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[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Biblical – III. Greco-Roman Antiquity – IV. Judaism – V. Practical theology I. History of Religions 1. Term . Astrology is the functional use of quantitative astronomical observations and calculations in the service of a qualitative cosmic and anthropological interpretation of the heavens. Inasmuch as the first of these two elements has not yet been, or is minimally, developed, it is better to speak of astral mythology (there has never been a formal “astral religion”). Astral mythology is the origin, which cannot be located chronologically or geographically, and the common factor of all astrologies down even to the present, in which various remythologizing tendencies are at work. It proceeds from the interconnection of all things and from a related way of thinking based on analogy, which is also favorable to magical concepts. From time immemorial, heavenly phenomena, including meteorological and astral ones, have captivated humans…

[German Version] I. Ancient Near East and Old Testament – II. Greco-Roman World and the New Testament – III. Early Church I. Ancient Near East and Old Testament The starry heavens were the object of enthusiastic study in the ancient Near East from earliest times. This is ¶ associated with the importance of the star cycles for the c…

[German Version] The noun composites “macrocosm” and “microcosm” are not attested in antiquity, but Democritus (frgm. 34 with parr.) describes the human being as μικρός κόσμος/ mikrós kósmos. The notion of macrocosm and microcosm establishes a correlation between the spatial structures of the as…

[German Version] I. Greek and Roman Antiquity – II. Practical Theology – III. Islam– I. Greek and Roman Antiquity ʿΩροσκόπος/ hōroskópos “the watc…