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
Steinbüchel, Theodor
(208 words)
[German Version] ( Jun 15, 1888, Cologne – Feb 11, 1949, Tübingen), studied philosophy, Catholic theology, and economics in Bonn and Straßburg (Strasbourg), receiving his Dr.phil. in 1911. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1913. In 1920 he received his Dr.theol. and in 1922 his habilitation in theology. He was appointed professor of philosophy in Gießen in 1926, taught from 1935 to 1939 as professor of moral philosophy in Munich, and moved to Tübingen in 1941, where he served as rector for 1946…
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Religion Past and Present
Stein, Edith (Saint)
(483 words)
[German Version] (Teresia Benedicta a Cruce OCD; Oct 12, 1891, Breslau [Wrocław] – Aug 9, 1942, Auschwitz), was born to a German Jewish family. In 1911 she began to study philosophy, psychology, Germanic philology, and history at Breslau; her teachers included William Stern and Richard Hönigswald. In 1913 she went to Göttingen to study with E. Husserl, Adolf Reinach, and M. Scheler. In 1916 she received her doctorate under Husserl at Freiburg, where she served as his teaching assistant until 1918.…
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Religion Past and Present
Steiner, Rudolf Joseph Lorenz
(380 words)
[German Version] (Feb 25, 1861, Kraljevec [now in Croatia] – Mar 30, 1925, Dornach, Switzerland), founder of anthroposophy. He was baptized Catholic but grew up a freethinker. After interrupted study of the natural sciences (1879/1883), he worked until 1897 as editor of J.W. v. Goethe’s scientific writings. In 1891 he received his doctorate with a thesis on J.G. Fichte’s epistemology but failed to earn habilitation. During these years, Steiner was influenced by German Idealism and Goethean natural…
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Religion Past and Present
Steiner Schools
(688 words)
[German Version] The Steiner schools (or Waldorf schools) trace their roots to the anthroposophist R. Steiner, whose anthropology they reflect. The first Steiner school was founded in Stuttgart in 1919 as the independent Waldorfschule. Since the 1980s, the number of such private Steiner schools has grown enormously: in 2004 there were 187 schools in Germany, enrolling some 76,000 students; worldwide there were 683 schools. The German schools are organized in the Bund der Freien Waldorfschulen, wit…
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Religion Past and Present
Steinhausen, Wilhelm
(96 words)
[German Version] (Feb 2, 1846, Sorau, Niederlausitz – Feb 5, 1924, Frankfurt am Main), painter and graphic designer. His first commission was bookmarks and illustrations for
Geschichte von der Geburt unseres Herrn Jesus Christus (1869). He obtained an honorary doctorate in theology from the Halle faculty. As “Protestant painter” he received civil and church commissions:
Christ und die Kinder (1888) and
Allegorie der Erziehungsgedanken antiker and christlicher Kunst (1899–1902). Diane Apostolos-Cappadona Bibliography Works include: “Christentum, Religion und Kunst,”
GlWis …
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Religion Past and Present
Steinheim, Salomon Ludwig
(152 words)
[German Version] (Aug 6, 1789, Bruchhausen – May 19, 1866, Zürich), physician and philosopher of religion. After working in Altona as a physician, he moved to Rome in 1846 and lived there as an independent scholar. Among his poetry, works on the natural sciences, and works on the philosophy of religion, his
Die Offenbarung nach dem Lehrbegriff der Synagoge (4 vols., 1835–1865) stands out. Although it had little influence on the contemporary internal debate between Orthodox and Reform Judaism, it shows Steinheim to have been an original thinker. His sys…
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Religion Past and Present
Stein, Heinrich Friedrich Karl
(607 words)
[German Version] vom und zum (Baron) (Oct 26, 1757, Nassau an der Lahn – Jun 29, 1831, Schloß Cappenberg, Westphalia). After being educated by a tutor, Stein studied jurisprudence in Göttingen from 1773 to 1777. After an internship with the Imperial High Court and a grand tour through Germany and Hungary, he entered the Prussian civil service in 1780; in 1782 he was appointed senior counselor of mines and in 1784 director of the Westphalian mining authority in Wetter an der Ruhr. In 1785 he was s…
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Religion Past and Present
Steinhofer, Friedrich Christoph
(253 words)
[German Version] ( Jan 16, 1706, Owen unter Teck – Feb 11, 1761, Weinsberg). After studying theology in Tübingen and serving as a pastoral vicar in Biberach an der Riss, in 1729 Steinhofer undertook an educational journey to Franconia and Saxony, were he stayed in Herrnhut in 1731/1732. Since N. v. Zinzendorf was prevented from bringing him to Herrnhut as a pastor, in 1734 he arranged a position for him at the court of Reuß-Ebersdorf. After a lengthy process of examination and clarification, Ebers…
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Religion Past and Present
Steinkopf, Karl Friedrich Adolf
(215 words)
[German Version] (Sep 7, 1773, Ludwigsburg – May 20, 1858, London) played a key role in the transnational Protestant awakening in the first decades of the 19th century. In 1790 he went to Tübingen to study theology. From 1795 to 1801 he served as full-time secretary of the German Christianity Society in Basel. From 1801 until his death, he was pastor of the German Lutheran congregation of the Savoy Chapel in London. He had close relations with the Religious Tract Society and both the London Missio…
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Religion Past and Present
Steinmetz, Johann Adam
(272 words)
[German Version] (Sep 24, 1689, Großkniegnitz in the principality of Brieg [now Księginice Wielkie, Poland] – Jul 10, 1762, Prester [now Magdeburg- Prester]). After studying at Leipzig (from 1709), in 1715 he was appointed associate pastor in Mollwitz, near Brieg (now Małujowice, Poland); in 1717 he became pastor in Tepliwoda (now Ciepłowody, Poland) and in 1720 senior pastor and inspector of schools in Teschen (Cieszyn), where he had the Jesus Church (Church of Grace) built as the first Protestan…
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Religion Past and Present
Steinmeyer, Franz Karl Ludwig
(183 words)
[German Version] (Nov 15, 1811, Beeskow, Mittelmark – Feb 5, 1900, Berlin). After studying in Berlin and serving as a preacher and teacher in Wittenberg and Kulm, Steinmeyer was appointed pastor in Nowawes in 1843. In 1854 he received his habilitation in Bonn and was appointed to a chair. From 1858 to 1887 he was professor practical theology and New Testament in Berlin, also serving as university preacher until 1870. Steinmeyer is noted primarily for his contribution to homiletics (
Homiletik, publ. posthumously in 1901). Like F.D.E. Schleiermacher, he made a clear distinct…
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Religion Past and Present
Steinschneider, Moses
(148 words)
[German Version] (Mar 30, 1816, Prostějov, Moravia – Jan 24, 1907, Berlin). After studying Semitic philology and Hebrew literature in Vienna, Leipzig, and Berlin (and in part as an autodidact), Steinschneider worked primarily in Berlin. Noted primarily for his ¶ bibliographical work (including the Hebraica catalogues for the Bodleian Library in Oxford and the university libraries of Leiden, Berlin, and Munich, as well as founding the periodical
Hamaskir), he was also a significant exponent of the Wissenschaft des Judentums inaugurated by L. Zunz. Studies like his
Die hebräischen …
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Religion Past and Present
Steinthal, Heymann
(165 words)
[German Version] (Chayim; May 16, 1823, Gröbzig – Mar 19, 1899, Berlin), philologist and cofounder (with M. Lazarus) of ethnopsychology (National psychology). His philosophy influenced W. Dilthey and G. Simmel. Following G.W.F. Hegel, he looked on language, the formative agent of thought, as the most significant expression of the unfolding world spirit, which also determines the spirit of individual peoples and promises to lead to universal humanity. Since Steinthal was prohibited from appointment…
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Religion Past and Present
Stela
(303 words)
[German Version] A stela is a hewn, finished stone, left in its natural state or decorated with inscriptions or iconographic elements (painted, incised, sculpted, carved in relief ) set up to serve as a marker of the presence (or at times the dwelling) of a deity or a deified ancestor for cultic purposes, sometimes with juridical potential (cultic stela, betyl; at Mari, Ugarit, Emar:
sikkanu), a votive offering to a deity (votive stela), a memorial to a deceased person (sepulchral stela; Arab., Aram.
npš), a witness to a legal transaction such as a treaty, or a marker of a ki…
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Religion Past and Present
Stellenbosch
(270 words)
[German Version] was founded in the vicinity of Cape Town in 1685. It became known as the home of the intellectual nursery for white Afrikaans-speaking students. The first church building built on South African soil was consecrated in 1687. Students from the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) went to the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands to receive their theological training. In 1850 the DRC decided to train its own ministers. The decision was made mainly because of what was considered to be liberal theology taught at the University of Utrecht. It was th…
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Religion Past and Present
Stem Cell Research
(504 words)
[German Version] Stem cells are developmentally immature cells capable of dividing and maturing structurally and functionally. Such cells are normally found in complex organisms. Scientists are learning to isolate stem cells, grow them in a laboratory, and implant them in organisms, where in some cases they mature and become a functioning part of the living system. Medical ¶ researchers hope to use stem cells for “regenerative medicine” to treat a number of diseases. In 1998 pluripotent stem cells were first cultured from human embryos. Because they are pluripotent, …
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Religion Past and Present
Stenger, Johann Melchior
(190 words)
[German Version] (Sep 26, 1638, Erfurt – Mar 7, 1710, Wittstock). After studying in Jena (1654), Leipzig, Wittenberg, Straßburg (Strasbourg; 1658), and Erfurt, Stenger became a deacon at the Predigerkirche in Erfurt in 1666. His terministic teaching regarding repentance and grace, for which he relied primarily on
Sonthoms Güldenes Kleinod (E. Sonthom), set off the “Stenger controversy,” which precipitated a crisis in “early Erfurt Pietism” (Wallmann), which P.J. Spener unsuccessfully tried to resolve. Relieved of his office in Erfurt in 1670, …
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Religion Past and Present
Stensen, Nils
(191 words)
[German Version] ( Jan 11, 1638, Copenhagen – Dec 5, 1686, Schwerin) studied languages, anatomy, and mathematics in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, and Leiden. His anatomical discoveries soon gained him the reputation as a scientist. In 1666 he was appointed physician to the court in Florence, where he converted to Catholicism. Discoveries during various expeditions placed him amongthe founders of scientific geology, paleontology, and crystallography. After ordination to the priesthood in 1675, he was appo…
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Religion Past and Present
Stephan, Horst Emil
(193 words)
[German Version] (Sep 27, 1873, Sayda, Saxony – Jan 9, 1954, Leipzig). While studying theology in Leipzig, he began teaching in Zittau and Leipzig in 1899. In 1906 he earned his habilitation in Leipzig and in 1907 in Marburg, where he was appointed associate professor in 1911 and full professor of systematic theology in 1919. In 1922 he moved to Halle and in 1926 to ¶ Leipzig, where he retired in 1938 but continued to teach until 1949. Stephan followed in the footsteps of F.D.E. Schleiermacher and the tradition of liberal theology (
Geschichte der evangelischen Theologie seit dem Deutsc…
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Religion Past and Present
Stephani
(347 words)
[German Version]
1. Joachim (May, 1544, Pyritz, Pomerania [now Pyrzyce, Poland] – Jan 14, 1623, Greifswald). Initially (1572) professor of mathematics in Greifswald, in 1578 he was appointed professor of law, a member of the ducal council, and president of the consistory. With his younger brother Matthias (2. below), he was a leading advocate of the episcopal system (Episcopalism: I), appealing to imperial law to legitimate the evolving Protestant system of placing church governance in the hands of…
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Religion Past and Present
Stephanus the Younger, Saint
(109 words)
[German Version] (c. 713–765), abbot of the monastery of St. Auxentius in Bithynia. He was executed for conspiring against Constantine V. In the early 9th century, he was considered a martyr for monasticism,allegedly under persecution. His
vita, which claims to have been written in 809, also makes him a martyr for iconoduly (Veneration of images: VI). It is possible, however, that the
vita was not written until after 843 and the iconodulistic editing of history. His feast day is Nov 28. Claudia Sode Bibliography M.-F. Auzépy,
La vie d’Étienne le Jeune par Étienne le Diacre, BHG 1666, 1997
Pm…
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Religion Past and Present
Stephen bar Sudaili
(141 words)
[German Version] The only reliable dating for Stephen is found in the letter about him written by Philoxenus of Mabbug (between 512 and 518), attacking him and especially his idea of universal salvation and oneness. In light of a similar statement by the Syrian Orthodox patriarch Cyricaus (793–817), Stephen was also identified as the author of the
Book of Saint Hierotheos. Cyriacus was followed by later commentators on this book, Theodosius of Antioch (887–896) and Bar Hebraeus (13th cent.). Recent studies have also showed the similarity in content between Stephen and the
Book of Hiero…
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Religion Past and Present
Stephen II, Pope
(301 words)
[German Version] (papacy Mar 26, 752 – Apr 26, 757). A native Roman, Stephen was brought up in the Lateran and ordained to the diaconate, then was elected pope when the original pope-elect died four days after his election. Facing the threat posed by Aistulf, the expansive Lombard king, whom the Byzantine authorities did not oppose effectively, Stephen turned to the Franks for military support in a series of urgent letters, including a fictitious letter from the apostle Peter, and by crossing the …
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Religion Past and Present
Stephen I of Hungary, Saint
(190 words)
[German Version] (c. 970 – Aug 15, 1038, Székesfehérvár). Married to the German princess Gisela, with Western help he completed the Christianization of the Magyars (not always nonviolently) begun by his father Geisa, against Byzantine competition, unifying the Magyars politically for the first time. Stephen organized the Catholic Church in Hungary under the archbishop of Esztergom, for which he was canonized in 1083 by Gregory VII. His appointment as papal legate is a legend, the presentation of t…
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Religion Past and Present
Stephen I, Pope (Saint)
(191 words)
[German Version] episcopate May 254 – 256/257 (Aug 2, 255, according to the
Catalogus Liberianu
s and the
Depositio episcoporum [CPL 2028/2250]). He is venerated as a martyr; his tomb is in the Cripta dei Papi in the catacombs of San Callisto. All we know ¶ of Stephen comes from the statements of Firmilian of Caesarea and Cyprian of Carthage (
Ep. 67–75) protesting against the position taken by the Roman bishop, who wanted to exclude rebaptizing returning schismatics and simply lay hands on them (Rebaptism controversy). The North African opposition to thi…
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Religion Past and Present
Stephen Langton
(216 words)
[German Version] (1155, 1165, Langton, Lincolnshire – Jul 9, 1228, Slindon, Sussex), studied in Paris c. 1170, 1180; he may have been a canon at Notre Dame. In 1206 he became a cardinal priest in Rome and was elected archbishop of Canterbury in 1207 despite the objections of King John Lackland. He remained in exile in Pontigny, near Auxerre, until 1213. In England he mediated between the king and the barons (Magna Carta). He was suspended from office by Innocent III. He took part in the fourth Lat…
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Religion Past and Present
Stephen of Perm, Saint
(135 words)
[German Version] (c. 1340, Veliky Ustyug – Apr 26, 1396, Moscow), important early Russian missionary. Around 1365 he entered the monastery of Gregory the Theologian in Rostov Velikhy. There besides Greek he learned the language of the Finno-Ugrian Zyrians (Komi), for whom he devised a new alphabet and translated biblical and liturgical texts. In 1383 he was consecrated bishop, so that he was able to conduct a successful missionary campaign among them. He found an outstanding biographer in his fellow student Epifany the Wise. Peter Plank Bibliography Source:
Svjatitel’ Stefan Permsk…
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Religion Past and Present
Stephen, Saint (the First Martyr)
(286 words)
[German Version] According to the book of Acts (6:1–6), Stephen was a leader among the “Seven” in Jerusalem, who were entrusted with “waiting on tables.” His special gift of the Spirit (6:5, 10) was manifested in signs and wonders (6:8) and enabled him to triumph in disputes with representatives of Hellenistic Judaism (6:9f.); calling on false witnesses, they nevertheless succeeded in arousing the people against Stephen and bringing charges against him before the council (6:11–15). Stephen’s speec…
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Religion Past and Present
Stephen the Great, Saint
(170 words)
[German Version] (c. 1430 – Jul 2, 1504), prince of Moldavia. Popular tradition called him a “defender of Christendom” and saint; after the political reversal of 1989, the Synodic Council of the Romanian Orthodox Church canonized him as “Stephen the Great and Saint” on Jun 20/21, 1992, to reinforce the national religious identity of the Romanian people, especially outside the state of Romania. His reign, beginning on Apr 12, 1457, represented a cultural, economic, and political highpoint in the hi…
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Religion Past and Present
Stepinac, Aloys
(177 words)
[German Version] (May 8, 1898, Brezarić, Croatia-Slavonia – Feb 10, 1960, Brezarić). After studying at the Collegium Germanicum in Rome, Stepinac was ordained to the priesthood in 1930; in 1934 he was appointed coadjutor and in 1937 archbishop of Zagreb. In the new state of Croatia, he called for cooperation with the Catholic fascist Ustaše (est. in 1941), who would serve as a vehicle of the spread of Catholicism throughout the Balkans, although he condemned their genocide of Serbs and Jews. Convi…
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Religion Past and Present
Stepun, Fedor Avgustovich
(219 words)
[German Version] (prior to 1914: Steppuhn, Friedrich August; Feb 18, 1884, Moscow – Feb 23, 1965, Munich), Russian philosopher, cultural sociologist, and journalist. The son of an East Prussian merchant, he was confirmed in the Moscow Reformed congregation; in 1900 he became a Russian citizen. From 1903 to 1910, he studied philosophy in Freiburg and Heidelberg, with a dissertation on V. Solovyov’s philosophy of history, under W. Windelband. In 1901 he became co-editor of the international philosophical periodical
Logos. He served as a Russian officer in World War I; in 19…
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Religion Past and Present
Sternberg
(159 words)
[German Version] (Mecklenburg). Sternberg is a town north of Schwerin where pogroms took place after Jews were charged with desecrating the host. After a hearing and trial, the accused were burnt at the stake, a prelude to the expulsion of all Jews from Mecklenburg. In the years that followed, the miraculous hosts in Sternberg made it a popular pilgrimage site. Duke Magnus underwrote the building of a chapel of the Sacred Blood. An Augustinian monastery was also built, whose promoters included J. v. Staupitz and Johann v. Paltz. In his
An den christlichen Adel, Luther called for the dem…
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Religion Past and Present
Sterne, Laurence
(166 words)
[German Version] (Nov 24, 1713, Clonmel, Ireland – Mar 18, 1768, London), novelist and Anglican clergyman. Initially he published sermons and pamphlets. After his
A Political Romance (1759), a satire on church politics that was immediately banned, the first two volumes of
Tristram Shandy, his major work, appeared in 1760 (vols. III–IX appeared 1761–1767). Subjectivity as its dominant narrative stance eschews chronological and causal narrative coherence, elevates digression to a structural principle, and makes the reader complicit in cons…
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Religion Past and Present
Steuber, Johannes
(202 words)
[German Version] ( Jan 16, 1590, Schickardshausen, Oberhessen – Feb 5, 1643, Marburg), Lutheran theologian. In 1614 he was appointed professor of physics at Gießen and in 1627 added Greek; in 1620 he was appointed professor of theology and Hebrew. In 1624, when the university was moved back to Marburg, he was appointed professor of theology and pastor of St. Elizabeth’s. In 1625 he was appointed university librarian. In 1627 he was put in charge of fellowships. At the behest of Landgrave Louis V, …
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Religion Past and Present
Steuchus (Steuco), Augustin
(178 words)
[German Version] (1496 Gubbio, Umbria – Mar 18 [?], 1548, Venice), Humanist and expert in biblical languages. He was Cardinal Grimani’s librarian in Venice. In 1529 he became prior of San Marco in Reggio (Emilia). In 1538 he was appointed bishop of Chisamo (Crete). In 1542 he was appointed prefect of the Vatican Library. He participated in the Council of Trent. He wrote against Luther and Erasmus and defended the authenticity of the Donation of Constantine against L. Valla. Besides being a notable exegete, in his major work
De perenni philosophia (1540) he elaborated on the thesis of…
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Religion Past and Present
Steudel
(498 words)
[German Version]
1. Johann Christian Friedrich (Oct 25 1779, Esslingen – Oct 24, 1837, Tübingen). In 1797 he began study of theology, philosophy, and Near Eastern languages in Tübingen. He also studied at Paris in 1808. In 1810 he was appointed deacon in Cannstatt and in 1812 in Tübingen, where he was appointed professor of biblical theology in 1815. In 1816 he was made senior of the faculty and superintendent of the Tübingen Stift, fighting for its continued existence. He lectured on the Old Testamen…
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Religion Past and Present
Stevenson, George John
(120 words)
[German Version] ( Jul 7, 1818, Chesterfield –Aug 16, 1888, London), printer and author of Methodist hymns (Methodists), biographies, and histories. He became the first director of the Philanthropic Institute and the Southwark House of Correction in 1846; from 1848 to 1855 he served as director of Lambeth Green School. He was the editor and proprietor of the Paternoster series in London (1855–1884), the
Wesleyan Times (1861–1867), and the
Union Review. He was also ¶ the author of
The Methodist Hymn Book and Its Associ
ates (1869, 21883), according to J. Julian the most complete p…
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Religion Past and Present
Stewardship
(332 words)
[German Version] is a tool for congregational development and growth (Church growth) that originated in North American churches and has been influential in parish life since 1900. On the basis of the biblical use of the term (e.g. 1 Cor 4:1; 1 Pet 4:10), an attempt is made to employ the gifts and talents of church members as effectively and efficiently as possible in the service of the gospel. The background of the conception is the problem of support for the Free churches in the United States. To…
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Religion Past and Present
Steyler Missionaries
(10 words)
[German Version] Society of the Divine World
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Religion Past and Present
Steyler Missionswissenschaftliches Institut
(151 words)
[German Version] Founded in 1962 as a comprehensive international institution to strengthen and coordinate missionary research throughout the world, it was restructured in 1998. It is now an institute run by the German-speaking ¶ provinces of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD); it continues to emphasize the international character of its members, cooperation with institutes of the SVD and other institutions, and study of the missionary situation in Europe and overseas. It sponsors regular study conferences and study weeks, especially for missionaries on leave. Karl Josef Rivin…
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Religion Past and Present
Sthen, Hans Christensen
(94 words)
[German Version] (Nov 25, 1544, Roskilde, Denmark – Apr/May, 1610, Malmö, Denmark [to 1658]). In 1565 he was appointed rector of the Latin school in Helsingør, in 1583 pastor in Malmö. He wrote several books of prayers and devotions that also included hymns, including
En liden Haandbog (“A Small Handbook,” 1578) and
En liden Vandrebog (“A Small Walking-Book,” 1589). In the century of the Reformation, Danish hymnody generally followed German models closely; in Sthen’s work, it gained originality and literary quality. Wilhelm Friese Bibliography J. Lyster,
DBL 3 XIV, 1983, 107–109.
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Religion Past and Present
Sticheron
(181 words)
[German Version] pl.
stichera, a poetic hymn strophe in the daily office (Liturgy of the Hours: IV) of the Orthodox Church. It is derived from στῖχος/
stíchos, “verse,” because it is sung in alternation with consecutive psalm verses. At Vespers six to ten stichera follow each of the final verses of Psalms 141/142; at Orthros or Matins, they are used with the Lauds Psalms 148–150. In both services, there are aposticha with other psalm verses. On weekdays the stichera focus on the particular feast or saint’s day; on Sunday…
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Religion Past and Present
Stichometry
(176 words)
[German Version] In antiquity, the length of prose texts was measured in στίχοι/
stíchoi, each line representing a hexameter. In Greek texts a
stichos originally had 15 syllables, later 16, as in Latin texts. In manuscripts the subscription at the end of individual books often contains the number of lines (total stichometry) – for example in Papyrus 46 and Codex א (Sinaiticus) of the Pauline letters. Sometimes every 100th
stichos is marked with a number in the margin (marginal stichometry), as in Codex B (Vaticanus) of 1–2 Samuel, 1–2 Kings, and Isaiah. Stichomet…
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Religion Past and Present
Stiefel, Esaias
(206 words)
[German Version] (c. 1560, Langensalza – Aug 12, 1627, Erfurt), inveighed against the church and its clergy and declared the Eucharist, confession, and infant baptism superfluous. He held gatherings in his home and composed
Tractetlein with religiously offensive content. Frequently admonished by the ecclesiastical and civil authorities, he was imprisoned for the last time in 1624. Stiefel was considered a follower of V. Weigel; he attached great importance to interiority and dreams, insisting that Scripture was a dead letter. Mi…
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Religion Past and Present
Stiehl, Ferdinand
(278 words)
[German Version] (Apr 12, 1812, Arnoldshain – Sep 16, 1878, Freiburg im Breisgau). After studying theology in Bonn (K.I. Nitzsch) and Halle an der Saale, Stiehl was appointed director of the teachers’ college in ¶ Neuwied. From 1844 to 1848, he served as a lecturer; in 1853 he was appointed senior privy councilor in the Prussian ministry of culture, in charge of elementary schools and training colleges. He was ousted in 1872 during the Kulturkampf. After the 1848 church congress in Wittenberg ( J.H. Wichern, M.A. v. Bethmann Holl…
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Religion Past and Present
Stier, Ewald Rudolf
(204 words)
[German Version] (Mar 17, 1800, Fraustadt, Lower Silesia [now Wschowa, Poland] – Dec 16, 1862, Eisleben) was a figure in the post-1817 revival movement. His writing was influenced by Romanticism, and he drew on the patriotic liberalism of the
Burschenschaften. In 1818 he came in contact with F.A.G. Tholuck and the revivalist group associated with H.E. Baron v. Kottwitz; he dated his conversion from that year. He was active as an academic teacher (e.g. in Barmen-Wichlinghausen). His primary interest was exegesis; he focused initially …
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Religion Past and Present
Stifel, Michael
(170 words)
[German Version] (c. 1487, Esslingen – Apr 19, 1567, Jena), Augustinian Hermit in Esslingen who supported Luther in 1522, resulting in a literary debate with T. Murner and forced relocation to Wittenberg. In 1523 Luther secured his appointment as court chaplain in Mansfeld, as pastor in Tollet (Tyrol) in 1525, and as pastor in Lochau (Saxony) in 1528. He employed his interest in mathematics for apocalyptic calculations. His prediction of the end of the world in 1533 led to his dismissal. After fur…
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Religion Past and Present
Stift
(139 words)
[German Version] is a corporation of canons or canonesses. It is sometimes substantively and terminologically synonymous with chapter, which can at other times be distinguished as the administrative organ, and can sometimes be extended also to spiritual territory. “Stift” indicates the maintenance of the canons by means of an endowment (Benefice). Such foundations were originally set up to support public worship, and later also served general cultural and social purposes (such as providing mainten…
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Religion Past and Present
Stifter, Adalbert
(548 words)
[German Version] (Oct 23, 1805, Oberplan, Bohemia [now Horní Planá, Czech Republic] – Jan 28, 1868, Linz), Austrian writer and landscape painter. With a humanistic cultural ideal and anthropology rooted in the Enlightenment, he overcame Romanticism and designed a blissful utopian existence whose harmonizing tendencies contained an implicit criticism of the social reality of the 19th century. He discovered his interest in literature, painting, and natural science during his school years at the Bene…
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Religion Past and Present
Stigel, Johann
(173 words)
[German Version] (May 13, 1515, Fiemar, near Gotha – Feb 11, 1562, Jena). After attending school in Gotha, Stigel went to Wittenberg in 1531 to study law, philology, astronomy, medicine, and physics. He received his master’s degree on Apr 20, 1542; on Aug 27, 1543, he was appointed to a professorship in the faculty of arts. In 1548 he was called to Jena to build up the Hohe Schule in cooperation with V. Strigel and was offered a chair. His contacts indicate that he was associated with the circle o…
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Religion Past and Present
Stigma
(381 words)
[German Version] The noun
stigma comes from Greek στίγμα/
stígma, “tattoo, mark” – a brand or tattoo serving for adornment or as a token of ownership. As an apotropaic sign that someone belongs to a deity, it was rejected by the Old Testament (cf. Exod 13:16; Lev 19:28), but it entered the language as an eschatological token (cf. Isa 44:5; Ezek 9:4; Rev 13:16f.). In Gal 6:17, Paul uses the term for the visible marks left by his apostolic ministry (affliction and heartache: 2 Cor 6:4; whipped, stoned, shi…
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Religion Past and Present
Stigmatines
(167 words)
[German Version]
I. Stigmatines (Stimmatini, Bertoniani, Congregatio Presbyterorum a Sacris Stigmatibus Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, CSS, CPS), founded in Verona (northern Italy) in 1816 by the popular missionary Gaspare Bertoni (1777–1853). Following the model of the previously suppressed Jesuits, the Stigmatines were intended as a missionary and educational ministry. As of 2009, there were 441 members, primarily in Italy, Brazil, the United States, and South Africa. The generalate is in Rome.
II. Stigmatine Sisters (Stimmatine, Povere Figlie delle Sacre Stimmate di S…
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Religion Past and Present
Stiles, Ezra
(104 words)
[German Version] (Nov 29, 1727, North Haven, CT – May 12, 1795, New Haven, CT), Congregationalist minister and college president, entering the ministry (1755) as pastor of the Second Congregational Church in Newport, Rhode Island. There he opposed the slave trade and engaged in a variety of scientific and literary ¶ pursuits. He became president of Yale in 1778. His life-long support of liberty led him to oppose schemes to send an Anglican bishop to the colonies. He prophesied a great future for the independent United States. Mark A. Noll Bibliography E.S. Morgan,
The Gentle Puritan: A …
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Religion Past and Present
Stillingfleet, Edward
(94 words)
[German Version] (Apr 17, 1635, Cranborne, Dorset – Mar 27, 1699, Westminster), Latitudinarian theologian and antiquary. After becoming a fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge, in 1653, he published a series of works, including his
Irenicum (1659),
Origines Sacrae (1662), and
Rational Account (1664), which established his reputation as a theologian and brought rapid preferment. He then became, in succession, archdeacon of London, dean of St. Paul’s, and bishop of Worcester. Grayson Carter Bibliography Works:
The Works, ed. R. Bentley, 6 vols., 1709/1710 On Stillingfleet: W. …
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Religion Past and Present
Stipend, Ministerial
(601 words)
[German Version] Together with old-age pension and survivors’ benefits, the ministerial stipend is the heart of the adequate livelihood the churches owe their clergy, who can then devote themselves totally to their pastoral ministry as a full-time vocation and be financially independent to fulfill the duties assigned to them at ordination. This obligation to support the clergy follows from the decision made by the Early Church and consciously ratified by the churches of the Reformation that minist…
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Religion Past and Present
Stip, Gerhard Chryno Herman
(106 words)
[German Version] (May 4, 1809, Norden, East Frisia – Jun 21, 1882, Potsdam), theologian and hymnologist. He studied in Göttingen and Bonn. After serving a parish in Osteel, near Norden, he became a private tutor to C.K.J. Bunsen in London. After 1842 he worked as an independent scholar in Potsdam in the field of hymn and hymnal reform. He put special emphasis on the principle of confessional legitimacy and strict preservation of hymns in their original form. Ulrich Wüstenberg Bibliography Works include:
Beleuchtung der Gesangbuchsbesserung, 1842
Unverfälschter Liedersegen, 1851 (e…
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Religion Past and Present
Stirner, Max
(209 words)
[German Version] (actually Johann Casper Schmidt; Oct 25, 1806, Bayreuth – Jun 25, 1856, Berlin), a member of the group of intellectuals called Young Hegelians. Stirner radicalized the Young Hegelian reinterpretations of Hegel’s philosophy of spirit/mind – L. Feuerbach’s turn toward anthropology and B. Bauer’s toward “purecriticism” – by asserting the anonymous facticity of each individual existence as an infungible vital substance and a source of authentic intellectual creation. It was in opposit…
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Religion Past and Present
St. John, Feasts of
(236 words)
[German Version] The Nativity of John the Baptist is celebrated by the Catholic, Anglican, Byzantine, and Coptic churches on Jun 24 (it is also in the Lutheran Calendar of Saints), the Beheading on Aug 29; the earliest evidence of both observances dates from the 5th century. The date of the nativity observance was determined in the West in relationship to Christmas and Luke 1:36; later the feast incorporated customs associated with the summer solstice. The Byzantine church later established a seco…
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Religion Past and Present
St. John’s Hospitallers
(11 words)
[German Version] Knights of Malta/St. John’s Hospitallers
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Religion Past and Present
St. John’s Wine
(190 words)
[German Version] The calendar of the saints (Hagiography) has several feasts of St. John. The medieval legend of the poisoned chalice probably inspired the introduction of sharing St. John’s wine at the end of the liturgy on Dec 27 (beginning in the 13th cent.). The blessing of St. John’s wine in the church inculturated the earlier custom of memorial drinking (from the Carolingian court) in the late German Middle Ages. “Memorial drinking” also took place on the feast days of other saints. Through …
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Religion Past and Present
Stobi
(179 words)
[German Version] The town of Stobi (modern Gradsko) in what is today Macedonia came into existence no later than the 3rd century bce. It flourished during the Roman Empire, as the remains of various structures attest, serving as a junction on the important north-south road to Thessalonica and linking with the Via Egnatia toward the northeast. Stobi took on special importance in Late Antiquity, when it became the capital of the province of Macedonia Secunda. Its conquest by the Goths under Theodoric the Great in 479 b…
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Religion Past and Present
Stock, August
(178 words)
[German Version] (Dec 13, 1863, Zadelow, Pomerania [now Sadłowo, Poland] – Nov 7, 1924, Berlin-Lichterfelde), Protestant clergyman. He served in rural ministry until 1896, when he was appointed pastor of the church of St. Catherine in Brunswick. There, working in the spirit of E. Sulze, he endeavored to form a “living congregation,” committed not only to worship and the sacrament but also to activity ministry, including social service. The gathering place was now the “community hall,” whose constr…
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Religion Past and Present
Stöckel, Leonhard
(147 words)
[German Version] (1510, Bartfeld, Upper Hungary [now Bardejov, Slovakia] – Jun 7, 1560, Bartfeld), studied theology in Wittenberg with Luther and Melanchthon. As rector of the Bartfeld Gymnasium, he implemented the cultural and educational program of the Humanists and Reformers and introduced academic drama. He adapted the Augsburg Confession for five towns in Upper Hungary: Bartfeld, Kaschau, Eperies, Leutschau, and Zeben (now Bardejov, Košice, Prešov, Levoča, and Sabinov, Slovakia). Today his authorship of the
Confessio Pentapolita (1549) ascribed to him is no longer…
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Religion Past and Present
Stöcker, Helene Hulda Caroline Emilie
(205 words)
[German Version] (Nov 13, 1869, Elberfeld – Feb 23, 1943, New York), campaigner for women’s rights and journalist. With the Bund für Mutterschutz und Sexualreform that she founded in 1905, she took up the cause of improving the legal and social position of single mothers and their children. In the periodicals
Mutterschutz (1905–1907) and
Die Neue Generation (1908–1933) that she edited, she ¶ advocated a “new ethics” of relations between the sexes based on mutual love and equal rights and campaigned for universal women’s suffrage, sexual enlightenment, and decriminalized abortion. A r…
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Religion Past and Present
Stock-Farming
(7 words)
[German Version] Agriculture and Stock-Farming
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Religion Past and Present
Stockmayer, Otto
(178 words)
[German Version] (Oct 21, 1838, Aalen, Württemberg – Apr 11, 1917, Hauptwil, Switzerland). Stockmayer was converted while working as a private tutor in Switzerland. After studying theology, he served Free churches in Tavannes, Geneva, and L’Auberson. In 1874 he took part in the Oxford Meeting to Promote Scriptural Holiness and became a leading theologian and itinerant preacher for the Holiness movement (I). After 1878 he served as head of a convalescent home he founded in Hauptwil, in which pastor…
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Religion Past and Present
Stoddard, Solomon
(85 words)
[German Version] (Oct 1, 1643, Boston, MA – Feb 11, 1729, Northampton, MA), Congregationalist minister, in 1672 called as the second pastor of Northampton Congregational Church. Against Boston’s ministers he favored opening the Lord’s Supper to all respectable persons as a “converting ordinance.” Two years before his death he presided over the installation of his grandson, J. Edwards, as his successor in the Northampton pulpit. Mark A. Noll Bibliography P.J. Tracy,
American National Biography, ed. J.A. Garraty
et al., vol. XX, 1999, 822f.
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Religion Past and Present
Stoecker, Adolf
(404 words)
[German Version] (Dec 12, 1835, Halberstadt – Feb 7, 1909, Bolzano-Gries), Protestant clergyman and politician. He served as pastor in Seggerde (1863) and Hamersleben (1866), then as divisional chaplain in Metz (1871), before coming to Berlin in 1874 as fourth court chaplain and cathedral preacher. He was a gifted speaker and commentator, influenced by the revival movement (Revival/Revival movements). His guiding vision, both ecclesiastically and politically, was that of a Protestant church firmly…
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Religion Past and Present
Stoicism
(452 words)
[German Version] As an “intellectual movement” (Pohlenz), from the outset Stoicism (Stoics) was influential beyond the members of the school itself. It attracted personalities who did not exactly consider themselves Stoic philosophers but did reflect certain specific Stoic teachings in their work. Examples include the poet Aratus, who begins his
Phainomena with an invocation to Zeus that recalls the hymn of Cleanthes to Zeus, and Strabo, who opens his geography with a defense of Homer in the spirit of the Stoics. The theory behind Hellenistic u…
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Religion Past and Present
Stoics
(1,582 words)
[German Version]
I. History The Stoic school takes its name from the Stoa Poikílē, the “Painted Porch,” in Athens, where the earliest public teaching began at the end of the 4th century bce. Founded by Zeno of Citium, the Stoa rapidly became the dominant influence on Hellenistic discussion and remained the most influential philosophical school until the end of antiquity (Philosophy: I; Hellenistic philosophy). The school’s tradition can be divided into three distinct historical phases.
1. Early Stoa. Zeno came to Athens from Citium, a Phoenician settlement on Cyprus, in 3…
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Religion Past and Present
Stolberg, Friedrich Leopold Graf zu
(299 words)
[German Version] (Nov 7, 1750, [Bad] Bramstedt [then in Denmark] – Dec 5, 1819, Sondermühlen estate, near Melle), grew up in a polyglot environment of Lutheran Pietism at the Copenhagen court. Despite having studied law, he preferred reading classical English, Latin, and Greek literature; in Göttingen he became a member of the Göttingen Grove, writing enthusiastically and spontaneously, in a Romantic religious vein like F.G. Klopstock. As Danish ambassador (1789–1791) and jurist in the service of …
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Religion Past and Present
Stoltz, Johann
(145 words)
[German Version] (c. 1514, Wittenberg – 1556, Weimar), editor of the Jena edition of Luther’s works. He came to Wittenberg in 1532 and went through the usual course of instruction, receiving his M.A. in 1539. There was a brief interruption when he was ordained as a deacon in Jessen in 1539 and served as court tutor in Freiberg and Dresden in 1539/1540. In 1544 he was appointed to a professorship at the Wittenberg Pädagogium and the theological faculty. In 1547 he was appointed court chaplain in We…
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Religion Past and Present
Stolz, Fritz
(238 words)
[German Version] ( Jul 16, 1942, Männedorf, Switzerland – Dec 10, 2001, Männedorf ). After studying theology and Near Eastern philology in Zürich and Heidelberg, he taught Hebrew and Old Testament at the seminary in (Bielefeld-)Bethel from 1969 to 1980. In 1980 he was appointed professor of the history of religions and the study of religion in Zürich, where he taught until his death. He was also active in several bodies both within and outside the university, for example as a member of the researc…
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Religion Past and Present
Stolz, Johann Jakob
(279 words)
[German Version] (Dec 31, 1753, Basadingen, near Zürich – Mar 12, 1821, Zürich), Reformed theologian. The son of Friedrich Salomon, a master shoemaker, and Judith Hofstätter, he received his training in Zürich and was ordained in 1774. After employment as a tutor in Weinfelden (Thurgau), in 1781 on the recommendation of J.K. Lavater he was appointed second Reformed pastor in Offenbach am Main; on the strength of his excellent reputation, in 1784 he was appointed preacher at the Martinskirche in Br…
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Religion Past and Present
Stone, Barton Warren
(131 words)
[German Version] (Dec 24, 1772, near Port Tobacco, MD – Nov 9, 1844, Hannibal, MO), leader of the American Restoration Movement, was ordained as Presbyterian, but early on began to doubt aspects of traditional Presbyterian practice. In 1801 he was the ¶ key figure in the great Cane Ridge revival meeting in Kentucky (Revival/Revival movements: II). In an active career as preacher, writer (
Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery, 1804), and editor, he promoted an apocalyptic vision of Christian faith, the practice of baptism by immersion, and the resto…
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Religion Past and Present
Stones, Sacred
(381 words)
[German Version] Stones of all kinds, from large rocks to precious stones, can play a concrete or metaphorical role in religion. In many religions, stones – unhewn or finished, individually or in groups, piled loosely or installed permanently – mark a site endowed with special power, often a cult site recalling an event in which this power was once revealed and where it is now worshiped. In the case of ancient Israel and its neighbors, this use of stones is well attested both in the Tanakh and arc…
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Religion Past and Present
Storm, Theodor
(424 words)
[German Version] (Sep 14, 1817, Husum [then under Danish rule] – Jul 4, 1888, Hademarschen), German poet and novelist, whose North Frisian background left an enduring mark on his work. His upbringing was vague on all issues of religion; as a consequence, he turned his back on Christianity and developed instead a humanistic commitment to life in this world, which nevertheless had melancholic and sometimes pessimistic elements occasioned by its denial of transcendental hopes. After studying law at K…
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Religion Past and Present
Storr
(451 words)
[German Version]
1. Johann Christian ( Jun 3, 1712, Heilbronn – May 8, 1773, Stuttgart). In 1744 he was appointed deacon at the Leonhardskirche in Stuttgart and also court chaplain. In 1759 he was appointed preacher at the collegiate church and consistorial councilor; in 1765 he was appointed prelate of Herrenalb, in 1772 prelate of Alpirsbach. Storr was an independent representative of early Württemberg Pietism in the school of J.A. Bengel. He was critical, however, of Bengel’s interpretation of the…
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Religion Past and Present
Story Bible
(301 words)
[German Version] A story Bible or historiated Bible (Ger.
Historienbibel ) is a prose work of the 14th century or 15th century, often illustrated (Bible illustrations), reproducing the narrative material of the Bible in the vernacular and usually incorporating apocryphal texts and accounts from secular history. Formal analogies have repeatedly led scholars to postulate the influence of the Jewish Haggadah and Christian historiography (Eusebius of Caesarea, Jerome, Isidore of Seville). A major source of many story Bibles was the
Historia scholastica of Peter Comestor, which…
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Religion Past and Present
Stosch, Bartholomäus
(331 words)
[German Version] (Sep 12, 1604, Strehlen, Silesia [now Strzelin, Poland] – Mar 5 [?], 1686, Berlin), Reformed theologian and adviser on religious policy. After schooling at the Schönaichianum Gymnasium in Beuthen [Bytom], he began to study theology in Frankfurt an der Oder in 1626. In 1629 he began working as a private tutor in East Prussia. From 1632 to 1640 he broadened his education by traveling in the ¶ Netherlands (Leiden), England, and France. In 1640 he was appointed pastor in Pilten (Livonia; now Piltene, Latvia). In 1643 he was appointed court chaplain i…
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Religion Past and Present
Stössel, Johann
(213 words)
[German Version] ( Jun 23, 1524, Kitzingen – Mar 18, 1576, Senftenberg). After studying in Wittenberg (M.A. 1549) and Jena, in 1554 he was appointed superintendent in Heldburg. At the Colloquy of Worms in 1557 (Disputations, Religious), he joined the Ernestine theologians against Melanchthon. In 1560 he defended Lutheran eucharistic doctrine at a disputation in Heidelberg. In 1561 he was appointed superintendent in Jena and in 1562 professor of theology; he received his Dr.theol. in 1564. In the d…
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Religion Past and Present
Stoß, Veit
(359 words)
[German Version] (c. 1445, Horb am Neckar – Sep 22, 1533, Nuremberg), sculptor, woodcarver, painter, and engraver, outstanding master of late German Gothic art. In 1476 Stoß traveled from Nuremberg to Cracow to create the altarpiece of the high altar in the church of St. Mary for the German congregation there. It was followed by other important creations, primarily in stone. In 1496 he returned to work in Nuremberg. Stoß’s work is characterized by an exuberant, powerful, and dynamic expressive dri…
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Religion Past and Present
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
(246 words)
[German Version] ( Jun 14, 1811, Litchfield, CT – Jul 1, 1896, Hartford, CT), author and critic of New England Calvinism, was the daughter of L. Beecher and Roxana Foote. Educated at her sister Catharine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary, she married Calvin Ellis Stowe, a biblical scholar, in 1836. After writing for popular periodicals, she gained international fame for
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (2 vols., 1852), written to protest against the Fugitive Slave Act (1850), which required northerners to assist in the capture and return of escaped southern slaves. Th…
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Religion Past and Present
St. Paul’s Cathedral (London)
(304 words)
[German Version] The original London cathedral, begun by Bishop Mellitus in 604, was replaced between 1087 and 1148 by a three-aisle Romanesque church more than 100 m long. The crossing tower, completed in 1221/1222, was extended at the beginning of the 14th century; until destroyed by fire in 1561, it was some 150 m high. The crypt and choir, proportional to the nave, were constructed between c. 1258 and 1327 (esp. in the last quarter of the 13th cent.), modeled on Ely Cathedral (choir ending in …
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Religion Past and Present
St. Peter’s Basilica (Rome)
(707 words)
[German Version] (Basilica di San Pietro), in the Vatican, is the burial church of the apostle Peter and the main church of the popes residing there. The old basilica was begun by Constantine the Great between 319 and 322 in thanksgiving for his victories over his opponents Maxentius and Licinius. The five-aisle basilica with a transept was some 123 m long. It formed the western terminus of a gently rising axial public space, which included a forecourt, a flight of stairs, and an atrium with an ou…
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Religion Past and Present
St. Petersburg
(554 words)
[German Version]
I. City and Eparchy
1. St. Petersburg was built in 1703 by Tsar Peter the Great in wetlands at the mouth of the Neva, to be a “window on the Baltic.” It has two patrons: the apostle Peter and St. Alexander Nevski, in whose honor the tsar founded a monastery in 1724. From 1712 to 1728 ¶ and from 1732 to 1918, St. Petersburg was the capital of Russia. It was called Petrograd after 1914; the October Revolution began there in 1917 (Soviet Union); from 1924 to 1991 it was called Leningrad. Peter the Great founded the Academy of Sciences, the…
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Religion Past and Present
Strachan, John
(154 words)
[German Version] (Apr 12, 1778, Aberdeen, Scotland – Nov 1, 1867, Toronto, Canada), Anglican bishop and officeholder. Strachan graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 1797, and moved to Kingston, Upper Canada, in 1799, where he became a schoolmaster. In 1804 he was ordained priest in the Church of England. An effective educator and church administrator, ¶ Strachan moved to York (Toronto) in 1812 where he sought to influence Upper Canada’s political developments. He maintained that his Church should receive all of the funds from lands set aside in…
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Religion Past and Present
Strack, Hermann Lebrecht
(283 words)
[German Version] (May 6, 1848, Berlin – Oct 5, 1922, Berlin), conservative Protestant theologian and student of Judaism. After studying in Berlin and Leipzig, he was appointed associate professor of Old Testament and Near Eastern languages in Berlin in 1877. In 1883 he was a cofounder of the Institutum Judaicum in Berlin (which he headed after 1886), devoted to scholarly study of Jewish history, literature, and culture but also committed to mission to Jews (Jewish missions). Although Strack’s miss…
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Religion Past and Present
Stradella, Alessandro
(194 words)
[German Version] (Oct 1, 1644 [?], Rome – Feb 25, 1682, Genoa), Italian composer. He sang as a choirboy and studied with Ercole Bernabei; his earliest known composition dates from 1663 (a motet for the ¶ queen of Sweden). In 1665 he entered the service of the Colonnas, a family of Roman nobility, and traveled to Venice and Florence. Involvement in a theft of church property caused him to leave Rome. He was probably in Vienna in 1670, composing primarily for the musical stage. After 1675 he concentrated on oratorios, the best-known being his
San Giovanni Batista. He had numerous affairs and…
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Religion Past and Present
Stranger/Otherness
(2,942 words)
[German Version]
I. Religious Studies From the outset, religions are involved in processes of exchange with their (religious) environment. This structural relationship to the surrounding world finds expression in internal representations of what is “strange/alien/foreign” or “other” and is part of the self-reference of religious systems. Because other religions are often experienced as competing entities, in most traditions they represent a great challenge to the adherents’ own identity. Therefore re…
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Religion Past and Present
Strasbourg
(1,820 words)
[German Version]
I. City and Bishopric
1. City. The site was settled even before the Romans. The original urban core grew out of the Roman
castellumArgentorate; in the time of Augustus, it had 5,000/ 6,000 inhabitants. The Alemanni, who took the town from the Romans in 406, renamed it: Gregory of Tours (6th cent.) called it Stradeburg. Taken by Attila in 451, it continued to grow: 20,000 inhabitants in the late 13th century, 26,481 in 1697, 49,948 in 1789, and 272,975 in 2006. The history of Strasbourg bears witness to …
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Religion Past and Present
Straube, Karl
(132 words)
[German Version] ( Jan 6, 1873, Berlin – Apr 27, 1950, Leipzig), the most important organ virtuoso and teacher in the first half of the 20th century. In 1895 he was appointed assistant organist of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Kirche in Berlin and in 1897 organist in Wesel. In 1902 he became organist of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig; in 1918 he was appointed musical director of the Thomanerchor and conductor of the Gewandhaus choir, a post he held until 1932. In 1919 he founded the Institute of Church Music in…
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Religion Past and Present
Strauch, Aegidius
(194 words)
[German Version] (Feb 21, 1632, Wittenberg – Feb 13, 1682, Danzig [Gdansk]). After studying in Leipzig and Wittenberg (with A. Calovius), he was appointed professor of philosophy in Wittenberg, receiving his Dr.theol. in 1664. In the Syncretistic Controversy, he vigorously opposed the Helmstedt theologians. In 1669 he was appointed rector of the Gymnasium in Danzig and pastor of Sankt Trinitatis. In 1673 he was removed from office on account of his anti-Catholic sermons; his removal produced an up…
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Religion Past and Present
Strauß, David Friedrich
(580 words)
[German Version] ( Jan 27, 1808, Ludwigsburg –Feb 8, 1874, Ludwigsburg), Protestant theologian and writer. The son of a struggling merchant, Strauß attended the Latin school in Ludwigsburg and in 1821 entered the minor seminary in Blaubeuren. There he met F.C. Baur, whose teaching left a deep impression on him. With his friends C. Märklin, F.T. Vischer, and Wilhelm Zimmerman (later a prominent liberal historian of the German Peasants’ War), he began his theological studies in 1825 at the Tübingen …
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Religion Past and Present
Strauß, Gerhard Friedrich Abraham
(190 words)
[German Version] (Sep 24, 1786, Iserlohn – Jul 19, 1863, Berlin). After studies in Halle and Heidelberg from 1805 to 1808, with C. Daub as his most important teacher, Strauß was appointed pastor in Ronsdorf in 1809 and in Elberfeld in 1814; from 1822 to 1859 he was professor of practical theology in Berlin as well as fourth court chaplain and cathedral preacher (1856 senior court chaplain). He was appointed senior consistorial councilor in 1836 and made a member of the High Consistory in 1850. He was a close ¶ friend of J.W.A. Neander and an outstanding preacher and pastor. With a re…
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Religion Past and Present
Strauß, Jakob
(189 words)
[German Version] (c. 1480, Basel – after 1526), began his theological studies as a Dominican in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1516 and earned his doctorate in theology before he joined the Reformation movement in 1521. Initially he preached Reformation theology in the vicinity of Innsbruck. In 1522 he visited Wittenberg and then went to Wertheim am Main. From 1523 to 1525 he preached in Eisenach (Thuringia), where his 51 theses against the charging of interest triggered the “Eisenach usury controversy” …
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Religion Past and Present
Strauss, Leo
(159 words)
[German Version] (Sep 20, 1899, Kirchhain, Hesse – Oct 18, 1973, Annapolis, MD), philosopher who undertook to reestablish political philosophy by returning to its Socratic roots, disputing the criticism of F. Nietzsche and M. Heidegger. After emigrating to the United States in 1938, he taught in New York and Chicago, inaugurating an influential hermeneutical school that pays particular attention to the exoteric-esoteric “art of careful writing.” Strauss identified the “theologico-political problem…
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Religion Past and Present
Strauß, Richard
(176 words)
[German Version] ( Jun 11, 1864, Munich – Sep 8, 1949, Garmisch), composer committed to an emphatically interpreted expressive principle. From an upper-class background, he considered himself substantially an agnostic, and so it is not surprising that he wrote no church music apart from a few early works (Masses). In various symphonic tone poems (e.g.
Also sprach Zarathustra, opus 30, 1896, after F. Nietzsche’s work with the same title), he placed himself in the tradition of the New German School around F. Liszt. Opera became the most important genre in Strauß’s work; his
Salome (1905)…
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Religion Past and Present