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[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Old Testament I. History of Religions The concept of a flood of gigantic proportions that destroys the whole world is attested in many cultures and their religious traditions. The starting-points were ¶ probably locally limited natural events that were stylized as occurrences of cosmic proportions. The following are the most important motifs of flood traditions: 1. An immense flood (often connected with additional phenomena of the force …

[German Version] The term theogony derives from Greek and means literally “the coming-into-being or birth of the gods.” It was shaped by the Theogonia of the early Greek poet Hesiod (c. 700 bce), basically a didactic epic on the initial appearance of the Greek gods and their subsequent genealogy. It has since become customary to use the term theogony cross-culturally for the mythological genealogies of the gods found in many cultures. As a rule, a theogony typically recounts the appearance of the gods as a sequence of gods eit…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies The term substitution, originating in the language of law, is used primarily in Christian theology, but it is well suited for use in religious studies as well, even though so far there has been no detailed systematic treatment of it. In the most general sense, we speak of substitution when the true subject affected or acting (God, an individual like the king, or a collective) is represented by another …

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