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
Succession, Apostolic
(3,002 words)
[German Version]
I. Terminology Especially in ecumenical discussion (Ecumene), there is a widespread assumption that the expression
apostolic succession denotes a primitive and clearly defined attribute of ecclesiastical office. However, the notion that the marks of the church (Notae ecclesiae) include an unbroken chain of office holders going back to the apostles and that each of these office holders was placed in office through the laying-on of hands of another legitimate office holder appeared on the scene rel…
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Religion Past and Present
Suda
(103 words)
[German Version] a massive Byzantine encyclopedia compiled in the 10th century. The work contains over 31,000 entries, which provide material from a very wide variety of sources: lexical works, historical excerpts, biographies, works of theology and philosophy, and texts of classical Greek authors. Since the compilers’ goal was to include all the knowledge of their age, the
Suda represents a unique collection of material, some of which would otherwise have been lost. Christian Stephan Bibliography Source: A. Adler, ed.,
Suidae Lexicon, 5 vols., 1928–1938 Bibl.: H. Hunger, “Was …
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Religion Past and Present
Sudan
(779 words)
[German Version] since 1956 an independent Islamic republic (Jumhūrīyat as-Sūdān). Before South Sudan seceded in 2011, its 2.5 million km2 made it the largest territory in Africa (see the map of Africa), with 33 million inhabitants, speaking 134 languages and dialects. Its capital is Khartoum (
EI 2 9, 1997, 746–752). In the north, the Sahara extends as far as Khartoum; the river system of the Nile dominates the country’s ecology and economy. In the south, nomadism constitutes the primary source of sustenance. Cotton is the most important export…
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Religion Past and Present
Sudermann, Daniel
(137 words)
[German Version] (1550, Liège – after 1630, Straßburg [Strasbourg]). Though born into a Catholic family, Sudermann came into contact with Calvinism, Lutheranism, and Anabaptism early on. Having worked as a private tutor, after 1585 he served as an educator of the nobility at the Bruderhof in Straßburg. He had already come in contact with the ideas of K. v. Schwenckfeld, some of whose writings he began publishing in 1584. He dated his own attraction to Schwenckfeld’s teaching from a conversion expe…
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Religion Past and Present
Suetonius
(190 words)
[German Version] The son of the equestrian Suetonius Laetus, Suetonius was born c. 70, probably in Hippo. He was educated in grammar and rhetoric in Rome. With Pliny the Younger as patron, under Hadrian he held various offices in the imperial central administration. After he was dismissed in 121/122, he was active as an author. In
Lives of the Twelve Caesars from Caesar to Domitian, he interpreted the principate as an imperial history individualized in the figures of the emperors. With his corpus of biographies, despite their simple, anecdotal style and …
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Religion Past and Present
Suevi
(186 words)
[German Version] The original homeland of the Suevi has not been clearly identified (Elbe-Germanic or Baltic region?). After crossing the Rhine in 405, they passed through Gaul and arrived in the Iberian Peninsula, where they settled between 409 and 411 in the region of ancient Lusitania. Hermericus (abdicated 438) is considered the founder of their kingdom, which at one time or another also included Astorga, Lugo, Mérida, and Seville. Establishment of a court, restoration of the old imperial
fisci, accumulation of wealth, and diplomatic relations stabilized the kingdom. …
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Religion Past and Present
Suffering
(8,720 words)
[German Version]
I. Religious Studies
1. General Suffering is a concept that needs to be approached constructively in comparative religious study as it takes fundamental negative human experiences to a comparative level. On this interpretive level, suffering is understood as one of the fundamental experiences of human life. What people experience as suffering depends on their particular interpretation of the world and hence on their religious system for interpreting the world. The point at which religi…
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Religion Past and Present
Sufferings, Paul’s List of
(277 words)
[German Version] Lists of Paul’s sufferings and hardships appear in Rom 8:35; 1 Cor 4:11–13; 2 Cor 4:8f.; 6:4–10; 11:23–29; 12:10; Phil 4:12. German New Testament scholars call such a list a
Peristasenkatalog, reflecting the terminology of Stoic and Cynic popular philosophy (Stoics, Cynics), where we also find such lists of adverse “circumstances” (
peristaseis). Suffering them demonstrates the realization of philosophical theory in life (cf. Epict.
Dissertationes I 24.1). In a Christian context, in Rom 8 Paul cites example of
peristaseis that cannot separate the believer fr…
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Religion Past and Present
Suffragan, Suffragan Diocese
(97 words)
[German Version] (from Lat.
suffragium, “support, right to vote”). In Roman Catholic usage, a suffragan is a diocesan bishop subordinate to a metropolitan (
CIC/1983 cc. 435–437; cf.
CCEO cc. 133–139) within an ecclesiastical province (
CIC/1983 cc. 431–446; cf. LG 23, para. 4; CD 39f.). The diocese is called a suffragan bishopric. Wilhelm Rees Bibliography H. Paarhammer, “Kirchenprovinz – Metropolit – Provinzialkonzil,” in:
idem, ed.,
Uni trinoque Domino. FS K. Berg, 1989, 469–496 O. Stoffel,
MKCIC cc. 431–446 (as of August 1997)
KanR 2, 131997, 309–312, 349 H. Maritz, “Die Kirche…
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Religion Past and Present
Suger
(206 words)
[German Version] (c. 1081, Argenteuil – 1151, St.-Denis), was born to a wealthy family; c. 1091 he became an oblate in the royal Frankish abbey of St.-Denis before the gates of Paris. In 1101 he took his solemn vows; in 1107 he defended the exempt status of the abbey before Pope Paschal II. After serving in various political and ecclesiastical offices, he was elected abbot in 1122. He reformed his own abbey and also served as regent of France from 1137 to 1140 and from 1147 to 1149. His partial reconstruction of the abbey church (1140–1144) is famous; he discussed it in his
De consecratione and
De o…
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Religion Past and Present
Suhard, Emmanuel Célestin
(219 words)
[German Version] (Apr 5, 1874, Brains-sur-les-Marches, Département Mayenne – May 30, 1949, Paris). In 1899 Suhard was appointed professor at the Grand Seminary of Laval; in 1928 he was appointed bishop of Bayeux and in 1930 archbishop of Reims. He was made a cardinal in 1935. After his appointment as archbishop of Paris in 1940, he was confronted with the German invasion. He was held hostage for a time in his residence. Later he opposed anti-Jewish raids and finally saved the lives of 50 hostages …
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Religion Past and Present
Suicer, Johann Caspar
(179 words)
[German Version] (Hans Kaspar Schwei[t]zer; Jun 26, 1619 or 1620, Frauenfeld – Dec 29, 1684, Zürich), Reformed theologian and philologist. The son of a pastor, Suicer was educated in Zürich, Saumur, and Montauban; in 1643 he was appointed pastor in Basadingen, in Thurgovia. In 1644 he moved to Zürich, initially as a teacher, then after 1646 as superintendent of the seminary and professor of Hebrew. In 1649 he was appointed professor of catechetics and in 1656 professor of Latin and Greek at the Co…
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Religion Past and Present
Suicide
(4,006 words)
[German Version]
I. Religious Studies Suicide is the violent taking of one’s own life by one’s own hand; it also includes voluntary euthanasia or assisted suicide. Cultural traditions vary greatly regarding the admissibility of suicide. In tribal cultures, the aged and infirm in the Kalahari or other extremely arid regions ask their relatives for death. Kings and chiefs in African tribal cultures must kill themselves when the fortunes of war turn against them or they grow frail. To avoid dying in bed…
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Religion Past and Present
Suidbert, Saint
(197 words)
[German Version] (died March 713; feast day Mar 1), Anglo-Saxon missionary, monastic bishop and abbot of Kaiserswerth. All we know about him comes from the
Ecclesiastical History (V 11) of the Venerable Bede, who lists Suidbert among the monks accompanying Willibrord on his mission to the kingdom of the Franks. Nevertheless his ties to Wilfrith of York suggest that his home abbey was Ripon and that he evangelized in independent Frisia. The anti-Christian policy of King Radbod after 679 forced a change of plans. Consecrat…
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Religion Past and Present
Sullivan, Harry Stack
(158 words)
[German Version] (Feb 21, 1892, Norwich, NY – Jan 14, 1949, Paris), neopsychoanalyst of Irish ¶ ancestry. After receiving his doctorate from Chicago in 1917, he worked as a psychiatrist and lecturer in Maryland from 1923 to 1930/1931, where he became cofounder and director of the Washington School of Psychiatry (1936). He taught as a professor in Maryland (1925–1931) and Washington (1939–1944). He devoted himself to the treatment of schizophrenia, sketched the basis of an interpersonal theory of personality, an…
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Religion Past and Present
Sulpicians
(205 words)
[German Version] (Prêtres du Clergé, Congregatio Sulpitiensis, Societas Presbyterorum a Sancto Sulpitio, PSS), a congregation of secular priests (without vows) founded in 1641 by Jean-Jacques Olier (1608–1657), pastor of St.-Sulpice in Paris, for the education and spiritual formation of seminarians and priests in the spirit of the Tridentine decree on seminaries. It is named after Archbishop Sulpicius II of Bourges (615–647). Their spirituality is christological, eucharistic, and Marian and was st…
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Religion Past and Present
Sulpicius Severus
(304 words)
[German Version] (c. 363 – c. 420). Born to noble Aquitanian parents, Sulpicius worked as a lawyer after training in rhetoric. Widowed at an early age, under the influence of Martin of Tours and following the example of his friend Paulinus of Nola, in 394 he relinquished his wealth and led an ascetic life, after 399 in his own estate at Primuliacum (Paulinus
Ep. 5 and Gennad. ¶
Vir. ill. 19). His works on St. Martin (
Vita S. Martini, with three letters and two books of
Dialogi) are less historical than edifying; they reveal him as an admirer of Martin, a defender of monasticism, …
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Religion Past and Present
Sulze, Emil
(203 words)
[German Version] (Feb 26, 1832, Kamenz, Upper Lusatia – May 29, 1914, Bad Oeynhausen). As a pastor in Osnabrück, Chemnitz, and Dresden, Sulze recognized the need for church reform through congregational renewal. The mammoth metropolitan parishes (60,000 “souls” in Dresden-Neustadt!) were to be divided into districts, each headed by a “paterfamilias” responsible to the pastor. The goal was diaconal and pastoral “ministry of all to all” (
Gemeinde, 49). “The laity learn from the clergy and vice versa” (
Reform, 94). Theologically, it is essential for the concept of the unive…
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Religion Past and Present
Sulzer, Salomon
(174 words)
[German Version] (Mar 30, 1804, Hohenems, Vorarlberg – Jan 17, 1890, Vienna), pioneer of the modern Jewish cantorate. The son of a businessman, Sulzer began his three-year cantorial training at the age of 13 with Lippmann, a Swiss cantor. On its completion, he became a cantor in Hohenems; in 1825 he was appointed chief cantor in Vienna. Retaining the use of Hebrew, Sulzer founded a four-part boys’ and men’s choir; borrowing from traditional synagogue melodies, he composed choral music in contemporary Viennese style. In 1840 he published his
Schir Zion (part 2, 1865), choral synagog…
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Religion Past and Present
Sulzer, Simon
(214 words)
[German Version] (Sep 22, 1508, Schattenhalb, Canton Bern – Jun 22, 1585, Basel), important Swiss theologian.After studying in Bern, Lucerne, Straßburg (Strasbourg), and Basel, where he met B. Haller, O. Myconius, M. Bucer, W. Capito, and S. Grynaeus, he served initially as a teacher in Bern. In 1537 he received his M.A. at Basel. After 1536 he displayed a preference for Lutheran theology and advocated a Swiss-German confessional union. In 1538, against growing resistance, he attempted to introduc…
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Religion Past and Present
Summa theologiae
(401 words)
[German Version] In the 12th century, a scholarly work briefly summarizing the totality of important knowledge in a particular field (Robert of Melun:
singulorum brevis comprehensio) came to be called a
Summa (later also
Summula). Various disciplines were represented:
Summa grammaticae/grammaticalis; Summa super Priscianum; Summa dictaminis/artis notariae; Summa logicae (
Summulae dialectices/logicales/logicae);
Summa de modis significandi; Summa philosophiae; Summula philosophiae naturalis; Summa de anima, etc. Compendia of civil and canon law were also called
Summae…
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Religion Past and Present
Summenhart, Konrad
(160 words)
[German Version] (c. 1458, Calw – Oct 20, 1502, Schuttern Abbey near Lahr), natural philosopher, theologian (
via antiqua), and canonist in Tübingen. Summerhart began his study in the faculty of arts at Heidelberg in 1472. In 1478 he earned his master’s degree in Paris. In the same year, he registered at Tübingen, where he was accepted into the
Magistri regentes of the arts faculty in 1483. After receiving his Dr.theol. on Oct 13, 1489, he held a chair at the theological faculty until his death. His extensive, multifaceted work makes him one of the most …
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Religion Past and Present
Summepiscopate of the Princes
(468 words)
[German Version] The summepiscopate of the princes is a 19th-century term for the governance of the Protestant churches, but its roots go back to the 16th century. After the breakdown of episcopal jurisdiction, with the approval of the Reformers the Protestant estates of the Empire set about restructuring the governance of the church; only “out of Christian charity” (Luther), it was to be put in the hands of the sovereign as
praecipuum membrum ecclesiae (Melanchthon), but not by virtue of his temporal authority. Therefore Luther was not the progenitor of the princes’…
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Religion Past and Present
Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL)
(134 words)
[German Version] The organization previously known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics (now SIL International) was founded in 1934 by the American William C. Townsend as a series of annual language training programs for missionaries, with an emphasis on Bible translation. SIL grew substantially, and the organization eventually spread to Australia, Asia, Africa, and Europe. The main activity today is systematic linguistic work with unwritten languages: linguistic analysis, publishing educational…
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Religion Past and Present
Summer Seminars, Theological
(306 words)
[German Version] Summer seminars are a rediscovered learning model for the education of adults and young people; their history goes back to the
Jugendbewegung in the early 20th century. Theologically trained lay people and specialists come together – usually during the summer break – to work together on current theological issues. Prior to seminars devoted to issues of politics, development, and feminism, the summer programs at the Centro Ecumenico Agape of the Waldenses in Italy have a comparatively long tradition: for some 50 years, the center has been the site of an annual
campo theo…
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Religion Past and Present
Sun
(2,816 words)
[German Version]
I. Religious Studies The sun is omnipresent; in the phenomenal world, it marks and accentuates the course of our chronological and spatial lifeworld. The range of associated structures, interpretations, and ambivalences (light and dark, life-giving and life-consuming) makes it only natural that the sun should acquire religious symbolisms and orientations in many ways and in many areas: (1) orientation in time (annual calendrical cycle, identification of sacral seasons and hours of th…
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Religion Past and Present
Sun Dance (Native American)
(309 words)
[German Version] Performed today by many Native American Indians (II, 2) throughout the Great Plains of North America, the Sun Dance ritual varies from one tribe (Lakota [Blackfoot Indians]) and from one occasion to another but usually begins with the procurement of a tree that is stripped of bark and erected as a pole around which the participants perform. Historically, a bison would be sacrificed, and even today the animal plays a central role in the symbolism of the ceremony. The male dancers d…
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Religion Past and Present
Sunday
(1,697 words)
[German Version]
I. History 1. Sunday (Lat.
dies solis, Ger.
Sonntag, Dutch
zondag, Danish
Søndag) is the second day of the Greco-Roman planetary week, which displaced the original Roman eight-day week in the 2nd century ce. Influenced by the model of the Jewish seven-day week but also by astrological notions from the Near East, it associated the days of the week with the seven known “planets” (including the sun and moon). As Mithraic religion and the cult of
sol invictus (celebrated on Dec 25; introduced by the emperor Aurelian in 274 ce) gained influence, Sunday took on special sign…
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Religion Past and Present
Sunday, Billy
(200 words)
[German Version] (William Ashley; Nov 19, 1862, Ames, IA – Nov 6, 1935, Chicago, IL). Born to a poor family, Graham entered an orphanage soon after his father’s death. At the age of 13, he began to play baseball; in 1883 he was signed by the Chicago White Stockings (National League). In 1886 he became a committed Christian; he began to deliver evangelical sermons during the breaks, soon establishing a reputation as a preacher that eclipsed his reputation as a player. In 1888 he married Helen Thomp…
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Religion Past and Present
Sunday Obligation
(306 words)
[German Version] Since the age of the apostles, the church has transformed the Old Testament commandment of Sabbath observance into a requirement that the faithful participate in a eucharistic celebration on Sunday. This Sunday obligation, like Sunday observance, became one of the so-called precepts of the church. By canon law, every member of the faithful over the age of seven is obligated to participate in a celebration of the Eucharist (in some Catholic rite) on every Sunday and holy day of obl…
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Religion Past and Present
Sunday Observance
(503 words)
[German Version] In Jewish and Christian tradition, observance of a weekly holiday (Holidays) is associated with an injunction to refrain from labor. Unlike other religions, Christianity and Judaism consider interruption and rest – with differing emphasis among the various religious groups – constitutive elements of their identity. Public debate about the modern form of Sunday observance began with industrialization. After various precursors in the 19th century, the struggle of the churches and th…
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Religion Past and Present
Sunday School
(1,424 words)
[German Version]
I. Europe and America Traditionally school and worship have also served to hand on the tradition of the faith to children and to communicate values (Children’s church: I). In the 18th century, the philanthropic English system of charity schools pioneered the Sunday school. Initially, because of child labor, Sunday schools were charity schools held on Sundays (Thomas Stock and R. Raikes). What they taught was based primarily on the catechism and, to a lesser extent, the Bible, using th…
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Religion Past and Present
Sundén, Hjalmar
(169 words)
[German Version] (Nov 28, 1908, Eksjö, Sweden – Dec 30, 1993, Stockholm), the most important Scandinavian pioneer of the psychology of religion in the postwar era. In his “role theory of religion,” he argued that religious experience is the product of appropriating and subsequently activating a religious frame of reference. Religious traditions consist of stories in which deities interact with human beings. Thanks to “phase changes,” familiarity with a religious tradition enables a cognitive restr…
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Religion Past and Present
Sundermann, Wilhelm Heinrich
(186 words)
[German Version] (Oct 29, 1849, Ladbergen – Apr 24, 1919, Göttingen), Protestant missionary and linguist, originally an agriculturalist. Between 1871 and 1875, he was trained at the seminary of the Rhenish Missionary Society in Barmen (United Evangelical Mission); afterwards he served until 1910 as a missionary on the island of Nias off the northwest coast of Sumatra. In 1882 he founded a school for so-called
gurus (missionary teachers) in Dahana. From 1882 to 1902 he served as president of the Nias mission. He engaged in intensive cultural and linguistic stu…
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Religion Past and Present
Sundkler, Bengt
(191 words)
[German Version] (May 7, 1909, Degerfors-Vindeln, Vasterbotte, Sweden – Apr 5, 1995, Uppsala, Sweden), Swedish bishop and Africanist. A Church of Sweden missionary in South Africa (1937–1942) and Tanganyika (1942–1945), and again between 1961 and 1964 as bishop of Bukoba. From 1949 to 1947, he was professor of church and mission history at Uppsala University and editor of the periodical
Svensk Missionstidskrift. He pioneered research on African Independent Churches and the groundwork in the communities. His magnum opus,
A History of the Church in Africa (written together with …
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Religion Past and Present
Sung, John
(103 words)
[German Version] (1901, Putian, Fujian Province, China – Aug 18, 1944, Peking, China), obtained a doctorate in chemistry from Ohio State University and studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He then returned to China and started serving the Methodist Church in Putian in 1927. Since 1931, he began evangelistic campaigns in China, preaching from Shandong, Shanghai Guangzhou, Fuzhou and throughout China. From 1934, he extended his work in Southeast Asia, healing the sick by the laying-on of hands and prayers. Peter Tze Ming Ng Bibliography Works include:
My Testimony, trans.…
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Religion Past and Present
Sunna/Sunnis
(298 words)
[German Version] (Arab.
ahl as-sunna wal-ǧamāʿa, “people of the tradition and community”), collective term for adherents of mainstream Islam (II, 1), embracing some 90% of all Muslims. The term arose to differentiate the Sunnis from earlier sectarian groups and movements. Their characteristic feature is recognition of the tradition or practice (
sunna) of the prophet Muḥammad and the generation of his companions (
ṣaḥāba), initially transmitted orally in a multitude of anecdotal reports (
ḥadīṯ) and then set down in writing, as binding models for the everyday conduct…
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Religion Past and Present
Superintendent, Church
(255 words)
[German Version] (“overseer,” based on a lit. Lat. trans. of Gk ἐπίσκοπος/
epískopos). In Germany a superintendent is the clerical leader of a midlevel church administrative district (or deanery; Church polity: IV, 2) comprising several parishes or congregations. Synonymous titles include dean, provost, district pastor, and chief district pastor. The superintendent is basically a pastor with his own congregation; in addition he is responsible for the life of the church in his district, where he conducts vis…
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Religion Past and Present
Supernatural Birth
(463 words)
[German Version] In myths and legends, the motif of supernatural birth distinguishes deities and saviors who procreate, give birth, and are born supernaturally. Zeus’s potency is a token of his divinity and enables him to beget additional deities. Goddesses sometimes give birth without conception; examples include Hephaestus’s birth from Hera and Gaṇeśa’s birth from Parvati. Paradoxically, virginity (Virgin birth) is associated with goddesses of fertility (Ishtar, Venus). Gods appropriate the bir…
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Religion Past and Present
Superstition
(3,603 words)
[German Version]
I. Religious Studies
1. Terminology. Like the equivalent German term
Aberglaube, the word
superstition is pejorative in tone and so is inherently critical and polemical: to speak of superstition as a perverted belief implies that the speaker is doing so from the perspective of correct belief or knowledge.
2. Semantic history. The normative, judgmental character of the term shaped its semantic history. In ancient Rome,
superstitio was used to describe an exaggerated religious anxiety, just as Greek δεισιδαιμονία/
deisidaimonía meant anxious servility toward …
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Religion Past and Present
Supervision (Professional)
(348 words)
[German Version] The word
supervision in the sense of this article originated in the field of psychosocial work; it denotes a form of professional guidance related to professional practice; its goal is to improve the quality of professional work. Under the guidance of a trained specialist, workers reflect on the psychological, social, and institutional dimensions of their professional activity. There is individual supervision, but also group supervision (Clinical pastoral education) and team supervi…
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Religion Past and Present
Supralapsarianism
(6 words)
[German Version] Ecclesia supplet/Suppletion
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Religion Past and Present
Suprasl Monastery
(132 words)
[German Version] The Monastery of the Annunciation founded c. 1498 in Gródek and moved to Suprasl a few years later is significant for its scriptorium: it and the Kiev Cave Monastery (Kiev, Cave Monastery) were the only monasteries in Poland-Lithuania to have major scriptoria. In 1695 the scriptorium was replaced by a print shop. The richly endowed manuscript collection of Suprasl included an 11th-century manuscript of the Suprasl Codex (
Mineia četia, March Menology; Liturgical books: II), the earliest source of Old Church Slavonic. Destroyed by German troops in 1…
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Religion Past and Present
Supreme Being
(391 words)
[German Version] a term that entered religious studies in the 19th century; rejecting evolutionary theories of all kinds, scholars used it to denote universal supreme deities (or in some cases divine couples) even among peoples with very simple social organizations. Andrew Lang in particular considered belief in a supreme being a basic component of all human religions: polytheism (Monotheism and polytheism), magic, etc. are secondary developments. The primitive monotheism theory of W. Schmidt and…
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Religion Past and Present
Surgant, Johann Ulrich
(296 words)
[German Version] (c. 1450, Altkirch, Alsace – Sep 20, 1503, Basel). After studying at Basel, he moved to Paris in 1468, where he was influenced by J. Heynlin of Stein and his combination of Scholasticism and Humanism. In 1472 he became parish priest of Sankt Theodor in Kleinbasel; in 1479 he was appointed to teach canon law at the University of Basel, where he served four terms as rector. Surgant, Heynlin, S. Brant, J. Wimpfeling, J. Geiler von Kaysersberg were among the outstanding representatives of Upper German and Alsatian Humanism and its understanding of a
reformatio of the church a…
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Religion Past and Present
Surius, Laurentius
(171 words)
[German Version] (Lorenz Sauer; 1523, Lübeck – May 28, 1578, Cologne) first came in contact with the Reformation while studying in Frankfurt an der Oder, thanks to his interest in Humanism and proficiency in ancient languages. But his friendship with P. Canisius after 1537 led to a fascination with Reform Catholicism, which combined his interests in the Reformation, Humanism, and the Early Church. In 1540 he joined the Carthusians in Cologne; in 1543 he was ordained to the priesthood. Efforts towa…
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Religion Past and Present
Surrealism
(787 words)
[German Version] Surrealism is a movement in modern painting and literature that seeks to represent the unconscious and the dreamworld, influenced by the insights of S. Freud’s psychoanalysis. It was an outgrowth of the numerous events staged by the Dadaists: before 1924 most artists of the Paris surrealist group belonged to the provocative satirical Dadaist Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich. Its literary roots were primarily in the works of Arthur Rimbaud, Guillaume Apollinaire, the Comte de Lautréamont…
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Religion Past and Present
Surveys/Polls
(580 words)
[German Version] The history of modern opinion surveys begins with the Gallup Institute in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. Today politics, economics, and culture are inconceivable without such surveys: complex liberal democratic systems driven by a market model need a feedback instrument based on reliable ¶ systemic information to guide decision-making processes. The opinions of individuals are an essential part of such information; within limits, theoretically, these opinions reflect orientations that determine action. The published…
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Religion Past and Present
Survivals
(302 words)
[German Version] In cultural and religious history, the term
survivals denotes the continued presence of cultural elements and mindsets whose original context belongs to the past. Examples include the survival of folk costumes and dances, social and political structures, pre-Christian customs (cults of sacred springs [Water], times, and sacred sites), and ideas of “divine” punishment and reward. E.B. Tylor introduced survivals as a key theoretical concept for interpreting cultural and religious history as a history of progress. He understood survivals…
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Religion Past and Present
Susa
(271 words)
[German Version] (Elamite
šu-šá, šu-šá-an/-in, šu-še-en, šu-šu-un, modern Shush). Susa was founded c. 4200 bce as a ¶ religious and administrative center; it was conspicuous for its superb pottery and the unusual iconography of its seals. Susa played a key role in the development of writing in the second half of the 4th millennium. Over the centuries, it and Anshan (
an-ša-an, an-za-an, present-day Tall-e Malyan), near Persepolis, were the capitals of the Elamite empire, which at the beginning of the 2nd millennium bce embraced all of Mesopotamia along with what are today part…
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Religion Past and Present
Süskind, Friedrich Gottlieb
(184 words)
[German Version] (Feb 17, 1767, Neuenstadt am Kocher – Nov 12, 1829, Stuttgart). In 1795 Gottlieb was appointed deacon in Urach, in 1798 professor of theology in Tübingen. In 1805 he succeeded G.C. Storr as senior court chaplain and consistorial councilor in Stuttgart. As a student of Storr, Süskind together with J.F. and K.C. Flatt were among the preeminent representatives of the early Tübingen School. He intensified the school’s apologetic conflict with the philosophy of I. Kant, J.G. Fichte, an…
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Religion Past and Present
Susman, Margarete
(147 words)
[German Version] (Oct 14, 1872, Hamburg – Jun 6, 1966, Zürich), Jewish author. After publishing several volumes of poetry (
Mein Land, 1901;
Neue Gedichte, 1907), Susman turned to essays, writing for the
Frankfurter Zeitung,
Der Jud
e, and
Der Morgen. Her pioneering literary reviews, including discussions of the work of F. Kafka, were published in 1910 as
Das Wesen der modernen Lyrik. In 1933 she emigrated to Switzerland, where she joined the circle led by the religious socialist L. Ragaz. In
Das Buch Hiob und das Schicksal des jüdischen Volkes (1946) she sought to analyze and come t…
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Religion Past and Present
Suso (Seuse), Heinrich
(426 words)
[German Version] (Mar 21, 1295/1297 in or near Constance – Jan 25, 1366, Ulm), OP, Christian mystic; alongside J. Tauler the most important student of Meister Eckhart, whom he came to know at the
studium generale in Cologne between 1323/1324 and 1326/1327. After returning to his home convent in Constance, he held the office of
lector. At around the age of 40, he experienced a turning point that was to be crucial for his spiritual life: recognizing that all that was necessary for salvation was the suffering sent by God, he discontinued the excessive …
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Religion Past and Present
Suspension
(427 words)
[German Version] The earliest evidence of punitive suspension from performing liturgical functions or any official function dates from the late Roman era. At the close of the 11th century, we find
suspensio ab officio et beneficio (including loss of emoluments); the loss of income represents a reinforcement (
Corpus iuris canonici, Liber extra [X] 2.21.2; X 5.19.7). Suspension from the power of orders alone first appears toward the end of the 12th century (X 5.8.1). In
CIC/1917 suspension appears as both a coercive penalty and an atonement penalty. It is one of three co…
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Religion Past and Present
Sustainability
(258 words)
[German Version] in general means permanence or durability. In an environmental context (Environment/Ecology), the terms
sustainability and
sustainable development are generally used synonymously, although different meanings lie below the surface:
sustainability characterizes a present state (static population size), whereas
sustainable development refers to a process (dynamic flow). The most generally accepted definition of sustainable development appears in the Brundtland report: it is “ . . . development that meets the needs of the…
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Religion Past and Present
Sutel, Johann
(177 words)
[German Version] (1504, Altmorschen, near Melsungen – Aug 26, 1575, Northeim). After receiving a master’s degree at Erfurt, he became rector of the Latin school in Melsungen, for which ordination was not required. In 1530 the city council of Göttingen appointed him pastor of Sankt Nikolai and commissioned him to introduce the Reformation into the city; in 1535 he became superintendent and pastor of the Johanniskirche. Upon his inquiry, Luther advised him against a belated ordination (letter of Mar 1, 1542). In 1542 Philip of ¶ Hesse called him to introduce the Reformation in Schw…
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Religion Past and Present
Sutherland, Graham
(217 words)
[German Version] (Aug 24, 1903, Streatham – Feb 17, 1980, London). As a student at Goldsmith’s School of Art in London, Sutherland was deeply impressed by the etchings of the 19th-century artist S. Palmer. In 1926, the year he joined the Roman Catholic Church, he began to teach engraving at the Chelsea School of Art. He started to paint in the 1930s, inspired by the landscape of Pembrokeshire. His interest at the time in organic forms paralleled that of Paul Nash and H. Moore, with whom he was ass…
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Religion Past and Present
Sūtra
(379 words)
[German Version] (Sanskrit, lit. “thread”; Pāli:
sutta); the word denotes both certain lengthy texts of Indian literature and the minor subunits into which several of them are traditionally divided. In many areas of Indian spiritual life (Hinduism: III, 3; Buddhism: I, 5), the knowledge contained in the
sūtras constitutes the foundation on which the entire tradition builds. Therefore the topics treated in the extant
sūtras are highly diverse. Scientific textbooks like Pāṇini’s
Aṣṭādhyāyī (c. 5th cent. bce), a grammar of Sanskrit, and Piṅgala’s
Chandaḥsūtra (c. 2nd cent, bce), a …
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Religion Past and Present
Suttner, Bertha von
(183 words)
[German Version] (
née Countess Kinsky v. Wchinitz und Tettau; Jun 9, 1843, Prague – Jun 21, 1914, Vienna), novelist and pacifist. From 1876 to 1885, she lived in western Georgia, where she began her pseudonymous literary activity (
Hanna, 1882;
Inventarium einer Seele, 1883). Raised as a Catholic but strongly influenced by theories of social evolution, in 1889 she embodied social criticism and pacifist optimism about the future in her programmatic novel
Die Waffen nieder! (ET:
Lay Down Your Arms, 1894); it was very popular, and she quickly became a central figure in the in…
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Religion Past and Present
Süvern, Johann Wilhelm
(253 words)
[German Version] (Jan 3, 1775, Lemgo – Oct 2, 1829, Berlin). After studying theology and phi-¶ lology in Jena and Halle, Süvern taught in Gymnasiums in Berlin, Thorn (Toruń; 1800), and Elbing (Elbląg; 1803). In 1807 he was appointed professor of “ancient literature” at Königsberg in Prussia (now Kaliningrad in Russia). At the time of the Treaty of Tilsit, alongside J.G. Fichte his “way of understanding antiquity and applying it to national education” (W. Dilthey, 210) gained influence in the Prussian court and …
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Religion Past and Present
Suzuki, Daisetsu Taitarō
(170 words)
[German Version] (D.T.; Nov 11, 1870, Kanazawa – Jul 12, 1966, Tokyo), Japanese Buddhist thinker. Through the influence of his Zen (II) master Shaku Sōen, from 1897 to 1908 Suzuki worked with Paul Carus in the United States translating East Asian religious works (Buddhism: I, 2.f); he returned to Japan in 1909. In 1921 he was appointed profesor of East Asian philosophy at Otani University in Kyoto. He wrote works on Mahāyāna Buddhism and Amitābha. Beginning in 1950, he engaged extensively in lectu…
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Religion Past and Present