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[German Version] I. Terminology – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Systematic Theology – V. Practical Theology – VI. Judaism – VII. Islam I. Terminology 1. Religious Studies a. As an emic linguistic term, “faith” is found not only in the context of the Christian West (cf. fides, foi, Glaube, etc.), but also in other religious traditions. The Sanskrit term śraddhā (cf. Pāli saddhā; Avestan zrazdā-) seems to represent an Indo-European etymological pendant to Lat. credo, as demonstrated by the possible reconstruction of Indo-Germanic * k'red-dhē-, “set one's heart o…

[German Version] See also Heavenly voice, Memra, Revelation. I. Religious Studies Humans experience messages from the deity or divine beings (Inspiration/Theopneusty, Revelation) in the form of speech. Formally we must distinguish (a) the word of the deity himself, as recorded in sacred scripture after a phase of oral transmission (Torah, Qurʾān, Vedas, Avesta); (b) words communicated by individuals specially chosen and called by God (the word that calls); (c) words spoken by elect individuals having a special relationsh…

[German Version] I. Christianity – II. Islam I. Christianity 1. Southern Arabia.…

[German Version] I. Origin and Spread – II. Doctrine – III. Islamic Philosophy – IV. Islamic Art (Architecture and Book Art) – V. Islamic Studies – VI. Christianity and Islam – VII. Judaism and Islam – VIII. Islam in Europe – IX. Islam in North America – X. Political Islamism I. Origin and Spread 1. Muḥammad and his message In 569 ce, Muḥammad was born in Mecca, a city with the shrine of the Kaʿba at its center. Mecca enjoyed good relations with the Sasanian Empire and its Arab vassal princes in Ḥīra, but considered itself politically independent. It was ruled by th…

[German Version] I. Old Testament – II. Islam I. Old Testament Through recourse to the name of a northern Arabian tribal confederation in the 7th century bce (* Šamaʿʾil; attested in Neo-Assyrian sources and reflected in ¶ Gen 25:13–15 [P]), which was transformed in analogy to “Isaac",” the figure of Ishmael served the parties in the course of the edition of the Pentateuch in …

[German Version] I. Old Testament – II. Judaism – III. New Testament – IV. Dogmatic/Ethics – V. Islam I. Old Testament The direct statements of the Old Testament about mercy as a loving and helping approach to others who had fallen into need or guilt are crystallized in Hebrew around the root רחם ( rḥm). The situation is complicated by overlapping of content with the root חנן ( ḥnn, “to be gracious”; Grace: II). Moreover, the OT deals with mercy itself without using the roots חנן or רחר, for example, in the description of God in the primordial history (Gen 1–11). An etymological connection of the root …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies 1. Concept. The word revelation echoes the Greek ἀποκάλυψις/ apokálypsis (“uncovering”), which was translated into Latin as revelatio and then borrowed into most European languages. The literal meaning already indicates that revelation involves a reality, content, more specifically a message hidden from mortals. Revelation is important: it is relevant religious knowledge necessary for salvation, for finding meaning, and for dealing with everyday life. It is knowledge that peo-…

[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Bible – III. Church History – IV. Systematics – V. Practical Theology – VI. Law – VII. Judaism – VIII. Islam…

[German Version] I. General – II. Jewish Calendar – III. Christian Calendar – IV. Islamic Calendar – V. Liturgical Calendar I. General 1. The term calendar derives from the Roman “calendae,” the day on which a new month was proclaimed. It designates the structuring and hence the consequent mediation of time, i.e. records in pictorial and literary media to communicate structures of time. Calendars are concrete translations of chronologies. The performance of activities to be collectively coordinated must be regulated in the various arenas of human life: for example, in everyday life (planting, harvest, hunting, market), in public life (tax years, court days, assembly dates, games, memorials), and in religion (rituals, festivals, new years). The calendrical division of time is, therefore, a fundamental phenomenon of self-organization in all cultures. The complexity of a calendar or of the simultaneous use of different calendars depends on the degree of social differentiation and the respective specific need for coordination. The constructive order of calendrical time relates primarily to the definition and internal arrangement of the fundamental unit, the year, and secondarily to the sequence and arrangement of the divisions of the year into months, weeks, and days. Each day is unequivocally identifiable and through the rhythm of return is accentuated in terms of its importance and cultural-religious quality. Thus, the calendar concretely mediates between the uniqueness of the year and the internal order of the year, and thereby the concrete feast days. The linearity of the course of time is interrupted, on the one hand, by the dimension of the regularly returning memorial. On the …

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[German Version] I. Pre-Islamic Period – II. Islamic Period I. Pre-Islamic Period Mecca, Arabic Makka, is a city in the western part of the central Arabia lying about 72 km from the Red Sea and situated in an arid and barren depression. The locality is first mentioned in the 2nd century ce by Ptolemy ( Geographia VI 7.32) under the Greek name Makóraba, which is probably to be derived from Old South Arabic mkrb, “temple,” “sanctuary.” Among the sanctuaries in and around Mecca, the most important was the Kaʿba in the city, a cube-shaped construction with a black cult…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies We can speak of care for the poor in the sense of public and private relief of poverty only when there has been a certain degree of institutionalization. Religions have treated poor relief with varying degrees emphasis. It is important to distinguish caregivers (including families, clans, congregations, orders, foundations, societies, and associations), the kind of help given (material, personal, structural), and the recipients (different levels of poverty). The Greeks and Romans felt no obligation to help the poor, or at most a g…

[German Version] I. Archaeology – II. Early Church – III. Arab Period – IV. Christianity in Damascus I. Archaeology Damascus, modern Dimešq ( aš-Šām), is located 3 km east of where the Baradā river (cf. 2 Kgs 5:12) emerges from the ravine (Rabwāt al-Minšār) between Mount ¶ Hermon) and Mount Qasyūn (Anti-Lebanon). It is the center of the largest Syrian mountain-border oasis – the Ghutah, an area threatened by overdevelopment – and since 1946 has been the capital of the Syrian Arab Republic (Syria). According to legend, Damascus is one of the oldest cities in the world, and its puzzling but doubtless non-Semitic name suggests that it originated during the fourth millennium bce. …

[German Version] I. History of Religion – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Church History – V. Dogmatics – VI. Ethics – VII. Practical Theology – VIII. Church Law – IX. Judaism – X. Islam I. History of Religion In the following comments the term community will refer exclusively to a religiously motivated association of people. From the standpoint of the history of religion, the formation of communities is more the exception than the rule. The fact that associations such as tribes, as well, however, as the ancient polis (City cult), are simultaneously religious entities does not justify speaking of them as communities. Communities could only originate with the differentiation between the religious subsystem and …

[German Version] I. Old Testament – II. New Testament – III.  Christianity – IV.  Judaism – V. Islam I. Old Testament …

[German Version] I. Terminology – II. Law – III. Church History – IV. Philosophy of Religion – V. Dogmatics – VI. Ethics – VII. Judaism – VIII. Islam I. Terminology Classical Antiquity lacked a term for free will, a concept first popularized by Christians in Late Antiquity. Aristotle discusse…

[German Version] I. Old Testament – II. New Testament – III. Judaism – IV. Qur’ān I. Old Testament 1. Name. The name אַבְרָהָם/ 'abrāhām is a by-form of אַבְרָם/ 'abrām or אֲבִירָם/ 'abîrām …

[German Version] (c. 600-660), the cousin and son-in-law of Muḥammad, belonged - like Muḥammad himself - to the banū hāšim clan of the Quraysh tribe. During the prophet's lifetime, he did not play a major role; the later tradition that depicts him as one of the first to accept Islam is almost certainly wrong. After Muḥammad's death, he became the leader of heterogeneous forces opposed to the regime of th…

[English Version] I. Begriffsgeschichtlich Der klassischen Antike fehlt ein Begriff für W. Dieser wird erst durch die Christen in der Spätantike popularisiert. Aristoteles diskutiert die Problematik unter der Leitfrage, in welchem Sinn Handlungen »bei uns« (ε᾿ϕ᾿ η῾μι˜n̆/eph' hēmín) liegen (Arist.e.N. III 1 1110 a 1–3). Die Stoa nennt den Begriff το` αυ᾿τεξου´σιοn̆/to autexoúsion (»Selbstverfügung«; vgl. Chrysipp [SVF 2, 975/990]), lat. mit »liberum arbitrium« übers. Noch Augustin verknüpft das Problem mit dem Begriff προαι´ρεσις/prohaíresis (De libero arbitrio …

[English Version] I. Religionswissenschaftlich 1.  BegriffDas Wort O. ist die Wiedergabe des griech. α᾿ποκα´λυψις/apoka´lypsis (»Enthüllung«), das ins Lat. mit revelatio übers. und dann als Lehnwort in die meisten eur. Sprachen übernommen wurde. Allein am Wortsinn ist abzulesen, daß es sich dabei um eine Realität, um einen Inhalt, im engeren Sinn um eine Botschaft handelt, die zuvor dem Menschen verborgen war. Deren Wichtigkeit kommt dadurch zum Ausdruck, daß es ein für das Heil, die Sinnfindung, des weiter…

[English Version] I. Religionsgeschichtlich Der Mensch erlebt die Übermittlung von Botschaften durch die Gottheit, durch göttliche Wesen (Inspiration, Offenbarung) in der Form, daß diese zu ihm sprechen. Formal ist hierbei zu unterscheiden, ob es sich um W. der Gottheit selbst handelt, wie sie in sakralen Schriften nach einer Phase der mündlichen Tradierung verschriftlicht sind (Tora, Koran, Veden, Avesta), übermittelt von dazu von Gott auserwählten und berufenen Personen (das berufende W.), oder o…