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[German Version] I. Comparative Religion – II. Biblical – III. Church History I. Comparative Religion The terminology and conception of banishment develop primarily in the context of legal language. Commandments and prohibitions require sanctioning, must become authoritative, and are thus connected with magical incantations (Magi). In popular culture, the verbs “to ban” and “to arrest” …

[German Version] (1607, London – Dec 11, 1681, London), son of a grocer. Pordage studied medicine and theology at Oxford, while pursuing interests in alchemy and astrology. In 1644 he was ordained in the Anglican Church, but retired to London in 1670. Under Cromwell (England: III, 1.d), Pordage was charged with heresy. Not until the Restoration was he restored to his living (1660). Inspired by the works of J. Böhme (ET: 1642–1662) and his own visions, he developed a theosophical system (Theosophy)…

[German Version] (Nov 25, 1556, near Bern – Sep 5, 1618, Paris). Born to a Norman Huguenot family in temporary exile, Duperron joined the court of Henry III of France. As royal professor of languages, mathematics, and philosophy, he converted to Catholicism in 1581. Henry IV nominated him bishop of Evreux; Duperron assisted in his (second) conversion to Catholicism. He subsequently …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Church History – III. Dogmatics – IV. Practical Theology – V. Missiology I. Religious Studies Confession and absolution, expressive of the substantiality of guilt (I) and the impact of the spoken word with its magico-ritual power, are among the “most widespread means of structured confrontation of the ego with itself” (Hahn & Knapp, 7). They appear already in tribal societies (Kikuyu, Nuer, Acholi in East Africa) as part of purificati…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies Tolerance and intolerance must be defined in terms of their relationship to respect, coexistence, indifference, acceptance, and prejudice. In the public context, they ¶ correspond to the presence or absence of freedom of religion. They originate in the claim to exclusive religious truth or else collide with it. Tolerance requires insight into the human ability to err and into the limits of human cognition with regard to faith, whereas intolerance rejects this insight. Following Gerlitz,…

[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Bible – III. Church History – IV. Systematics – V. Practical Theology – VI. Law – VII. Judaism – VIII. Islam I. History of Religions The term confession refers to various phenomena, including the confession of faith and of sin. A confession of faith can be understood as an officially sanctioned, formulaic summary of the central doctrines of a religious or a confessional community (“denomination”). Recited in cultic procedures and/or in everyday piety, i…

[German Version] (Pierre de la Ramée; 1515, Cuts, Picardy – Aug 28, 1572, Paris), came from an impoverished aristocratic family; he attended the Collège de Navarre in Paris from the age of 12, and gained his M.A. in 1536. His polemics against Aristotelianism caused a sensation; in 1544 King Francis I prohibited him from teaching and publishing on philosophical subjects. Until this ban was lifted in 1547 by King Francis II, Ramus devoted himself to mathematics. From 1551 he ¶ held important administrative posts at the University of Paris. From the early 1560s he was a Protes…

[German Version] (probably died in England in 1698). Not until years after his death was Souverain identified as the author of Le Platonisme dévoilé, ou Essai touchant le verbe Platonicien, published by the Unitarian S. Crell in 1700, supposedly in Cologne but in fact in Amsterdam. Souverain, probably from Languedoc, was removed from his office as a Reformed preacher on grounds of heresy shortly before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (Huguenots: I, 1), whereupon he moved to the Netherlands. When he offended the Dutch …

[German Version] I. Dogmatics – II. Ethics – III. Philisophy – V. History – VI. Mission I. Dogmatics Freedom of religion, as generally understood, combines freedom of belief, of conscience, and creed, as well as freedom to practice one's religion (cf. German Basic Law, art. 4, §§1, 2), in one fundamental right. Dogmatics needs to clarify the relationship between religious certainty and freedom. A statement consonant with Reformation belief would run as follows: If Christian certainty, as certainty about the …

[German Version] (Sep 27, 1696, Marianella, near Naples – Aug 1, 1787, monastery at Nocera de' Pagani, near Salerno). Liguori, the son of a naval officer, earned his doctorate in law at the age of 16; in 1714 he began to practice law, but left the profession in 1723 after losing a case. As a priest, he conducted popular missions. On Nov 9, 1732, he founded the Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris (Redemptorists; approved in 1749 by Benedict XIV, Pope), with a ministry of preaching and pastoral care…

[German Version] (Sep 3, 1852, Langenburg, Württemberg – Feb 10, 1940, Tübingen). After theological training in Württemberg, Müller developed into a historian, making his mark as a medievalist with works on Louis the Bavarian, the Franciscans and the Waldenses. He gained his habilitation In Berlin in 1890, became an assistant professor there in 1882 and in 1884 in Halle, in 1886 full professor in Gießen, in 1891 in Breslau, and in 1903 in Tübingen. From his time in Gießen, Müller's life work was i…

[German Version] (1656, Nay, Béarn – Nov 25, 1727, London). Educated in Huguenot academies (Huguenots), Abbadie was an important leader of the refugee community in Berlin from 1680 to 1689. As a field chaplain, he participated in the Ireland campaign of William III of England, and lived thereafter on benefices of the Anglican Church (beginning in 1699, he was …

[German Version] (Quintomonarchists, Fifth Monarchy Men). In republican England (III, 1.d; 1649–1653), the Fifth Monarchists did not form a constituted ecclesiastical organization of their own. Rather, the term refers to the exponents of a radically chiliastic (Millenarianism/Chiliasm) trend operative within various other groups (Congregationalists [Congregationalism], Independents, Particular Baptists [Baptists: II]; see also Dissenters). The return of Jesus Christ (Parousia) to rule for 1000 yea…

[German Version] These 100 rhymed Latin hexameters were first attested in 1693 and became better known in the early 18th century. They were attributed to the Cistercian monk Hermann von Lehnin in Brandenburg (c. 1300). The verses describe suggestively the Brandenburg rulers beginning with the house of Askanier; the last figures with identifiable traits are Prince Elector Friedrich Wilhelm I and his successor. The Reformation, with the abolition of the monastery, marks the turn for the worse. Until…

[German Version] (Chursdorf near Küstrin [Kostrzyn]) – Dec 17, 1731, Rudolstadt). The last in the line of Reformed Metternichs from Chursdorf, Wolf de Metternich probably studied law; he began his career in the service of the margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Brandenburg-Bayreuth (delegate to the imperial diet), which he left in 1726 to enter the service of the duke of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. Known as an alchemist, he also published theological texts under pseudonyms (Aletophilus, Hilarius Theom…

[German Version] (Mar 3, 1792, Petershagen, Minden – Jul 8, 1854, Göttingen). Shaped and nurtured at Halle by A.H. Niemeyer and J.A.L. Wegscheider, Gieseler worked from 1812 to 1819, interrupted by the Wars of Liberation, in higher education; in 1819, he became professor at Bonn, in 1831 in Göttingen. He established his academic reputation with a monograph on the synoptic question (1818), proposing that all the synoptics utilized an essentially uniform oral tradition (tradition hypothesis). Active as an editor of journals ( ThStKr) since his time in Bonn, he was also intensel…

[German Version] (1641, Alençon – 1717, London). After his studies Allix made his name as a scholar and preacher and in 1671 became minister in the Huguenot community (Huguenots) in Charenton (Paris). After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes he fled to London, where James II granted him the privilege of founding a French community inside the Anglican Church…

[German Version] (Dec 25, 1686, Stuttgart – Nov 19, 1760, Giessen). After theological education in Württemberg and some travel, Pfaff was made professor of theology by ducal fiat in Tübingen; in 1720 he became chancellor of the university. In 1756 he was obliged to relinquish these offices, and worked in Giessen as professor, chancellor of the university, and general superintendent. An infant prodigy and a brilliant ¶ character, Pfaff was an eclectic polymath, theologically influenced by the Enlightenment and Pietism. His main areas of work were dogmatics/ethic…

[German Version] (Chevalier Ramsay; 1686, Ayr, Scotland – May 6, 1743, St. Germain en Laye, near Paris), son of a baker, Ramsay was repelled while still a youth by the controversy between presbyterianism (Presbyterians) and Episcopalianism. As a student he tended towards Deism, but also formed links with mystical and spiritualist circles, which he intensified while a private tutor in London. He was on the continent from 1710, first with P. Poiret in Rijnsburg. Then he worked as secretary to F. Fén…

[German Version] The period between the Napoleonic Wars and World War I saw ongoing ¶ debate over the structure of the Evangelical Church in Germany. Those involved were primarily theologians and jurisprudents. – A group around F.D.E. Schleiermacher, combining collegialist ideas (Collegialism) with elements of the presbyterial and synodal structure (Presbyter/Presbytery) of the Reformed Church, put forward demands for a self-governing church organized on the basis of the local congregations. Vis-à-vis conceptions of the church and church polity based on mi…