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[German Version] I. History 1. The history of religious studies, or the science of religion (Ger. Religionswissenschaft) is a function of its definition or conception; it is thus somewhat ambiguous at ¶ times and is viewed in a variety of ways. Strictly speaking, religious studies did not acquire a more or less fixed framework of tasks and standard methods in Europe until the 20th century; this framework subsequently gained acceptance throughout the world, especially through the efforts of the International Association for the…

[German Version] (vicomte [viscount]; Sep 15, 1858, Strasbourg – Dec 1, 1916, Tamanrasset, Algeria). After a life of dissipation as an officer in the French army, Foucauld rediscovered his Catholic faith through an encounter with Islamic piety and tried to live that faith first among Trappist monks, then as a page among the Clarists. He later ministered among the Tuaregs in the Algerian Sahara and founded a lay community to which L. Massignon also belonged. Foucauld was an extremely multifaceted f…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. Judaism – IV. New Testament – V. Church History – VI. Ethics – VII. Law …

[German Version] I. History 1. The rites controversy is understood to refer to the controversy over whether Christians should be allowed to take part in particular state-ordered ceremonies in eastern Asia (China, India [see 2 below], and Japan; Asia : IV, 3) in the early modern period. This is linked to the question of theological terminology and church decrees. It was a question of how far the message of Christianity could be adapted to indigenous culture (Christianity, Expansion of : IV) and …

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[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Bible – III. Dogmatics – IV. Ethics I. Religious Studies While (re)conciliation as an instrument for reaching an amicable settlement in a lawsuit has echoes of the legal …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies In comparison with expiation (I), reconciliation is defined more specifically; as a rule, its goal is to restore a personal relationship undermined by guilt or sin. In reconciliation we are dealing with a category rooted in ¶ the Judeo-Christian tradition that cannot be translated readily into other contexts. In comparison with Western Christianity, the understanding of reconciliation in Judaism displays several distinctive features. As in Christianity, the concept of reconciliation is complementar…

[German Version] I. Terminology Sin is a human breach of relationship with God. The term is emptied of content if it is used only for moral lapses. Only if a moral transgression in the mundane world is understood as a dimension of human alienation from God can it properly be called sin. The fundamental act of sin is unfaith (Unbelief ). In unfaith we close our eyes to the fact that we owe our existence to God and that he turns to us in love. We resist the idea that he determines our lives totally. T…

[German Version] I. Study of Religion – II. History – III. Sociology – IV. Practical Theology – V. Missiology …

[German Version] I. Philosophy Natural law is the essence of the legal norms that claim to be binding on all human beings, independent of positive laws and conventions. The term goes back to the distinction between nature( phýsis) and law ( nómos; Law/Natural law), put forward by the Sophists of the 5th century bce…