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
Lund
(820 words)
[German Version] I. City and Bishopric – II. University
I. City and Bishopric The earliest documentary references to Lund as a wealthy and fortified Danish city date from around 940. The Anglo-Saxon missionaries Gerbrand and Bernard evangelized the province of Skåne in the reign of Canute the Great of Denmark (995–1035). During this time, the first church was established in Lund, under the bishopric of Roskilde. At the beginning of his reign, Sweyn Estridsen (d. 1074) established two bishoprics in Skåne, o…
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Religion Past and Present
Lüpke, Hans Johannes Eberhard Burghard von
(167 words)
[German Version] (Dec 28, 1866, Müden an der Aller – Jan 1, 1934, Göttingen). Between 1893 and 1925, Lüpke served as pastor and superintendent in various cures in Thuringia and Hanover. After early involvement in rural social welfare work (Welfare system), he became the founder and nestor of the
Dorfkirchenbewegung, a village church movement with a romantic agrarian vision. He was the editor of the journal
Die Dorfkirche (1907/1908–1933), to which he contributed many fundamental articles. He was also a promoter of rural evening classes and night courses. Theolo…
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Religion Past and Present
Lupold of Bebenburg
(238 words)
[German Version] (c. 1297 Bemberg Castle near Rot am See, district of Schwäbisch Hall – Oct 28, 1363, Bamberg?). Born of a knightly Frankish family, Lupold became a canon of the Würzburg cathedral in 1316. After studying law at Bologna, he received his Dr. decretorum before 1326. He enjoyed a substantial income from chapter benefices in Mainz and Bamberg. In 1328 he established contact with the archbishop of Trier, Baldwin of Luxemburg, an important political figure in the Empire. He may have had …
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Religion Past and Present
Lupus of Ferrières
(234 words)
[German Version] (c. 805 – after autumn 862), from a west Franconian/Bavarian noble family, was from 840 until his death abbot of Ferrières (archdiocese of Sens), where he had been educated (staying with Rabanus Maurus in Fulda from 829 to 836). He was the court chaplain of Charles the Bald and his adviser in the predestination controversy. Lupus was one of the most important philologists of the Carolingian period: he collected and prepared text-critical editions of ancient authors such as Cicero …
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Religion Past and Present
Lupus of Troyes (Saint)
(99 words)
[German Version] (c. 383, Toul – 478), like his brother Vincent, entered the monastery on Lérins Islands (426), after being married to Piminiola (the sister of Hilary of Arles). While on a trip to Troyes, he was elected bishop. Lupus's journey to England in 429 with Germanus of Auxerre on an anti-Pelagian mission, his efforts in the resistance to the destruction of Troyes by the Huns, and the five letters from Sidonius Apollinaris to Lupus show that he was an erudite personality. Uta Heil Bibliography N.K. Chadwick,
Poetry and Letters in Early Christian Gaul, 1955.
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Religion Past and Present
Luria, Isaac
(302 words)
[German Version] (Acronym: Ha-ARI; 1534, Jerusalem – 1572, Safed) is regarded as the most important Jewish kabbalist (Kabbalah) of modern times, the originator of a revolutionary kabbalistic myth, which is the dominant theology in orthodox Judaism to this day. His father was of European origin (“Ashkenasi”; Judaism). Not long after Luria was born, his family went to Egypt, where Luria was raised and educated. He became a halakhic authority (Halakhah) with great creative abilities and dealt in comm…
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Religion Past and Present
Lütgert, Wilhelm
(163 words)
[German Version] (Apr 9, 1867, Heiligengrabe, Ostprignitz – Feb 21, 1938, Berlin). In 1892 Lütgert ¶ became
Privatdozent at Greifswald; in 1895 he was appointed full professor. In 1901 he moved to Halle an der Saale, where he became professor of New Testament in 1902 and professor of systematic theology in 1912, succeeding M. Kähler. In 1929 he went to Berlin, where he was dismissed for political reasons in 1935. His New Testament studies explore the occasion of the Pauline Epistles and, like his
Die Religion des deutschen Idealismus und ihr Ende (1923–1930), examine the causes of dec…
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Religion Past and Present
Luthard, Christoph Ernst
(179 words)
[German Version] (Mar 3, 1823, Maroldsweisach, Lower Franconia – Sep 21, 1902, Leipzig). Luthardt studied Protestant theology at Erlangen and Berlin from 1841 to 1845, as a student of J.C.K. v. Hofmann. In 1854 he was appointed professor at Marburg. From 1856 to 1895 he was professor systematic theology at Leipzig. Luthardt is one of the most prominent representatives of confessional Lutheranism (Lutherans). With K.F.A. Kahnis and F. Delitzsch, he led the Leipzig theological faculty to a golden ag…
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Religion Past and Present
Luther Academy
(198 words)
[German Version] The historical background to the foundation of the Luther Academy in 1932 – the successor to the Apologetics Seminar (Apologetics) – was the “Luther renaissance.” Its initiator and first academic director, C. Stange, was also interested in cooperation with the Lutheran churches of Scandinavia. Its first chairman was L. Ihmels. Its main emphases were on study conferences (Sondershausen) and publication of the
Nachrichten der Luther-Akademie (
NLA) and
Studien der Lutherakademie (
SLA). To secure the academy's funding, Stange placed his work in the serv…
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Religion Past and Present
Lutheranism
(6,151 words)
[German Version] I. Denominations: Lutheran Churches in History – II. Lutheran Churches Today – III. Statistical Survey – IV. Missions – V. Ecumenism
I. Denominations: Lutheran Churches in History
1. General
Lutheranism denotes that portion of Christianity that traces its historical and theological origin to the Reformation of Martin Luther and uses his works as its theological foundation. The Latin terms
Lutherani and
Lutheranismus were coined originally by Roman Catholic opponents of the Reformation movement in order to identify it as heretical (firs…
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Religion Past and Present
Lutheran Society
(193 words)
[German Version] The society was founded in Wittenberg on Sep 26, 1918, on the initiative of R. Eucken. According to its constitution, its purpose is “constantly to maintain a living awareness of Luther in the totality of who he was and what he did.” It carries out this work through publications – the
Lutherjahrbuch as an organ of international Luther scholarship and the journal
Luther, addressed to a broader circle –, support of the Luther Memorials Foundation of Saxony-Anhalt, conferences, work with regional bodies, the Martin Luther Prize, and a Martin Lu…
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Religion Past and Present
Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
(1,348 words)
[German Version] I. History and Constitution – II. Division of Missions
I. History and Constitution The Lutheran World Federation was founded in 1947 on the initiative of the Lutheran churches in the United States. Unlike its predecessor, the Lutheran World Convention, founded in Eisenach in 1923, it succeeded in both overcoming the past and representing the interests common to all Lutheran churches. Because the first relief efforts were based in Geneva, there was close cooperation with the nascent World Cou…
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Religion Past and Present
Lutherische Kirchenmission (LKM)
(229 words)
[German Version] The LKM was founded on Jun 14, 1892, by synodical resolution of the Hannoversche evangelisch-lutherische Freikirche (today: Selbständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche, SELK; Lutherans: II), as a secessionist initiative from the Hermannsburg Mission, with which many of its supporters were previously associated. Its motto was typical of the confessional attitude: “A Lutheran Church can only conduct Lutheran mission, and Lutheran mission can only be conducted by a Lutheran Church.” …
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Religion Past and Present
Luther, Martin
(25,017 words)
[German Version] I. Life and Writings – II. Theology – III. Impact (Nov 10, 1483, Eisleben – Feb 15, 1546, Eisleben)
I. Life and Writings
1. To the fall of 1517
a. Luther was the son of Hans Luther (died 1530), who made a substantial living from the local copper mines, and his wife Margarete (died 1531). He initially attended school in Mansfeld, since his parents had ¶ moved there shortly after his birth; in 1497/1498 he attended the cathedral school in Magdeburg, operated by the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life. Finally, from 1498 to 1501, he attended…
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Religion Past and Present
Luther Renaissance
(835 words)
[German Version] I. Name and History – II. Program and Differences – III. Ecclesio-political Options, 1918–1935
I. Name and History The term
Luther renaissance denotes a movement of theological, ecclesiastical, and cultural reform between ¶ 1910 and 1935; in self-conception and impact, this movement and dialectical theology constituted the two great revolutions in Protestantism after 1918. The figures involved in the renaissance included K. Holl, C. Stange, E. Hirschl, P. Althaus, R. Hermann, G. Wehrung, H. Bornkamm, Hanns Rüc…
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Religion Past and Present
Luther's Works, Editions of
(996 words)
[German Version] A first, widely disseminated collection of the Reformer's Latin works was published in Basel in 1518 by Johannes Froben; a first edition of his German works was published in Basel in 1520 by Andreas Cratander. Luther's literary productivity persuaded Cratander and then Adam Petri to publish two more Latin editions – each expanded – in March and again in July of 1520. The first complete edition of Luther's works, the Wittenberg edition, was published between 1539 and 1559 in two series of folio volumes, 12 in German and seven in Latin; the ed…
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Religion Past and Present
Lütkemann, Joachim
(207 words)
[German Version] (Dec 15, 1608, Demmin, Hither Pomerania – Oct 18, 1655, Wolfenbüttel). During his time as a student in Straßburg (Strasbourg), Lütkemann was influenced decisively by Johann Schmidt. After travels in Italy and France, he received his master's degree from the philosophical faculty at Rostock, where he was appointed professor of metaphysics and physics in 1643. Appointed deacon in the church of Sankt Jacobi in 1648, he gained a reputation as an outstanding preacher. Forced to leave M…
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Religion Past and Present
Lutz, Samuel
(209 words)
[German Version] (Aug 10, 1674, Biglen, Canton of Bern – May 28, 1750, Diessbach, near Thun). After studying theology at Bern, Lutz was not admitted to the ministry until 1700 because of his Pietist leanings. In 1703 he was appointed pastor in Yverdon (Iferten), in 1726 he was transferred to Amsoldingen, Canton of Bern, and in 1738 to Diessbach. He rejected calls to Köthen, Zweibrücken, Büdingen, and Zerbst, and his efforts to secure an appointment in Bern failed, but he attracted an active influx…
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Religion Past and Present
Luxembourg
(543 words)
[German Version] The city of Luxembourg goes back to Lucilinburhuc, a fortress dating from the Roman period, which the Lotharingian count Siegfried acquired in 963 through exchange with the Abbey of St. Maximin in Trier. In the shadow of the fortress rebuilt on a rocky promontory above the Alzette, the nucleus of a settlement formed, the upper city with the ducal palace, which in the 11th century became the center of the duchy of Luxembourg. In 1244 Countess Ermesinde linked the castellany with th…
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Religion Past and Present