (proems or
petichot) on the same verse, drawing a thematic arc from a quotation from the hagiographa to the verse in Leviticus being interpreted. At the same time, the composition of individual sections seeks to establish a unity of content. The midrash was probably compiled in Palestine during the 5th century; it exhibits parallels to Bereshit Rabbah and the Talmud (III) Yerushalmi. Martin Jacob…
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Religion Past and Present
Wealth
(3,273 words)
[German Version]
I. Terminology The term
wealth belongs to the semantic field that includes
kingdom, empire, violence, dominion, and
glory. In that context it suggests first an abundance of earthly goods that brings power, then abundance or profusion of almost anything. A distinction must be made between an economic sense of wealth and a broader figurative sense. In its economic sense it means property, possessions, the sum of available goods and values (Value/Values) that substantially exceeds what is considered …
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Religion Past and Present
Weapons
(906 words)
[German Version]
I. Religion and Mythology The evolution of language and the intelligent use of tools and weapons ran parallel courses. Technologically, weapons for hunting and weapons of war were initially identical. Weapons as funerary goods go back to the Upper Paleolithic (Burial: I; Dead, Cult of the: I). The deadly power of weapons explains their unique place in the history of religion. Specially designed knives are used in sacrificial rituals (Human sacrifice, Sacrifice, Ritual killing); their crafting and use is reserved to religious s…
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Religion Past and Present
Wearmouth-Jarrow Monasteries
(142 words)
[German Version] Benedictine monasteries founded in Northumbria by Benedict Biscop in 674 and 682, with support from King Ecgfrith. After Benedict’s death (probably in 690), Abbot Ceolfrith headed both monasteries. With some 600 monks and an extensive library in the time of the Venerable Bede the most famous monk of Jarrow, the double foundation was an outstanding intellectual and spiritual center. Destroyed during the Danish invasions (867–870), Jarrow was refounded after 1070 as a cell of Durham…
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Religion Past and Present
Weather
(623 words)
[German Version] Atmospheric phenomena and events such as wind, rain, lightning, thunder, clouds, and ¶ hailstones hold particular significance for agricultural societies on account of their potential to influence, increase, or destroy their chances of survival in the most elementary way. These meteorological conditions, which are widely believed to be hardly influenceable or predictable, are conducive to an anthropomorphic conceptualization of their causes (as in the expression “furious storm”). They also enc…
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Religion Past and Present
Weber
(411 words)
[German Version]
1. Ludwig (Apr 2, 1846, Schwelm – Jan 29, 1922, Bonn), pastor and social policy maker. After studying in Bonn, Berlin, and Erlangen, Weber received his Lic.theol. from Bonn in 1868 and was appointed senior assistant at the Johannesstift in Berlin. In 1871 he was appointed assistant preacher in Iserlohn and in 1872 pastor in Dellwig. Especially as pastor in Mönchen-Gladbach (1881–1914), he organized workers’ groups (Workers’ movement, Protestant), morality societies, women’s associat…
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Religion Past and Present
Weber, Max
(2,461 words)
[German Version] (Apr 21, 1864, Erfurt – Jun 14, 1920, Munich)
I. Life and Work From his childhood, Karl Emil Maximilian Weber was deeply influenced by the cultural ideals of the educated German Protestant bourgeoisie. His father Max Weber Sr. (1836–1897), a lawyer, represented the National Liberal Party as a deputy in the Landtag and Reichstag. His mother Helene Weber
née Fallenstein, who was descended from a family of Huguenots, was a deeply religious and morally sensitive woman with a strong commitment to charitable social work. His sister Henriette w…
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Religion Past and Present
Webern, Anton von
(169 words)
[German Version] (Dec 3, 1883, Vienna – Sep 15, 1945, Mittersill). Through his combination of musical structure and expressiveness, Webern had an immense impact on the development of composition in the 20th century. As a student of A. Schönberg, he paralleled major compositional stages of his teacher, including the step from expanded tonality to free atonality and from there to 12-tone technique (Expressionism: II). The adaptation of spiritual subjects by Webern, a Catholic, took place against the background of a nature mysticism ¶ inspired by reading J.W. v. Goethe. This tend…
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Religion Past and Present
Weber, Otto Heinrich
(267 words)
[German Version] (Jun 4, 1902, Mühlheim am Rhein – Oct 19, 1966, St. Moritz). After his theological internship, he was appointed lecturer at the seminary in Elberfeld in 1928, serving as its director from 1930 to 1933. In May of 1933 he joined the Nazi Party and the German Christian movement (Deutsche Christen). In 1933 he was appointed to the Geistliches Ministerium of the German Evangelical Church as a Reformed member and became its Minister of Church Affairs. After the November Berlin Sports Pa…
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Religion Past and Present
Weber, Werner
(434 words)
[German Version] (Aug 31, 1904, Wülfrath – Nov 29, 1976, Göttingen), teacher of constitutional and administrative law. After studying in Marburg, Berlin, and Bonn (doctorate under C. Schmitt), Weber entered the Prussian ministry of education and cultural affairs, initially in the religious division, later in the division for national culture. In addition he was appointed lecturer at the Berlin School of Commerce in 1931 and promoted ¶ to full professor in 1935. In 1942 he became a professor at Leipzig and in 1949 at Göttingen, where he served as rector from 195…
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Religion Past and Present
Weckmann, Matthias
(84 words)
[German Version] (before April, 1619, Niederdorla – Feb 24, 1674, Hamburg) studied with H. Schütz in Dresden and J. Praetorius in Hamburg. After working in Dresden and Nykøbing, in 1655 he became organist at St. Jacobi in Hamburg, where he founded a Collegium Musicum in 1660. A traditionalist in his instrumental works, in his vocal compositions he employed the emotional techniques of “theatrical” composition. Friedhelm Brusniak Bibliography T. Röder,
BBKL XIII, 1998, 577–679 (bibl.) A. Silbiger,
New Grove XXVII, 22001, 199–202 (bibl.).
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Religion Past and Present
Wegscheider, Julius August Ludwig
(266 words)
[German Version] (Sep 17, 1771, Küblingen, near Schöppenstedt – Jan 27, 1849, Halle). In 1787 Wegscheider began his studies at Helmstedt, where he was influenced by the rationalist H.P.K. Henke. After working as a private tutor in Hamburg (1705–1805) and a brief period as a lecturer in Göttingen, he was appointed professor of theology and philosophy at Rinteln; in 1810 he went to Halle as professor of theology. On the basis of an extensive adoption of the ideas of I. Kant and a critical analysis of earlier theological traditional and dogmatic structures, in 1815 he published his
Institution…
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Religion Past and Present
Wehrung, Gottfried Georg
(189 words)
[German Version] (Oct 6, 1880, Dorlisheim, Elsaß [Alsace] – Jan 20, 1959, Tübingen). In 1906 he was appointed tutor in Straßburg, where he became associate professor of systematic theology in 1915. In 1920 he was appointed professor of systematic theology at Münster, in 1927 at Halle, and in 1921 at Tübingen. From 1923 to 1955 he was an editor of the
Zeitschrift für systematische Theologie. In his theology, Wehrung attempt to overcome the problems of substantiation raised by the debate over historicism through an understanding of religion grounded in ethics (
Geschichte und Glaube, 1933…
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Religion Past and Present
Weigel, Gustave
(173 words)
[German Version] (Jan 15, 1906, Buffalo, New York – Jan 3, 1964, New York) was a Jesuit theologian whose major contribution was in the entry of the Catholic Church into the modern ecumenical movement, especially in the United States. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1922. After studying at Woodstock College in Maryland, he taught at Loyola College in Baltimore before returning to Woodstock to study theology. In 1931 Weigel received his doctorate from the Gregorian University, Rome, which was lin…
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Religion Past and Present
Weigel, Valentin
(363 words)
[German Version] (Aug [?] 7, 1533, Großenheim, near Meißen – Jun 10, 1588, Zschopau) studied theology in Leipzig (from 1554) and Wittenberg (from 1563; he may also have taught there) and served as a pastor in Zschopau from 1567 to 1588. He played a mediating role in the transition from the 16th to the 17th century. By combining Reformation theology (Luther) with ideas from Neoplatonism (Augustine of Hippo, Dionysius Areopagita, Boethius), German mysticism (Meister Eckhart, J. Tauler, Theologia deu…
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Religion Past and Present
Weights and Measures
(1,259 words)
[German Version]
Palestine and the Early Church (Bronze Age to Late Antiquity). In ancient Palestine, as in all ancient cultures, units of weight and measurement cannot be adequately understood as mathematically determined units ¶ in a fixed frame of reference. Differences are found for example between royal and common units. For the Bronze Age the sources are too limited to allow the establishment of a “metric system.” That is possible only from Iron Age II (from 1000/900 bce), though in the Bronze Age similar or equivalent basic units may be used with varying terminolo…
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Religion Past and Present
Weil, Simone
(229 words)
[German Version] (Weill) (Feb 3, 1909, Paris, France – Aug 22, 1943, Ashford, Kent, UK). Admirers have regarded Weil as a special kind of outsider and “saint” for her time. Weil left the École Normale Supérieure to teach and to actively support the trade union movement (Trade Unions). Influenced by K. Marx as well as Greek philosophers, she won the epithet, the “Red Virgin.” A recurring theme of her writing is the pursuit of purity of action in obedience to the demanding example of the crucified G…
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Religion Past and Present
Weimar Republic
(2,212 words)
[German Version]
I. Politics and Culture On Nov 9, 1918 the foundation of a parliamentary and democratic form of government was laid for the first German republic. On Jan 19, 1919, still in the radicalizing phase of the revolution, the National Assembly was elected to draw up a constitution. It included the “Weimar Coalition,” in which Majority Social Democracy, the German Democratic Party and the Center Party formed a majority. On Aug 11, 1919 the Weimar Constitution came into force. It had been larg…
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Religion Past and Present
Weinel, Heinrich
(359 words)
[German Version] (Aug 28, 1874, Vonhausen, Hesse – Sep 29, 1936, Jena) studied Protestant theology from 1892 to 1898 in Gießen and Berlin and at the seminary in Friedberg; his teachers included H. Gunkel and A. v. Harnack. In 1898 he received his Dr.phil. and Lic.theol. at Gießen; in 1899 he received his habilitation in New Testament in Berlin. In 1900 he became a lecturer in Bonn; as a liberal theologian in the tradition of the History of Religions school, he came into conflict with advocates of …
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Religion Past and Present
Weingartner, Peter
(178 words)
[German Version] (Jul 6, 1721, Jedenhofen – Nov 11, 1782, Munich), Jesuit missionary in Chile. Weingartner joined the Jesuits on Feb 16, 1746. He arrived in Santiago in 1748, serving as a pastor. He was deported to Spain in 1767/1768 and returned to his homeland in 1769. From 1769 to 1773 he served as a confessor and pastor in Altötting, Landsberg, Munich, and Ingolstadt. He wrote two important accounts (1769/1770) of the expulsion of the Jesuits from Chile (Munich, Oberdeutsches Archivum Monacense Societatis Jesu [AMSJ], ms. V, 1 and ms. VI 48, 117–121). Michael Müller Bibliography Ed.:
Do…
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Religion Past and Present
Weismann, Christian Eberhard
(150 words)
[German Version] (Weissmann, Weißmann; Sep 2, 1677, Hirsau – May 22, 1747, Tübingen), a Pietist influenced by P.J. Spener, served churches in Calw, Stuttgart, and Tübingen; from 1721 he was professor of theology at Tübingen. His
Introductio in memorabilia ecclesiastica historiae sacrae (1718/1719, 21745) was a substantial contribution to church history. Influenced by G. Arnold, it drew a gloomy picture of the Reformed and Lutheran churches of the 17th century. ¶ Weismann also wrote theological and devotional works, including his anti-Catholic
Grund-Lehren (1729, 21737) and the…
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Religion Past and Present
Weiß
(320 words)
[German Version]
1. Bernhard (Jun 20, 1827, Königsberg [Kaliningrad] – Jan 14, 1918, Berlin) became a lecturer at Königsberg in 1852 and associate professor of New Testament in 1857. In 1863 he was appointed full professor at Kiel; from 1877 to 1908 he taught as a professor in Berlin. After 1880 he also worked in the Prussian Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs. From 1886 he served as president of the Central Committee of the Inland Mission. His commentaries on many books of the NT in the KEK series and his
Lehrbuch der Biblischen Theologie des Neuen Testaments (1868; ET:
Biblical Theol…
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Religion Past and Present
Weisse, Christian Hermann
(203 words)
[German Version] (Aug 10, 1801, Leipzig – Sep 19, 1866, Leipzig) studied philosophy in several places, including Leipzig, where he began lecturing in 1823. From 1828 to 1837 he taught there as associate professor of philosophy; after interruptions, he was ¶ appointed full professor in 1845. Dissociating himself from G.W.F. Hegel, he espoused a nuanced theism (II); especially in I.H. Fichte’s
Zeitschrift für Philosophie und speculative Theologie, he wrote as a late advocate of Idealistic theorizing. In addition, after critical acceptance of D.F. Strauß’s
Leben Jesu, he defended t…
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Religion Past and Present
Weissel, Georg
(173 words)
[German Version] (1590, Domnau, East Prussia [today Domnovo, Russia] – Aug 1, 1635, Königsberg [Kaliningrad]), Protestant pastor and hymnodist. He studied theology at Königsberg and served as a pastor there after 1623. He was a member of the circle of Königsberg poets and musicians around S. Dach and Heinrich Albert. Apart from a few occasional poems, Weissel wrote texts based on the church year and the lectionary, which were set by Johannes Eccard and his student Johann Stobaeus, the cantor of Kö…
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Religion Past and Present
Weiße, Michael
(345 words)
[German Version] (probably 1488, Neiße, Silesia [Nysa, Poland] – Mar 1534, Landskron, Bohemia [Lanškroun, Czech Republic]). Weiße probably matriculated in 1504 at the University of Krakow, became a monk in Breslau (Wrocław), and was ordained to the priesthood. In 1508 he abandoned the monastery and joined the Bohemian Brethren (Bohemian and Moravian Brethren: I; Unitas Fratrum) in Leitomischl (Litomyšl). In 1522 he became the head of the congregations in Landskron and Fulneck, Bohemia (Fulnek). Wi…
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Religion Past and Present
Weiß, Konrad
(397 words)
[German Version] (May 1, 1880, Rauenbretzingen, near Schwäbisch Hall – Jan 4, 1940, Munich), German writer and art critic, whose literary works and meditations on the philosophy of history reflected a conservative Catholic stance. The oldest of ten children of a peasant family, he attended the Catholic boarding school in Ehingen. After passing his
Abitur, he studied theology in Tübingen as well as Germanic philology and art history in Munich and Freiburg im Breisgau. From 1904 to 1920, he was on the editorial staff of the Catholic cultural journal
Hochland; in 1920 he became the art…
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Religion Past and Present