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[German Version] Human seducibility comes with with human freedom of action (Gen 1:28; 2:15) and linguistic competence (Gen 2:19f.); misjudging its extent in the “vertigo” of possibilities (cf. Kierkegaard, 60), it flirts with the impossible (Gen 3:6). People allow themselves to be seduced when they seek to realize the impossible possibility of being like God (Gen 3:5), so that even the presupposition of creaturely trial and error that is part of freedom of action is called into question or allows…

[German Version] Lament I. Religious Studies – II. Bible – III. Systematic Theology – IV. Practical Theology – V. Judaism I. Religious Studies Lament has its roots in human experience; it gives voice to suffering and mourning, in ritual, poetic, or informal form. Its end is not theoretical, like theodicy, but practical: people react to the experience of situations perceived as mentally, physically or socially painful and process these experiences individually or collectively. The prototypical occasion for mournin…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Systematic Theology I. Religious Studies In the religious studies context, gifts are usually not understood in terms of a present, and such an idea is ¶ based on a misunderstanding (M. Douglas, preface to Mauss, VII). Each gift is one part within a system of reciprocities between those giving and those receiving at the time. Participants in this system may belong to various levels: closer or more distant groups or individuals among the living of varying generations, the dead (ancest…

[German Version] I. Basics – II. History – III. Systematic Theology I. Basics Liturgical or congregational intercession (Prayer) is one of the primary duties of the church and the congregation (Worship). Such intercession lives on even when the powerful forget themselves and the helpless are forgotten. It transcends all (pious) wishes. With short texts of its own, the congregation takes part in ektenia and litany. The topical nature of intercession is augmented by the concretion, which dispenses with the …

[German Version] I. Dogmatics – II. Practical Theology I. Dogmatics A legal challenge involves retroactive nullification of a declared intent by means of a later declaration. Religious ¶ and theological usage preserves something of this sense, since a challenge to faith fundamentally challenges the word given in God's name (Exod 3), God's promise that establishes his presence, God's own nature as promise (Exod 20:2). Does God keep his promise? Can he keep it? Does he intend to keep it? There …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. Judaism – IV. New Testament – V. Church History – VI. Dogmatics and Ethics I. Religious Studies Humility is an attitude of conscious abasement (Humiliation) and submission. Some modes of expressing humility, such as postures or gestures, can be traced to biological roots; others are conventional, for example a “humble glance” or foot washing. In many cases we encounter an inversion of what is culturally normal, for example nakedness in the poverty (IV) movements of the Middle Ages. Basically, a distinction must b…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies Examination of repentance from the perspective of religious studies must confront the problem that the term itself has no culturally neutral meaning. Many of the phenomena in other religions that Christians tend to call repentance appear in a different light when viewed in the context of different anthropological presuppositions, ¶ so that due weight must be given to the religious anthropology in question. Generally speaking, it is true to say that in almost all non-Christian religions the notion of repentance c…

[German Version] I. Old Testament – II. New Testament – III. Early Judaism – IV. Church History – V. Philosophy – VI. Philosophy of Religion – VII. Dogmatics – VIII. Ethics – IX. Sociology, Politics, and Law I. Old Testament 1. The concept of political freedom, which originated in the Greek polis (City cult), first appeared in Hellenistic Jewish historiography. The Stoics' concept of freedom, which contrasts inner freedom and outward constraint, has no counterpart in the OT. The OT is rooted in an internal mythological cultur…

[German Version] (Apr 29, 1904, Tailfingen – Feb 1, 1975, Bonn). After studying at Tübingen, Marburg, and Princeton, Bizer became a pastor in Tailfingen in 1934. He entered the army in 1942; as a prisoner of war, he served as director of the theological school in the prison camp at Montpellier. In 1947 he became professor of church history at Bonn (D. Theol. B…

[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Philosophy of Religion – III. Dogmatics – IV. Ethics I. Philosophy Until G.W.F. Hegel, otherness is a basic provision of finitude. The concept “otherness = the other” acquires a specially personal and anthropological significance for the predecessors of “I-thou” philosophy. In a letter of 1781 to J.C. Lavater, F.H. Jacobi discovers the meaning of the other, or “thou,” for the human development of the solitary “I” subject: “I open eye or ear, or I stretch out my hand, and in that very instant I feel inseparably: thou a…

[German Version] The term “metacriticism” was coined (as Metakritik) by J.G. Hamann on Jul 7, 1782 in the context of discussing I. Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. On Sep 15, 1784, he sent his Metakritik über den Purismus der Vernunft [Metacriticism of the purism of reason] to J.G. Herder. Drawing on Hamann's text and modifying it, Herder subsequently published the two-part treatise Verstand und Erfahrung. Eine Metakritik zur Kritik der reinen Vernunft [Intellect and experience: a metacriticism of the “critique of pure reason”]. Hamann's own text was only published …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Philosophy of Religion – III. Bible – IV. Judaism – V. Christianity – VI. Islam I. Religious Studies In the context of rational Christian metaphysics, the knowability of God is assumed and God-talk is substantiated in such a way that certain attributes, such as holiness (Sacred and profane: V), eternity, …

[German Version] I. Old Testament – II. Judaism – III. New Testament – IV. Dogmatic/Ethics – V. Islam I. Old Testament The direct statements of the Old Testament about mercy as a loving and helping approach to others who had fallen into need or guilt are crystallized in Hebrew around the root רחם ( rḥm). The situation is complicated by overlapping of content with the root חנן ( ḥnn, “to be gracious”; Grace: II). Moreover, the OT deals with mercy itself without using the roots חנן or רחר, for example, in the description of God in the primordial history (Gen 1–11). An etymologi…

[German Version] I. Dogmatics According to the New Testament (see esp. 2 Cor 1:19f.), Jesus Christ is the bodily form and story through which God in the Holy Spirit reveals, conveys, and gives his promise – or more precisely reveals, conveys, and ¶ gives himself as promise, in, with, and under his name (Exod 3:14): “I am the Lord your God” (Exod 20:2). God is the God who “keeps certain what he promises” (Ps 33:4b*, following Luther’s translation). Therefore promise (Lat. promissio) alongside commitment (Gift) is the primary word of Luther’s Reformation theology; its criteriol…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies 1. General Suffering is a concept that needs to be approached constructively in comparative religious study as it takes fundamental negative human experiences to a comparative level. On this interpretive level, suffering is understood as one of the fundamental experiences of human life. What people experience as suffering depends on their particular interpretation of the world and hence on their religious system for interpreting the world. The point at which religi…

[English Version] Die Verführbarkeit des Menschen ist mit der ihm gewährten Handlungsfreiheit (Gen 1,28; 2,15) und Sprachvernunft (Gen 2,19f.) gegeben, die in Verkennung ihrer Reichweite im »Schwindel« der Möglichkeiten (vgl. Kierkegaard 60f.) mit dem Unmöglichen liebäugelt (Gen 3,6). Der Mensch läßt sich verführen, wenn er die unmögliche Möglichkeit zu verwirklichen sucht, wie Gott zu sein (Gen 3,5), damit selbst noch die Voraussetzung des zur Handlungsfreiheit gehörenden schöpfungsgemäßen Versuc…

[English Version] I. Dogmatisch Jesus Christus ist nach dem NT (vgl. bes. 2Kor 1,19f.) die leibliche Gestalt und Gesch., durch die Gott im Hl. Geist seine V., genauer: sich als V. – in, mit und unter seinem Namen (Ex 3,14): »Ich bin der Herr, dein Gott!« (Ex 20,2) – eröffnet, mitteilt und gibt. Gott ist der, der gewiß hält, was er zusagt (Ps 33,4b nach der Übertragung Luthers). Entsprechend ist V. (lat. promissio) zus. mit (Hin-) Gabe das Urwort der reformatorischen Theol. Luthers; ihre kriteriolog…