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[German Version] represents (in comparative religion) the concept that a “counterpart to the self” is assigned to a person in the extra-human sphere. Often, it is imagined that a kind of soul parts from persons and takes form in animals, plants, etc., or else can seek a “dwelling” – temporarily or permanently. Other concepts grow out of the notion that an alter ego exists in the uncontrollable environment with which one is fatefully linked (nagualism). The concept can also be integrated into theistic systems (alter ego as guardian angel, etc.). Fritz Stolz Bibliography Bibl.: Soul.

[German Version] I. Concept and Theories – II. Religious Studies – III. Ethics I. Concept and Theories Frustration is a common term in everyday use. As a rule, the phenomenon is identified by its symptoms: people feel reluctant and listless, their customary demeanor disturbed because a frustrating experience has had a sustained effect on the way they feel and think. This may lead to resignation and feelings of paralysis. People feel restricted in some of their actions. In terms of scientific behavioral resear…

[German Version] Human behavioral patterns are influenced by cultural norms, not biologically determined. To this extent there exists in every culture a (broader or narrower, dependent on the culture) range of “normal” behavior and a corresponding way of dealing with behavior that deviates from this norm. Both the determination of what is normal and the way of dealing with deviant behavior are relevant to religion: deities have created or guaranteed the order of life and of the world and they are involved in dealing with deviations. The treatment of deviations can be roughly divi…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Ethics – III. Islam I. Religious Studies The notion that birth can be understood, not as a “natural” but a “cultural” process includes, among other things, what we today call birth control. Whether and how a child is accepted into the framework of human society is, thus, not least the object of a – both socially (or religiously) and individually determined…

[German Version] I. Comparative Religion – II. Liturgy I. Comparative Religion Individual cultures perceive colors and assign religious values to them in very different ways. A distinction is often made between colors and “non-colors”: white and black represent non-life (death, transitions in general), and are therefore regarded as the colors of mourning, but also of weddings and feasts, and this not only in Europe. Red is often associated with blood, and accordingly also with…

[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Judaism – V. Christianity I. History of Religions Immediate and comprehensive solidarity appertains only in the most elementary form of human society (in the “family,” which can be variously structured according to culture); all other forms of solidarity are “artificial,” determined by more or less explicit rules; one can subsume this under the term “covenant,” in which the purposes, realms of social…

[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 …

[German Version] Because of the biological nature of human beings, sexual intercourse is the goal of a fundamental drive (Drive theory); at the same time, it is influenced by precise cultural rules. The biological unity of pleasure and procreation is often dissolved: the pursuit of pleasure is diverted into art or commerce (with various religious and cultural assessments); occasionally procreation is defined as the only religiously legitimate purpose of intercourse (as is still true in Catholicism…

[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Classical Antiquity – III. Bible– IV. Church History – V. Systematics – VI. Practical Exegesis– VII. Religious Art I. History of Religions Allegory (from Gk ἀλληγορέω/ allēgoreō, “say something other [than the literal meaning]”), is a hermeneutical technique (Hermeneutics). The moment a religious message becomes fixed (esp. in writing), a need for interpretation arises. One way to meet this need is t…

[German Version] Human birth – like death – is not regarded as a “natural” phenomenon in any human society; it is ¶ an event that is treated and processed culturally (and religiously). It is important to distinguish between the actions that shape birth (as well as the pregnancy preceding it and the phase immediately following) and the ideas that accompany these actions. The actions have both a functional and a symbolic aspect. There are often certain things that pregnant women must avoid; when they give birth, …