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[German Version] I. Structure and Form – II. Language and Style – III. Author and Literary Dependence – IV. Addressees, Occasion, Intention V. Backgrounds in the History of Religion – VI. Theological Meaning I. Structure and Form Of all the letters in the Corpus Paulinum, the Letter to the Ephesians betrays the least about its communica-¶ tive situation. Between the prescript (1:1f) and conclusion (6:21–24), the two-part epistolary discourse is, in both parts, simultaneously address and …

[German Version] I. Literary History 1. Unlike fairy tales, which are set in a fictional world that takes wonders for granted, tales (Ger. Sagen) and legends recount the irruption of miracles and wonders into the real world. Tales treat this irruption as a mysterious and terrifying experience, while legends embed it in a religiously structured explanatory context. 2. The etymology of the terms tale and legend points to two different forms of transmission: oral in the case of tales (“what is told”) and sagas (“what is said”), written in the case of legends (Lat. legenda, “what is to be re…

[German Version] I. Resurrection of the Dead 1. History of religions a. Resurrection as a religious category. The concept of resurrection has been shaped extensively by connotations drawn from the tradition of Christian theology. In this sense, it is understood as a unique event that takes the body and soul of a human being, separated at death, and reunites them for a new, eternal life in the next world. Here it serves to mark a distinction from other notions of a postmortal existence (e.g. reincarnation, metempsyc…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. History – III. Philosophy of Religion – IV. Fundamental Theology. – V. Missiology I. Religious Studies 1. The Concept and Its History Myth may be defined by either content or function. Defined by content, myth is a belief about something significant, such as the world or society. Defined by function, myth accomplishes something significant, such as explaining the world or supporting society. Most theories of myth are concerned with the function of myth, but many are also concerned with either the origin or the subject matter of myth. Myt…

[German Version] I. New Testament - II. Dogmatics I. New Testament In 1 Cor 15:21f., 45-49 and Rom 5:12-21, Paul draws a contrast between Adam as the primal, earthly-material human being and Christ as his eschatological, heavenly-spiritual counterpart. 1 Cor 15:45f. indicates that Paul reached this conclusion by performing - within the context of an apocalyptic concept of time and body - an escha…

[German Version] (contracted from “Apollonios”), a Jew from Alexandria versed in the Scriptures and trained in rhetoric, appeared as a Christian apostle independent of Paul in Ephesus and Corinth (Acts 18:24–19:1; 1 Cor 1:12; 3:4ff.; 4:6; 16:12). The partisan dispute at Corinth (1 Cor 1:12) was probably triggered by his pneumatic wisdom preaching, which Paul attacks in 1 Cor …

[German Version] I. Philosophy The word Weltbild (“worldview”; more lit. “world picture”) is already found in early medieval German; it is defined as a “conceptual view of the world that emerges from the totality of impressions made by the world and ideas of one’s Weltanschauung” ( DWb 28 [14.1.1], 1955, 1553). Its meaning is thus related to the meaning of Weltanschauung . Philosophy usually treats both together. A Weltbild can be understood as both a premise and a product of a Weltanschauung. W. Dilthey called a Weltbild “the basis of one’s appreciation of life and understanding…