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[German Version] The received text (T, first attested by Pirmin, Scarapsus §§10/12/28) of the creed known in the modern period as the Symbolum apostolicum or Symbolum Apostolorum goes back to the so-called Old Roman creed (R). The great majority of scholars accept the hypothesis of J. Ussher, archbishop of Armagh (1647), that R is first attested in Greek in Marcellus of Ancyra (Epiphanius, Haer. 72.3.1 = BSGR §17) or in the Psalter of Aethelstan (§18); the Latin text can be reconstructed from Rufinus's Explanatio symboli (§19). From 1910–1916 onward,…

[German Version] The monastic theologians and bishops, Basil the Great, his brother Gregory of Nyssa and their friend Gregory of Nazianzus came from the province of Cappadocia in Asia Minor and spent most of their lives there. For this reason, they are often referred to by modern historians and theologians as “the three great Cappadocians.” A cousin of Gregory of Nazianzus and colleague of Basil, Amphilochius of Iconium, is sometimes added to their number. The t…

[German Version] officiated from about 351 as bishop of Milan. On account of his bold stance at the synod held there in 355 (Homoeans), Constantius II banished him to Armenia together with Eusebius of Vercelli and Lucifer of Cagliari; he died there. Perhaps still in the 4th century, his remains were brought back to Milan, though certainly not under his second successor Ambrose of Milan, as a secondary passage in a let-¶ ter of Basil the Great would seem to want to suggest (Bas. Ep. 197.2; cf. BHL 2168–2170). Christoph Markschies Bibliography S. Cavallin, “Die Legendenbildung um den Mai…

[German Version] Traditional terminology in the history of dogma and theology distinguishes between “Dynamic” and a “Modalist” Monarchianism. It thereby subsumes under a common generic term (although see A. v. Harnack) the groups that energetically combatted the Logos theology (Logos) and the doctrine of a plurality of divine hypostases (Hypostasis; in e.g. …

[German Version] Ptolemy worked in Rome as a freelance Christian teacher around the middle of the 2nd century; he was active in the “school” of the Roman teacher Valentinus (Iren. Haer. I prol. 2), possibly because he was a personal disciple of Valentinus. Only one text survives that can be ascribed to Ptolemy with assurance: an instructional epistle to the Roman matron Flora, preserved by Epiphanius of Salamis ( Haer. 33.3–7). The epistle deals with biblical interpretation, the Old Testament law, and the theory of principles. A brief discussion of Valentinian Gn…

[German Version] I. Person – II. Art History I. Person (c. 347, Stridon – 419/420, Bethlehem). Jerome was from a landowning Christian family. After an excellent education in grammar and rhetoric in Rome, Jerome went to Trier in the mid-360s. There he became acquainted withmonasticism (II) and rejected a secular career. He spent the following years in upper Italy. Probably at the beginning of the 370s, he undertook a pilgrimage to the holy sites in the East. However, an illness forced him to stop in Antioch. After recovering, he set out into the “wilderness of Chalcis.” Jerome stylized ¶ th…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Church History – III. Survey of the Christian Confessions – IV. Systematic Theology I. Religious Studies For an overview of Christianity at the end of the second millennium of its development, it is reasonable to give a comparative presentation against the background of the world of religion. It must be remembered, however, that “religion” is not an immutable, ahistorical quantity: it is variable and controversial. The modern concept of religion is …

[German Version] I. Concept, Presuppositions – II. Development – III. Middle Eastern Church History and Historiography – IV. Religious Education I. Concept, Presuppositions 1. Concept The concept of church history has not yet been studied sufficiently, but it is already clear that since antiquity extraordinarily different conceptions of Christian historiography have been in simultaneous competition over the interpretation of past, present, and future. Often the different methodological option…

[German Version] I. Old Testament and Judaism – II. Christianity – III. Islam I. Old Testament and Judaism 1. Only in three passages does the Old Testament speak of humankind's being made in the image of God (collective use of הָ]אָדָם]/[ hā] ʾādām in Gen 1; cf. Gen 1:27: male and female): in the relationship between God and human beings in Gen 1:26f. and 9:6, and in the relationship between human beings in Gen 5:1, 3 (all P). Substantially the same idea is conveyed in Ps 8:6–9*; for later treatment of the theme, Sir 17:3–7 and Wis 2…

[German Version] (Jul 31, 1788, Merseburg – May 31, 1843, Jena) studied classical philology and theology in Leipzig. After completing his habilitation in 1809 in the philosophical faculty there, he became associate professor of theology in 1812 and full professor of theology in 1817 in Jena. Baumgarten's erudition is demonstrated by his numerous articles on ancient philology and church h…

[German Version] Together with Montanus, the three women belong to the principal prophetic personalities of what later came to be known as the Montanism of Asia Minor. The variant name form “Prisca” is also attested for Priscilla in the writings of Tertullian. Seven of their prophetic logia have been preserved (nos. 5–11, Heine). Quintilla may well have belonged to a second generation of prophetesses, as her name is not explicitly mentioned in the earliest sources (cf. however Eus. Hist. eccl. V 18.6). How the exact hierarchical and institutional relationship of the origin…

[German Version] (Oct 25, 1800, St.-Fluor, Département Cantal – Oct 24, 1875, Paris), son of a merchant, began his theological studies in 1817 at the theological college in Orléans, where he soon became prefect of studies and later a lecturer. In 1824 he was ordained to the priesthood. From 1833 he worked as a journalist in Paris; with the support of patrons, he founded several journals that attracted great attention but had to be discontinued for financial reasons. In 1836 he turned to publishing…

[German Version] I. Terminology Ecumenical discussion (Ecumenicalism), in particular, assumes that the term “apostolic succession” refers to an original and clearly defined characteristic of the church office. However, the notion that the notae ecclesiae indicate an unbroken chain, going back to the apostles, of officeholders who have each come into office through the laying-on of hands by another legitimate officeholder, appeared only relatively late and is not the original meaning of the underlying Greek and Latin semantic field. The Greek and Latin terms διαδοχή/ diadochḗ/…

[German Version] I. History of the Term The development and spread of the term will go hand in hand with the history of Christian theology. Classical Greek had no single, distinct term like will denoting an independent mental faculty. The voluntative dimension was contained in the terms used for rational deliberation, decision-making, willingness, and non-rational desire. For Aristotleβουλή/ boulḗ is conation (Striving) that ensues after deliberation and hence is guided by reason based on knowledge ( De anima III 10, 433a ¶ 20–23). In the Bible, especially in Paul, the phenom…

[German Version] (c. 1081, Argenteuil – 1151, St.-Denis), was born to a wealthy family; c. 1091 he became an oblate in the royal Frankish abbey of St.-Denis before the gates of Paris. In 1101 he took his solemn vows; in 1107 he defended the exempt status of the abbey before Pope Paschal II. After serving in various political and ecclesiastical offices, he was elected abbot in 1122. He reformed his own abbey and also served as regent of France from 1137 to 1140 and from 1147 to 1149. His partial reconstruction of the abbey church (1140–1144) is famous; he discussed it in his De consecratione and De o…

[German Version] (422–432). As the successor of Boniface I, Celestine attempted to consolidate the Roman primacy, but he encountered the resistance of the West African bishops. Moreover, he opposed Pelagianism (Pelagius) and from 430 Nestorius; the majority of his correspondence relates to this conflict. ¶ Eventually, he sent Germanus of Auxerre in 429 and “the Celtic bishop” Palladius in 431 to England and Ireland for the anti-Pelagian mission. Christoph Markschies Bibliography CPL 1650–1654 PL 50, 417–558 ACO I/1/7, 125–137; I/2/5, 5–101 On Celestine: E. Caspar, Geschichte des…

[German Version] I. The Term – II. Periods of the Early Church – III. The History of the Church and of Christianity in Antiquity – IV. Review I. The Term The term “early church” is one of the most common English expressions used to designate the church during the times of the emperors in Greco-Roman antiquity, i.e. the Christian church from its beginnings until the end of antiquity or Late Antiquity. The end of this …

[German Version] I. Terminology and Sources – II. History – III. Theology I. Terminology and Sources Since the late 4th century, the adherents of a prophetic movement in early Christianity dating from the 2nd century have been referred to polemically as “Montanists,” and the movement itself was called “Montanism” (e.g Cyril of Jerusalem, Catecheses XVI 8.6 or [Pseudo-?]Didymus, De trinitate III 18.23 and 41 [PG 39, 881 B, 924 C, also 984 B]). This terminology, which refers to a prophet Montanus, has been accepted by modern scholarship, although the m…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. Primitive Christianity – IV. Church History – V. Judaism – VI. Islam – VII. Asia, Africa, and Latin America – VIII. Social Sciences – IX. Psychology – X. Philosophy of Religion – XI. Practical Theology I. Religious Studies To date there have been hardly any works devoted to men from the perspective of religious studies. Given the androcentrism of traditional scholarship, the category of homo religiosus has usually yielded knowledge of the religious male, but this work must …

[German Version] (333/334, Trier – 397) was an important bishop and is regarded as one of the four teachers of the Western Church since the end of the 7th century. Ambrose was from a prominent family of Roman (city?) Christians; educated in Rome, he was the governor of Aemilia Liguria with a seat in Milan between 372 and 374. In 374, as the compromise candidat…