Search

an ethnic group (also called Nasoreans or Ar. Ṣābeʾin) belonging to one of the less represented religions of the Near East.MANDAEANS i. HISTORY MANDAEANS, an ethnic group (also called Nasoreans or Ar. Ṣābeʾin) belonging to one of the less represented religions of the Near East. The term “Mandaeans” ( mandāyi) is not an original self-designation (see ii). From pre-Islamic times to the present, they have lived in southern Iraq and southwestern Iran (Khuzestan), but since the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88) and later upheavals in the region, they are also to be found in Europe, North America, and Australia. It is thought that they now number over 50,000 in t…

Jonas was a scholar of Gnostic and Manichean religion as well as a prolific author who wrote many books, essays, and articles on the philosophical problems of nature, organism, and technology. JONAS, HANS (b. Mönchengladbach, Germany, 10 May 1903; d. New Rochelle, N.Y., 5 February 1993), philosopher who significantly contributed to 20-century research on gnosticism (FIGURE 1). Life. Jonas was born into a Jewish family in Mönchengladbach, a city in the Prussian Rhine Province. He lived as a teenager through World War I and became a Zionist. In 1921, Jonas graduated from high school ( Gymna…

[German Version] "Barbelo" is the name or epithet of a female entity who appears in Gnostic texts as the first emanation of the (androgynous) supreme being and as the cause for the appearance of the pleroma (including the heavenly Christ). The meaning of the Semitic/Aramaic name is uncertain ("God is in the four," "daughter of the lord," "mighty through God"). Barbelo comes from a semi-Jewish wisdom tradition. Irenaeus calls one Gnostic group "Barbelo Gnostics" ( Haer. I, 29; possibly from a gloss); the same group appears again in Epiphanius…

…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies Religious studies has adopted the term redeemer from the biblical language of Christianity to represent Latin redemptor (Vulgate) and Greek ῥυόμενος/ rhyómenos or λυτρωτής/ lytrōtḗs (Job 19:25; Isa 63:16; Acts 7:35; Rom 11:26). Luther used Erlöser (“redeemer”) in these cases, but Heiland (“savior”) to represent Latin salvator and Greek σωτήρ/ sōtḗr. The terms are synonymous in both German and English. The worldwide use of the term in non-Christian contexts has increasingly made it part of the metalinguistic terminology of religious studies and related disciplines; comparative religion uses it to describe religious phenomena and establish typologies (e.g. “religion of redemption”). The fuzziness result-¶ ing from use in very …

[German Version] a Gnostic Christian group with libertine elements. Mentioned by Epiph. Haer. XXV–XXVI, they existed in Egypt (Alexandria) during his lifetime (4th cent.). They were also called Borborites, Gnostics, Kodd…

…

…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Ancient Near East and Israel – III. Judaism – IV. Greece and Rome – V. New Testament – VI. Church History – VII. Dogmatics – VIII. Ethics – IX. Philosophy I. Religious Studies History is a major aspect of the study of religion. Apart from its roots in the Enlightenment idea of tolerance, it owes its scholarly development to the historicism of the 19th century. As a result, the expression history of religions ( Religionsgeschichte, histoire des religions, storia delle religioni) has remained dominant in continental Europe, in contrast to the fuzzy religious studies or study of religion(s). This phi…

[German Version] The “three-times greatest Hermes” is a Greco-Egyptian god (Egypt: III, 2) who combines aspects of the Greco-Stoic Hermes Logios as well as of the ancient Egyptian “three-times great” god of wisdom Thot (from 3rd cent. bce; cultic center: Hermopolis). Primarily in the so-called Hermetic writings (Hermeticism/Hermetism), he is assigned the central role of revealer, founder, and mystagogue of the monotheistic doctri…

1. Religious Aspects 1.1. General The term “prayer” has to do with a central fact in the divine-human relation, at the root of which…

1. In Religion The sanctuary (Lat. sanctus, “sacred, holy”), or holy place, is a central element in religion and its visible form of expression. Even today one can easily identify a geographic region by its sanctuaries (churches in Christian areas, mosques in Muslim, stupas in Buddhist, and temples in Hindu). In this way religion has had an impact on landscape. The sanctuary may be situated on, in, or by a particular place in nature (a hill, river, fountain, lake, grove, cave, or rock), or it may involve something made by humans (a house, altar, hearth,…