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[German Version] I. Old Testament – II. New Testament – III. Judaism – IV. Law – V. Ethics I. Old Testament The death penalty in the Old Testament has three causes: 1. blood revenge as a direct legal reaction by a family damaged by a homicide; 2. cultic law involving severe violations of religious taboos such as witchcraft, sodomy and apostasy (Ex 22:17–19); 3. family property …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies and History of Religions – II. Death and the Realm of the Dead in the Old Testament – III. Judaism – IV. New Testament – V. Philosophy – VI. Philosophy of Religion – VII. History of Dogma and Dogmatics – VIII. Ethics – IX. Practical Theology – X. Art – XI. Islam – XII. Buddhism – XIII. Hinduism I. Religious Studies and History of Religions 1. General Modern religious criticism regards religion as compensation for human anxiety in the face of death. Although engagement with death contributed essentially to the development of human culture, witnesses to the early history of religions place earthly life in the foreground, for the most part. Religious traditions assess death and afterlife differently. At any rate, death manifests itself as requiring an explanation almost everywhere; it is rarely regarded as a natural phenomenon. Death appears in male and/or female form. Although sometimes male forms dominate (e.g. the “Grim Reaper”), female personifications prevail in many cultures (goddesses of death, of illness, and of the underworld are widespread). A distinction is made between “bad” and “good” death depending on age, place of death, circumstances of death, and the proper ritual treatment (Dead, Cult of the). Religions develop concepts and rituals to integrate death and prepare people for death in various degrees of intensity. Life

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. Judaism – IV. New Testament – V. Practical Theology I. Religious Studies …