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[German Version] The adjective numinous and its nominalized form the numinous were introduced into the phenomenology of religion by R. Otto in his book Das Heilige. It is derived from Latin numen (“divine will/activity/being”), translated by Otto himself as “supernatural being without a more precise concept”). In subsequent literature based on Otto’s work, the Latinized form numinosum came into widespread use, but Otto himself never used it. In Otto’s work, the concept of the numinous functions as a qualifier of the holy, to distinguish it from the use of holy in liberal theology. I…

[German Version] 1. Gustav (Mar 6, 1834, Naumburg – Dec 26, 1910, Halle). As the first occupant of a chair of mis…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Christianity – III. Judaism – IV. Buddhism – V. Islam …

[German Version] From 1971 to 1996, the Vereinigte Evangelische (Rheinische) Mission was a missionary society with its headquarters in Wuppertal, the result of a merger of the Rheinische Mission (founded in 1828 as a union of missionary societies in Barmen, Elberfeld, and Cologne) and the Bethel Mission (founded in 1886). The Zaire Mission joined in 1978. In 1996 the United Evangelical Mission was restructured as a “fellowship of churches in three continents,” under the name United Evangelical Mission (Vereinte …

[German Version] I. Terminology The word syncretism in its broadest sense denotes any blend or combination of diverse cultural phenomena. This usage derives from an apparently reasonable but false etymology: syncretism is commonly derived from the Greek verb συνκεράννυμι/ synkeránnymi, “mix.” In fact, however, it is a ne…

[German Version] I. Geography Greek Συρία/ Syría is an abbreviated form of ’Ασσυρία/ Assyría (“Assyria”); Greek and Latin manuscripts often use the two terms indiscriminately. Initially Syría, corresponding to the Persian satrapy of ʿEbar-naharā, denoted the region between Egypt and Asia Minor, including the area east of the Euphrates, which was called M…

[German Version] (Feb 19, 1862, Grossballerstedt near Osterburg – Mar 28, 1940, Berlin), received his schooling in the Francke Foundations in Halle. He studied theology in Leipzig and Berlin. From 1887 to 1912 he was pastor in Pröttlin near Lenzen, Rheinsberg, and Schwanebeck near Belzig. During this period, he began his extensive writings in the …

[German Version] I. Fundamental Theology – II. Ethics and Practical Theology I. Fundamental Theology “Contextuality” denotes a set of circumstances that became a theological issue in the wake of contextual theology, though it is of fundamental relevance to any theology. The concept arose from the fact that Christian theology …

[German Version] Historically, erudition became obvious with the first systems of writing (Paleography: I; II, 3) in Mesopotamia and Egypt (late 4th mill. bce). Writing systems made it possible to identify a particular learned class that, for its part, was basic to the development of high cultures. Erudition was cultivated in temple schools and applied by priests and royal officials (Library: I), resulting in an overlap of religious and secular interests. The erudition of the 3rd millennium bce mainly involved listing individual facts and putting …

[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 repre…

[German Version] The expression mysterium tremendum was introduced by R. Otto as a basic concept in phenomenology of religion; the author translated it as schauervolles Geheimnis, “terrible mystery.” The concept forms part of a description of how the numinous can be experienced by the religious feeling of the human subject. Otto presupposed that religion (with F.D.E. Schleiermacher essentially defined as feeling) can be described not only within human subjectivity, but also in relation to an “object outside myself,” from which it derives its primary stirring of feelings (cf. Feeling: II; III). Hence, …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies The concept of a primeval or primordial history (Ger. Urgeschichte), as used in scholarly discourse, starts with the biblical text of Gen 1–11, but may be transferred to other contexts in religious studies. However, this makes sense only where identity-forming narratives proceed on a chronological basis (History/Concepts of history) in their notions of time, and where they are guided by the idea of a special quality in the origin of the world and/or their own soci…

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[German Version] I. Church History 1. Germany and Europe a. Definition. Pietism was a religious revival movement in late 17th- and 18th-century Protestantism (I, 1), alongside Anglo-Saxon Puritanism (Puritans) the most significant post-Reformation religious movement. Emerging within both the Lutheran and the Reformed churches, Pietism broke with orthodox Protestantism regulated by the authorities, which it perceived as a moribund Christianity of habit, pressed for an individualized and spiritualized rel…

[German Version] I. Philosophy and Religious Studies – II. Christianity – III. Practical Theology – IV. Church Law – V. Judaism – VI. Islam…

The Historical Jesus 1. Jesus was a Jewish preacher and healer appearing in Galilee (in today's Israel), especially in the region of Lake Gennesaret. His biography is visible only sketchily behind the religious reception of his activity, which reception forms the content of the four “Gospels” (writings of the Christian Canon) and related sources. That Jesus was born shortly before the death of King Herod the Great (4 BCE) may be a historically accurate approximation. His father and he were building artisans. The fat…

Geographical Breadth and Organization 1. Together with Judaism and Islam, Christianity belongs to the scriptural religions ( Monotheism), whose common origin is in the Near East. With a membership of almost one-third of the world population, it is the most widespread of individual religions. Its greatest dynamism within contemporary culture is in South, Central, and North America. There are Christian majorities in many lands of sub-Saharan Africa, on the western rim of the Pacific between Australi…

Era 1: Cultural transgr…

[English Version] I. Zum Begriff Das Wort »S.« in seiner weitesten Bedeutung bez. jede Verbindung oder Mischung verschiedener kultureller Phänomene. Diese Verwendung erklärt sich aus der scheinbar naheliegenden, falschen Etym.: »S.« ist meistens von dem griech. Verbum συn̆κερα´n̆n̆υμι/synkeránnymi, »mischen«, abgeleitet worden. Tatsächlich handelt es sich aber um eine Wortschöpfung Plutarchs (mor. 490b), der das Verhalten der Kreter, die sich gegenüber äußeren Feinden zusammenschließen, als »synkretismos« bez. Durch E…

[English Version] . Das Adj. »numinos« (n.) und sein substantivischer Gebrauch »das Numinose« (N., bei der ersten Verwendung zunächst »numinös«/»das Numinöse«) wurden von R. Otto in seinem Werk »Das Heilige« als religionsphänomenologische Begriffe geprägt, abgeleitet aus lat. »numen« (göttlicher Wille, göttliches Wirken, göttliches Wesen; von Otto selbst übertragen als »übernatürliches Wesen noch ohne genauere Vorstellung«). In der Otto rezipierenden Lit. ist auch eine latinisierende Form »numinosum« weit verbreitet, die Otto selbst jedoch nicht verwendet hat. Bei Otto…

[English Version] I. Religionswissenschaftlich Das Konzept einer U., wie es im wiss. Diskurs verwendet wird, ist am bibl. Text Gen 1–11 ausgerichtet, läßt sich aber auch auf andere Zusammenhänge der Religionsgesch. übertragen. Sinnvoll ist dies jedoch nur, wo identitätsstiftende Erzählungen in ihren Zeitvorstellungen (Zeit) grundsätzlich geschichtsförmig sind (Geschichte/Geschichtsauffassung) und wo sie von der Vorstellung geleitet sind, daß dem Ursprung der Welt und/oder der eigenen (Abstammungs-…

[English Version] (VEM). 1971 bis 1996 Name einer ev. Missionsgesellschaft mit Sitz in Wuppertal, gebildet aus dem Zusammenschluß der Rheinischen Mission (gegründet 1828 aus Missionsgesellschaften in Barmen, Elberfeld und Köln) und der Bethel-Mission (gegründet 1886). 1978 Beitritt der Zaire-Mission. 1996 umstrukturiert zu einer »Gemeinschaft von Kirchen in drei Erdteilen« unter dem Namen Vereinte Ev. Mission (United Evangelical Mission). Gleichberechtigt a…

[English Version] Richter, Julius (19.2.1862 Großballerstedt bei Osterburg – 28.3.1940 Berlin). Schulausbildung in den Franckeschen Stiftungen (Halle), Studium der Theol. in Leipzig und Berlin, 1887–1912 Pfarrämter in Pröttlin bei Lenzen, Rheinsberg und Schwanebeck bei Belzig. Währenddessen begann R. bereits seine umfangreiche missionswiss. Publikationstätigkeit. 1908 wurde er Ehrendoktor der Theol. Fakultät Berlin, 1910 der Theol. Fakultät Edinburgh. 1913 habilitierte er sich, wurde 1914 a.o. und …

[English Version] I. Kirchengeschichtlich 1.  Deutschland und Europa a)  Definition Der P. ist eine rel. Erneuerungsbewegung im Protestantismus  (: I.,1.) des späten 17.Jh. und des 18.Jh., neben dem angelsächsische…

[English Version] I. Geographie Griech. Συρι´α/Syría entstand als verkürzte Bildung zu ᾿Ασσυρι´α/Assyría (Assyrien); in der griech. und lat. hschr. Überlieferung werden beide Landschaftsbez. z.T. promiscue verwendet. Syría bez. zunächst, der pers. Satrapie ʿEbar-naharā entsprechend, das Gebiet zw. Ägypten und Kleinasien un…

[English Version] 1.  Gustav , (6.3.1834 Naumburg – 26.12.1910 Halle), gab der dt. Missionswissenschaft als erster Inhaber einer Professur ihr grundlegendes Profil. Währe…