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[English Version] Wasser, religionsgeschichtlich. I. W. erscheint weltweit als fundamentales und urspr. Element der Welt und des Lebens (vgl. Erde, Feuer, Wind) und spielt daher in rel. Protologien eine wichtige Rolle. In Gestalt eines Urmeeres oder unterirdischer Seen wird es in kosmogonischen Mythen als eine geschaffene oder bereits vor aller Zeit existente Ursubstanz angesprochen. Anthropologisch können weitere, den Menschen konstituierende »Säfte« unterschieden werden. Die lebenswichtige Bedeutu…

[English Version] Versiegelung, religionsgeschichtlich. Dokumente und Eigentumssachen werden durch Siegel geschützt. Die V. soll vor unberechtigter Aneignung oder Einsicht bewahren, sie sichert Authentizität sowie Autorität des Siegelnden (Absenders, Besitzers) mit symbolischer Macht. Die profan-rechtliche Bedeutung begründet die häufig bezeugten rel. Bezugnahmen auf V. So können z.B. Tätowierungen (Tatauierung) oder Amulette ihre Träger der numinosen Macht- und Schutzsphäre einer Gottheit überstel…

[English Version] . I. Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (13.3.1911–24.1.1986) suchte in mehreren, sich hektisch ablösenden Organisationen dem unerwarteten Boom autonomer Dianetikgruppen Herr zu werden, die seinem 1950 veröff. Selbsthilfe-Bestseller »Dianetics« folgten. Diese gingen der »Church of Scientology« (CS, Selbstbez. seit 1954, zuerst in Kalifornien; später mit Zusatz »international«, CSI) voraus. Der Name spiegelt Hubbards Erweiterung der Dianetik-»Therapie« zu einer umfassenden weltanschaulichen …

[German Version] (Mar 27, 1923, Tokyo – Sep 29, 1996, Tokyo), internationally known and much celebrated Japanese author. From his youth, he felt “foreign” in his homeland because of his Catholic faith and desired also in his writing to bridge the cleft, painful for him, between his Christian “garment” and his Japanese “body.” The struggle for an authentic inculturation of the gospel in the Japanese spirit and context finds particular expression in his most famous novel Silence (Jap. Chinmoku, 1966), set in the time of the 17th-century Japanese …

[German Version] Missio Dei, “mission of God,” was introduced into the discussion by K. Hartenstein; the term advanced after the missions conference in Willingen (1952, Mission Conferences, German) and soon became a central concept in the theology of mission. In spite of many different emphases, it implies a new Trinitarian foundation for the understanding of missions (cf. opera and missiones in the context of the “economic Trinity”). For, in distinction to ecclesiocentric mission concepts, the Triune God is to be understood as the real “subject” of mis…

[German Version] I. In a series of organizations that followed each other in hectic succession, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (Mar 13, 1911 – Jan 24, 1986) sought to capitalize on the unexpected boom of autonomous Dianetics groups that followed upon his self-help bestseller Dianetics, published in 1950, and preceded the Church of Scientology ¶ (as it began calling itself in 1954, initially in California; later Church of Scientology International). The name reflects Hubbard’s expansion of Dianetics “therapy” to a comprehensive philosophy of salvation with the programmatic label Sciento…

[German Version] I. Throughout the world, water appears as the fundamental and original element of the world and life (cf. Earth, Fire, Wind), and thus plays an important role in religious protologies. In the form of a primordial ocean or subterranean lakes, cosmogonic myths describe it as a created or already preexistent original substance. From an anthropological perspective, other fluids or “humors” can also be distinguished as constitutive of the human being. The vital importance of water, its purifying power, but also its threatening aspects ¶ (floods, tidal waves, massive r…

[German Version] Documents and personal property are protected by seals (Seal/Stamp). Sealing is designed to protect against unauthorized appropriation or access; it protects the authenticity and authority of the person affixing the seal (sender, owner) with symbolic power. The meaning of sealing in secular legal usage provides the background for the many references to sealing in religious contexts. Tatoos and amulets, for example, place their bearers in the numinous protective sphere of a deity o…

[German Version] I. I. New Testament – II. Missiology I. New Testament Matt. 28:16–20 is often called the Great Commission. The text is a manifesto summarizing the entire Gospel. The speaker in the narrative is “Jesus” (“Ye/Ya saves”: 1:21), “Immanuel” (“El/God is with us”: 1:23; cf. also 2:15; 11:27; 17:5; 28:18). The theocentric Christology in Matthew implies a universal understanding, including Israel. Just as El or YHWH is believed in as the God of Israel and the nations, so is the God whose epiphany is in the histori…

[English Version] I. Religionsgeschichtlich Die Mythen vom U. knüpfen meist an kosmogonische und anthropogonische (Anthropogonie) Mythen an (Ursprung von Welt, Leben, Tier und Mensch), denn der U. bez. eine Ur-Zeit (Protologie) vor aller Zeit und steht damit zw. Schöpfung und Geschichte. In vielen rel. Traditionen wird ein harmonischer, geradezu paradiesischer Äon beschrieben, als die Menschen bzw. die (u.U. theriomorphen) Protomenschen mit den Gottheiten »noch« in direktem Kontakt standen un…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Bible – III. Dogmatics I. Religious Studies Myths of an original state are usually associated with cosmogonic and anthropogonic (Anthropogony) myths concerning the origins of the world, life, animals, and human beings, for the original state refers to a primal age (Protology) before all time, falling between creation and history. Many religious traditions describe a harmonious, even paradisal eon when humans or (sometimes theriomorphic) protohumans were “still” in d…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies From the outset, religions are involved in processes of exchange with their (religious) environment. This structural relationship to the surrounding world finds expression in internal representations of what is “strange/alien/foreign” or “other” and is part of the self-reference of religious systems. Because other religions are often experienced as competing entities, in most traditions they represent a great challenge to the adherents’ own identity. Therefore re…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Practical Theology – III. Ethics (Phases of Maturation) – IV. Judaism – V. Hinduism I. Religious Studies In almost all cultures and religions, a person apparently experiences his life not only as a straight line, but more as cyclically sequenced, more-or-less discontinuous phases with varied social status and role claims. The transition between these phases usually takes place as a controlled “growing process,” not only accompanied by so-called rites of passage, but in f…

[German Version] I. Comparative Religion – II. New Testament – III. Practical Theology – IV. Liturgy – V. Missiology I. Comparative Religion Exorcism, latinized from the Greek ἐξορκίζεῖν/ exorkízein, literally “to conjure out,” consists of procedures aimed at removing psychic, social, or material disruptions that are attributed to the presence of undesirable spirits. Exorcism is accordingly practiced worldwide and …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Bible – III. Fundamental Theology and Dogmatics – IV. Philosophy – V. Philosophy of Religion – VI. Natural Sciences – VII. Ethics I. Religious Studies Religious ideas and rituals focus fundamentally on life in this world and the next (Here and now, and the hereafter), i.e., coping with life and death (I). Through an immense range of variations, certain returning elements are discernible. Because of its numinous origin (Creation), life is usually felt to be “owed,” but because …

[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] 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. Natural Sciences and Psychology – II. Religious Studies – III. Philosophy – IV. Old Testament – V. New Testament – VI. Church History – VII. Dogmatics and Ethics – VIII. Judaism – IX. Islam I. Natural Sciences and Psychology 1. Evolution From the perspective of the natural sciences, the theory of evolution offers the most comprehensive framework for understanding human beings. It views the human species as a late product of a biogenetic process that began with the origin of life (VI) on earth some 3.8 billion …

[German Version] I. Concept – II. Religious Studies – III. Early Christianity – IV. Early Church to the Reformation – V. Modern Era – VI. Orthodox Churches – VII. Asia, Africa, Latin America – VIII. Systematic Theology – IX. Ethics – X. Practical Theology – XI. Ecumenical Discussion – XII. Law I. Concept 1. Theology The loan-word, church, which in common parlance can mean both the Christian worship service and the building dedicated to its performance as well as the constituted social configuration of Christian faith in t…