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[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Science – III. Dogmatics – IV. Ethics I. Philosophy Causality (from Lat. causa, “cause”), also causal nexus, causal relationship, is a term for the characteristic relationship between cause and effect. The things related are generally assumed to be pairs of events (event causality), though in some cases they may be an active thing and an event (agent causality); whether agent causality can be reduced to event causality is disputed. In either ca…

[German Version] I. Fundamental Theology Process theology is a school within North American theology (North America, Theology in: III) whose essential stimuli came from the process metaphysics (Process philosophy) of A.N. Whitehead. The early center of this movement was the University of Chicago, where from the mid-1920s Whitehead’s thought came to influence theology through the work of H.N. Wieman (and later his students Bernard M. Loomer and Bernard E. Meland) and …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Philosophy of Religion and Historical Theology – III. Philosophy – IV. Dogmatics – V. Practical Theology – VI. Ethics I. Religious Studies Perceptions of animate and inanimate nature, dreams, ecstasy, trance, and death, as well as sickness and physical sensation, and finally self-reflection and self-transcendence have led to highly diverse models for interpreting …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies In general usage, tradition (from Lat. transdare/ tradere, “hand on, transmit”) connotes retention and safeguarding, understood as a conservative handing down of mores, customs, norms, rules, and knowledge. The emphasis is on continuity with the past. Jan Assmann interprets tradition as an exemplary case of “cultural memory,” an enduring cultural construction of identity. In religions appeal to tradition is a prominent element justifying interpretations, practices, clai…

[German Version] The term selfishness denotes the disastrous focus of finite persons on their own selves (Self), perverting their creaturely self-love through inversion of the proper relation between relationship to God, the world, and self. 1. When one’s relationship to God is subordinated to relationship to oneself or is replaced entirely, selfishness manifests itself as hubris, the desire to be like God (Gen 3:5), spiritual pride, and self-righteousness. Theologically, therefore, there has been a tendency to identify selfishness with sin per se (Augustine, Puritanism ¶ [Purit…

[German Version] I. Dogmatics – II. Ethics I. Dogmatics The focus of the problems addressed by the Protestant doctrine of ordo salutis is the relationship between the action of God’s grace ( gratia dei applicatrix) and the human experience of salvation. Based on the Reformers’ doctrine of justification but also going beyond it, it describes the working of the Holy Spirit or God’s grace in the life of the justified believer in all its unity and diversity. The beginnings of the doctrine are already visible in the Augsburg Confession of 1530 ( CA 6 and 12) and – in greater detail – in the…

[German Version] I. Bible – II. Dogmatics – III. Ethics I. Bible 1. Old Testament and Gospels. The word “body” rarely appears in the Hebrew OT, because human beings are usually referred to as flesh and soul (cf. Flesh and spirit: I). The LXX often uses σῶμα/ sṓma (“body”) to translate בָּשָׂר/ bāśār (“flesh”). Although the term “body” does not occur in creation passages, it is still true that human beings were created by God as physical creatures …

[German Version] I. The Term and Its Impact Though there was scattered use of the term in German historiography (Ernst Bernheim) and 19th-century German and French philosophy (Conrad Herrmann, M. Blondel), the concept and term go back to C.S. Peirce (see also II below), who introduced the concept in How to Make Our Ideas Clear (1878), the term in 1902 in J. Baldwin’s Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology, and both orally between 1871 and 1873 ¶ in the Metaphysical Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He used the term for a logical maxim that the meaning of concepts must…

[German Version] I. Dogmatics – II. Ethics I. Dogmatics “Imputation” (Lat. imputare, Gk λογίζεσθαι/ logízesthai) specifies that the justification of the sinful person is through the effective judgment of God: God ascribes the righteousness of Christ to the sinner through faith. Human self-justification encounters the quite different righteousness of God which takes human sin upon itself and does away with it in Jesus Christ. This confrontation aims at a new relationship with God on the part of the individua…

[German Version] Penitence, like the related terms contrition, repentance, regret, and remorse (cf. Ger. Reue), denotes a common human feeling in which a person feels painfully affected by the effects of his or her actions or attitudes, and is moved to wish these things had not happened and to attempt to revise them in future behavior or make good their effects. The concept of penitence presupposes the processual nature of personal being (Process), which in the case of finite persons has a temporal structure …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies 1. Phenomenology Western, Christian connotations of the concept of the soul, imposed on the religio-historical evidence by outside studies, must be generally excluded if the soul is understood as the principle of manifestations of life that are perceptible (or culturally considered to be perceptible), although they are rarely categorized under a common umbrella term. It is therefore reasonable to speak of a multiplicity of souls – for example four among the Ob-Ugrians (Hasenfratz, Einführung, 38–41), five among the Proto-Germanic peoples ( ib…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Christianity – III. Buddhism I. Religious Studies The term compassion bears Christian connotations: compassion (cf. Lat. compassio; Gk συμπάϑεια/ sympátheia) refers to the capacity or ability to share concretely in the suffering of others, to sympathize and to draw consequences for one's own behavior. In this regard, the religions answer the question of the appropriate object for compassion – for example all people, only people of a certain group, …

[German Version] The gambling habit is a powerful inclination that places a person between desire and aversion in a tense state of agitation under intense pressure to engage in gaming (Play). The carefree ease of gaming is thus reduced to a meaningless waste of time or elevated to a compulsive addiction to a recklessness that jeopardizes life and property. Gaming becomes perverted into a symbol of personal bondage in which the player flees into an alternative world instead of attending to his or h…

[German Version] I. The Concept Social psychology studies the modes of social experience and behavior and the interaction processes both of individuals and between individuals and social systems (Community and the individual) of varying complexity (microsystems like partnerships, families [Family], groups; mesosystems like organizations and institutions; macrosystems like social, political and cultural entities), as well as the relationship of social systems to each other. The basic issues, which are…

[German Version] (Ger. Takt, Fr. tact, Lat. tactus, “sense of touch, feeling, influence”) denotes the practical judgment that enables the accurate application of rules in concrete cases by drawing on the totality of the determinants present in the mind as universal rules of common sense or experience, without being elevated to the level of conscious scientific clarity (I. Kant). In a moral sense, tact is sensitivity to what is right and proper given the distinctive character of a particular situation a…

[German Version] I. Philosophy Rationality is derived from Latin ratio (“calculation, consideration, reason”) and medieval Latin rationalitas (“reason, capacity for thought”). The term denotes various intellectual capacities that distinguish human beings as “rational animals” from the other more highly developed animals. In German, from the 18th century, these capacities were generally designated as Verstand (Intellect: I) and Vernunft (Reason: I). Under the influence of the English term rationality, and the usage of various scientific disciplines, especially s…

[German Version] (Apr 9, 1868, Neuchâtel, Switzerland – Dec 8, 1946, Yellow Springs, OH). Born in Switzerland and brought up in a Reformed environment, Leuba lived in the United States from 1887 onward and studied at Clark University under S. Hall. His empirical study of conversion, which he submitted as a doctoral dissertation in 1895, is considered a pioneering work of the psychology of religion. From 1898 to 1933, Leuba was professor of psychology at Bryn Mawr College. Together with W. James, he became the foremost promoter of the American psychology of religion. ¶ His religion-critic…

[German Version] I. Phenomenology and Social Sciences – II. Ethics – III. Mores and Church Life – IV. Ecclesiastical Mores I. Phenomenology and Social Sciences The term “mores” (cf. Ger. Sitte) refers to regular forms of common living that are relatively binding and provided by tradition. Behavior oriented to mores relates to cultural patterns that have been valid for “a long time,” and were often practiced by previous generations. M. Weber thus speaks of “embeddedness” ( Eingelebtheit). In German, the term Sitte (“mores”) competes with Brauch (Custom). There is no sharp dis…

[German Version] I. Philosophy The term process denotes a directed course of events in nature, history, or the life of an individual that can run its causally determined course teleologically, as a self-organizing dynamic and, in the case of living creatures, on the basis of intentions and meanings. In antiquity and the Middle Ages, it was assumed that everything existing is determined by its nature and possesses an immanent tendency to actualize its potentialities. The understanding of process chang…

[German Version] The noun wish denotes a person’s desire to obtain an anticipated or pursued good (Goods) for him- or herself or others. It presupposes the temporality of existence, as is present in our experiencing as the immediate present of the remembered past and the awaited future of personal presence. In wishes as phenomena of consciousness, intentional act and content can be distinguished but never separated. Hence the common distinction between the subjective sense of the word (wish as an ac…

[German Version] I. Ethics – II. Practical Theology I. Ethics The Greek noun κρίσις/ krísis originally denoted the action derived from the verb κρίνειν/ krínein: (a) “sepa¶ ration, quarrel”; (b) “selection”; (c) “decision, judgment, verdict”; (d) “turning point (in a battle or disease)” (cf. also criticism, kairology). The adoption of the forensic sense in the LXX added a theological dimension to the term. In the NT, krísis stands for the verdict of the judge, the court of judgment, and especially the eschatological Divine Judgment, the ultimate separ…

[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Philosophy of Religion – III. Fundamental Theology – IV. Ethics – V. Practical Theology I. Philosophy To speak of the meaning of a linguistic utterance is ambiguous from a systematic point of view. The various ¶ semantic concepts correspond to various levels of understanding (comprehension of meaning). The first three levels belong to the field of semantics: (1) If the spoken sentence P is free of lexical and grammatical ambiguities in the language of the speaker, then the interpreter understand…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Judaism – III. New Testament – IV. History of Dogma – V. Dogmatics – VI. Ethics – VII. Ecumenics I. Religious Studies In European Christian theology the doctrine of merit (Lat. meritum) became a controversial subject, by which (at least on the Protestant side) it was thought possible to demonstrate with particular clarity the basic difference between Catholicism and Lutheranism (see IV below). Discussion in religious studies has shown that the use of such a theologically loaded conc…

[German Version] I. Philosophy The term self (ἑαυτοῦ/ heautoú; αὑτοῦ/ hautoú) appears as a noun (“the self”) but more often in compounds such as self-consciousness, self-relation, self-assertion, self-actualization, self-determination, self-assurance, and self-realization. Its basic meaning has to do with autonomy: self is something that can be by itself and stand by virtue of itself alone. Greek philosophy already emphasized this meaning: what something is of itself (καϑ᾿ αὑτά/ kath’ hautá; Arist. Metaph. 1017a 27) is what is independent of accidentals. What is self-moving (α…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies A sense of shame is a fundamental element of being human. It is a social feeling that ensues when one becomes aware of a shortcoming that might offend others. Unlike a sense of guilt, it does not presuppose an actual transgression. Shame is therefore not just a concomitant of behavior subject to social condemnation, such as violation of a sexual taboo, dishonesty, cowardice, or disloyalty; it is also a reaction to situations for which the individual has no respon…

[German Version] 1. Anthony Ashley Cooper (Feb 26, 1671, London – Feb 4, 1713, Naples), third Earl of Shaftesbury, major Enlightenment philosopher, moralist, and pioneer of aesthetics. His grandfather of the same name, a renowned politician, entrusted Shaftesbury’s education to J. Locke; through his governess Elizabeth Birch, he received thorough training in the classical languages along with ancient and modern literature. After a period at Winchester College (1683–1686), travels through Europe (1686–…

[German Version] (Feb 20, 1866, Guilford Township, IN – Nov 18, 1947, Los Angeles, CA), American pioneer of the psychology of religion and educational theory as an empirical science based on developmental psychology. After a happy childhood with his Quaker parents, he studied at Harvard under W. James and at Clark University under G.S. Hall. His dissertation on conversion and adolescent development, based on questionnaires, was published in 1899; it is considered the first book on the empirical ps…

[German Version] As an ethical and legal term, imputability denotes (in a person who has reached the age of discretion) the normally assumed capacity to recognize the morality (Morality and immorality) or legality of an action in a given situation and to act on this recognition by voluntarily choosing whether or not to act, thus becoming legally and morally responsible for any consequences. The concept is a product of the theory of imputation (see also Justification) as developed in 17th- and 18th-centu…

[German Version] I. Philosophy of Religion The word theonomy is a neologism modeled on Greek ϑεο-νομία/ theo-nomía. It means that reality and its order, especially human morality and immorality, are subject to God’s law. The term became popular in the 19th century in the context of reaction against I. Kant’s reformulation of the concept of autonomy. The issue raised by the two terms autonomy and theonomy can be summed up in the question whether they are opposites or correlates. The substantial meaning of theonomy is dependent on the conception of God that it …

[German Version] I. Cultural History The Dutch cultural historian Johan Huizinga identified play as a fundamental cultural phenomenon and thus a defining feature of human life. His thesis of homo ludens supplements the anthropological theories of homo sapiens and homo faber and other explanations of culture grounded in reason and fabrication (Labor). Huizinga posits the following definition: “Play is a voluntary activity or occupation executed within certain fixed limits of time and place, according to rules that are freely accepted …

[German Version] Maintenance of tradition means responsible concern for the authentic preservation of a significant traditional body of insights, norms, ways of life, or institutions that shape the identity of an ordered community along with the individuals within it and their formational history. Maintenance of tradition means more than fixing a tradition in oral or written form and rigid perpetuation of its existing state; precisely in order to preserve a tradition’s original meaning, it include…

[German Version] The expression judgmentforming denotes the more or less methodical process of arriving at a judgment – logical, moral, aesthetic, legal, etc. It comprises an ordered sequence of steps, beginning with the appearance of a particular constellation of problems and ending with a temporary or final solution. Objectively, it presupposes that the constellation of problems in question can be clearly identified and defined and is also amenable to solution under the conditions of finite reason…

[German Version] In the ethics of ancient philosophy, self-sufficiency (Gk αὐτάρκεια/ autárkeia, Lat. sufficientia sui) denotes the basic ethical stance through which individuals seek to attain the goal of their lives, true eudaimonia, by aspiring to happiness in the inward constitution of their soul (III, 3) independently of outward goods and the vicissitudes of fate; in this context, self-sufficiency resembles the virtue of prudence (Democritus). Xenophon sketches the figure of Socrates as the ideal of the …

[English Version] I. Dogmatisch »Z.« (Imputation, lat. imputare, griech. λογι´ζεσϑαι/logízesthai) präzisiert die Rechtfertigung der sündigen Person durch das wirksame Urteil Gottes: Gott spricht dem Sünder die Gerechtigkeit Christi durch den Glauben zu. Die menschliche Selbstgerechtigkeit trifft auf die ganz andere Gerechtigkeit Gottes, der in Jesus Christus die menschliche Sünde auf sich zieht und hinwegschafft. Die Konfrontation zielt auf eine neue Gottesbeziehung der einzelnen Person, die sich ohne s…

[English Version] I. Phänomenologisch und sozialwissenschaftlich Der Begriff S. meint relativ verbindliche, von der Tradition vorgegebene Regelformen gemeinsamen Lebens. Ein an der S. ausgerichtetes Verhalten orientiert sich an Kulturmustern, die »seit langem« gelten, oft von den Elterngenerationen bereits praktiziert worden sind. Max Weber spricht deshalb von »Eingelebtheit«. In der dt. Sprache konkurriert mit dem Begriff der S. der des Brauchs. Eine völlige Trennschärfe läßt sich nicht feststellen.…

[English Version] Starbuck, Edwin Diller (20.2.1866 Guiltford Township, IN – 18.11.1947 Los Angeles, CA), amer. Pionier der Religionspsychologie und Päd. als entwicklungspsychologisch fundierter Erfahrungswiss. Nach glücklicher Kindheit in quäkerischem Elternhaus studierte S. in Harvard unter W. James und an der Clark Universität unter S. Hall. Seine mit der Fragebogenmethode arbeitende Diss. zur Bekehrung und Adoleszenzentwicklung gilt als die erste Buchveröff. (1899) der empirischen Religionspsyc…

[English Version] (franz. tact, lat. tactus, »Berührung, Tastsinn, Gefühl, Einfluß«) bez. erstens das praktische Urteilsvermögen, das die treffsichere Anwendung von Regeln im konkreten Einzelfall ermöglicht, indem es aus der Gesamtheit der Bestimmungsgründe schöpft, wie sie im Gemüt als allg. Regeln des gesunden Menschenverstandes bzw. der Erfahrung vorliegen, ohne zum Bewußtsein wiss. Klarheit erhoben zu sein (I. Kant). In sittlicher Hinsicht meint T. das feinfühlige Gespür für das Richtige und S…

[English Version] bez. den mehr oder weniger methodisch reflektierten Prozeß zur Findung eines logischen, moralischen, ästhetischen, juristischen etc. Urteils, der den geordneten Zusammenhang diverser Arbeitsschritte umfaßt, zeitlich strukturiert durch das Auftreten einer bestimmten Problemkonstellation als Anfangs- und deren vorläufiger oder abschließender Lösung als Zielpunkt. Voraussetzung hierfür ist in objektiver Hinsicht, daß die betreffende Problemkonstellation hinreichend klar identifizie…

[English Version] . Der Mitte des 18.Jh. in Übers. für engl. selfishness geprägte Begriff bez. die heillose Gestalt der Bezugnahme endlicher Personen auf ihr Selbst, die Perversion ihrer geschöpflichen Selbstliebe durch Verkehrung des rechten Dominanzverhältnisses zw. Gottes-, Welt- und Selbstbeziehung. 1. S. wird gewöhnlich als Gegenbegriff zur legitimen vernünftigen Selbstliebe bzw. natürlichen Selbsterhaltung einerseits (A.A. C. Shaftesbury, D. Hume, J.-J. Rousseau) sowie zur Selbstverachtung andererseits verstanden (Augustin). Zuw…

[English Version] I. Religionswissenschaftlich, religionsgeschichtlich 1.  PhänomenologischDie christl.-abendländischen Konnotationen des durch die Forschung von außen an religionsgesch. Befunde herangetragenen Seelenbegriffs sind am weitesten auszuschließen, wenn man S. als Prinzip wahrnehmbarer oder kulturell für wahrnehmbar gehaltener Lebensäußerungen versteht, die allerdings selten unter einem gemeinsamen Oberbegriff zusammengefaßt werden. Deshalb ist es sinnvoll, von einer Vielzahl von S. zu spr…

[English Version] I. ReligionsgeschichtlichIn der eur. christl. Theol. wurde die Lehre vom V. (lat. meritum) zu einem kontroverstheol. Thema, an dem man (zumindest auf prot. Seite) glaubte, den grundlegenden Unterschied zw. Katholizismus und Luthertum bes. deutlich festmachen zu können (s.u. IV.). Die religionswiss. Diskussion hat gezeigt, daß die Verwendung eines derart theol. aufgeladenen Begriffes als analytische Kategorie des Religionsvergleiches auf kaum zu lösende Probleme stößt. Von daher w…

[English Version] I. Dogmatisch Anliegen und Problematik der prot. Lehre vom o.s. liegen in der Verbindung des göttlichen Gnadenhandelns (gratia dei applicatrix) einerseits und der menschlichen Heilserfahrung andererseits. Auf der Grundlage der reformatorischen Rechtfertigungslehre und zugleich über sie hinausgehend wird das Wirken des Hl. Geistes bzw. der göttlichen Gnade im Leben der Gerechtfertigten in seiner Einheit und Vielfalt beschrieben. Erste Ansätze dazu finden sich bereits im Augsburger …

[English Version] 1.  Anthony Ashley Cooper , (26.2.1671 London – 4.2.1713 Neapel), Third Earl of Sh., bedeutender Aufklärungsphilosoph, Moralist und Vorreiter der Ästhetik. Sein Großvater gleichen Namens, ein berühmter Politiker, betraute J. Locke mit der Erziehung Sh.s, der durch Elizabeth Birch eine sorgfältige Ausbildung in den klassischen Sprachen, antiker und moderner Lit. erhielt. Nach der Zeit am Winchester College (1683–1686), Reisen durch Europa (1686–1689) und Jahren privater Studien betäti…

[English Version] ist eine heftige Gefühlsneigung, die eine Person in die Lage intensiven Handlungsdrucks versetzt, sich in spannungsvoller Erregung zw. Lust und Unlust dem Spiel hinzugeben. Dessen sorglose Leichtigkeit wird so zum sinnentleerten Zeitvertreib herabgesetzt bzw. zur zwanghaften Sucht, zum riskanten – Leib und Gut aufs Spiel setzenden – Leichtsinn gesteigert. Das Spiel pervertiert zum Symbol personaler Unfreiheit, worin sich der Spieler in eine Alternativwelt flüchtet, anstatt die Au…

[English Version] I. Philosophisch U. (lat. iudicium, engl. judgement, franz. le jugement) ist die gedankliche Entscheidung (: I.), die den Prozeß der Meinungsbildung oder der Erkenntnis zum Abschluß bringt; es kann, muß aber nicht mit der Äußerung des entsprechenden Satzes einhergehen. Philos. gehört das U. zu den wichtigsten Problemen von Logik, Erkenntnistheorie, praktischer Philosophie und Ästhetik (Urteilskraft). Wie bereits bei Aristoteles (De interpretatione), der in der α᾿πο´ϕαn̆σις/apóphansis die Verbindung von Begriffen in der mit Anspruch auf Real…

[English Version] I. Philosophisch Die Rede vom S. einer sprachlichen Äußerung ist syst. mehrdeutig. Den verschiedenen Sinnbegriffen entsprechen verschiedene Stufen des Verstehens (Sinnerfassens). Die ersten drei gehören zum Themenfeld der Semantik: (1) Ist der geäußerte Satz P in der Sprache des Sprechers frei von lexikalischer und grammatischer Mehrdeutigkeit, so versteht der Interpret die Äußerung zumindest in einer Hinsicht, wenn er weiß, welchen sprachlichen (lexikalisch-grammatischen) S. der Satz P hat. (2) Ist P mehrdeutig, so versteht man die Äuße…

[English Version] bez. die verantwortliche Sorge für die authentische Bewahrung eines überlieferten Bestandes an Einsichten, Normen, Lebensformen, bzw. Institutionen, der für das Leben einer Gemeinschaft und ihre Ordnung sowie die in ihr lebenden Individuen und deren Bildungsgeschichten identitätsprägende Bedeutung besitzt. T. erschöpft sich nicht in der mündlichen oder schriftlichen Fixierung und starren Perpetuierung des Formbestandes einer Tradition, sondern umfaßt gerade um des Erhalts ihres u…

[English Version] I. Religionswissenschaftlich Das Schamempfinden gehört zur menschlichen Grundausstattung. Es ist ein soziales Gefühl, das sich beim Gewahrwerden eines Defizits einstellt, an dem andere Anstoß nehmen könnten. Anders als das Schuldgefühl setzt es kein konkretes Vergehen voraus. Sch. ist daher nicht nur eine Begleiterscheinung von Verhalten, das sozialer Ächtung unterliegt, etwa der Verletzung sexueller Tabus, Unehrlichkeit, Feigheit oder Treulosigkeit, sondern auch eine Reaktion auf…

[English Version] I. Philosophisch Der Begriff S. (ε῾αυτου˜/heautoú; αυ῾του˜/hautoú) kommt als substantiviertes Adverb vor, häufiger aber als Kompositum in Begriffen wie Selbstbewußtsein, Selbstverhältnis, Selbstbehauptung, Selbstvollzug, Selbstbestimmung, Selbstvergewisserung, Selbstverwirklichung u.a. Seine Grundbedeutung ist die der Selbständigkeit: Das, was selbst sein kann und für sich selbst zu stehen vermag. Bereits der Sprachgebrauch der antiken Philosophie hebt diese Bedeutung hervor: Das, was etwas selbst ist (καϑ᾿ αυ῾τα´/kath' hautá; Arist.metap…

[English Version] (Imputabilität) bez. ethisch und rechtlich die bei einer mündigen Person im Normalfall vorauszusetzende Fähigkeit, im Kontext einer gegebenen Handlungssituation die Sittlichkeit bzw. Rechtmäßigkeit einer Handlung, d.h. eines freiwillentlichen Tuns oder Unterlassens, einzusehen und dieser Einsicht gemäß zu handeln sowie ggf. für die Handlungsfolgen rechenschaftspflichtig zu sein und haftbar gemacht werden zu können. Der Begriff entstammt der Imputationslehre (Zurechnung, Rechtfert…