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
Oratio Tone
(177 words)
[German Version] The oratio tone is the model for the chant of the priest’s prayers in the name of the congregation, or liturgies, especially oratios (collects/prayer of the day,
super oblata/prayer over the gifts,
post communionem/concluding prayer/prayer of thanksgiving), in the broader sense also cantillation formulas for eucharistic prayers (esp. the preface,
verba testamenti), the Paternoster etc. with the same structure and significance as reading tones. Cantillated prayers are the oldest form of liturgical communication in words; some autho…
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Religion Past and Present
Oratorians
(444 words)
[German Version] I. Oratorians of Saint Philip Neri – II. French Oratory
I. Oratorians of Saint Philip Neri (Oratory of Divine Love, Congregation of the Oratory, Philippians, Institutum Oratorii S. Philippi Nerii), congregation of secular priests who lead a common life of prayer and pastoral ministry in the spirit of P. Neri, united only by bonds of mutual love, without vows and binding commitments (albeit under statutes approved in 1612). The congregation was founded in 1552 in the oratory of its founder’s commu…
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Religion Past and Present
Oratorio
(1,663 words)
[German Version] The oratorio (Ital., from Lat.
oratorium) is a musical genre, generally an undramatized musical setting of a particular text, usually extensive and religious but not as a rule liturgical, distributed among several soloists or groups. The Latin word denotes both the musical form and, in the Roman Catholic Church, a consecrated liturgical space that is not a parish church (Eng.
oratory). This usage points to the origins of the genre. Its roots go back to Catholic reforms after the Council of Trent, more specifically the spiritual exercises i…
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Religion Past and Present
Ordeal, Trial by
(1,373 words)
[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. Legal History
I. Religious Studies Trial by ordeal is a means of decision-making as to the guilt or innocence of a suspect in legal cases where there is no available evidence or testimony, and where no guilty plea has been entered. In place of an oath, but in ¶ line with the inherent logic of the oath, a conditional self-curse was sometimes employed; this would apply in cases where, for example, a slave was disqualified from a hearing under oath, and a divine declaration of the truth was so…
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Religion Past and Present
Order
(2,247 words)
[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Law – III. Dogmatics – IV. Ethics
I. Philosophy The concept of order (Gk τάξις/
táxis, κόσμος/
kosmos; Lat.
ordo) is employed in natural philosophy, epistemology, and cultural anthropology. It refers to an arrangement of elements that stand in a particular relationship to one other and form the structure of a larger whole. The concept of order is particularly fundamental to cosmology: for Hesiod, the genesis of the cosmos takes place within “theogony,” and for Plato (
Tim.) through the transition from an undifferentiated primal state to a w…
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Religion Past and Present
Orderic Vitalis
(143 words)
[German Version] (1075, Atcham, England – 1141, Saint-Evroult, Normandy), son of Odelerius of Orléans and an Englishwoman. At the age of ten he was sent to the monastery of Saint-Evroult in Normandy, where he spent the rest of his life. His entire monastic career was devoted to the writing of history. His earliest work (c. 1109) was a revision of William of Jumièges’s
Gesta Normannorum Ducum. His most important work is the monumental
Historia Ecclesiastica, a chronicle that began as a local history of his monastery but developed into a wideranging history of Western E…
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Religion Past and Present
Order, Rules of a Religious
(393 words)
[German Version] These are the written rules for life in religious orders, recognized by the church. The names of such rules vary:
Regula, Constitutiones, Consuetudines, Statuta, Formula vitae etc. The authors of the basic rules are usually the founders of an order or a monastery. Early rules were written by monastic fathers, for example Pachomius, Basil the Great, Benedict of Nursia, Columba; see also monasticism (III). When a monastery’s way of life was based on them, they were locally or regionally adapted over time and made more precise by supplementary ¶ normative texts. Benedict…
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Religion Past and Present
Orders, Catholic
(2,640 words)
[German Version] I. Concept and Definition – II. History – III. Membership
I. Concept and Definition Orders are organized associations of religious communities. The constituent element of belonging to an order (
status religiosus) is a longterm commitment to a particularly close discipleship to Christ (Discipleship, Christian) to the glory of God, the edification of the church, and the salvation of the world (
CIC/1983, c. 573). This way of life is usually set (c. 575) by the evangelical counsels or counsels of perfection (Perfection, Counsels of; poverty, c…
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Religion Past and Present
Order, Supreme Ordinator of a Religious
(176 words)
[German Version] An unofficial title for the supreme leader (
Supremus Moderator) of centrally structured orders (e.g. Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits), secular institutes or societies of apostolic life. The ordinator is elected by the general chapter, in most orders for a limited term. Normally a minimum age and a minimum period of membership of the order are required. The ordinator has full power over the entire institute and its members, and represents it externally. In the performance of official duti…
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Religion Past and Present
Ordinariate
(161 words)
[German Version] Resulting from the separation of functions required by the ecclesiastical lawgiver (e.g.
CIC/1983 c.135;
CCEO c. 985; Jurisdiction, Ecclesiastical), and alongside the diocesan court (Consistory), the ordinariate is the authority in the diocesan curia (cf.
CIC/1983 cc. 469–494;
CCEO cc. 243–263) which serves the administration of the diocese (also denoted general vicariate; Bishopric) under the direction of the vicar general (cf.
CIC/1983 c. 475). Requirements include a chancellor, additional notaries as needed, a property adminstrator, and …
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Religion Past and Present
Ordinary
(167 words)
[German Version] in Catholic church law designates the bearer of regular power of governance (Jurisdiction). In addition to the pope, these include (cf.
CIC/1983 c. 134 §1;
CCEO c. 984) the diocesan bishops (III, 1), the regional prelates (I) and abbots, the vicars apostolic, prefects, and administrators, the military bishops, the head of a personal prelacy (
CIC/1983 c. 295 §1), as well as the vicars general and bishops’ vicars (not court vicars and officials); in addition, the interim leaders (e.g. diocesan administrator), the higher heads of clerical order institutes
iuris pontifi…
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Religion Past and Present
Ordinary Time
(200 words)
[German Version] Outside the cycle of Easter and Christmas festivals, the Roman liturgy had three formulas, each depending on the date of Easter, for measuring six possible Sundays after Epiphany (Epiphany: V), and 23 for 28 possible Sundays after Pentecost. In the Middle Ages they were numbered both “after Pentecost” (until 1970, Cath. use) and “after Trinity” (Trinity Sunday, Protestant use). All these ordinary (“ferial”) Sundays had the liturgical color (II) green and could be displaced by high…
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Religion Past and Present
Ordination
(8,047 words)
[German Version] I. Old Testament – II. New Testament – III. Church History – IV. Dogmatics – V. Liturgy – VI. Practical Theology – VII. Law and Legal History – VIII. Judaism
I. Old Testament The search, mainly from a Protestant perspective, for antecedents of ordination in the Old Testament does not seem very promising, since no direct equivalent to Christian ordination as public commissioning of office-bearers by the community is to be found in the Hebrew Bible. Relevant research is mainly limited to the OT Jewish background of…
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Religion Past and Present
Ordination
(5 words)
[German Version] Consecration/Ordination/Dedication
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Religion Past and Present
Ordination and Post-Ordination Education and Training
(5,505 words)
[German Version] I. Early Church and Middle Ages – II. Protestantism (Germany) – III. Roman Catholic Church after Trent – IV. Orthodox Church – V. Non-Catholic Churches outside Germany
I. Early Church and Middle Ages The New Testament contains scattered statements about the personal qualifications required of someone holding ministerial office in the church (e.g. 1 Tim 3:2–13; Tit 1:6–9) but says nothing about their training. Since the gospel implies understanding and address persons, the question of the theological education and…
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Religion Past and Present
Ordination of Priests
(830 words)
[German Version]
1. Catholic understanding. In Roman Catholic usage, the expression
ordination of priests (or presbyters; Ordination: V, 1) reflects a specific, sacerdotal understanding of ecclesiastical office (VI, 3). The Christian priesthood is associated in the first instance with baptism (IV, 1). Postbaptismal anointing is the ritual sign of inclusion in the priestly people of God through participation in the priestly office of Christ. In the Roman tradition in particular, this anointing has always been associated with…
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Religion Past and Present
Ordo/Ordines
(414 words)
[German Version] The term
ordo was borrowed from Roman law and civil administration and acquired various ecclesial, liturgical meanings within Christianity. Already in Tertullian (
De exhortatione castitatis, 7)
ordo refers to clergy, distinguishing them from laity (
plebs). In subsequent centuries
ordo is used for denoting different categories of the ordained (e.g.
ordo episcoporum). Later
ordo is employed to designate various Christian rituals, ritual segments or ritual arrangements. The term thus appears through canon 4 of the Council of Braga (56…
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Religion Past and Present
Ordo Romanus Primus
(287 words)
[German Version] (OR I), the oldest liturgical order of the pope’s mass within the stational liturgy in the city of Rome (late 7th/early 8th cent.), transmitted in two versions. The title in the manuscripts runs
Incipit ordo ecclesiastici ministerii romanae ecclesiae vel qualiter missa caelebratur, with variations (modern title from eds. such as J. Mabillon, 1689; M. Andrieu, 1948). OR I is one of the early medieval sources called
ordo (Ordo/Ordines). OR I is a complex description of procedure (without prayer texts) with a clear structure (opening – ministry of the…
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Religion Past and Present
Ordo Salutis
(1,102 words)
[German Version] I. Dogmatics – II. Ethics
I. Dogmatics The focus of the problems addressed by the Protestant doctrine of
ordo salutis is the relationship between the action of God’s grace (
gratia dei applicatrix) and the human experience of salvation. Based on the Reformers’ doctrine of justification but also going beyond it, it describes the working of the Holy Spirit or God’s grace in the life of the justified believer in all its unity and diversity. The beginnings of the doctrine are already visible in the Augsburg Confession of 1530 (
CA 6 and 12) and – in greater detail – in the…
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Religion Past and Present
Organ
(2,126 words)
[German Version] I. Construction – II. History of Organ Building – III. History of Organ Music
I. Construction The organ (Gk ὄργανον/
órganon, Lat.
organum, “instrument”), originally used in amphitheaters and temples, was already considered a status symbol by the Roman emperors. Because of the way its sound is generated, the organ is classified as an aeropohone. A bellows or fan produces air under pressure (“wind”), which is channeled into windchests. The pipes on the windchests are arranged by design (flue pipes and r…
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Religion Past and Present
Organ, Chamber
(255 words)
[German Version] A chamber organ is a positive organ (from Lat.
ponere, “to place, to position”), in contrast to a portative organ (from Lat.
portare, “to carry”). During the Middle Ages, positive and portative organs developed in parallel with full-sized organs. A positive organ is a small organ, not permanently installed, with several ranks of pipes (stops). Such instruments were used in churches, halls, houses, processions, and after 1600 in the theater. In the first centuries of their existence, they needed two peo…
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Religion Past and Present
Organist
(377 words)
[German Version] As generally understood, an organist is someone who plays the musical instrument known as the organ (cf. pianist, harpsichordist), also, in a more specialized sense, the name of an unprotected profes-¶ sion (Cantor and organist, church musician [Church music: VII]). Organists may play portative and chamber organs, as well as electronic organs, harmoniums, and other keyboard instruments. The building and playing of organs, with their specific styles and historical development, also determine the public image of the organist within and outside the church. Although…
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Religion Past and Present
Organization
(1,260 words)
[German Version] I. Social Sciences – II. Social Ethics – III. Practical Theology
I. Social Sciences Organization in the broadest sense refers to the activity of ordering, arranging, administering, etc., and in the sense of self-organization, autopoiesis, etc. the process by which systemic structures develop, including in nature or in the field of natural science. As a sociological and economic concept, organization denotes an insti-¶ tution that is characterized by specific features or elements. Mention is frequently made of defined membership, predetermined…
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Religion Past and Present
Organ Mass
(482 words)
[German Version]
1. The Alternatim Mass (to the 19th cent.). From the late Middle Ages, cathedrals and minsters were furnished with organs in order to accompany the liturgy of the hours (
Officium) and mass on the Sundays and holidays not belonging to the Advent and Lenten seasons. In alternation with the plainchant of the convent, the
Kyrie ,
Gloria ,
Sanctus , and
Agnus Dei of the
Ordinarium Missae were played on them. With the spread of the printing of sheets of music, whole cycles of Alternatim Masses came into existence (Giovanni Cavazzoni, 1543; Claudio Mer…
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Religion Past and Present
Organ Reform Movement
(296 words)
[German Version] The Organ Reform Movement (
Orgelbewegung) had certain antecedents in mid-19th century Germany, but was really begun with A. Schweitzer’s
Deutsche und französische Orgelbaukunst (1906). Following this, G. Ramin, H.H. Jahn, C. Mahrenholz, W. Guerlitt and others advocated organ-building principles based on organs of D. Buxtehude and J.S. Bach’s time, primarily those built by A. Schnitger. An early example is the Praetorius organ of 1921, built by Oskar Walker at University of Freiburg-im-Breisgau. Interes…
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Religion Past and Present
Organs/Parts of the Body
(1,196 words)
[German Version] Religious traditions know various ways of establishing correlations between the organs (or parts) of the human body and the cosmos, partly in combination with a mythological justification that views the world as having been created from the parts of the first human being’s body. Thus, hair may symbolize vegetation, eyes (and other bodily orifices) lakes, and the spinal column the axis of the world. In addition to such correlations between microcosm (human being) and macrocosm (wor…
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Religion Past and Present
Organum
(399 words)
[German Version] is a collective term for early forms of polyphonic (primarily two-part) chant (Chant and song: III) in the Western church. The word
organum goes back to Gk ὄργανον/
órganon and refers to the harmonically satisfying relationship between the
vox principalis (from the chant [Choral) and the newly added
vox organalis. The development of organum can identified in musical theory as early as the late 9th century and then later in practice. Its roots go back to singing to a bourdon (an unvarying “fundamental” drone below the actual melody; cf. the
ison of modern Gk liturgical …
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Religion Past and Present
Orientalism Controversy
(253 words)
[German Version] The Orientalism controversy started with Edward W. Said’s book
Orientalism(1978). As a professor of comparative literature at Columbia University. Said, of Palestinian origin, became a leading representative of postcolonial criticism. Influenced by the methods of M. Foucault, he criticized British and French academic works on the Middle East. He argued that, by constructing a never-changing, mysterious, and essentialized “Orient,” oriental studies in the late 19th century had become tools …
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Religion Past and Present
Oriental Orthodox National Churches
(253 words)
[German Version] The oriental Orthodox churches include the Coptic Orthodox Church (its pope resides in Cairo [Copts: I]), the Syrian Orthodox Church (with its own catholicosate in India; seat of the patriarch in Damascus [Syria; Malenkara Church]), the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (seat in Addis Ababa [Ethiopian Orthodox Church]), the Armenian Apostolic Church (seat of the catholicos in Etchmiadzin; for the Western Armenians in Antelias [Armenia: II]), the Indian Malenkara ¶ Church (seat of the catholicos in Kottayam), and the Malabar Independent Syrian Chur…
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Religion Past and Present
Oriental Studies
(664 words)
[German Version]
Oriental studies (Ger.
Orientalistik) is the name given to the group of disciplines that have as their purpose the investigation of the languages, cultures, and religions of the Orient or East (Orient and Occident). The Orient is subdivided into the Middle East (the lands from the Mediterranean to the Hindu Kush), South Asia (primarily the Indian subcontinent; India), and the Far East or East Asia (China, Indochina, Korea, Japan). Oriental studies emerged after the Reformation with the study of the Old Testament and the Hebrew language; it also had…
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Religion Past and Present
Orient and Occident
(1,016 words)
[German Version] I. The Cliché – II. The Classical Paradigms
I. The Cliché
1. The words
Orient and
Occident (“the rising/setting sun”; Lat.
ortus/occasus, Gk ἀνατολή/
anatolē/ δύσις/
dýsis) denote either (a) an East (cf. Matt 2:1: “Magi from the East”; also Anatolia/Turkey) or West (cf. the Hesperides), always relative, or (b) a geographical fiction, a construct of “mythic geography,” an ideological stereotype. The administrative language of the Roman Empire was clearer. After the reorganization of the Empire by Diocletian, the
praefectus praetorio per Orientem (there was no an…
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Religion Past and Present
Orientation (Prayer and Architecture)
(326 words)
[German Version] denotes both the direction of prayer in the Early Church and the alignment of church buildings (Church building) towards the rising sun (see also Orientation; Sun: V, 1). The direction of prayer to the east, at first independent of the architectural structure of the church building, and understood as turning to the risen and ascended Christ, only disappeared in the Middle Ages. Monumental church structures were from the beginning set up on the east-west axis. Alongside the eastern…
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Religion Past and Present
Orientation (Space Perception)
(642 words)
[German Version] The concept of orientation of objects, persons, buildings, movements, etc. to the east (Lat.
oriens; Orientation [Prayer and architecture]), is used in religious studies with regard to representations and conceptions of space and time, but also in reference to religious actions and religious behavior. Orientation is predefined in each worldview that is constituted and mediated by a religious symbolic system. Various reference patterns provide orientation in any given religious context. The orie…
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Religion Past and Present
Orient-or-Rome Issue
(396 words)
[German Version] Increased research by art historians in the 19th century into Christian monuments in the former Eastern Roman Empire led to an increasing weakening of the previously held academic ¶ view that Rome was the cradle and creative center of early Christian art. The leading representative of the “new” thesis, according to which the “Hellenistic orient” – Constantinople, Asia Minor, and not least Mesopotamia – had a greater influence on the early art of the Christians, was the art historian and archaeologist Josef Strzygowski (1862–1941). His book
Orient oder Rom. Beiträge…
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Religion Past and Present
Origen
(3,010 words)
[German Version] I. Life – II. Works – III. Theology (c. 185/186 Alexandria – c. 253/254)
I. Life In reconstructing the life of Origen, we must rely on information given by his grandson and pupil Eusebius of Caesarea (
Hist. eccl. VI 1–39). The relevant portions of the
Apology for Origen of Pamphilus of Caesarea (CPG 1, 1715) were not translated into Latin by Tyrannius Rufinus and have been lost with the Greek original, but certain statements by Jerome, Rufinus, and Photius of Constantinople (Bibl. Codex 118) may derive from that source. The detailed section in Epiphanius of Salamis (
Haer. 64…
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Religion Past and Present
Origenism
(2,206 words)
[German Version] Origenism is a complex phenomenon, since the response to Origen’s works and ideas came from many sources; it arose initially from the Judeo-Christian tradition of Alexandria, where the exegetical heritage of Philo of Alexandria played a leading role. This Alexandrian tradition also incorporated certain ideas from pagan philosophy, Platonism in particular, following the lead of Philo and Clement of Alexandria. Also important was the appropriation of this tradition in early monastic…
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Religion Past and Present
Origenist Controversies
(829 words)
[German Version] The person and work of Origen were already controversial during his lifetime. After his death, while the reception of his work continued to spread in the Greek East and Latin West, resistance was raised again against the allegorical interpretation of the Bible and some of the theses Origen had presented, especially in the areas of protology and eschatology (pre-existence of souls and apocatastasis). At the end of the 3rd century, Methodius of Olympus contested Origen’s understandi…
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Religion Past and Present
Original Sin
(1,742 words)
[German Version] I. Definition – II. Catholic Theology – III. Protestant Theology
I. Definition The term
original sin generally denotes the sinfulness or fault inherent in human beings prior to anything they do. In the Christian tradition, original sin can be understood as the source of all morally evil actions; it can also mean inherited guilt
per se. As an inherent force, original sin differs from sinful acts. The distinction remains debatable, however, because without further qualification it calls into question the unitary characterization of sin …
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Religion Past and Present
Original State
(3,622 words)
[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Bible – III. Dogmatics
I. Religious Studies Myths of an original state are usually associated with cosmogonic and anthropogonic (Anthropogony) myths concerning the origins of the world, life, animals, and human beings, for the original state refers to a primal age (Protology) before all time, falling between creation and history. Many religious traditions describe a harmonious, even paradisal eon when humans or (sometimes theriomorphic) protohumans were “still” in d…
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Religion Past and Present
Origin of the World, On the (NHC II, 5; XIII, 2; OW)
(167 words)
[German Version] a Gnostic tractate or treatise of the late 3rd or early 4th century, supposed to have been written in Alexandria. It is extant only in a Coptic translation, and belongs to no known school. It is marked by the criteria of ancient rhetoric, and has no title. Following a prologue, it contains long descriptions, especially of primeval times (theogony, cosmogony, events from Gen 1–3), and the end times, viewed apocalyptically. It is based on numerous heterogeneous traditions, including earlier Jewish traditions, refers to other literary works, has affinities to the
Hypostas…
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Religion Past and Present
Origins
(1,438 words)
[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Philosophy – III. Dogmatics
I. Religious Studies The
origins (Ger.
Ursprung) of something are an event or a set of events which, as a cause and in causal relationship with one another, constitute the initial shape of further events that ensue from the origins. Accordingly, the concept of origins must be understood on two levels of explication: (1) origins as a temporal conception in which the chronological beginning as well as the chronological proximity of origins and…
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Religion Past and Present
Origins of Religion
(10 words)
[German Version] Primitive Religion Traditional Religion
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Religion Past and Present
Orléans
(185 words)
[German Version] is a French city on the Loire (Département Loiret). The Gallo-Roman foundation became the seat of a bishopric in the 4th century, as
civitas Aurelianorum. In 451 Bishop Aignan saved Orléans from siege by Attila. In Merovingian times the city was several times the meeting place of councils. Under Charlemagne the scholar Theodulf was bishop of Orléans. At the end of the 10th century, the city was the starting-point for the rule of the Capetians. In 1022 the son of Hugo Capet, Robert II, had the Orléans her…
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Religion Past and Present
Orosius, Paulus
(288 words)
[German Version] (of Braga; attested 414–418), a presbyter from Iberian Bracara who went to Africa in 414. He was close to Augustine, and took documents to Jerome in Jerusalem, where he became an early ¶ opponent of Pelagianism (Pelagius). On his return to Africa he became more prominent in his opposition to Pelagianism. In addition to anti-heretical writings (
Liber Apologeticus, Commonitorium de errore Priscillianistarum et Origenistarum), Orosius wrote his most important work, the
Historiarum adversum paganos in seven books, which he completed in 416–417/418, with en…
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Religion Past and Present
Orphaned Missions Fund (OMF)
(289 words)
[German Version] . Created in May 1940 by International Missionary Council (IMC) officers to avert the problems experienced in World War I by Protestant “orphaned missions” cut off from their sponsoring home boards, the OMF created a level of ecumenical cooperation which to some extent protected missions from political manipulation or asset confiscation by colonial governments, enabled work to continue with indigenous leadership and anticipated the development of postwar aid networks. The inspirat…
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Religion Past and Present
Orphans, Care of
(808 words)
[German Version] The care of orphans as an important area of Jewish and Christian social responsibility goes back to Moses and the social legislation of the Bible (Exod 22:21–23; Deut 24:17). Historically, it was the germ that grew into services for children and young people (Youth service) and social education. Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire already had to deal with the danger of numbers of pauperized orphans (Heb. יָתוֹם/
yātôm, Gk ὀρϕανός/
orphanós, Lat.
orbus). To meet this challenge, they established a system of legal guardianship, supplemented by food relief…
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Religion Past and Present
Orpheus
(1,142 words)
[German Version] I. Mythology – II. Art
I. Mythology The stories of Orpheus reflect the emergence and rejection of a religious movement in Archaic Greece: a prince from Thrace in northern Greece enchants everyone with his artistry; the psychagogic and ecstatic power of music (Ecstasy) is recalled in a journey to the netherworld. Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus, dies; to win her back, he descends into Hades. Through his music, he charms even the rocks and persuades the implacable gods of the dead to release…
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Religion Past and Present
Orphism
(1,858 words)
[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Responses
I. History of Religions
1. Orphic-Dionysian mysteries. The earliest Greeks anticipated a short and active life without any form of existence after death. The 6th century bce saw the appearance of religious alternatives that promised an afterlife in the beyond. One of these spread anonymously under the name of Orpheus; myths of Orpheus speak of deliverance from a senseless and cheerless netherworld. There was never a coherent religion practiced by Orphics, but there is discu…
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Religion Past and Present
Orr, James
(160 words)
[German Version] (Apr 11, 1844, Glasgow – Sep 6, 1913, Glasgow), Scottish theologian and polemicist; studied at the United Presbyterian Divinity Hall, Edinburgh (1868–1872) and Glasgow University (M.A. 1870; B.D. 1872; D.D. 1885); pastoral ministry in Hawick, Scotland (1874–1891); professor at United Presbyterian College, Edinburgh (1891–1900), and United Free Church College, Glasgow (1900–1913). His
Christian View of God and the World (1893) launched his academic career. His subsequent theological contribution was a wideranging call for continued adhere…
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Religion Past and Present
Ortega y Gasset, José
(261 words)
[German Version] (May 9, 1883, Madrid – Oct 18, 1955, Madrid), studied in Madrid, where he was appointed professor of metaphysics in 1910. Study trips brought him to Germany from 1904 to 1907, including Marburg, where he came under the influence of Neo-Kantianism. To escape the civil war, he left Spain in 1936 and did not return permanently until 1948. His wide-ranging work was devoted to topics of philosophy, art, and politics; he always dealt with culture in its totality. He combined the insight…
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Religion Past and Present
Orthodox Churches
(9,446 words)
[German Version] I. Church History – II. The Branches of Orthodoxy – III. Orthodoxy throughout the World – IV. History of Orthodox Theology
I. Church History
1. Terminology. The term
orthodox (cf. also Orthodoxy: I) goes back to Hellenistic Judaism. Flavius Josephus, for example, commends τὴν ὀρϑὴν δόξαν περὶ Θεοῦ/
tḗn orthḗn dóxan perí Theoú instead of Greek myths and reports that the Essenes viewed other Jews as ἑτερόδοξοι/
heteródoxoi (
Apion. II 256;
Bell. II 129). ¶ This idiom passed into Christian usage in the 2nd century. The critical moment for its ecclesiastica…
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Religion Past and Present
Orthodoxy
(11,720 words)
[German Version] I. Terminology – II. Christianity – III. Judaism – IV. Islam
I. Terminology The term
orthodoxy derives from Greek ὀρϑός/
orthós, “right, true, straight,” and δόξα/
dóxa, “opinion, teaching.” The word and its derivatives appear in pre-Christian literature (Liddell & Scott,
s.v.) but acquired their specifically religious sense only in the context of Christianity, where confession of Jesus as Lord or Christ plays a constitutive role in religious practice (Rom 10:10; Matt 10:32f.) and the need appeared early on to identify a…
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Religion Past and Present
Ortíz, Tomás
(190 words)
[German Version] (c. 1490, Calzadilla, Extremadura, Spain – 1538, Tocuyo, Venezuela). In 1510 Ortíz entered the order of the Dominicans, and in 1513 traveled to the New World, where he founded new settlements of the order and was active in mission; in 1526 he became vicar general of the order for New Spain. At first he worked with B. de las Casas, but later, confrontation with him grew because Ortíz increasingly rejected his policy of friendship with the Indians; he accused the natives of cannibal…
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Religion Past and Present
Ortlieb of Strasbourg
(138 words)
[German Version] All that is known of Ortlieb is that his teaching was condemned c. 1216 by Innocent III. His followers, the Ortliebers, were mentioned in 1239 in an anti-heresy law of Frederick Hohenstaufen, and in 1254 in a papal bull, together with others. Even the content of his teachings remains ultimately obscure. The only doctrine traditionally ascribed to him is that human beings must keep themselves free from all external things, and only follow the inner leadings of the spirit. This coul…
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Religion Past and Present
Osho Movement
(468 words)
[German Version] The Osho Movement was founded in 1970 in Manali (Himachal Pradesh, northern India) as the Neo-Sannyas International Movement. Its organizing principle is the relationship of initiated disciples, the Sannyasins, to the movement’s founder as spiritual teacher. Neo-Sannyas religiosity departs from tradition in eschewing all asceticism and exhibits distinctly hedonistic features. The popular name “Osho Movement” derives from its founder, the Indian philosophy teacher Rajneesh Chandra …
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Religion Past and Present
Osiander
(1,253 words)
[German Version]
1. Andreas (Dec 14 or 19, 1496 or 1498, Gunzhausen – Oct 17, 1552, Königsberg [today Kaliningrad, Russia]), Reformer of Nuremberg (Nürnberg) and center of a violent controversy over his doctrine of justification. Osiander matriculated at Ingolstadt in 1515, where he learned Greek and Hebrew and was influenced by Humanism and especially by J. Reuchlin and the Kabbalah. In 1520 he was ordained to the priesthood; in the same year, he was employed to teach Hebrew by the Augustinian Herm…
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Religion Past and Present
Osnabrück
(1,055 words)
[German Version]
Osnabrück, city and bishopric, founded at the end of the 8th century at the intersection of two ancient military and commercial routes. The Battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9 ce marked the end of Roman influence in the area settled by Teutons. Beginning in the 5th century, Saxons from the north moved in. The major Old Saxon farmstead at the ford of the Hase river became the center of the Threcwitigau. To replace a destroyed missionary station, Charlemagne, who defeated the Saxons under Widukind in 783, ordered a…
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Religion Past and Present
Ossietzky, Carl von
(474 words)
[German Version] (Oct 3, 1889, Hamburg – May 4, 1938, Berlin), one of the few German journalists during the Wilhelmine Empire and the Weimar Republic to champion vigorously the ideas of a democratic republic (Democracy), pacifism, and social justice (Justice and righteousness: VI). He considered the Weimar Republic an unfinished project that still had to emancipate itself from the legacies of the earlier system and put its constitutional principles into practice. His pacifism was not absolute; it was directed against militarism and violent revisionism; he clearly had sympathy ¶ for …
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Religion Past and Present
Ostasien-Mission (East Asia Mission)
(299 words)
[German Version] The Ostasien-Mission (OAM) was founded in Weimar on Jun 4, 1884,under the name Allgemeiner Evangelisch-Protestantischer Missionsverein (AEPM). It reflected the liberal missionary ideas of E. Buss, a Swiss pastor. The purpose of the AEPM was “…to spread Christian religion and civilization among non-Christian peoples, building on ¶ the elements of truth already present” (§2 of its statutes). The organization was international, with local associations in Switzerland, Germany, Alsace, and Luxembourg; its headquarters was in Berlin…
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Religion Past and Present
Ostervald, Jean Frédéric
(263 words)
[German Version] (Nov 24, 1663, Neuchâtel – Apr 14, 1747, Neuchâtel), son of a Neuchâtel minister. Ostervald studied theology in Orléans, Paris, and Saumur, graduated in 1683, became a deacon in 1686, and in 1699 a Reformed minister in Neuchâtel. On his own initiative he taught students embarking on theological studies, his goal being a comprehensive reformation. He was considered the most influential Neuchâtel theologian and preacher of his time. His reforms focused especially on dogmatics and et…
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Religion Past and Present
Ostfriesische Evangelische Missionsgesellschaft (East Frisian Evangelical Mission Society)
(186 words)
[German Version] The OstfriesischeEvangelische Missionsgesellschaft (OEMG) was founded in 1834, succeeding the (East Frisian) Missions-Sozietät vom Senfkorn, founded in 1798, which had responded to appeals of (Pietist) Dutch and English missionary groups, giving them material and personal support. With the founding of the OEMG, this loosely organized society took on more defined form. It did not send missionaries but supported other societies such as the Goßner Mission, the Hermannsburg Mission, and the Bremen Mission by directing t…
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Religion Past and Present
Ostrog
(167 words)
[German Version] (250 km northeast of Lviv [Lemberg], Ukraine), chosen seat of the Ruthenian Udel princes of Ostrog; from the mid-14th century steadily built up as a defensive fortress against Tartar attack. With the rise of the princes of Ostrog to the highest rank of the Polish-Lithuanian aristocratic republic, Ostrog gained particular importance as a political and cultural center for the defence of Ruthenian interests, and the strengthening of the position of the Eastern Church in the process o…
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Religion Past and Present
Osuna, Francisco de
(185 words)
[German Version] (c. 1492, Osuna [Seville] – c. 1541), Franciscan, one of the most important Spanish mystics. Osuna studied in Alcalá de Henares, and after ordination as a priest retired to the La Salceda hermitage, where he drew up the main lines of his spirituality of inner composure (
recogimento) and wrote his first treatises (
Abecededarios). He had close contacts with the Alumbrados. His best-known treatise is the
Third Spiritual ABC, which strongly influenced Theresa of Avila. Manuel Augusto Rodrigues Bibliography Ed.:
Tercer abecedario espiritual, ed. S.L. Santidrian, 1998 On…
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Religion Past and Present
Otfrid von Weißenburg
(411 words)
[German Version] (c. 800 – c. 871), entrusted, presumably as a child (
puer oblatus; Oblates: I), to the monastery at Weißenburg (Wissembourg) in Alsace; ordained priest c. 830, he received a thorough education at his home monastery, followed by studies in Fulda under Rabanus Maurus. After his return he became, under Abbot Grimald, a teacher, head of the scriptorium, and
spiritus rector of a theological program on the Fulda model, directed towards a deeper understanding of Holy Scripture. To this end, Otfrid worked towards a commentary on the whole Bible. …
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Religion Past and Present
Other/Otherness
(2,191 words)
[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Philosophy of Religion – III. Dogmatics – IV. Ethics
I. Philosophy Until G.W.F. Hegel, otherness is a basic provision of finitude. The concept “otherness = the other” acquires a specially personal and anthropological significance for the predecessors of “I-thou” philosophy. In a letter of 1781 to J.C. Lavater, F.H. Jacobi discovers the meaning of
the other, or “thou,” for the human development of the solitary “I” subject: “I open eye or ear, or I stretch out my hand, and in that very instant I feel inseparably: thou a…
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Religion Past and Present
Otloh of St. Emmeram
(217 words)
[German Version] (Othloh, Othlo; c. 1010, Freising diocese – after 1070, Regensburg). Educated in the monastery school at Tegernsee, and at first a clerk, Otloh entered the Regensburg monastery of St. Emmeram in 1032, and directed the school there (teacher of William of Hirsau). Conflicts with the Freising clergy and the bishops of Regensburg caused him several times to leave Bavaria temporarily, and serve the monasteries of Hersfeld, Fulda, and Amorbach, and the bishop of Würzburg, as a gifted ca…
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Religion Past and Present
Otterbein, Philipp Wilhelm
(170 words)
[German Version] ( Jun 2, 1726, Dillenburg, Prussia – Nov 17, 1813, Baltimore, MD), German Reformed minister who became a founder of the United Brethren in Christ. Otterbein went to the United States in 1752 at the invitation of the German Reformed Pietist, Michael Schlatter (1718–1790). Otterbein had been educated in Calvinist and Pietist teachings at the Reformed University of Herborn (Reformed Colleges in Germany). In America, Otterbein energetically encouraged prayer meetings, recruited lay le…
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Religion Past and Present
Otter, Jakob
(168 words)
[German Version] (c. 1485, Lauterburg, Alsace – Mar 15, 1547, Esslingen). As a schoolboy Otter already came under Humanist influence. In 1505 he matriculated in Heidelberg; in 1507 he became secretary to J. Geiler von Kaysersberg in Strasbourg; in 1517, Lic.theol. in Freiburg; in 1522, preacher in Kenzingen, then in 1525 in Neckarsteinach. Because of his Reformation preaching, Otter was expelled from his posts in 1524 and 1529; he went to Strasbourg, where he became familiar with the theology of M…
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Religion Past and Present
Otto, Berthold
(301 words)
[German Version] (Aug 6, 1859, Bienowitz near Guhrau, Silesia – Jun 29, 1933, Berlin), Berlin educational reformer (Educational reform). Otto, son of a Silesian landowner, studied classics, philosophy, psychology, constitutional law, and (under Friedrich Paulsen and others) educational method in Kiel and Berlin. From 1883 he worked as a private tutor, freelance writer, and lexicographer in Westphalia, Berlin, Hamburg, and Leipzig. In 1902, after his writings criticizing schools had brought him to …
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Religion Past and Present
Ottomans
(603 words)
[German Version] The Ottomans, sometimes called the Imperial House of Osman (the dynasty’s founder), were the rulers of the Ottoman Empire. In a broader sense, the term denotes the Muslim (and since around the mid-19th cent. officially even the non-Muslim) population of this last Islamic empire. It had arisen from the chaos surrounding the collapse of Mongol rule over the Seljuks, developing from an Anatolian principality into an immediate neighbor and rival of Byzantium, until finally, with the c…
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Religion Past and Present
Ottonians
(531 words)
[German Version] The term
Ottonians, dating from the 11th century, is a collective designation of the East Frankish (not Ger.) dynasty that reigned from 919 to 1024. Henry I was the founder of the Ottonian dynasty. His decision to adopt individual succession (929/930), reinforced by Otto the Great, marked the transition from the clan principle of the early Middle Ages to the dynastic house of the High Middle Ages; only the artificial scholarly term
Liudolfings includes agnatic forebears and collateral lines. The Ottonians’ sense of their ancestry therefore concentrate…
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Religion Past and Present
Otto of Bamberg, Saint
(176 words)
[German Version] (c. 1065 – Jun 30, 1139, Bamberg). From 1088 Otto worked at the behest of the emperor Henry IV as chaplain for his sister at the Polish court. From about 1097 he was responsible for the building of Speyer cathedral. In 1102 the emperor appointed him bishop of Bamberg; papal consecration followed only in 1106. Through diplomatic skill, Otto laid the foundation for Bamberg’s episcopal territorial rule. Many monasteries and foundations trace their origin to him. He was given the sobr…
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Religion Past and Present
Otto of Freising
(296 words)
[German Version] (1112/1116, Neuburg, Austria – Sep 22, 1158, Morimond, France). Son of Margrave Leopold III of Austria and Agnes, daughter of Emperor Henry IV; uncle of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. ¶ After studies in Paris (under Hugh of St. Victor) and Chartres (?, under Gilbert of Poitiers), in 1133 Otto entered the Cistercian Order in Morimond, and in 1138 was called to become bishop of Freising. He paid attention to religious life in his diocese and took part in the Second Crusade with Emperor Conrad III. Otto had a thorough knowledge of philosophy and theology. He wrote tw…
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Religion Past and Present
Otto-Peters, Louise
(390 words)
[German Version] (Mar 26, 1819, Meissen – Mar 13,1895, Leipzig), writer, journalist, and campaigner for women’s rights. Otto-Peters grew up as a lawyer’s ¶ daughter in materially secure, cultured middle-class surroundings. From 1842 she published, in some cases under the pseudonym of Otto Stern, poems, novellas, and reviews,
inter alia in Ernst Keil’s journal
Planet and Robert Blum’s
Sächsische Vaterlandsblätter [Leaves from the Saxon fatherland]. In her novels of social criticism (e.g. the censored
Schloß und Fabrik [Castle and factory], 1846) and memoranda she dealt w…
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Religion Past and Present
Otto, Rudolf
(691 words)
[German Version] (Sep 25, 1869, Peine – Mar 6, 1937, Marburg). Brought up by conservative Lutheran parents in Peine and Hildesheim, Otto began to study Protestant theology in Erlangen in 1888. In 1889 he transferred to the University of Göttingen, where he passed his theological examinations in 1892 and 1895; in 1898 he received his doctorate with a thesis on Luther’s concept of the Holy Spirit. In the same year he received a
venia legendi for the history of systematic theology and the history and philosophy of religion. In 1906 he was appointed associate professor at…
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Religion Past and Present
Otto the Great
(435 words)
[German Version] (Nov 23, 912 – May 7, 973, Memleben), East Frankish (not German) king and Holy Roman Emperor. Otto, the most important of the Ottonians, reigned almost 37 years. Already nominated to the throne in 929/930 by his father, Henry I, he was made king at Aachen on Aug 7/8, 936, through ceremonial enthronement, homage, and anointing. Despite bitter conflicts over issues of succession and rank with his brothers Thankmar and Heinrich (937–941) and his sons Liudolf and Wilhelm (953–955), he was able to stre…
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Religion Past and Present
Otto, Walter Friedrich
(622 words)
[German Version] ( Jun 22, 1872, Hechingen – Sep 23, 1958, Tübingen), classical philologist and specialist in religious studies. Otto was professor of classical ¶ philology at Basel (1913/1914), Frankfurt am Main (1914–1934), and Königsberg (today Kaliningrad; 1934–1944); from 1946 until his death in 1958 he taught at Tübingen as visiting professor and emeritus professor. His work and influence are important for the study of religion in antiquity and the history of religions. He began his career as a Latinist, studying under Franz Büchler (
Aufsätze zur römischen Religionsgesch…
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Religion Past and Present
Outler, Albert Cook
(187 words)
[German Version] (Nov 17, 1908, Thomasville, GA – Sep 1, 1989, Bradenton, FL), one of the greatest Methodist theologians of the 20th century. He lived all his life within the orbit of the church and was without peer as an ecclesiastical leader and scholar in North American Methodism (Methodists). Educated at Wofford College (B.A. 1928), Emory University (B.D. 1933), and Yale University (Ph.D. 1938), he taught at Duke (1938–1945), Yale (1945–1951), and Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist…
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Religion Past and Present
Outsiders and Marginal Groups
(407 words)
[German Version] The terms “outsider” and “marginal groups” have been commonly used since the mid-1960s to denote individuals and groups who exhibit “deviant behavior.” Various cognitive models attempt to grasp the basic conflict within the complex relationship of the self to the other (Stranger). Sociological approaches (establishment versus outsider relationship etc.) and those of philosophy (problems of truth and ideology etc.), psychoanalysis (the unconscious, transference etc.), ethnology (cu…
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Religion Past and Present