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[German Version] I. Early Judaism The Septuagint uses προσήλυτοι/ prosḗ lytoi, literally “those who have come over,” to translate Hebrew גֵּר/ gēr (“resident alien” [Stranger: II] in the land of Israel, enjoying a special legal status). Toward the end of the ¶ second temple period, proselyte came to denote primarily a convert to Judaism (e.g. Jos. Apion. II 28), with almost the same rights in the Jewish community as someone born a Jew. In early Judaism, three conditions for conversion (VIII) to Judaism were laid down: offering sacrifice (dropped af…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies and History of Philosophy The dogmatic definition of the Holy Spirit as a person within the one divine substance (Trinity/Doctrine of the Trinity) presupposes not only a particular philosophical context but also a religio-historical horizon. A formative influence on the conceptualization of the Holy Spirit was exercised by the various anthropomorphic interpretations of elemental anthropological or normative qualities in the context of polytheistic interpretations of …

[German Version] (DHM). An initiative undertaken around 1705 by the Danish King Frederick IV (1671–1730) under the influence of his court chaplain, Franz Julius Lütkens (1650–1712), who was, in turn, inspired by P.J. Spener, later became the Dänisch-Hallesche Mission, after A.H. Francke had abandoned his initial reticence to cooperate. It initiated Protestant …

[German Version] (properly Deutsche Evangelische Missionskonferenzen; analogous institutions in Catholicism or outside Germany are not in evidence) does not refer to events devoted to mission, but to the organized regional association of pastors, later also of church laity, for the primary purpose of the scholarly/theological support of missionary concerns within the Protestant regional churches. Founded in 1879 by G. Warneck in Halle, such groups arose gradually throughout Germany and united in 1…

[German Version] (Jan 22, 1711, Kleeberg – Jan 23, 1791, Chennai, India), missionary and the most important translator of the Danish-Halle Mission in Tranquebar. Upon reading the Hallesche Berichte [Halle reports], Fabricius, who had just finished his examinations in jurisprudence, was prompted to study theology in Halle and to go to India (1740). The enduring contribution of his 50 years in Madras (today: Chennai) (overshadowed from 1778 onwards by temporary dismissal and imprisonment for bankruptcy) was his edition of th…

[German Version] (Neukirchener Mission; Evangelische Gesellschaft für Deutschland). Founded in 1882 by the Reformed pastor Ludwig Doll (1846–1883) with the support of free Protestant communities and circles of the Evangelical Alliance, the mission house in Neukirchen on the Lower Rhine was established as a “faith ministry,” following the example of G.F. Müller, and acquired its distinctive profile under Julius Stursberg (1857–1909); it became a registered association in 1907. Although the guidelin…

[German Version] I. Philosophy of Religion Even prior to the age of Greek philosophy, riches, honor, power, health, longevity, etc. were considered the epitome of well-being, “bliss” or “salvation” (Ger. Heil). For centuries well-being was treated as synonymous with happiness (Gk eudaimonía, Lat. felicitas, beatitudo). Today the term happiness usually excludes the transcendent dimension, and salvation is generally used without an immanent sense. For Democritus individual salvation was grounded in the human soul and its attitude, the first time philo…

[German Version] The LKM was founded on Jun 14, 1892, by synodical resolution of the Hannoversche evangelisch-lutherische Freikirche (today: Selbständige Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche, SELK; Lutherans: II), as a secessionist initiative from the Hermannsburg Mission, with which many of its supporters were previously associated. Its motto was typical of the confessional attitude: “A Lutheran Church can only conduct Lutheran mission, and Lutheran mission can only be conducted by a Lutheran Church.” …

[German Version] is (a) a blanket term for Christian efforts to care for the human beings suffering from leprosy in overseas countries, especially from the 19th century onward, and (b) a designation used of the Mission to Lepers (today: Leprosy Mission International, London), a relief organization founded by the Irish Protestant W.C. Bailey in 1874/1878. Christoffer H. Grundmann Bibliography A.D. Miller, An Inn Called Wellcome, 1965 R. Brown, “Leprosy and the Church,” NCE VIII, 1967, 670 – 672 S.G. Browne, “The Christian Contribution to Leprosy and Tuberculosis,” in: idem, ed., Heral…

[German Version] Mission societies are the most frequently used organizational and legal entity for collective promotion and implementation of Christian mission. As such they have typified missionary activity (primarily Protestant) since the 19th century; through processes of consolidation and integration into institutional church structures, some of them have since become missionary agencies of churches. In 1644 J. v. Welz issued an unheeded call to establish a “society through which … our Protestant religion might be spread,” modeled on the work …

[German Version] The expression revival movement, like the German Erweckungsbewegung (coined by Halle Pietists), has become the standard term for a group of religious movements that have put their stamp on European and North American Protestantisms as well as a few Catholic milieus (see also Confessional milieus) with varying intensity since the early 18th century. The Pietists interpreted revival as an ongoing attempt to arouse Christians from religious lethargy to engage them in a strict, biblically-ba…

[German Version] ( Jun 18, 1804, Framingham, MA – Jan 10, 1888, Washington, DC), eminent American ¶ missionary and physician, who also served from 1855 to 1857 as official representative of the United States in China. After studying theology and medicine at Yale in New Haven, he became a Presbyterian minister; in 1834 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions sent him to China. In 1835 he opened a hospital in Canton (Guangzhou), which met with unexpected popularity among the Chinese and thus came…

[German Version] The Marburg Mission (now: Stiftung Marburger Mission) is the legal successor to the Vandsburg Mission (Vandsburger Mission GmbH; 1937–1951), which grew out of the revival movement (Revival/Revival movements) in West Prussia (Theophil Krawielitzki, 1866–1942). The Vandsburg Mission itself had inherited the Yunnan Mission, established in 1928 as a product of cooperation with the China Inland Mission since 1909. It is a member of the Deutscher Gemeinschafts-Diakonieverband (DGD), of …

[German Version] I. Terminology – II. History – III. Structure – IV. Theology I. Terminology The phrase medical missions became established in the mid-19th century. Initially it was used only for particular sites (hospitals, infirmaries, dispensaries), at home or abroad, where philanthropically minded doctors, nurses, or pharmacists with explicitly Christian concerns worked as “medical missionaries.” The singular medical mission came to be used for the evolving concept behind medical missions; it developed over the course of time but never achieved…

[German Version] (orig. Jenjk; Jul 6, 1748, Berlin – Jul 21, 1827, Berlin) was the founder of the first German missions seminar and one of the leading minds in the Berlin Awakening movement (Revival/Revival movements: I). As the son of Bohemian Protestants admitted to Prussia, the weaver by trade experienced ¶ conversion in Münsterberg, Silesia, and studied theology in Leipzig (1774–1777). After working as a teacher in Barby (1777/1778) and his Lutheran ordination (Jun 25, 1779), he became a preacher in the Bohemian church in Berlin and Rixdorf,…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Systematic Theology – III. Liturgical Importance – IV. Missiology – V. Ecumenical Importance I. Religious Studies While the concept of inculturation is on the point of becoming a standard term in missiology (see IV below), the field of religious studies uses it to refer to the fundamental cultural-hermeneutical problem of determining a significant difference between culture and religion, this being a particularly relevant issue for the articulation of identity in the co…

[German Version] (Sep 10, 1867, Huntingdon, PA – Nov 23, 1947, Bryn Mawr, PA), defining figure in American missionary work of his time. Influenced by D.L. Moody, he became active in the Student Volunteer Movement; in 1891, just as he was beginning his theological studies, he was appointed secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, with which he remained associated for over 50 years until his retirement in 1937. Missiologically close to R. Anderson, he was a prolific author and much i…

[German Version] from French colportage (“peddling”), refers to a particular method of spreading the Bible and other religious texts through the sale of inexpensive Bibles from door to door by (mostly Protestant) colporteurs, often at great personal sacrifice. The first colportage societies were founded in Scotland (Edinburgh Tract Society, 1796) and England (Religious Tract ¶ Society, 1799; British and Foreign Bible Society, 1804), followed by Germany (i.a. Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1804; Württembergische Bibelanstalt, 1812; Wuppert…

[German Version] I. Denominations: Lutheran Churches in History – II. Lutheran Churches Today – III. Statistical Survey – IV. Missions – V. Ecumenism I. Denominations: Lutheran Churches in History 1. General Lutheranism denotes that portion of Christianity that traces its historical and theological origin to the Reformation of Martin Luther and uses his works as its theological foundation. The Latin terms Lutherani and Lutheranismus were coined originally by Roman Catholic opponents of the Reformation movement in order to identify it as heretical (firs…

[German Version] is the name (Christiania/Christina) of a pilgrim to Rome canonized in 1504. Her grave, surrounded by a chapel on Dinkelberg near Basel, demon¶ strable since the early Middle Ages, was a pilgrimage destination until the Reformation; today it is the seat and center of the “Pilgrim Mission of St. Chrischona,” founded, along with many institutions different in character, in 1840 by the then secretary of the Deutsche Christentums gesellschaft (German Christianity Society) in Basel…