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
Rodriguez de Azevedo, Simon
(94 words)
[German Version] (Simão; 1510, Vouzela – Jul 15, 1579, Lisbon), the first Portuguese provincial of the Jesuits. Rodriguez studied in Paris, where he shared with Ignatius of Loyola and his group in the foundation of the Society of Jesus. King John III recalled him to Portugal, together with F. Xavier. There he founded various colleges (e.g. the Jesus Collegium at Coimbra, 1542). Rodriguez later worked in Spain, Italy, and, finally, in Lisbon. Manuel Augusto Rodrigues Bibliography F. Rodrigues,
História da Companhia de Jesus na assistência de Portugal, 4 vols., 1931–1950.
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Religion Past and Present
Roeber, Paul
(166 words)
[German Version] (Feb 5/6, 1587, Wurzen, Saxony – Mar 18, 1651, Wittenberg), an important theologian and preacher of Lutheran orthodoxy. He studied poetry, music, astronomy, and theology, briefly in Leipzig, then in Wittenberg (M.A. 1612, Dr.theol. 1617). In 1613 he became archdeacon, and in 1617 court preacher in Halle an der Saale; in 1627, he was appointed professor of theology and general superintendent in Wittenberg. His sermons, including numerous funeral orations, show great rhetorical gift…
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Religion Past and Present
Roëll, Hermann Alexander
(162 words)
[German Version] (1653, Dolberg/Mark – Jul 12, 1718, Amsterdam), Reformed theologian. Following study in Utrecht under F. Burman (1), in Groningen under J. Alting, and in Zürich under J.H. Heidegger, Roëll became court preacher in Herford in 1679, and pastor in Leeuwarden in 1680, and in Deventer in 1682. From 1686 he taught philosophy and theology at Franeker University, and from 1704 theology in Utrecht. He was a moderate Cocceian Cartesian (J. Cocceius, R. Descartes), whose theology was based on the concept of
conscientia as an innate idea that makes possible God-given know…
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Religion Past and Present
Rogall, Georg Friedrich
(115 words)
[German Version] (Apr 19, 1701, Königsberg – Apr 6, 1733, Königsberg). In 1725 Rogall became assistant professor, in 1731 full professor of theology in Königsberg, and in 1729 consistorial counselor. At first he was a follower of the Königsberg Wolffians (C. Wolff), but he experienced conversion in Halle (A.H. Francke) and turned against Wolffianism. In the reorganization of East Prussian church and educational structures initiated by the king of Prussia, following the pattern of Halle Pietism, Rogall took over ¶ from H. Lysius the leading role in opposing orthodoxy (J.J. Q…
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Religion Past and Present
Rogation
(294 words)
[German Version]
I. Catholic The city church of Rome took over a pre-Christian field procession held on Apr 25 in honor of Rubigo, the feared divinity of cereal burning, probably in the 4th century; it was developed further under Gregory I. The procession ended at St. Peter’s, where the Eucharist was celebrated. This rogation was later given the name of
litania maior, from the litany sung at it. It extended beyond Rome; in 470 it was mandated by Bishop Mamertus of Vienne because of the threat of a poor harvest, and
rogationes or
litaniae minores, prescribed for the whole of Gaul in 511, …
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Religion Past and Present
Roger Bacon
(453 words)
[German Version] (c. 1214/1220, England – c. 1292). After studying arts in Oxford and perhaps in Paris (M.A. c. 1236/1240), Bacon taught in the Paris faculty of arts until about 1247. It is uncertain whether he then returned to England, and where he entered the Franciscan order (probably before 1256). After theological studies (in Oxford?) he was again in Paris around 1257. ¶ Here, c. 1263, he found a patron in Cardinal Gui Foucois (Guy Foulques the Fat), later Pope Clement IV (1265–1268), to whom he sent several works on request (including the
Opus maius, the
Opus minus, and perhaps the
Opus t…
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Religion Past and Present
Rogers, Carl Ransom
(149 words)
[German Version] (Jan 8, 1902, Oak Park, IL – Feb 4, 1987, La Jolla, CA), founder of client-centered psychotherapy (Person-centered psychotherapy), as such a typical representative of humanist psychology. From 1940, Rogers was professor of psychology in Ohio, Chicago, and Wisconsin. He had a decisive ¶ influence on the American and European pastoral movement. At the heart of his person-centered approach is the assumption of a power in each organism for growth, self-realization, and self-healing. The task of therapy (and also of pedagogy) is…
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Religion Past and Present
Rohde, Erwin
(197 words)
[German Version] (Oct 9, 1845, Hamburg – Jan 11, 1898, Heidelberg), taught classical philology in Kiel, Jena, Tübingen (1878–1886), Leipzig, and Heidelberg (prorector 1894/1895). Starting from novels and romance poetics of the modern period, Rohde, an antimodernist of refined sensitivity, researched the history of the novel in antiquity.
Psyche (1890–1894, 9/101925; ET:
Psyche: The Cult of Souls and the Belief in Immortality among the Greeks, 1925), his major contribution to the history of religion, offers a comprehensive presentation of the “development” of…
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Religion Past and Present
Rohden, Gustav von
(115 words)
[German Version] (Apr 22, 1855, Bremen – May 9, 1942, Ballenstedt, Harz), Protestant theologian. Rohden worked
inter alia as prison chaplain in Dortmund (1895) and counselor in the consistory of the Old Prussian Union in Berlin (1908–1912), then minister near Bitterfeld; he retired in 1922. He had strong family connections with the educational theorist F.W. Dörpfeld. Rohden wrote influential books on pastoral care in prisons and on sexual ethics; in these books he sometimes came very close to ways of thinking associated with racial hygiene and eugenics. Matthias Roser Bibliography Wo…
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Religion Past and Present
Rohlfs, Christian
(188 words)
[German Version] (Dec 22, 1849, Niendorf, Holstein – Jan 8, 1938, Hagen), German painter and graphic artiSt. Rohlfs studied at the Weimar Kunstschule. From 1870, in Paris, he engaged with the Barbizon School, and from 1880 separated from the Weimar naturalist tradition. Under the influence of Claude Monet he turned to Impressionism. In 1902 he became professor at the Weimar Kunstschule, and engaged in turn with Neoimpressionism, pointillisme, and German Expressionism. Around 1910 he developed his …
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Religion Past and Present
Rohoza, Mykhailo
(182 words)
[German Version] (Mikhail Ragoza; c. 1540? – 1599, Kiev?), metropolitan of Kiev and Halič. In Rohoza’s period in office, union with Rome (Unions with Rome) was agreed. He came from the lesser Ruthenian nobility, and appears in 1579 as archimandrite of the Monastery of the Ascension in Minsk. On his appointment in 1589, Patriarch Jeremiah II of Constantinople had high hopes for the renewal of the church province of Kiev. At synods in Brest in 1590 and 1594 Rohoza worked for reforms within the churc…
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Religion Past and Present
Rohrbach, Paul
(240 words)
[German Version] (Jun 29, 1869, Irgen, Kurland – Jul 20, 1956, Langenburg, Württemberg), Protestant theologian, journalist, colonial politician, and travel writer. After studying theology in Berlin, especially under A. v. Harnack, from 1898 to 1901, Rohrbach became general secretary of the Evangelisch-Sozialer Kongreß. His book
Deutschland unter den Weltvölkern [Germany among the world nations] (1903) underlines his preference for a religiously based “liberal imperialism.” Rohrbach worked in various positions in the German colonial service in…
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Religion Past and Present
Röhr, Johann Friedrich
(204 words)
[German Version] (Jul 30, 1777, Roßbach near Naumburg an der Saale – Jun 15, 1848, Weimar). From 1796 Röhr studied theology in Leipzig, and in 1801 became assistant preacher at the university church, in 1802 assistant teacher in Schulpforta, in 1804 minister in Ostrau near Zeitz, in 1820 senior minister and general superintendent in Weimar, where on Mar 26, 1832 ¶ he delivered the funeral oration at Goethe’s burial. Röhr’s
Briefe über den Rationalismus [Letters on Rationalism] (1813) provided a programmatic foundation for Rationalism in its theological and ecclesiast…
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Religion Past and Present
Rojas y Spinola, Christoph de
(173 words)
[German Version] (c. 1626 – Mar 12, 1695, Wiener Neustadt), Spanish nobleman, priest, OFM, is considered the most important irenic Catholic ¶ figure of the 17th century. From 1661 he was in the service of Leopold I in Vienna, and was entrusted with various diplomatic tasks in the Empire. From 1671 he conducted union talks with Protestant princes and theologians which culminated in the union plan
Regulae circa Christianorum omnium ecclesiasticam reunionem. The talks at the court of Hanover, in which, among others, G.W. Molanus and G.W. Leibniz took part, were a theo…
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Religion Past and Present
Rokycana, Jan
(158 words)
[German Version] (c. 1395, Rokycana – Feb 22, 1471, Prague), Hussite theologian (J. Hus), preacher at the Teyn Church (1426), master (1430), follower and successor to Jacob of Mies as leader of the Utraquist clergy. A gifted preacher and skillful politician, Rokycana sought to unite the Hussites on the basis of the moderate program of the four Prague Articles, thus becoming an opponent of the Taborites. In 1435 the Bohemian parliament elected him archbishop of Prague, but he was never recognized b…
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Religion Past and Present
Roles
(461 words)
[German Version] (
in religious studies). Religious roles represent a set of behavioral expectations developed by a religious community; they relate to the perception of particular religious functions, such as administration of the cult, proclamation of religious teaching, dissemination of the teaching, care for personal salvation or the salvation of others. Typical religious roles include those of priest (Priesthood), teacher, missionary, pastoral practitioner, monk (Monasticism), nun, guru, shaman …
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Religion Past and Present
Rolland, Romain
(263 words)
[German Version] (Jan 29, 1866, Clamecy, Département Nièvre – Dec 30, 1944, Vézelay, Département Yonne), French writer, humanist, pacifist, between the world wars “the conscience of Europe” (S. Zweig). Sustained by the cosmic vision of a constant renewal of all life and belief in the inner veracity of the human being, Rolland wrote numerous essays, novels (including
Jean-Christophe, 1904–1912; ET:
Jean-Christophe, 1996), plays, and biographies of creative artists (including L. v. Beethoven, L. Tolstoy, and Charles Péguy). He gained international attentio…
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Religion Past and Present
Rolle, Richard
(494 words)
[German Version] (c. 1300, Thornton, Yorkshire – 1349, Hampole, Yorkshire), studied theology at Oxford and then decided to lead the life of an anchorite devoted to apostolic poverty, in Yorkshire, his home county in the north of England. Because of his comprehensive theological knowledge it has been repeatedly claimed that he pursued further studies in Paris, but this is unlikely (cf. Arnould, appendix II). Rolle marks the beginning of a specifically English form of medieval mysticism (III, 3.b), …
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Religion Past and Present
Roll, Hendrik
(281 words)
[German Version] (?, Hilversum – Sep 1534, Maastricht), was a Carmelite in Haarlem, the Netherlands, before he yielded to Reformation influences and became a preacher in Wassenberg in Westphalia. Around 1531 he contested both Catholic and Reformation understanding of the Lord’s Supper in his
Slotel van dat secreet des nachtmaels [Key to the secret of the supper]. The Lord’s Supper was for him a celebration that recalled redemption through Jesus Christ, and bound together all those touched by the divine spirit in a fellowship of faith. After a new church order was promulgated he fled ¶ with…
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Religion Past and Present
Roma and Sinti
(1,169 words)
[German Version]
I. General The terms Roma and Sinti are used of groups living mainly in south and central Europe (esp. in the former Yugoslavia; see also Macedonia). They call themselves Roma (“people,” sg.
rom, “man, husband, human being”), in contrast to the non-Roma, the
gadje (“peasants, barbarians”). The name Sinti for the central European groups points to their origin in the northwest Indian region of Sindh. The German
Zigeuner (Pers.
sinka) is now considered discriminatory. It derives etymologically from the Greek
thingánein (“touch”).
Atsínganoi or
athínganoi (“untouchab…
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Religion Past and Present