Religion Past and Present
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Subject: Religious Studies
Edited by: Hans Dieter Betz, Don S. Browning†, Bernd Janowski and Eberhard Jüngel
Religion Past and Present (RPP) Online is the online version of the updated English translation of the 4th edition of the definitive encyclopedia of religion worldwide: the peerless Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG). This great resource, now at last available in English and Online, Religion Past and Present Online continues the tradition of deep knowledge and authority relied upon by generations of scholars in religious, theological, and biblical studies. Including the latest developments in research, Religion Past and Present Online encompasses a vast range of subjects connected with religion.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
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Religion Past and Present (RPP) Online is the online version of the updated English translation of the 4th edition of the definitive encyclopedia of religion worldwide: the peerless Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG). This great resource, now at last available in English and Online, Religion Past and Present Online continues the tradition of deep knowledge and authority relied upon by generations of scholars in religious, theological, and biblical studies. Including the latest developments in research, Religion Past and Present Online encompasses a vast range of subjects connected with religion.
Subscriptions: see brill.com
Boas, Franz
(136 words)
[German Version] (Jul 9, 1858, Minden, Westphalia– Dec 21, 1942, New York) was a German-American ethnologist, the founder of American “Cultural Anthropology.” After his education in Germany (physics and geography), he went to the USA in 1887, where he taught from 1899 to 1937 at Columbia University in New York, built one of the leading ethnological institutes, founded the
International Journal of American Linguistics, published the journal
American Anthropologists, and was one of the founding members of the American Anthropological As…
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Religion Past and Present
Bobadilla, Nicolás Alfonso de
(123 words)
[German Version] (1507, Bobadilla del Camino, Spanien – 1590, Loreto). While studying in Paris, Bobadilla joined Ignatius of Loyola in 1534. He was ordained priest in 1537. After working as a preacher in Italy, from 1542 he accompanied G. Morone in Germany, where he was also active at the imperial diets of Nuremberg, Speyer, and …
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Religion Past and Present
Bobbio Monastery
(191 words)
[German Version] in the Trebbia valley (Province of Piacenza), founded in 612 by the Irishman Columbanus the Younger in association with the royal house of Lombardy. Whether Bobbio was indeed, in 628, already exempt from answering to the bishops of Tortona and Piacenza and placed under the direct authority of the pope, is uncertain. From 643 onward, the Benedictine Rule (Benedict, Rule of Saint) played a role ¶ alongside Columbanus's way of life. The golden age of the monastery was in the 8th and 9th centuries; Abbot Wala (834–836) finally established the
Regula Benedicti in Bobbio and …
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Religion Past and Present
Bochart, Samuel
(146 words)
[German Version] (May 30, 1599, Rouen – May 16, 1667, Caen) studied philosophy in Sedan and theology in Saumur as well as in Leiden, where he devoted himself to Arabic. From 1625 he was a pastor in Caen. His dispute with the Jesuit François Véron (Sep 22 – Oct 3, 1628) and the publication of the proceedings made him well known, and the release of his
Geographia sacra even more so. An invitation to the court of Christina of Sweden in 1652 gave him the opportunity to evaluate the Arabic manuscripts of the royal library for his
Hierozoicon. In 1661 he got into contr…
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Religion Past and Present
Bocholt, Johannes von
(88 words)
[German Version] (Bocoldie; died 1487, Hildesheim). First rector of the Magdeburg branch of the Brothers of the Common Life (Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life). Called and supported by the archbishop's physician Thomas Hertzhorn, Bocholt furnished the new Jerome House in Diebshorn behind the cathedral deanery with the help of the Hildesheim
Bruderhaus. The community took students for general upbringing, perhaps also for instruction, including, in 1496/97, Luther. Irene Crusius Bibliography
Monasticon Fratrum vitae communis 2, ed. W. Leesch
et al., 1979, 139–145.
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Religion Past and Present
Bock, Friedrich Samuel
(219 words)
[German Version] (May 20, 1716, Königsberg – Sep 30, 1785, Königsberg) studied theology in Königsberg and Halle, earning his Master of ¶ Philosophy in 1743. In 1748 he became army chaplain in Königsberg, in 1753 he joined the council of the consistory. From 1754 to 1779 he was Doctor of Theology and Professor of Theology and Greek Language, and from 1753 to 1779 he was part-time librarian at the university library. During his student days he was already the editor of the
Moralische Wochenschriften (“Moral Weekly”) of Königsberg, the
Einsiedler (“Hermit”) (1740/41), the
Deutscher Äsop (“G…
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Religion Past and Present
Bocskay, István
(126 words)
[German Version] (1557, Klausenburg – Dec 29, 1606, Kaschau), 1605–1606 prince of Transylvania. From 1592, in the first years of the Turkish War, he stood at the forefront of a Habsburg-friendly party of the country. When, however, emperor Rudolf II (Habsburgs) took a hard line with the confiscation of goods and a reign of terror with foreign mercenaries, Bocskay became the leader of the revolt of the affected Protestants in 1604. With the armed Hungarians he forced the so-called Peace of Vienna, which secured a kind of freedom of belief in the Carpathian Valley for decades. Balínt Keserü Bi…
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Religion Past and Present
Bodding, Paul Olaf
(107 words)
[German Version] (Nov 2, 1865, Gjøvik, Norway – Sep 25, 1938, Odense, Denmark). A Norwegian missionary and scholar, Bodding arrived in India in 1890 and served with the Santal Mission of the Northern Churches for 44 years. He succeeded L.O. Skrefsrud as leader of the mission from 1910 to 1923 and was one of the founders of the church among the Santals. Bodding translated the Bible into Santali and gained wide reputation as an excellent linguist and ethnographer. Jan-Martin Berentsen Bibliography Works include:
Materials for a Santali Grammar, 2 vols., 1922–1929
Santal Folk Tales, 3 vols…
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Religion Past and Present
Bodelschwingh
(1,294 words)
[German Version]
1. Friedrich von, the Elder (Mar 6, 1831, Tecklenburg – Apr 2, 1910, Bethel) was one of a small group belonging to the ancient Prussian aristocracy who turned to theology in the middle of the 19th century and came to exercise enormous influence, less through their official positions than through their personality and family contacts. Under the influence of …
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Religion Past and Present
Bodhi
(8 words)
[German Version] Enlightenment (Spiritual): IV. Buddhism
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Religion Past and Present
Bodhidharma
(134 words)
[German Version] (Chin. Putidamo, Jap. Bodaidaruma) is a semi-legendary figure of East Asian Buddhism. This South Indian prince is reputed to have journeyed to northern China c. 500 ce, where he spent nine years in the monastery of Shaolin meditating before a wall. This and similar stories provide the first traces within the Buddhist tradition of the Zen school, which is often described as eccentric, and are of g…
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Religion Past and Present
Bodhisattva
(367 words)
[German Version] (Pāli
bodhisatto, Sanskrit
bodhisattva, Chin.
pusa, Jap.
Bosatsu: “one whose essence is enlightenment, one destined to be a buddha”). In the Pāli Canon or Jātakas, the term refers to the career of a buddha before achieving enlightenment. In the earliest stages of Buddhist history, the concept of the bodhisattva is relatively simple and of minor doctrinal …
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Religion Past and Present
Bodily Harm in the Old Testament
(368 words)
[German Version] In Israel and Judah, bodily harm was originally avenged through the legal institution of the talion (Exod 21:24f.), an immediate juridical response on the part of the injured party, who inflicted on the wrongdoer a punishment equal to the crime. When the law governing bodily harm was entrusted to the local authorities (Judicial system), the …
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Religion Past and Present
Bodin, Jean
(296 words)
[German Version] (Bodinus; 1529 or 1530, Angers – 1596, Laon) was a Carmelite for a brief period; he studied law in Toulouse from 1550 and became an advocate at the Parliament of Paris in 1561. In 1571, he entered the service of the Duke of Alençon and made contact with the “Politiques,” a group of moderate Catholics and Protestants who regarded the state as h…
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Religion Past and Present
Body and Corporeality
(3,316 words)
[German Version] I. Bible – II. Dogmatics – III. Ethics
I. Bible
1. Old Testament and Gospels. The word “body” rarely appears in the Hebrew OT, because human beings are usually referred to as flesh and soul (cf. Flesh and spirit: I). The LXX often uses σῶμα/
sṓma (“body”) to translate בָּשָׂר/
bāśār (“flesh”). Although the term “body” does not occur in creation passages, it is still true that human beings were created by God as physical creatures …
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Religion Past and Present
Body and Soul
(4,458 words)
[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Philosophy of Religion and Historical Theology – III. Philosophy – IV. Dogmatics – V. Practical Theology – VI. Ethics
I. Religious Studies Perceptions of animate and inanimate nature, dreams, ecstasy, trance, and death, as well as sickness and physical sensation, and finally self-reflection and self-transcendence have led to highly diverse models for interpreting …
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Religion Past and Present
Body Control Techniques
(1,198 words)
[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Taoism – III. Indian Religions
I. Religious Studies Against the background of the significance of the body for religious experience, many religions have developed techniques with the aid of which the body can become the instrument of religious and spiritual transformation. These body control techniques are imbedded in an overall religious context that e…
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Religion Past and Present
Boeckh, August
(98 words)
[German Version] (Nov 24, 1785, Karlsruhe – Aug 3, 1867, Berlin). Under the influence of F.A. Wolf and F.D.E. Schleiermacher, Boeckh studied classics and theology at Halle. Having occupied a chair in Heidelberg, in 1811 he accepted a call to Berlin. He was a full member of the Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften and numerous other learned societies. His understanding of “philology” as research into the total life of a people justifies including Boeckh alongside B.G. Niebuhr as one of the founders of scholarly ancient history. Hans-Ulrich Berner Bibliography Works:
Gesammelte kle…
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Religion Past and Present
Boegner, Marc
(166 words)
[German Version] (Feb 21, 1881, Épinal – Dec 19, 1970, Strasbourg). Boegner was one of the pioneers of the ecumenical movement in the 20th century. While teaching at the seminary of the Protestant missionary society in Paris and serving as pastor of the Passy congregation (1918–1954), he strove above all for the unity of French Protestantism. From 1929 to 1961…
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Religion Past and Present