Search

[German Version] ( permissio) in the doctrine of providence emphasizes God’s effective role, especially in gov-¶ ernment ( gubernatio) – as distinct from the modes of hindrance and restriction ( impeditio and determinatio), and direction ( directio) – in recognizing the independence of his creatures, even when this is a possible basis for evil, sin, and suffering, including the risk of claims to independence of God (Ps 81:13; Rom 1:24, 28). Permission is linked to the problem of theodicy. God does not will evil, sin, and suffering…

[German Version] This expression denotes God's creative cooperation (or “concurrence”) in the relative acts of creatures (Free will) against the background of the noetic distinction between being and action. With the emergence of Aristotelianism in the 13th century, the term, which originated in Roman civil law (“coincidence of multiple claims”), was applied to the philosophical/theological problem of cooperation between …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies Certainty is a fundamental human need. The answers given by religions to unsettling experiences cover a broad cultural spectrum. The issue is (1) to foresee fate as much as possible, (2) to integrate it into a cosmology, and (3) thus to master it. In general terms, we can identify four ways of containing the unforeseeable. 1. Being at the mercy of natural events. When they are powerless, people feel at the mercy of a powerful, threatening fate. Archaic forms of religion and shamanistic experiences (Shamanism) document how this impersonal mysterium tremendum works. But modern socialized individuals can also react to catastrophes with similar fatalistic assessments (Fatalism). In popular religion, they cause a trauma and convey a feeling of being exposed passively to these dark powers. 2. Controlled providence. People may re…

[German Version] is the theological term for the way God sustains the being of creation through time (Creatio continua). Despite human sin, God sustains his creation faithfully and patiently until redemption comes with the advent of Christ. Conservatio includes an aspect of innova…

1. Protestant and Roman Cathlic Church membership and adherence are related to the theological and institutional understanding of the church. Church membership has both spiritual and legal dimensions. 1.1. ¶ On the Protestant view, the church is the communion of saints instituted by the Holy Spirit. Church membership, then, is essentially being part of the communion of saints. It begins with the work of the Holy Spirit, who brings one into this fellowship through the preaching of the gospel. Baptism is incorporation into the…

[English Version] I. ReligionswissenschaftlichSicherheit gehört zu den Grundbedürfnissen des Menschen. Die Antworten, welche die Rel. auf verunsichernde Erfahrungen anbieten, sind kultu…

[English Version] (permissio) thematisiert in der Vorsehungslehre, speziell der Regierung (gubernatio) – im Unterschied zu den Modi der Hinderung und Begrenzung (impeditio und determinatio) und Leitung (directio) –, Gottes Wirken, das die Selbständigkeit der Geschöpfe auch als Ermöglichungsgrund des Bösen, der Sünde und des Leids (Leiden) anerkennt, was das Risiko der Verselbständigung gegen Gott einschließt (Ps 81,13; Röm 1,24.28). Die Z. ist mit dem Theodizeeproblem verbunden. – Gott will das Bö…