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[German Version] This term refers to the clarification of the mode of the unity of God and human in Christ gained in the course of the Early Church's christological disputes (Christology) by differentiating between the Greek ϕύσις/ phýsis (Lat. natura) and ὑπόστασις/ hypóstasis (Lat. suppositum/ persona): it describes a unity of deity and humanity on the level of the ὑπόστασις (Hypostasis) despite the difference in the natures (Doctrine of two natures). The formula thus attained is extremely capable of and in need of interpretation; the various understa…

[German Version] I. Dogmatics 1. General. Means of salvation ( media salutis) are creaturely, tangible (“outward”) media “in, with, and under” which the salvation (III) realized through Christ is communicated to human individuals in their own present. They are signposts that point to Christ as the medi-¶ ator of salvation and in that act of pointing make Christ himself present. The dependence of participation in salvation on outward mediation reflects incarnational theology (God himself was “realized” in Christ), soteriology (justification takes place pro nobis but extra nobis), …

[German Version] I. Dogmatics – II. Ethics I. Dogmatics Aristotle used the term ἕξις/ héxis (Lat. habitus) to describe the basic condition for people (and not merely their actions) to be ethically qualified, if humans are inherently able to regularly and willingly limit their affects in life's basic situations to the right, situation-appropriate degree (cf. Eth. Nic. II, 3 and 4 [1105a 17–1106a 13]). The regularity of right conduct, for instance, which permits a person to be described as “righteous” refers to a habit or disposition acquired through…

[German Version] (Nov 21, 1806, Nürnberg – Oct 5, 1879, Munich), studied with F.W.J. Schelling and others in Erlangen (1823–1826) and with F.A.G. Tholuck in Halle (1826–1828). Under Tholuck's revivalist influence, he came to a “conversion experience.” He became professor in Erlangen in 1836, was transferred to Bayreuth as consistorial councillor (because of his vote in the “genuflexion controversy”), became professor in Leipzig (1845), preacher at the upper court and vice-president of the regional…

[German Version] κένωσις/ kénōsis; exinanitio). The Christ-hymn in Phil. 2:6–11 describes the life of Jesus in two “stages” as a path from incarnation to the cross and as post-resurrection exaltation. The doctrine of the “state” of humiliation, which was not really articulated terminologically until the intra-Protestant dispute concerning Christology, adopts the central term associated with the first stage: heautón ekénōsen (v. 7). This doctrine expounds the relationship between the doctrines of the person and work of Christ. Beginning with the initial …

[German Version] (Nov 8, 1876, Petersburg – Jan 5, 1940, Bad Nauheim), church historian at Breslau (Wrocław), Vienna, and Rostock (from 1921). His edition of the commentary on the Sentences by Gandulf of Bologna deserves special mention, along with his studies on the history of the Reformation, including his analysis of K. Holl’s interpretation of justification ( Mystik und Rechtfertigung beim jungen Luther, 1937) and the Diet of Augsburg ( Luther und Melanchthon während des Augsburger Reichstags, 1931). His strength was the elicitation and vivid description of the inte…

[German Version] I. Concept, Historical and Legal Foundations The concept of the party has always been polyvalent in the political semantics of European modernity, while the historical configurations of parties have been subject to extreme variations. As intermediary, organizationally cemented groups representing shared views and positioned between the general population and the government, and legitimized by the respective national electoral law, parties have helped promote the parliamentarization and …

[German Version] The concept of a status confessionis comes from the situation presented in Matt 10:32f., in which – under persecution – one must decide (Decision) between confessing Christ and denying Christ. Not every situation requiring a decision involves a status confessionis. Paul, for example, considered eating food offered to idols irrelevant to a person’s relationship to God (Adiaphora). But those who could see eating such food only as separation from Christ should refrain (Rom 14; 1 Cor 8). The term itself emerged during the Adiaphorist controversy, in which Mela…

[German Version] ( Jul 26, 1802, Egenhausen – Jan 24, 1875, Erlangen), theologian associated with the Erlangen School (professor at Erlangen from 1842). Thomasius considered Scripture, the church’s confessions of faith, and the individual consciousness of salvation (faith) to be substantially identical manifestations of Christianity. He organized his dogmatic theology ( Christi Person und Werk, 5 vols., 1852–1861), focused on Christology and its implications, as a methodical explication of the consciousness of fellowship with God mediated through …

[German Version] (Dec 21, 1810, Nürnberg – Dec 20, 1877, Erlangen). Hofmann was influenced by proponents of the revival movement, during his early schooling by Karl Ludwig Roth and during his studies in Erlangen from 1827 onward by C. Krafft and K. v. Raumer. He continued his studies in Berlin in 1829 (esp. with L. (v.) Ranke), and became a teacher at a Gymnasium in Erlangen after passing his exams in 1832. He obtained his Habilitation in 1838, became associate professor at Erlangen University in 1841, in Rostock in 1842, and returned to Erlangen in 1845, where he taught until his death. Hofmann…

[German Version] denotes the “mutual interchange of attributes” of the second person of the Deity with the human person Jesus of Nazareth or attributes of humanity with the second person of the Deity in the person of Jesus Christ (Christology). It manifests first in the language of worship (prayer addressed to Jesus; predication of Mary as Theotokos) as well as in the biblical documents and ecclesiastical tradition (1 Cor 2:8b; Mark 2:10). The Chalcedonian Defin…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Bible – III. Dogmatics – IV. Education and Ethics – V. Law I. Religious Studies Emphasis on the phenomenon known as obedience varies among religions, but wherever human beings are understood as hearers of a divine or sacred word obedience plays an important role as the claim of a higher, transhuman power on human beings. The religious will to obey presupposes prevailing over one’s own self-will for the sake of God or what is holy. The Enlighten-¶ ment, which calls human beings to autonomy, led to a crisis of the religious concept of o…

[German Version] (Sep 29, 1792, Copenhagen – Mar 3, 1862, Slagelse, Zealand). After his university studies, degree, and habilitation, he was appointed to a pastorate in Copenhagen; there he translated the Augsburg Confession and its Apologia as well as patristic texts into Danish. In 1829 he succeeded E.W. Hengstenberg as superintendent in Glauchau (Saxony); during his tenure, a revival movement (Revival/Revival movements) took root. Rudelbach was a confessional Lutheran (Neo-Lutheranism), who also supported the Evangelische Kirchenzeitung and its antirationalist posit…

[German Version] (Mar 6, 1903, Darmstadt – May 20, 1984, Heidelberg), one of the leading participants in the ecumenical dialogue following World ¶ War II. His academic career began during the Kirchenkampf; he was active in many functions on behalf of the Confessing Church. Initially he taught at Bethel; after the seminary was dissolved by the Gestapo in 1939, he served as a pastor. After the war, he accepted a call to Heidelberg, where the founded the first Ecumenical Institute. His multifaceted ecumenical involvement both in…

[German Version] I. Terminology – II. Christianity – III. Judaism – IV. Islam I. Terminology The term orthodoxy derives from Greek ὀρϑός/ orthós, “right, true, straight,” and δόξα/ dóxa, “opinion, teaching.” The word and its derivatives appear in pre-Christian literature (Liddell & Scott, s.v.) but acquired their specifically religious sense only in the context of Christianity, where confession of Jesus as Lord or Christ plays a constitutive role in religious practice (Rom 10:10; Matt 10:32f.) and the need appeared early on to identify a…

[German Version] (Mar 17, 1800, Fraustadt, Lower Silesia [now Wschowa, Poland] – Dec 16, 1862, Eisleben) was a figure in the post-1817 revival movement. His writing was influenced by Romanticism, and he drew on the patriotic liberalism of the Burschenschaften. In 1818 he came in contact with F.A.G. Tholuck and the revivalist group associated with H.E. Baron v. Kottwitz; he dated his conversion from that year. He was active as an academic teacher (e.g. in Barmen-Wichlinghausen). His primary interest was exegesis; he focused initially …

[German Version] I. Catholicism 1. History. Traditionalism in the broader sense does not correlate clearly with Christianity or any denomination. A tendency to invest long-standing tradition as a whole or particular authorities within a body of religious tradition with special dignity and binding force appears primarily in the context of attempts to deal with acute crises of belief and practice by maintaining a firm hold on the past. Catholic traditionalism in the narrower sense was therefore a 19th-…

[German Version] (Jun 29, 1858, Middels, East Frisia – Oct 7, 1933, Leipzig). After studies at various universities from 1878 to 1881, Ihmels became a pastor in 1883. In 1884 he was appointed director of studies at the seminary in Loccum. In 1898 he became professor of systematic theology in Erlangen (Erlangen School); in 1902 he was called to Leipzig. Appointed as the first bishop of the regional church in Saxony, he became active in the ecumenical movement. Ihmels was an enormously effective pre…

[German Version] (1224/1225, Roccasecca, duchy of Aquino – Mar 7, 1274, Fossanova) I. Life and Work Thomas Aquinas was born the son of Landolfo de Aquino, a member of the lower nobility, and his wife Theodora, in Roccasecca in the duchy of Aquino, his family’s seat. Aquino lay at the frontier of the church ¶ states, in the far north of the kingdom of Sicily. As oblate (I) Thomas received his early education at the nearby Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino. In 1239 he went to study at the Imperial University of Naples. There, c. 1244, he entered the …

[German Version] I. History of Religion – II. Fundamental Theology – III. Philosophy I. History of Religion The Greek noun logos (λόγος/ lógos), which is derived from the verb λέγειν/ légein, “to say, to speak,” designates the human faculty of speech and ability to reason, usually in combination, as well as numerous individual aspects such as: sentence, topic, oration, prose, teaching, judgment, cause, conclusion, and reason. In its earliest attestations logos refers to an “oration,” whose deceptive effects are frequently emphasized (Hom. Od. I 56) – thus in the personific…

[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Dogmatics – III. Ethics I. Philosophy A good is something we actively pursue for ourselves (Action: I). Obviously there are different kinds of goods that we pursue: prosperity, health, development of our talents, friendship, professional success, the joy of love, long life, etc. Classically (Plato, Laws 697b, 743e) ¶ goods can be divided into three classes: external goods, goods of the body, such as health, and goods of the soul, such as friendship and justice. Our appetite for goods inevitably leads to confli…

[German Version] I. The Cross in Non-Christian Religions – II. Crucifixion in Antiquity – III. The Crucifixion of Christ – IV. Church History – V. Dogmatic Theology – VI. The Cross in Modern Art I. The Cross in Non-Christian Religions From prehistoric times to the present, various forms of the cross have appeared in many non-Christian cultures and religions, used both as a religious symbol and as an ornamental design (the boundaries are fluent). It is a primal human symbol. As such it is polysemous and has …

[German Version] In the first instance, the expression real presence means a position that takes the words of institution (“This is my body/blood”) literally, arguing that “in, with, and under” the elements of the Eucharist, the body and blood of Jesus Christ are actually received, in contrast, say, to the position of Berengar of Tours and Zwingli, which interprets the words of institution metaphorically and considers the elements signs representing the humanity of Christ, seated at the right hand of God…