Religion Past and Present
Get access
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
| Help us improve our service |
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
Micah/Book of Micah
(1,683 words)
[German Version] I. The Prophet – II. Message – III. Growth of the Book – IV. Reception The prophetic book ascribed to Micah stands in the middle of the Book of the Twelve (Prophetic books). The biographical data in the other books make him the first prophet (Prophets and prophecy: II) from the southern kingdom.
I. The Prophet The superscription in Mic 1:1 distinguishes Micah from others with the same name by identifying his place of origin as Moresheth-Gath, making him a Judahite from the Shephelah. His message, however, indicates that he was also…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Michael Cerularius
(198 words)
[German Version] (c. 1005/1010, Constantinople – Jan 21, 1059, Abydus), patriarch of Constantinople (Mar 25, 1043 – Nov 1058). Michael early on evinced an aristocratic sense of power that brought him into conflict with the Byzantine emperor and the Roman ¶ church. In 1054 a papal legation under Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida went to Constantinople to resolve the dispute between Rome and Byzantium over the use of unleavened (azyme) or leavened (enzyme) bread in the liturgy (Unleavened bread controversy) in favor of Rome. When Michael…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Michaelis
(387 words)
[German Version]
1. Georg (Sep 8, 1857, Haynau, Lower Silesia [today Chojnów] – Jul 24, 1936, Saarow), Dr.iur. From 1885 to 1889 he taught law in Tokyo, after which he was an administrative officer in the Prussian civil service. After World War I broke out, he headed the department of grain supply; after 1917 he served as Prussian state commissioner for the national food supply. At the instigation ¶ of the Supreme Army Command, the conservative Michaelis was appointed chancellor in July of 1917. The successful administrator was not up to this political job and ha…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Michaelis, Johann David
(303 words)
[German Version] (Feb 27, 1717, Halle – Aug 22, 1791, Göttingen), theologian and specialist in Near Eastern studies. Brought up in a Pietist family, Michaelis discovered deism during a journey to England in 1741/1742 and sought to chart his own path between rationalism and orthodoxy (II, 2.a), with primary emphasis on maintaining orthodox positions and placing them on a new foundation. In 1746 he was appointed associate professor and in 1750 full professor of oriental languages at Göttingen. Broadly edu-¶ cated and with wide interests, but also emotionally needy and content…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Michaelis, Johann Heinrich
(246 words)
[German Version] (Jul 15, 1668, Klettenberg, South Harz – Mar 10, 1738, Halle). After a commercial apprenticeship in Braunschweig, Michaelis attended the Latin school in Nordhausen; in 1688 he began the study of oriental languages in Leipzig. There he became a disciple of A.H. Francke, whom he followed to Halle in 1692. He received his master's degree there in 1694 and was appointed to the philosophical faculty as adjunct in 1696. After a study year in 1699 with H. Ludolf in Frankfurt am Main, whe…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Michael of Cesena
(170 words)
[German Version] (died Nov 29, 1342, Munich). After receiving his doctorate in theology in Paris in 1316 and being elected minister general of the Franciscans, Michael became the key figure in the transition from the practical to the theoretical poverty (IV) debate. In agreement with John XXII, he opposed the Spiritual Franciscans, whom he had been unable to reintegrate into the order; after the chapter in Perugia in 1322, however, he rejected its denial of the total poverty of Christ and his disc…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Michael Scot
(135 words)
[German Version] (Scotus; before 1200, Scotland – c. 1235). Michael was present as a
magister at the fourth Lateran Council in 1215. Around 1217 he was in Toledo translating works on natural history and philosophy from Arabic into Latin; he acquainted the West with Averroes. In 1220 he was teaching in Bologna. In 1225 he turned down an appointment as archbishop of Cashel in Ireland. He was active at the court of Frederick the Great as a translator and astrologer. The Latin reception of Aristotle, Avicenna, and Averroes was inspired by him. Besides his translations, he wrote the works:
Liber i…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Michael the Syrian
(320 words)
[German Version] (1126/1127, Melitene, Asia Minor – 1199, nearby monastery of Barsauma), Jacobite (= Syrian Orthodox) patriarch of Antioch; together with the later G. Bar Hebraeus one of the main representatives of the “Syrian Renaissance.” From 1156 Michael was abbot of Barsauma monastery, and in 1166 he was elected supreme head of the Jacobite Church. Michael was active in the reform of his church, especially in the removal of various irregularities. He cultivated good relationships with other C…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Michael VIII Palaeologus
(242 words)
[German Version] (1224/1225, Asia Minor – Dec 11, 1282, Thrace), emperor of Byzantium from 1259/1261 to 1282, founder of the Palaeologus dynasty. In December 1246, Michael became governor of Melnik and Serrhai; 1252/1253, high constable; 1258,
megas dux and despot. He was proclaimed emperor on Jan 1, 1259 in place of the legitimate heir to the throne, John IV Laskares. Michael Palaeologus distinguished himself by military victories (in 1259 over the western alliance near Pelagonia; in 1262 and 1282 in Bulgaria; in 1264 in Epiros), …
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Micheelsen, Hans Friedrich
(261 words)
[German Version] (Jun 6, 1902, Hennstedt, Dithmarschen – Nov 23, 1973, Glüsing, near Hennstedt). Micheelsen became apprentice choirmaster under Paul Kickstat, with whom he also studied composition. In 1932 he moved to Berlin to continue his studies under P. Hindemith. There he was appointed church musician of Sankt Matthäi (Tiergarten). In April of 1938 he was called to be artistic director of the newly established school of church music in Hamburg. After World War II, he served from 1946 to 1954 …
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Michelangelo Buonarroti
(1,568 words)
[German Version] (in full Michelagn[i]olo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni; Mar 3, 1474, Caprese – Feb 18, 1564, Rome), Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet, the most important artist of the High Renaissance (III) and pioneer of Mannerism. In 1488 Michelangelo was apprenticed to Domenico Ghirlandaio in Florence. Intensive study of classical sculpture, through access to the collection of the Medici in the garden of San Marco, made possible (according to G. Vasari) since 1489, probably accoun…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Michelis, Friedrich Bernhard Ferdinand
(352 words)
[German Version] (Jul 27, 1815, Münster – May 28, 1886, Freiburg im Breisgau), philosopher and Old Catholic churchman (Old Catholics). Son of a Protestant mother and a Catholic father, Michelis, following his elder brother, became a priest in 1838. He served as tutor to the Count of Westphalia and in 1844 began teaching in Duisburg. Having received his Dr.phil. in 1849, he was appointed professor at the seminary in Paderborn. In 1854 he was appointed director of the minor seminary in Münster but r…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Micronesia
(1,431 words)
[German Version] Micronesia, a region of islands of the central and western Pacific Ocean, is characterized by a great religious diversity. There is no single “Micronesian religion” since this enormous area contains dozens of societies with distinct cultural traditions and historical experiences. Only in the postcolonial period have autonomous nations unifying various groups of islands emerged, such as the Federal States of Micronesia (population approx. 116,000), which includes much of what used …
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Micron (Micronius), Marten
(243 words)
[German Version] (Martinus Micronius, de Cleyne; 1523, Ghent – Sep 12, 1559, Norden, East Frisia), champion of Reformed congregations fleeing persecution. Banished from his homeland, he briefly studied medicine at Basel, then went to Zürich to study theology. There he became a student of H. Bullinger, with whom he stayed in touch throughout his life. In Bullinger's home, he came into contact with the Anglican theologian J. Hooper, who in 1549 succeeded in having him appointed pastor to the Dutch refugee congregation in London. His works during this period include his
Cleyne Catechismu…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Middle Ages
(4,250 words)
[German Version] I. The Term – II. Assessment and Study – III. Definition – IV. Characteristics – V. Early, High, and Late Middle Ages
I. The Term French
moyen âge has been used for a historical period since 1572, English
Middle Age(s) since 1611 and
Middle Time(s) since 1612. The German word
Mittelalter had already been used by the Swiss historian Aegidius Tschudi (
mittel alters) in 1538, but it did not reappear in this sense (in contrast to “middle age”) until 1786; at the beginning of the 19th century, it finally prevailed over the more common 18th-century expressions
mittlere Zeit(e…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Middle Axiom
(89 words)
[German Version] At the first plenary assembly of the World Council of Churches (Amsterdam, 1948), J.H. Oldham put forward the concept of a “responsible society” as a concrete goal to guide the churches' socioethical involvement in response to the social conditions of the day. He called this the “middle axiom.” The expression became common currency, in the sense of a “medium-range (socioethical) maxim: (II).” Eilert Herms Bibliography J.H. Oldham, “A Responsible Society,” in:
The Church and the Disorder of Scoiety, publ. World Council of Churches, 1948, 120–154.
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Middle Class
(378 words)
[German Version] The term
middle class first appeared in English in the mid-18th century; its German equivalent,
Mittelstand, had been in use a century before, but did not enter sociopolitical usage as a term for the social strata between the nobility and clergy on the one hand and the working class on the other until the second half of the 18th century. The term thus signals the transition of the estates-based society of the early modern period to 19th-century class society. It was used in the 19th century in contrast to
bourgeoisie and
proletariat as a collective te…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Middle Knowledge
(321 words)
[German Version] Middle knowledge is so called because it is located between two types of knowledge attributed to God in the Middle Ages. On the one hand, God possesses
scientia simplicis intelligentiae (complete knowledge of God's own nature and the whole range of possibilities, also called
scientia naturalis). On the other hand, God possesses
scientia libera (knowledge of everything, past, present, and future, that happens as the result of an act of God's free will, by which God decides what possibilities will be realized). God's natural knowledge…
Source:
Religion Past and Present
Midianites
(377 words)
[German Version] Midian (מִדְיָן/
midyān) was a son of Abraham and Keturah (Gen 25:2), but the name refers primarily to the land of east of the Gulf of ʿAqaba (1 Kgs 11:18). At least from the 13th to the 9th century bce, it thrived on terrace cultivation, copper mining, camel breeding (cf. Isa 60:6), and trade (cf. Gen 37:28; 36). During this period, Midian's influence extended well into the later territory of Edom (Israel and its neighbors in Syria-Palestine, map). Midianite pottery from the 9th century bce (carbon- 14 dating) has been found in the copper-mining regions of Timna…
Source:
Religion Past and Present