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[German Version] (Sep 29, 1792, Copenhagen – Mar 3, 1862, Slagelse, Zealand). After his university studies, degree, and habilitation, he was appointed to a pastorate in Copenhagen; there he translated the Augsburg Confession and its Apologia as well as patristic texts into Danish. In 1829 he succeeded E.W. Hengstenberg as superintendent in Glauchau (Saxony); during his tenure, a revival movement (Revival/Revival movements) took root. Rudelbach was a confessional Lutheran (Neo-Lutheranism), who also supported the Evangelische Kirchenzeitung and its antirationalist posit…

[German Version] (Mar 6, 1903, Darmstadt – May 20, 1984, Heidelberg), one of the leading participants in the ecumenical dialogue following World ¶ War II. His academic career began during the Kirchenkampf; he was active in many functions on behalf of the Confessing Church. Initially he taught at Bethel; after the seminary was dissolved by the Gestapo in 1939, he served as a pastor. After the war, he accepted a call to Heidelberg, where the founded the first Ecumenical Institute. His multifaceted ecumenical involvement both in…

[German Version] (Mar 17, 1800, Fraustadt, Lower Silesia [now Wschowa, Poland] – Dec 16, 1862, Eisleben) was a figure in the post-1817 revival movement. His writing was influenced by Romanticism, and he drew on the patriotic liberalism of the Burschenschaften. In 1818 he came in contact with F.A.G. Tholuck and the revivalist group associated with H.E. Baron v. Kottwitz; he dated his conversion from that year. He was active as an academic teacher (e.g. in Barmen-Wichlinghausen). His primary interest was exegesis; he focused initially …

[German Version] (Jun 29, 1858, Middels, East Frisia – Oct 7, 1933, Leipzig). After studies at various universities from 1878 to 1881, Ihmels became a pastor in 1883. In 1884 he was appointed director of studies at the seminary in Loccum. In 1898 he became professor of systematic theology in Erlangen (Erlangen School); in 1902 he was called to Leipzig. Appointed as the first bishop of the regional church in Saxony, he became active in the ecumenical movement. Ihmels was an enormously effective pre…

[German Version] (1224/1225, Roccasecca, duchy of Aquino – Mar 7, 1274, Fossanova) I. Life and Work Thomas Aquinas was born the son of Landolfo de Aquino, a member of the lower nobility, and his wife Theodora, in Roccasecca in the duchy of Aquino, his family’s seat. Aquino lay at the frontier of the church ¶ states, in the far north of the kingdom of Sicily. As oblate (I) Thomas received his early education at the nearby Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino. In 1239 he went to study at the Imperial University of Naples. There, c. 1244, he entered the …

[German Version] In the first instance, the expression real presence means a position that takes the words of institution (“This is my body/blood”) literally, arguing that “in, with, and under” the elements of the Eucharist, the body and blood of Jesus Christ are actually received, in contrast, say, to the position of Berengar of Tours and Zwingli, which interprets the words of institution metaphorically and considers the elements signs representing the humanity of Christ, seated at the right hand of God…

[German Version] I. Dogmatics 1. General. Means of salvation ( media salutis) are creaturely, tangible (“outward”) media “in, with, and under” which the salvation (III) realized through Christ is communicated to human individuals in their own present. They are signposts that point to Christ as the medi-¶ ator of salvation and in that act of pointing make Christ himself present. The dependence of participation in salvation on outward mediation reflects incarnational theology (God himself was “realized” in Christ), soteriology (justification takes place pro nobis but extra nobis), …

[German Version] I. Dogmatics – II. Ethics I. Dogmatics Aristotle used the term ἕξις/ héxis (Lat. habitus) to describe the basic condition for people (and not merely their actions) to be ethically qualified, if humans are inherently able to regularly and willingly limit their affects in life's basic situations to the right, situation-appropriate degree (cf. Eth. Nic. II, 3 and 4 [1105a 17–1106a 13]). The regularity of right conduct, for instance, which permits a person to be described as “righteous” refers to a habit or disposition acquired through…

1. OT 1.1. Using anthropomorphic or anthropopathic language, many religions described their gods in human terms; they could thus see them as wrathful. Fear of divine wrath was undoubtedly one of the main motivations behind the development of religion and also of the cult. Israel was close to its neighbors in this regard, as may be seen from an inscription of King Mesha of Moab (mid-9th cent. b.c.), who, speaking of the long-standing oppression of Moab by King Omri of Israel (§1.5), attributes it to the wrath of Chemosh, the Moabite god (KAI 181.5; TUAT 1.647; cf. 2 Kgs. 3:27). 1.2. Mention of …

1. Term A sign in the most general sense is something understood to stand for something else, for something other than the sign itself. To serve as a sign, it must be recognized as signifying what it stands for. People and computer programs recognize and employ signs. To determine whether other animals do too depends on what counts as a sign, and on the assessment of their cognitive and instinctual functions. There is no unanimity as to what counts as a sign or how to classify different sorts of signs. Some signs have a direct or natural connection between their characteristics or oc…

[English Version] I. Katholisch 1.  Historisch. T. in einem weiteren Sinne läßt sich weder dem Christentum noch einer seiner Konfessionen eindeutig zuordnen. Die Haltung, dem Überkommenen insg. oder bestimmten Autoritäten des rel. Überlieferungsgutes bes. Dignität und Bindungswirkung zuzuschreiben, findet sich v.a. dort, wo akute Krisen der Orientierung und Praxis durch dezidierten Rückgriff zu bewältigen versucht werden. Der kath. T. im engeren Sinne ist daher als Phänomen des 19.Jh. eine Antwort au…

[German Version] I. Catholicism 1. History. Traditionalism in the broader sense does not correlate clearly with Christianity or any denomination. A tendency to invest long-standing tradition as a whole or particular authorities within a body of religious tradition with special dignity and binding force appears primarily in the context of attempts to deal with acute crises of belief and practice by maintaining a firm hold on the past. Catholic traditionalism in the narrower sense was therefore a 19th-…

[German Version] I. History of Religion – II. Fundamental Theology – III. Philosophy I. History of Religion The Greek noun logos (λόγος/ lógos), which is derived from the verb λέγειν/ légein, “to say, to speak,” designates the human faculty of speech and ability to reason, usually in combination, as well as numerous individual aspects such as: sentence, topic, oration, prose, teaching, judgment, cause, conclusion, and reason. In its earliest attestations logos refers to an “oration,” whose deceptive effects are frequently emphasized (Hom. Od. I 56) – thus in the personific…

[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Dogmatics – III. Ethics I. Philosophy A good is something we actively pursue for ourselves (Action: I). Obviously there are different kinds of goods that we pursue: prosperity, health, development of our talents, friendship, professional success, the joy of love, long life, etc. Classically (Plato, Laws 697b, 743e) ¶ goods can be divided into three classes: external goods, goods of the body, such as health, and goods of the soul, such as friendship and justice. Our appetite for goods inevitably leads to confli…

[English Version] I. Begriff, geschichtliche und rechtliche Grundlagen Der Parteienbegriff blieb in der polit. Semantik der eur. Neuzeit stets mehrdeutig, und die hist. Ausprägungsformen der P. waren äußerst vielfältig. Als intermediäre, organisatorisch verfestigte Gesinnungsgemeinschaften zw. Gesamtbevölkerung und Regierung und legitimiert durch das jeweilige nationale Wahlrecht beförderten P. den Prozeß der Parlamentarisierung und Demokratisierung polit. Herrschaft. In England mit den Tories und Whig…

[English Version] I. Zum Begriff Der Begriff O. leitet sich aus dem griech. ο᾿ρϑο´ς/ortho´s, »gerade, recht, richtig«, und δο´ξα/do´xa, »Meinung, Absicht, Lehre«, her. Der Begriff und seine Derivate sind auch vorchristl. bezeugt (Liddell/Scott s.v.), gewannen aber ihre spezifisch rel. Bedeutung erst im Kontext des Christentums, in dem das Bekenntnis zu Jesus als dem Herrn bzw. als dem Christus eine für den rel. Vollzug konstitutive Rolle hat (Röm 10,10; Mt 10,32f.) und früh die Notwendigkeit entstand, in einer V…

[German Version] I. Concept, Historical and Legal Foundations The concept of the party has always been polyvalent in the political semantics of European modernity, while the historical configurations of parties have been subject to extreme variations. As intermediary, organizationally cemented groups representing shared views and positioned between the general population and the government, and legitimized by the respective national electoral law, parties have helped promote the parliamentarization and …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Bible – III. Dogmatics – IV. Education and Ethics – V. Law I. Religious Studies Emphasis on the phenomenon known as obedience varies among religions, but wherever human beings are understood as hearers of a divine or sacred word obedience plays an important role as the claim of a higher, transhuman power on human beings. The religious will to obey presupposes prevailing over one’s own self-will for the sake of God or what is holy. The Enlighten-¶ ment, which calls human beings to autonomy, led to a crisis of the religious concept of o…

[German Version] I. Terminology – II. Christianity – III. Judaism – IV. Islam I. Terminology The term orthodoxy derives from Greek ὀρϑός/ orthós, “right, true, straight,” and δόξα/ dóxa, “opinion, teaching.” The word and its derivatives appear in pre-Christian literature (Liddell & Scott, s.v.) but acquired their specifically religious sense only in the context of Christianity, where confession of Jesus as Lord or Christ plays a constitutive role in religious practice (Rom 10:10; Matt 10:32f.) and the need appeared early on to identify a…

[German Version] I. The Cross in Non-Christian Religions – II. Crucifixion in Antiquity – III. The Crucifixion of Christ – IV. Church History – V. Dogmatic Theology – VI. The Cross in Modern Art I. The Cross in Non-Christian Religions From prehistoric times to the present, various forms of the cross have appeared in many non-Christian cultures and religions, used both as a religious symbol and as an ornamental design (the boundaries are fluent). It is a primal human symbol. As such it is polysemous and has …