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[German Version] (born Degen; 1511, Schorndorf – May 9, 1587, Tübingen), professor of philosophy at Tübingen from 1536, also professor of medicine there from 1543; he was superintendent and several times rector of the Tübingen Stift; he lost his sight in 1577. His commentaries on Aristotle’s logic and physics represented the (non-Scholastic and anti-Ramist) reform of ¶ Aristotelian topics and theory of proof in logic and were closely associated with scientific advances in Italy in physics. His theological significance rests on…

[German Version] ( Jan 1, 1655, Leipzig – Sep 23, 1728, Halle), was a prominent philosopher of law during the early German Enlightenment. Born into a Lutheran family of scholars (father Jakob Thomasius), Christian Thomasius studied philosophy in Leipzig from 1669 onward; from 1672 onward, after having read the works of H. Grotius and S. Pufendorf, he studied jurisprudence in Frankfurt an der Oder (Samuel Stryk), where he was awarded a doctoral degree in 1679. Enjoying little success as a lawyer, T…

[German Version] (Nov 30, 1702, Zell am Main – Dec 19/20, 1749, Wolfenbüttel), translator of the so-called Wertheim Bible. The son of a clergyman, Schmidt studied philosophy and theology at Jena (with J.F. Buddeus) and was appointed tutor to the comital (i.e. Protestant) House of Löwenstein-Wertheim. In this position he worked on a Bible translation, t…

[German Version] (c. 1538, Halle/Saale – Nov 30, 1611, Wolfenbüttel), Lutheran theologian. Hoffmann was appointed professor of philosophy in H…

[German Version] (Hutterus; Jan 1563, Nellingen near Ulm – Oct 23, 1616, Wittenberg), after studying the arts and theology in Strasbourg (M.A. 1583), Heidelberg and Jena, he received the Dr.theol. in Leipzig (1593) and became professor of theology in Wittenberg (1596) alongside P. Leyser, Sr. and A. Hunn (Hunnius). Like them, Hütter was a policy advocate and theological interpreter of the Formula of Concord: as orthodox scriptural exegesis, it was the result, as was the Augsburg Confession ( Analysis, 1594), of the work of the Holy Spirit ( Libri Christianae Concordiae … explicatio, 16…

[German Version] (Jun 4, 1753, Frankfurt am Main – Feb 17, 1826, Jena), Protestant theologian, became professor of OT at Altdorf in 1785, and at Jena in 1804, where he had studied OT and NT exegesis from 1772 to 1778 with J.G. Eichhorn and J.J. Griesbach. Linked with theological neology (Enlightenment: II, 4.c), but not a rationalist, Gabler successfully developed the program (Mar 30, 1787) for the methodological separation of a “biblical theology” set apart from variable dogmatics by historical e…

[German Version] (Jan 1, 1901, Etzelwang – Oct 26, 1997, Erlangen). A disciple of F. Brunstäd (Dr.phil. 1923) an…

[German Version] (Oct 1, 1589, Cölln an der Spree – Aug 19[?], 1634, Berlin) was rector of the Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster in Berlin from 1618 onward. As a philosophical author he professed the Wittenberg Aristotelianism of his teacher J. Martini in Logik (1626) and …

[German Version] (Dec 6, 1589, Armsfeld, Waldeck – Nov 10, 1653, Dortmund), Lutheran philosopher and theologian. In 1610 he was appointed professor of Greek, logic, and metaphysics at Gießen and served as rector. In 1625 he was appointed superintendent and gymnasiarch in Dortmund. A prolific writer, Scheibler gave Lutheran Scholastic Aristotelianism a distinctive character vis-à-vis Wittenberg (J. Martini): in its more didactic logic, which included Ramist motifs ( Opus logicum, 1613), and in its metaphysics, which was oriented sapientially as well as ontological…

[German Version] ( Jan 5, 1548, Granada – Sep 25, 1617, Lisbon), SJ, leading theologian, philosopher, and legal theorist of Spanish Scholasticism. Suárez studied in Salamanca. Initially rejected for lack of aptitude, he was accepted into the Jesuits in 1564. In 1571 he began teaching philosophy in Segovia; after 1574 he taught theology in Valladolid, Segovia, and Alcalá. In 1580 he began teaching at the Collegium Romanum in Rome. In 1585 sickness forced him to return to Alcalá, where he succeeded …

[German Version] (Hornejus, Horn; Nov 25, 1590, Braunschweig – Sep 26…

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[German Version] (Aug 13, 1617, Quedlinburg – May 22, 1688, Wittenberg). After the death of his uncle, J. Gerhard, this scion of a patrician family was forced by war to study in nearby Helmstedt ¶ (G. Calixtus, K. Horneius); in 1644, however, he did go to Wittenberg (W. Leyser, J. Hülsemann), where…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Dogmatics – III. Philosophy of Religion I. Religious Studies R. Otto used the concept of the demonic in close association with the concept of the numinous, which occupied the center of his theory of religion. The essence of the numinous includes the element of the tremendum, the unnerving or unsettling element corresponding on the human side to numinous or religious awe – whose “preliminary stage” according to Otto is demonic awe ( Das Heilige, ch. 4.a). This understanding corresponds to a similar un…

[German Version] I. New Testament – II. Dogma and the History of Dogma – III. Art History …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies Experience is a process occurring directly in the conscious mind, whereby the perceiving subject and internal as well as external ob…

[German Version] I. Philosophy of Religion The phenomenon of unio mystica within mysticism is of interest to the philosophy of religion because recent analytical approaches in religious studies and the psychology of religion permit a more precise assessment of the philosophical issues involved, and also because it brings to light (so much better) a philosophically discussable connection between religious behavior or experience and rational cognition (Epistemology). Although the term itself is not always used, the cognizing individual’s experience or pursuit of union with the quintessence of what is cognizable, the divine or the One, has been an aspect of philosophical tradition since Plato, Neoplatonic-Christian mysticism (esp. in Late Antiquity: Pseudo-Dionysius Areopagita), and the early modern period. It is significant to ph…

[German Version] I. New Testament – II. Church History – III. Theology I. New Testament 1. The term ἀντίχριστος appears in Christian literature only in 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7, and, dependent on these texts, Pol. Phil 7:1. There it refers to someone who turns against Christ and the confession of Christ, not – as would be linguistically possible – someone who seeks to take the place of Christ; in context, it refers to theological opponents collectively. The neologism introduced by the Johannine School already presupposes a developed Christology. The background tradition spoke of a figure that would better be referred to neutrally as an “eschatological antagonist.”…

[German Version] I. History of Religion – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Dogmatics and Ethics – V. Politics and Jurisprudence I. History of Religion Laws are generally regarded as formulated, i.e. sentential and often codified rules of life and coexistence; this ¶ refers especially to principles of nature (Law/Natural law) and norms of action (Commandment, Ethics). For the modern age, the validity of natural laws arises from hypothetical laws that have been verified through observation and experiments, and have thereby been proven or justified. Following a scholarly consensus, natural laws are acknowledged as factual statements of reality. In antiquity and the Middle Ages as well as still in many cultures, however, natural laws such as the change of seasons or the movements of the celestial bodies were also conceived of as divine commandments. Both positions can be brought together in a synthesis if it is assume…

[German Version] I. Philosophy - II. Dogmatics - III. Ethics …