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
Consequence/Inherent Consequences of Actions
(588 words)
[German Version] Every action has inculculable inherent consequences, and even its actual consequences are only partially foreseeable. This is due to the fact that action originates from a presence of action within this world, whose restrictions govern the
impact of its
effects. By choosing
one of several available present possibilities of further becoming, action transforms this possibility into the determination of the presence to act as one that has become. This determination is inherent in the action as its
effect. The effects of an action are different in importance, …
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Religion Past and Present
Consequentialism
(561 words)
[German Version] embraces a group of moral theories that claim that actions with the best consequences ¶ are morally correct. Nonconsequentialism asserts that what is morally correct is not (or not solely) determined by the consequences of an action. Consequentialism represents a modern form of the teleological theory of ethics (Teleology: IV), inasmuch as it defines what is right by relating it to what is good. Unlike classical teleological ethics, consequentialism has ascribed only instrumental value to correct actions. Every consequentialist moral theory is characterize…
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Religion Past and Present
Conservatio
(205 words)
[German Version] is the theological term for the way God sustains the being of creation through time (Creatio continua). Despite human sin, God sustains his creation faithfully and patiently until redemption comes with the advent of Christ.
Conservatio includes an aspect of innovation in the pneumatological context of an eschatological perspective. In the “classical” doctrine of providence,
conservatio has its place before
concursus Dei and
gubernatio, as also in the work of such theologians as K. Barth and E. Schlink. In the coherence framework of …
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Religion Past and Present
Conservatism
(906 words)
[German Version] I. Ethics – II. Practical Theology
I. Ethics Conservatism as a political movement emerged as a reaction to the changes in European society brought about by the French Revolution. The contrast between right and left that today still shapes parliamentary parties manifested itself in two works that became classics: E. Burke's
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) and T. Paine's
The Rights of Man (1791–1792). Burke condemned the revolutionary transformation of society on the basis of abstract (“metaphysical”) principles. In his r…
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Religion Past and Present
Conservative Judaism
(474 words)
[German Version] In spite of later attempts to gain a foothold in Israel and in other countries, the initial shaping of Conservative Judaism took place in the specific context of American Jewish society (North America: II), where it established itself as a religious movement. At the same time, however, conservative Judaism can also point to historical roots in European Judaism (III). As early as the 1840s, when German Judaism was engaged in intensive debates regarding ¶ the modernization of faith and of its practical forms of expression, Rabbi Z. Frankel had alre…
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Religion Past and Present
Consistent Eschatology
(327 words)
[German Version] In the first place, the notion of “consistent eschatology” was used by A. Schweitzer to designate his proposed solution for the historical ¶ problem of the life of Jesus (Life-of-Jesus research), according to which not only Jesus' proclamation (as held by J. Weiß), but also his behavior and deeds were conditioned by the eschatological expectation of an imminent parousia. In addition, consistent eschatology also refers to a branch of research that investigates the history of …
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Religion Past and Present
Consistory
(270 words)
[German Version] In the
Catholic Church, consistory refers primarily to an assembly of the College of Cardinals, convoked and presided over by the pope (
CIC c. 353); today, its functions are largely representative and ceremonial. Consistory is also the name for a part of the diocesan curia; in German-speaking dioceses, it exercises the judicial authority of the bishop, primarily in marital cases (officialate, judicial vicar). In some Austrian dioceses, it serves as an advisory body to the bishop. In the
Evangelical Church in Germany, consistory traditionally denotes a p…
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Religion Past and Present
Consolation
(548 words)
[German Version] People seek comfort and consolation because their lives are inevitably linked to suffering. Experiences with boundaries and distress lead to the question as to the meaning and cause of suffering and the possibility of finding consolation.
I. The Old Testament speaks of human and especially of divine consolation in the context of mourning and in other grievous life situations. The theme is dominant in the psalms of lament: Supplicants express their suffering and experience consolation through God…
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Religion Past and Present
Constance
(313 words)
[German Version] A bishopric was established around 600 in the former Roman fortress of Constantia, in what is today Baden-Württemberg. In the late 12th century, the episcopal city that had grown up around it also took on the character of a free imperial city. Constance was the site of important imperial diets (Reichstag) under Frederick Barbarossa; from 1414 to 1418, it played host to an ecumenical council (Constance, Council of). Meanwhile the city had …
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Religion Past and Present
Constance, Council of
(274 words)
[German Version] The reform Council of Constance met from 1414 to 1418. The joint efforts of the German king, Sigismund (1410–1437), and the pope of the Pisan obedience (Pisa, Council of), John XXIII, to heal the Western Schism led to a council held in the imperial free city of Constance; it became the largest ecclesiastical congress of the Middle Ages. Its major tasks were to restore the unity of the church (
causa unionis), oppose the heresies of J. Wycliffe and J. Hus (
causa fidei), and reform the church (
causa reformationis). When John XXIII sought to evade the council's demand t…
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Religion Past and Present
Constantine and Methodius
(10 words)
[German Version] Cyril and Methodius
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Religion Past and Present
Constantine, Donation of
(420 words)
[German Version] In the canon law collections of the High Middle Ages, but also already in the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, a forgery from the middle of the 9th century, the text of an extensive document is transmitted in which Emperor Constantine gives Pope Silvester I the primacy over all churches as well as a number of imperial rights and possessions. It was above all dominion over Rome and the western half of the Roman Empire, but also imperial …
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Religion Past and Present
Constantine of Ostrog
(170 words)
[German Version] (1524/1525 – Feb 13/23, 1608 Ostrog, Volhynia [Ukraine]), voivode of Kiev and marshal of Volhynia, played an important role in the public life of Poland-Lithuania in the age of confessionalization. He was concerned at times with reaching an agreement with representatives of the Reformation, as well as an understanding with Rome. He rejected the union of an Eastern Orthodox state church with Rome without the participation of all patriarchs of the East, a…
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Religion Past and Present
Constantine the Great
(582 words)
[German Version] (270/288, Naissus [Niš] – 337, Constantinople). His father was Emperor Constantius Chlorus, his mother the emperor's concubine Helena). After his father's death in 306 Constantine had himself proclaimed emperor. This usurpation was followed by others and Constantine emerged as victor from the ensuing battles for control. Important events were the victory over Maxentius in 312 at the Milvian Bridge and over Licinius in 324 near ¶ Byzantium. Constantine began to stabilize the dynasty after he became sole ruler. He suffered setbacks when he …
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Religion Past and Present
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus
(162 words)
[German Version] (905–959) Byzantine emperor (913–959, sole rule from 945) was born to the fourth marriage of his father Leo VI, which was opposed by part of the Byzantine church (tetragamy controversy). His rule was first under the regency of the patriarch Nicholas Mysticus, later he was forced into the position of co-regent by Romanos I Lakapenos. It was not until 945 that he ruled alone. While he was not particularly significant as an emperor his politico-cult…
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Religion Past and Present
Constantinian Era
(230 words)
[German Version] The term Constantinian Era is a headword known more in the context of “the end of the Constantinian Era” (Constantine the Great) than as a period delimited by precise historical criteria and is supposed to characterize the symbiosis of church and secular authority that began with the “Constantinian change” (312) and lasted into the modern era, indeed into recent history. It is meant to refer to an alliance in which each side uses the services of the other to reach its ¶ goals: the church uses the state for recourse to secular force and privileges; the st…
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Religion Past and Present
Constantinople/Byzantium
(7,786 words)
[German Version] I. Archaeology – II. Early Church – III. After 600 – IV. Councils – V. Patriarchate – VI. Literature – VII. Art – VIII. Church Music – IX. Judaism
I. Archaeology Settlers from Megara settled Byzantium in the early 7th century on a previously inhabited hill on the Bosphorus, the most important water route from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea; a deep bay, the “Golden Horn” offered additional protection. In 324 ce, after the victory over Licinius, Constantine chose Byzantium as a new capital and dedicated it on May 11, 330 as
Nea Roma, “New Rome”; soon the name …
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Religion Past and Present
Constantinople, Council of
(8 words)
[German Version] Byzantium/Constantinople
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Religion Past and Present
Constantius II
(508 words)
[German Version] (Aug 7, 317 – Nov 3, 361). The Roman emperor Constantius II was the second son of Constantine and Fausta. He was made Caesar in 324; upon Constantine's death in September of 337, he became Augustus over the eastern half of the empire. Because his primary military challenge was securing the eastern border, until 350 he spent most of his time in Antioch. After the death of Constantine II in 340, the rivalry between Constantius and his younger brot…
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Religion Past and Present
Constantius of Sinai
(219 words)
[German Version] (1770, Constantinople – Jan 5, 1859, Constantinople) was the nephew of the Sinai bishop Cyril II and officiated as archbishop of Sinai from 1804 until his death in 1859. He studied at Constantinople, Iaşi, and Kiev, and was afterwards known as “the Byzantine” on account of his education. In 1795, he became a Sinai monk in Cairo and, in 1797, abbot of the subsidiary monastery in Kiev. In 1804, he was appointed archbishop of Sinai as Constantius II…
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Religion Past and Present
Constellations
(1,114 words)
[German Version] I. Ancient Near East and Old Testament – II. Greco-Roman World and the New Testament – III. Early Church
I. Ancient Near East and Old Testament The starry heavens were the object of enthusiastic study in the ancient Near East from earliest times. This is ¶ associated with the importance of the star cycles for the calendar and with belief in the divinity of the stars (Astral religion). From veneration of the stars, astral divination or astrology developed in Mesopotamia based on the conviction that …
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Religion Past and Present
Constitution
(748 words)
[German Version]
I. Every consolidated social system relies on an order (II) by which it ensures its existence and regulates its procedures of self-government. The details of the order document normative elements defined either empirically and extra-juristically, or juristically. The history of the concept since antiquity reflects its course of development into the dominant modern juridical understanding of constitution. Three elements overlap in the concept of a…
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Religion Past and Present
Constitutionalism, Church
(379 words)
[German Version] The period between the Napoleonic Wars and World War I saw ongoing ¶ debate over the structure of the Evangelical Church in Germany. Those involved were primarily theologians and jurisprudents. – A group around F.D.E. Schleiermacher, combining collegialist ideas (Collegialism) with elements of the presbyterial and synodal structure (Presbyter/Presbytery) of the Reformed Church, put forward demands for a self-governing church organized on the basis of the local congregations.
Vis-à-vis conceptions of the church and church polity based on mi…
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Religion Past and Present
Constitutions, Apostolic
(130 words)
[German Version] In the Catholic Church, the term
constitutions (from Lat.
constituere, “set up, appoint”) refers to the decrees of a pope or council (cf.
CIC/1983, c. 754) as well as the statutes of religious orders. Today, it is used primarily for statutes decreed ¶ by the pope as
Constitutiones apostolicae in the style of an ordinary bull (Bullae) and administrative actions by the heads of curial offices. In the law governing religious orders, the statutes of institutes of consecrated life, secular institutes, and societies of the apostolic life are called constitutions. Wilhelm Ree…
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Religion Past and Present
Constructivism
(501 words)
[German Version] Generally speaking, the term constructivism denotes positions that focus on the concept of construction as a constitutive aspect of their theory of human (cultural) products, whether these be artworks, scientific or philosophical theories, or mental states and processes such as emotions and perceptions. In German Idealism, the concept of construction refers primarily to the building of a “system” of philosophy in accordance with the principles of…
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Religion Past and Present
Consubstantiation
(286 words)
[German Version] After transsubstantiation, the doctrine of consubstantiation is the most prominent explanation of the miraculous bodily presence of Christ in the Eucharist (II, 2) proposed by medieval Scholasticism. This theory, whose roots go back to the christological controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries, maintains that the eucharistic consecration does not transform the substances of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, annihilating the former. Instead the
substantiae of Christ's
caro and
sanguis are added to the
substantiae of
panis and
vinum to constitut…
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Religion Past and Present
Consuetudines monasticae
(260 words)
[German Version] Important from the 6th century to c. 1500, the
Consuetudines Monasticae stand conceptually and factually next to the monastic rule; they supplement and interpret the rule; occasionally they change the rule, but basically they secure and support it. The consuetudo is a life order for monks, given by a competent authority and carrying the force of law. The unwritten consuetudo existed already in the 6th century; the oldest evidence of a written consuetudo dates to …
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Religion Past and Present
Consultation
(181 words)
[German Version] (Lat.
consultare, “ask for advice”) in Catholic canon law means the seeking of advice that preserves the ultimate responsibility of the seeker, yet at the same time involves that person in a collegial conferring process (cf. Priests' council College of Consultors [Consultors, College of], Diocesan Income Administrative Council, Diocesan Pastoral Council; Diocesan synod). Canon 127
CIC/1983 (c. 934
CCEO) standardizes the agreement rights of third parties. Consultation grows out of the communio structure of the church, as wel…
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Religion Past and Present
Consultation on Church Union
(189 words)
[German Version] The Consultation on Church Union emerged from a proposal in December 1960 by the American Presbyterian Eugene Carson Blake for an organic union of churches “truly catholic, truly evangelical, and truly reformed.” The Consultation was established in 1962 by representatives of four mainline Protestant denominations. After mergers and the addition of new bodies, nine churches have continued as full members: African Methodist Episcopal Church, Afric…
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Religion Past and Present
Consultors, College of
(95 words)
[German Version] In Catholic canon law the College of Consultors is the prescribed and required organ of consultation that the diocesan bishop (Bishops: III, 1) calls freely in his diocese from the members of the priests' council for a period of five years (c. 502
CIC/1983; c. 271
CCEO; Cathedral chapter). It has agreement rights and duties when there is a vacant see (See, Vacant). Wilhelm Rees Bibliography
KanR II, 1997, 399–401 O. Stoffel,
MKCIC, c. 502 (as of Apr 1997) H. Schmitz, “Die Konsultationsorgane des Diözesanbischofs,”
HKKR2 , 1999, 457–459.
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Religion Past and Present
Consumer
(349 words)
[German Version] Consumers demand goods and services (Service sector) in order to satisfy their needs. They express their preferences through their demand for different goods. If consumer selection takes place in a free economic system – as is the case in a market economy – then producers are stimulated by consumer demand to produce the desired goods: the consumer is sovereign. This should also be true for goods and services not produced by the market but …
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Religion Past and Present
Consumption
(352 words)
[German Version] Income is consumed by individuals, saved, or paid in taxes. The state also spends a portion of its income – in addition to investments, transfers, and subsidies – for consumer products. Consumption refers to all activities by private economic parties that serve the immediate satisfaction of needs. State consumption is entered into the gross national product under the key word “consumption by the state” (expenditures by the s…
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Religion Past and Present
Contarini, Gasparo
(430 words)
[German Version] (Oct 16, 1483, Venice – Aug 24, 1542, Bologna). Born into a patrician family in Venice, the diplomat and church reformer Gasparo Contarini began studying law in Padua in 1501. His interest in religious matters was awakened by friends. In 1511, he came to realize that his salvation depended on Christ alone, and not on his own merits (Jedin: Contarini's “tower experience”). Contarini remained a layman, but devoted himself to theology as an autodida…
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Religion Past and Present
Contest
(454 words)
[German Version] Originating in Greek antiquity, contest or competition carried out on a field with the objective of victory entered metaphorical usage, in Christianity as elsewhere, as Agon. In a broader sense, however, competition and sport are attested in many religious contexts or can be used and interpreted in religion. In this regard, competition continues essentially to be competition with the goal of victory, while the term “sports,” used in England since the 16th century (from Latin
disportare, “to amuse, entertain oneself”), refers to physical training i…
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Religion Past and Present
Contestado
(164 words)
[German Version] Messianic-millenarian insurrectionary movement in the border region between Santa Catarina and Paraná (southern Brazil), where the peasant population, whose existence was threatened by land theft and railroad construction, tried in an eschatological “holy war” to bring in a “new age.” After the murder of the “monk” José Maria de Santo Agostinho (1912), who was venerated as a prophet, government troops wiped out the movement in 1916. German Franci…
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Religion Past and Present
Context
(238 words)
[German Version] is derived etymologically from Latin
contextere (“weave/twine together”) or
contextus (“connection”). In general, context means the environment in which something belongs or can be placed. More precisely, context means connections that are constitutive for the understanding of something. Linguistically one may distinguish between intratextual context as the parts of a text with which one part is directly connected (also called “cotext”) and extratextual c…
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Religion Past and Present
Contextuality
(730 words)
[German Version] I. Fundamental Theology – II. Ethics and Practical Theology
I. Fundamental Theology “Contextuality” denotes a set of circumstances that became a theological issue in the wake of contextual theology, though it is of fundamental relevance to any theology. The concept arose from the fact that Christian theology is not only shaped by the biblical text but also by its own distinct context. This context, furthermore, does not simply consist of other texts in the litera…
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Religion Past and Present
Contextual Theology
(850 words)
[German Version] I. Systematic Theology – II. Missiology
I. Systematic Theology “Contextual theology” denotes that form of theological work, with a primarily inductive approach, for which the deliberate inclusion of the cultural and religious environment as the starting point and goal of theological reflection is constitutive. Unlike a local theology, i.e. a theology defined simply by its cultural setting, contextual theology takes its cultural determination
self-reflexively into account, claiming particular relevance while at the same time maintaini…
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Religion Past and Present
Contingency
(1,312 words)
[German Version] I. Chance vs. Contingency – II. Accident vs. Essence – III. Chance vs. Order – IV. Paradigms of Chance
I. Chance vs. Contingency Chance (Contingency/Chance) and contingency are among the theologically significant constructs of conceptual history. The word
contingency derives from Lat.
contingere (translating συμβαίνειν/
symbainein or ¶ ένδέχεσϑαι/
endechesthai, first used by Marius Victorinus);
chance derives through Old French from Lat.
cadere, “fall/befall” and
accident from
accidere/accidentia, with the German loan-translation
Zufall first used…
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Religion Past and Present
Contingency and Necessity
(535 words)
[German Version] What is contingent could have been otherwise; what is necessary could not have been otherwise. These simple definitions are the starting point for discussions about the religious significance of chance, but their appropriate application is still a matter of vigorous debate. In fact both terms often have quite different meanings in different contexts. In logic, necessary propositions are propositions that cannot be false, while contingent propositions are possible (i.e. they are not self-contradictory) but not necessary…
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Religion Past and Present
Contingency/Chance
(2,299 words)
[German Version] I. Natural Sciences – II. Religious Studies – III. Philosophy – IV. Systematic Theology
I. Natural Sciences The concept of contingency/chance occurs in various contexts and meanings in the natural sciences. In the simplest case, contingency denotes an event, a process or a property, the finality of which exists without an immediately discernible or determinable cause. Although we inaccurately assert that something happened by chance, the latter really implies the lack …
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Religion Past and Present
Continuing Education
(9 words)
[German Version] Education of adults
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Religion Past and Present
Contraception
(383 words)
[German Version] Protestant ethics approves of a responsible and well-considered planning of pregnancy and family (Family planning). In an attempt to avoid negative connotations, it has become customary to speak of “birth control” rather than contraception. As a hormonal contraceptive preventing the fertilization of the ovum and thus pregnancy, the “pill” is one of the methods for birth control. Methods that block the nidation of an already fertilized ovum and provoke an early abortion are to be ¶ distinguished from the pill. The intra-uterine device, for instance,…
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Religion Past and Present
Contract
(1,461 words)
[German Version] I. Law – II. Religious Studies – III. Sociology and Social Ethics
I. Law Potential for development is of the essence of human personality. The legal instruments that promote this development include the contract, understood as a bilateral or multilateral agreement governing a legal relationship, entered into by the parties. Mutual assent (
consensus ad idem) of the parties to a contract has been constitutive since the beginning in both the ancient world and Judeo-Christian culture. Matt 20:1–16, for example, takes it …
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Religion Past and Present
Contradiction, Logical
(281 words)
[German Version] A necessarily false set of statements contains a logical contradiction (Antinomy). Logical calculuses and theories should generally be free of contradiction (consistent) since, according to traditional logic all kinds of arbitrary conclusions can proceed from a falsehood (
ex falso quodlibet). Aristotle (
Metaph. Γ 1005 b 17–34) formulated the “principle of contradiction (to be excluded)” (which can be interpreted logically, psychologically and ontologically in his thinking) as a fundamental principle of …
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Religion Past and Present
Contrafactum,
(108 words)
[German Version] from medieval Latin
contrafacere, “imitate,” vocal music in which the original text is replaced by new lyrics. Before 1450, contrafactum could refer to a secular song for which new lyrics had been written or to a new liturgical text in place of an older plainchant. After 1450, contrafactum was used for a piece of sacred music that originally had a secular text; for example, the song “O Welt, ich muss dich lassen” (“O world, I must leave you”) is a contrafactum of H. Isaac's popular tenor song “Innsbruck, ich muß dich lassen.” Jane Flynn Bibliography R. Strohm,
The Rise of Eur…
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Religion Past and Present
Control
(284 words)
[German Version] The concept of control was developed in sociology and social psychology, especially in the thematic context of deviant behavior. Social control is the generic term for those mechanisms by means of which a social unit (e.g. a group, a social environment, or a society) ¶ attempts to get its members to follow approved forms of behavior in order to achieve conformity. However, one should distinguish between external and internal control. External control produces obedience to certain norms by applying extern…
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Religion Past and Present
Controversial Theology
(1,053 words)
[German Version] is a branch of theology that judges differences between various Christian Churches from a polemical and argumentative point of view rather than analyzing them from a historically critical perspective. The “controversy” involved relates both to the object and the method of this discipline. Theological positions are discussed when they become significant in disturbing or dividing the church community, and not so much as contributions to an open scholarly debate.
I. Although the term controversial theology did not become common until the 20th century, …
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Religion Past and Present
Conventuals
(331 words)
[German Version]
1. Those who belong to a convent (Lat.
conventus), i.e. all the full members of a religious community at a specific location.
2. In the context of a particular monastic way of life, and especially among the mendicant orders, “conventuals” refers to that group or tendency within the order which continues to follow the “old observance” (usually in a previously mitigated form) in the midst of internal disputes over the proper observance of the rule, and which accordingly …
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Religion Past and Present
Conversation
(660 words)
[German Version] is an everyday, specifically human phenomenon: two or more people exchange linguistic symbols that not only accompany their actions, but establish an independent thought world, the scene discussed, that differs from the situation of the conversation, the discussion scene; as such, it is suitable for the treatment and portrayal of religion. In contrast to the unilateral monopoly of discussion, the speech (Rhetoric) and the spoken ritual that fixes…
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Religion Past and Present
Conversion
(6,787 words)
[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Greco-Roman Antiquity – III. Bible – IV. Church History – V. Systematic Theology – VI. Practical Theology – VII. Missiology – VIII. Judaism – IX. Islam
I. History of Religions “Conversion” denotes the religiously interpreted process of total reorientation in which individuals or groups reinterpret their past lives, turn their backs on them, and reestablish and reshape their future lives in a new network of social relationships. The phenomenon was initially …
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Religion Past and Present
Conversos (Anusim)
(820 words)
[German Version] The epithet
Marranos, meaning “swine,” was applied to Jews who were forcibly con¶ verted to Christianity in Spain after the 1391 riots. The church and state officially rejected the appellation and preferred: “New Christian,”
confeso (meaning convert). The anti-Jewish propaganda (Anti-Semitism/Anti-Judaism) in Andalusia was followed by riots, in which entire Jewish communities – around 600,000 Jews – were forced to the baptismal font. Only a few Jewish communities were protected by royalty and nobilit…
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Religion Past and Present
Converts, Instruction of
(396 words)
[German Version] This is the education that accompanies conversion. Conversion constitutes a change of religion or denomination. The unbaptized are prepared for their conversion by means of baptismal instruction or the catechumenate, previously baptized converts through discussions. In theory, the instruction of converts may be applied to both procedures, though it usually designates the accompaniment of the already baptized in distinction to baptismal instruction. The …
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Religion Past and Present
Convictions
(990 words)
[German Version] As a basic notion of fundamental ethics, “conviction(s)” (Ger.
Gesinnung) is one of the key concepts of a specific theory of morality (Morality and immorality). It denotes the enduring and persevering quality of an emotional or volitional urge to attain an envisaged good (cf. Rom 8:5; Phil 2:5; 3:19) – in other words, the intentionality (Intention/Intentionality) that inspires a person or community of persons. The more precise definition of its content a…
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Religion Past and Present
Convocations of Canterbury and York
(291 words)
[German Version] These are provincial assemblies of the Church of England, each of which is divided into an upper house (bishops) and a lower house (representatives of the clergy). There are no lay members. The convocations grew out of ancient assemblies and met regularly from about 1250 onwards. They acted as legislative bodies, and produced a number of important canons, which continue to influence church life today. From 1536 to 1966 the convocations convened a…
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Religion Past and Present
Conzelmann, Hans
(177 words)
[German Version] (Oct 27, 1915, Tailfingen, Württemberg – June 20, 1989, Göttingen) was a Protestant scholar in New Testament studies and a disciple of R. Bultmann. He was appointed professor in Zürich (1954), then in Göttingen (1960), where he became a member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences in 1966. In his publications on the Lucan corpus, Conzelmann introduced the redaction-critical perspective into Protestant research by plausibly demonstrating that Luke is to b…
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Religion Past and Present
Coolhaes, Caspar Janszoon
(214 words)
[German Version] (Jan 24, 1534, Cologne - Jan 15, 1615, Amsterdam). As a Reformed preacher and former Carthusian (1560 conversion to Protestantism), Coolhaes served in several German and Dutch congregations. Appointed at Leiden in 1574, he gave the opening lecture of the Academy in 1574 and assisted with lectures for a few months. In the conflict between the magistracy of Leiden and the Reformed Church Council concerning authority to fill the offices of preacher, …
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Religion Past and Present
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
(197 words)
[German Version] (Canada). The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation originated in 1932 as a loose association of labor parties and farmers' protest movements. While its program of 1933, the so-called Regina Manifest, called for the abolition of capitalism, its radical outlook was tempered by the fact that its organization was primarily built out of groups strongly influenced by British “Fabian” socialism (a union of British intellectuals who sought to realize soc…
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Religion Past and Present
Coordination Theory
(180 words)
[German Version] viewed the relationship between church and state as an equal partnership between two sovereign powers (Violence: IV). It is rooted in corresponding teachings on the relationship between empire and papacy, and was invoked by Roman Catholic doctrine in the 19th century as an argument against the modern state's claim to sovereignty (in its configuration as secular supremacy). After 1945, if only temporarily, it once again attained a h…
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Religion Past and Present
Coornhert, Dirck Volckertszoon
(222 words)
[German Version] (1522, Amsterdam – Oct 29, 1590, Gouda). The military conflict between Spain and the rebellious Netherlands marked the troubled course of his life. Coornhert was a humanist autodidact; he practiced various professions and was a fervent publicist. From 1560 to 1588, with interruptions, he was a notary in Haarlem, and from 1564 to 1567, an annuitant of the city council. He carried out some important assignments for William of Orange. In 1572, Coorn…
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Religion Past and Present
Copacabana,
(209 words)
[German Version] city in Bolivia (department of La Paz, diocese of El Alto) lying 4,000 m above the sea level and located on the shore of the sacred Titicaca Lake; the population numbers c. 13,000. As the cradle of Aymará and Inca culture, Copacabana is characterized by a large number of archaeological sites, including the astronomical observatory Horca del Inca. The Spanish conquerors established a political and religious center in order to curtail the influence of the native religious cult of
Pachamama, which they generally regarded as superstition, but which the In…
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Religion Past and Present
Copenhagen, University of
(699 words)
[German Version] I. History – II. Theological Faculty
I. History For unknown reasons, the papal approbation of 1419 permitting the establishment of a university in Denmark produced no results; not until the bull of Sixtus IV did it prove possible to found the University of Copenhagen on the model of Cologne(III), an event which took place under King Christian I (Jun 1, 1479). The founding documents and statutes of the faculty of law have been preserved. Closed down dur…
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Religion Past and Present
Copernicus, Nicolaus
(341 words)
[German Version] (Dec 19, 1473, Torun – May 24, 1543, Frombork), Polish astronomer. Studied in Cracow (mathematics and painting), Bologna (astronomy), Padua (law and medicine), and Ferrara (canon law). Copernicus was secretary to the bishop of Warmia, Lukasz Watzenrode, and canon at the cathedral in Frombork. His project of a currency reform, which he proposed in his writing
Monetae cudendae ratio (1517, 1526), later became known as “Gresham's Law.” During the war between the knights of the Teutonic Order (Orders of Germany) and the Kingdom…
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Religion Past and Present
Coptic Monasteries
(541 words)
[German Version] The rise of Coptic monasteries coincides with the beginnings of Egyptian monasticism. At the start of the monastic movement there were two forms of monastic life. (1) The anchorites or hermits (Monasticism: III) retreated alone into the desert in search of solitude. Saint Anthony (died 356) represents this type. The anchorites began to flourish in the 4th century; hermitages and lauras arose along the Nile and in the interior of the land. …
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Religion Past and Present
Copts
(3,996 words)
[German Version] I. Coptic Orthodox Church – II. Coptic Alphabet, Language, Literature, and Art
I. Coptic Orthodox Church
1. History The Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt preserves the heritage of the Alexandrian Church (Alexandria: III) to this day. The Copts trace themselves back to an early stage of Egyptian history. The self-designation “Copt” resp. “Copts” or “Coptic” points to these origins, as it derives from the same stem as the Greek word Αίγυπτος/
Aígyptos. Coptic tradition ascribes the founding of its church to the Evangelist Mark. In Alexandria, w…
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Religion Past and Present
Corbie Abbey
(168 words)
[German Version] on the Somme (in the diocese of Amiens). Founded in 657/661 by the Merovingian Queen Balthild and assigned to Luxeuil Abbey. Kings and bishops favored it; it enjoyed its heyday (because of its scriptorium and library) under the Carolingians in the 9th century with such important abbots as Adalhard, Wala and Paschasius Radbertus. Monks in Corbie included the later missionaries Ansgar and Ratramnus (died 868) who authored theological …
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Religion Past and Present
Corbinian
(180 words)
[German Version] (before 700, near Melun – c. 728/730, Freising). The only source is Arbeo's v
ita of him. Initially a settler, Corbinian made two journeys to Rome (before 714 and 715/17), during which he was made priest and bishop. In 719/20, after previous contact with Theodo, duke of Bavaria, in Regensburg and establishing relations with the part-duke Grimoald in Freising, he founded a precursor of the monastery of Weihenstephan. When he opposed Grimoald's marriage to his sister-i…
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Religion Past and Present
Cordatus, Conrad
(217 words)
[German Version] (1480 or 1483, Leombach near Wels – Mar 25, 1546, while traveling near Spandau) began his studies in 1502 in Vienna, Rome and Ferrara (Lic. theol.). In Bohemia he came into contact with Hussites (J. Hus). In Hungary he supported the Reformation in his preaching, had to step down and came to Wittenberg in 1524. In 1525 he returned and was incarcerated in Esztergom (Gran). He managed to escape. Luther helped him to a teaching position in Liegnitz i…
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Religion Past and Present
Cordier, Leopold
(256 words)
[German Version] (Jul 14, 1887, Landau, Palatinate – Mar 1, 1939, Gießen). After studies in Halle, Berlin and Heidelberg Cordier gained his Dr. phil. and Lic. theol. From 1911 he was military chaplain in Karlsruhe, in 1914 parish minister in Eschelbronn (Baden), in 1917 in Frankfurt am Main, and in 1922 in Elberfeld. From 1925 he lectured in Bonn, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the faculty of theology in 1926. In the same year he was appointed ordi…
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Religion Past and Present
Córdoba, Pedro de
(427 words)
[German Version] (1482, Córdoba, Spain – May 4, 1521, Hispaniola), OP, entered the order of Dominicans around 1500, and in September 1510 arrived in Hispaniola as acting superior of the first Dominican community. Under his leadership, on Dec 21, 1511 A. de Montesinos gave an epoch-making sermon against the oppression of the native population, which is considered the “beginning of prophetic theology” in the New World; against the governor Diego Kolumbus Córdoba de…
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Religion Past and Present
Cordovero, Moses
(182 words)
[German Version] (1522, Zefad [Safed]? – 1570, Zefad), the greatest Kabbalist in Zefad before I. Luria. His family, whose origin was in Córdoba, was exiled from Spain in 1492. Cordovero was a disciple of ¶ Rabbi Joseph Karo and Shlomo Alkabetz. His main work, an extensive commentary on the
Zohar with the title
Or Yaqar (
Precious Light) was first published in the last decades (printed in Jerusalem, 1961ff., 22 vols.). His best known work is
Pardes Rimmonim (
A Garden of Pomegranates), a systematic presentation of Cordovero's interpretation of the classical Kabbalah. An…
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Religion Past and Present
Corinth
(402 words)
[German Version] The location at the large east-west connection of the Mediterranean Sea, where ships had to be drawn across a short stretch of land from one sea to the other (with the harbors Cenchrea and Lechaion), made Corinth a junction of cultural contact in antiquity. With its colonies, the city was a water bridge and a land bridge from east to west and north to south. It attracted merchants and artisans – along with their religions –, Egyptians, Carthaginians, Jews, and the tent-maker Paul`. As the center of opposition against the Romans, Corinth was destroyed in 146 bce, but it did n…
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Religion Past and Present
Corinthian Epistles
(3,040 words)
[German Version] I. Significance – II. Attestation – III. Composition History – IV. Historical and Literary Reconstruction of the Corinthian Correspondence – V. Theological Legacy
I. Significance The two letters of Paul in the biblical canon (Bible: III, 2.a; Paul) addressed to the “church of God that is in Corinth” (1 Cor 1:2; 2 Cor 1:1) and “all the saints ¶ throughout Achaia” (2 Cor 1:1) represent a collection of epistolary documents of inestimable importance for the history of primitive Christianity. As sources, they allow a …
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Religion Past and Present
Corinthians, Third
(7 words)
[German Version] Apocrypha/Pseudepigrapha
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Religion Past and Present
Corinth, Lovis
(331 words)
[German Version] (Jul 21, 1858, Tapiau, Eastern Prussia – Jul 17, 1925, Zandvoort, Holland), painter, studied art in Königsberg (1876–1880), in Munich (1880–1884), and in Paris (1884–1886). In 1887 he moved to Berlin, in 1891 to Munich, and in 1900 permanently to Berlin. He married Charlotte Behrend in 1903. He suffered a stroke in 1911 and spent the final years of his life from 1919 in Urfeld am Walchensee. In his early works he was a vital, sensual painter whos…
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Religion Past and Present
Corneille, Pierre
(515 words)
[German Version] (1606, Rouen – 1684, Paris), along with J. Racine and J.B. Molière one of the greatest authors of French classicism. He obtained the foundations of his Christian-humanistic worldview in a Jesuit college; after studying law and a brief period of activity as a lawyer, he turned to the theater in 1629. Of his more than 30 pieces, the tragedy
Le Cid (1637) set in the conflict between
amour and
honneur, the Roman dramas
Horace (1640), rooted in the tension between individual and state, and
Cinna (1640), and the martyr drama
Polyeucte martyr (1641/42) changed the history of t…
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Religion Past and Present
Cornelius
(152 words)
[German Version] (bishop of Rome 251–253). In the persecution under Decius, Bishop Fabian was martyred in 250. One year later (251), a majority chose Cornelius bishop. In his community, 46 presbyters were active, caring for 1500 widows and needy persons. Novatian led a minority community. In contrast to Novatian, Cornelius espoused a community practice that permitted Christians who had fallen away in the persecution to return after appropriate penitence. Bishop Cyprian of Carthage supported Cornelius; Cyprian's anthology of letters contains two letters of Cornelius (
Ep. 49 and …
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Religion Past and Present
Cornelius
(187 words)
[German Version] In Acts 10:1–11:18 and 15:6–11, 14, the “God-fearing” centurion Cornelius (cf. 10:2, 4, 35) functions as a key figure in Acts for the divinely ordained transition of early Christian mission to non-Jewish target groups. A double revelation (Acts 10:3–6 and 9–16) leads Peter to preach in the house of Cornelius. The outpouring of the Spirit to the assembly, manifested in praise to God and speaking in tongues (Glossolalia), justifies on-the-sp…
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Religion Past and Present
Cornelius a Lapide
(165 words)
[German Version] (Cornelis Cornelissen van den Steen, SJ [from 1592]; Dec 8, 1567, Bocholt near Liège – Mar 12, 1637, Rome), exegete. He was professor in Leuven from 1598–1616, thereafter in the Collegium Romanum. He was an important interpreter of Scripture who commented on the entire Bible (except Job and Psalms), both in the sense of the multiple senses of Scripture as well as with a view to the literal meaning. He was influential on into the 20th century. Heribert Smolinsky Bibliography BCJ 4, 1893, 1511–1526 G. Boss,
Die Rechtfertigungslehre in den Bibelkommentären des …
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Religion Past and Present
Cornelius, Peter von
(181 words)
[German Version] (Sep 29, 1783, Düsseldorf – Mar 6, 1867, Berlin), from 1795 a student at the Academy in Düsseldorf, became known to a larger public through his illustrations for Goethe's
Faust (published 1816), which are regarded as the key work of Nazarene art. In Rome (after 1811), Cornelius, along with J.F. Overbeck, was one of the dominant figures in the Nazarene Lucas Brotherhood (Lukasbund). In Munich, where he was director of the Academy from 1824, on the commission of King Ludwig I he crea…
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Religion Past and Present
Cornutus, Lucius Annaeus
(172 words)
[German Version] (born in Leptis, North Africa) was active as a Stoic philosopher in Rome and was exiled under Nero between 63 and 65 ce. In addition to diverse scholarly commentaries, Cornutus authored an
Overview of the Greek Doctrine of the gods (᾽Επιδρομὴ τῶν κατὰ τὴν ῾Ελληνικὴν ϑεολογίαν παραδεδομἑνων/
epidromḗ t#o->;n katà tḗn Hellēnikn theologían paradedoménôn). As ¶ an aid to elementary instruction in philosophy, the
Overview offers a selection of the doctrines of the early philosophers. Cosmogony, important gods, their attributes and e…
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Religion Past and Present
Corona, Saint
(10 words)
[German Version] Victor and Corona, Saints
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Religion Past and Present
Coronation
(1,065 words)
[German Version] I. Crown – II. Coronation – III. Coronation Orders
I. Crown The c
rown (etym.: Gk κορώνη/
korṓnē, curved object, then Latin
corona, “wreath,” etc.) is, in the most common sense, a head adornment displaying the dignity of kings and queens, emperors and empresses (for the head covering of ecclesial potentates there is a specific vocabulary: primarily mitre, tiara; rarely: “papal tiara,” or such). Among insignia, the crown has long merited greatest attention f…
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Religion Past and Present
Coronati Quattuor
(186 words)
[German Version] (“Four Crowned”) is the customary designation since the 6th century for a group of martyrs of uncertain origin venerated in Rome. At the core, it includes the names Claudius, Nicostratus, Sempronianus (Symphorianus) and Castorius. The first three are already listed in the
Depositio episcoporum/martyrum . In the 4th century, they were probably venerated in the Roman catacomb Inter duos lauros (Santi Marcellino e Pietro); since the end of the 6th century there has been a Roman titular church with the patronage of the group. The
Passio (BHL 1836) from late 5th…
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Religion Past and Present
Corporate Culture
(307 words)
[German Version] Management and organizational theory understands corporate culture as a set of fundamental assumptions and values that belong to an organization. The corporate culture is the acquired knowledge of a corporation that unites its members affectively, guides their perception, and determines their behaviors by means of preferences (Schein, Bleicher). In the theory of transaction costs, corporate culture constitutes a component of the transactio…
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Religion Past and Present
Corporate Ethics
(10 words)
[German Version] Business Ethics, Economic Ethics
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Religion Past and Present
Corporate Identity
(232 words)
[German Version] This term originated in American management literature. It designates the identity of a company gained by setting out its self-image through a mission statement, which serves the purpose of self-assurance on a symbolic level (e.g. firm logo) and direction of behavior based on codified values. A distinction is made between performance values (e.g. customer orientation), interaction values (e.g. loyalty), and moral values (e.g. fairness), which are fixed in standards of behavior. Accordingly, corporate identity assumes that ¶ companies can be described as a …
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Religion Past and Present
Corporation
(457 words)
[German Version] In general, the term “corporation” refers to activities regardless of type or purpose that involve a potential danger for those undertaking them. Thus, a risk is always associated with a corporation (synonyms: “company,” “enterprise”). From a commercial viewpoint, corporations are commercial units in a market-oriented economic system (Market economy) whose objective is the production and utilization of goods and services (Service sector). …
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Religion Past and Present
Corporation Act
(141 words)
[German Version] In December 1661, an Act was passed by the “Cavalier Parliament” which required all mayors, aldermen, councilors, and borough officials to swear loyalty to the king and take “the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, according to the rites of the Church of England” during the twelve months prior to their election. Conscientious Dissenters were thus removed from office; those who were elected (but who refused to communicate) were fined. Though increasingly ineffective, the Act remained highly contentious; it became a
cause célèbre in the Dissenting campaign to enact …
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Religion Past and Present
Corpus Catholicorum
(8 words)
[German Version] Corpus Evangelicorum
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Religion Past and Present
Corpus Christianum
(1,246 words)
[German Version] The term “corpus Christianum” refers to the medieval concept of a unity of church and “state,” of spiritual and secular dominion. According to it, sacerdotium and imperium, empire and papacy are two powers within a unified
respublica Christiana encompassing all of Christianity, membership in which is mediated by baptism. The invisible, unifying head of this
corpus mysticum is Jesus Christ; it is governed by emperor and pope as earthly heads. The unity of this corpus Christianum was an argument, in particular, for the curi…
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Religion Past and Present
Corpus Christi, Feast of
(434 words)
[German Version] In response to the urging of Juliana of Mont Cornillon (c. 1193–1258), Robert of Turotte, bishop of Liège, decreed Corpus Christi Day in the year 1246 in his diocese with the document
Inter alia mira. Juliana had visions in which she saw the shimmering disk of the full moon from which a small piece was broken off. The moon represented the church, and the missing part stood for the lack of a unique feast in honor of the Eucharist. The feast was supposed to constitute a counterweight to t…
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Religion Past and Present
Corpus Christi mysticum
(314 words)
[German Version] Following Pauline discussion of the body (of Christ), theologians in Antiquity understood the church as a body effectively symbolized in the celebration of the Eucharist and nourished by it (cf. Leo I: “Our participation in the body and blood of Christ strives for nothing other than to change us into what we receive”;
Sermo 63.7). The church here is the
corpus vere nourished and renewed by the reception of the Eucharistic body (
corpus mysticum). The discussion concerning the Eucharistic real presence resulted in the fact that, conversely, the eucharistic figure was ¶ des…
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Religion Past and Present
Corpus Evangelicorum
(726 words)
[German Version] Association of the Protestant imperial estates in the old empire. The Corpus Evangelicorum was presupposed in the Peace of Westphalia in the constitution of the empire. Here, in fact, art. V §52 of the
Instrumentum Pacis Osnabrugense (IPO, Osnabrück Peace Treaty) specifies that, in certain cases, the Imperial Diet will not decide by majority but only by amicable consensus (
amicabilis compositio) between the (Catholic and Protestant) estates of the empire. These cases include questions of religion and cases in which the two confessions separate “in duas partes” (
itio…
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Religion Past and Present
Corpus Iuris Canonici
(983 words)
[German Version] I. The Decretum Gratiani – II. The Liber Extra – III. The Liber Sextus – IV. The Clementines – V. The Extravagants Since the end of the 16th century, the term
Corpus Iuris Canonici has referred to the comprehensive collection of Catholic church law that developed out of various mutually complementary legal collections from 1140 onward. The designation became prevalent after it was used in the 1580 brief of Pope Gregory XIII,
Cum pro munere pastorali, issued on the occasion of the publication of an official edition of the
Decretum Gratiani. The so-called
Editio Romana …
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Religion Past and Present