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[German Version] See also Heavenly voice, Memra, Revelation. I. Religious Studies Humans experience messages from the deity or divine beings (Inspiration/Theopneusty, Revelation) in the form of speech. Formally we must distinguish (a) the word of the deity himself, as recorded in sacred scripture after a phase of oral transmission (Torah, Qurʾān, Vedas, Avesta); (b) words communicated by individuals specially chosen and called by God (the word that calls); (c) words spoken by elect individuals having a spe…

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[German Version] I. Study and History of Religion – II. Philosophy of Religion I. Study and History of Religion Greek ὕβρις, “pride, infringement, maltreatmen…

[German Version] I. Name and Titles – II. Jesus Christ in the History of Christianity – III. Jesus Christ in Other Religions – IV. Jesus Christ in Jewish Perspective – V. Jesus Christ in Islamic Perspective – VI. Jesus Christ in Art…

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[German Version] I. Philosophy of Religion Meister Eckhart used a term corresponding to “reality” to translate the Aristotelian ἐνέργεια/ enérgeia (Capacity). According to Aristotle, reality derives its name from working, from having an effect (cf. Metaphysics Θ 1050 a 21ff.). The form that a living being produces or brings about through the power of the soul’s ¶ …

[German Version] I. Old Testament – II. New Testament – III. Dogmatics I. Old Testament…

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[German Version] ( superbia) is considered, in Christian teaching on sin, as the true expression of the sin against God. The finite, limited human being refuses to be content with his human nature. He or she wants to “be like God” (Gen 3:4), wanting to imitate God’s action and even God’s being. Pride can therefore also be described as presumptuous hubris, in which human beings try to misappropriate the divine. In Christian tradition, such striving was traced back to desire ( concupiscentia) (Augustine). Provided this interpretation is detached from fixation on sexuality, it …

[German Version] The determination of the relationship between faith and works lies at the heart of the doctrine of justification. According to Paul, a sinner is justified by faith “apart from works of the law” (Rom 3:28). Luther made this more specific in his translation by saying that a person is justified “ solely by faith, without the works of the law.” The substance of this exclusive understanding of faith was directed against the letter of James (cf. Jas 2:24) and against the Roman Catholic doctrine of grace. According to Luther, faith that …

[German Version] Christian theology is actually christocentric by nature, as it derives its decisive statements concerning God, humanity, and reality itself from Jesus Christ, the focus of Christian faith (Christology). In him, God determined the salvation of humanity with eschatological validity. All claims of the church to the validity of its cognitive insights regarding God and humanity must therefore be measured in relation to Jesus Christ. ¶ In the history of Christian theology, however, this constitutive Christocentrism did not result in Jesus Christ being understood as the only source and exclusive criterion of all theological insights. Rather, the great tradition of natural theology indicates that a certain cognitive insight into God, his creation and his will within a decidedly christocentric theology may be regarded as possible even without knowledge of Jesus Christ. Consequently, natu…

[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] The hiddenness of God in the world is the reason why certainty of God (Certainty: II, III) can only exist in faith. Were God accessible to us through the senses, as the world is, there would then be no need of faith that rests on that which cannot be seen (Heb 11:2). As long as people are confronted with God in this world, they must also come to terms with the hiddenness of God. This concealment, however, cannot remain absolute, since a certainty of God could never arise if he wer…

[German Version] I. Fundamental Theology. – II. Dogmatics I. Fundamental Theology …

[German Version] I. Comparative Religion – II. Dogmatics – III. Ethics I. Comparative Religion …