Search

[German Version] Seat of a bishopric in the county of Kent, England. Situated at an important road junction during the Roman period, Canterbury became the main settlement of the Cantiani in the first century ce and shows evidence of Christianization from the beginning of the 4th century. The conquest of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons dealt a severe blow to the development of the city. King Ethelbert made it the capital of the kingdom of Kent, while the Roman monk Augustine of Canterbury, a missionary dispatched by Pop…

[German Version] (1168, Mantua? – 1249, Budriolo, Romagna). A layperson who led a life of penitence as a hermit beginning in 1209 in the small village of Budriolo on the northern margins of the Apennines. He founded a hermit community named after him in 1217, at the earliest; it lived according to the Augustinian Rule (Augustine, rule of) and became an order active in pastoral care in northern Italy which was incorporated in 1256 into the order of the Augustinian Hermits. Ulrich Köpf Bibliography K. Elm, “Italienische Eremitengemeinschaften des 12. und 13. Jh.,” in idem, Vitasfratrum, 199…

[German Version] Genoa is the capital of the Liguria region and a major Italian port on the Gulf of Genoa, on the southern escarpment of the Ligurian Apennines (1998: 642,000 inhabitants). Settled since the 5th century bce by the Ligurians, then a Roman municipium, whose first Christian bishop is attested in 381 ce (it belonged to Milan until 1133, since then an archdiocese). Already a center of trade in the 6th century, the now wealthy Genoa came in the 11th century into competition with Pisa, emerging victorious, after a long struggle, in 1284.…

[German Version] (Nov 26, 1221, Toledo – Apr 4, 1284, Seville), king of Castile and Leon from 1252 to 1284. As the grandson of Philip of Swabia, he claimed the Hohenstaufen throne and embarked on an imperialistic policy embracing the entire Mediterranean region. His political ambitions came to nothing; he was more important as a lawgiver who sought to create a uniform code of law for Castile, historian (he wrote or directed the writing of a history of Spain, Estoria de España, and a universal history, Grande e general estoria), and promoter of astronomy, music, and poetry (427 Cantigas de S.…

[German Version] (c. 1300, northern Germany – Apr 10, 1378, Straßburg). Initially a Dominican, he was a Carthusian after c. 1340 (Straßburg, Coblenz [Prior], Mainz, Straßburg). His major work is the Vita Jesu Christi, a work based on the gospel harmony of Zacharias of Besançon (Chrysopolitanus, first half of the 12th cent.), early church authors and medieval, meditative and historicizing Jesus literature. It does not simply recount Jesus' life, but seeks, in individual sections (structured according to the scheme of lectio, meditatio and oratio and enriched by introductions an…

[German Version] (1248/1249, Foligno – Jan 4, 1309, Foligno). Influenced by the Franciscans at an early age, as a wife and mother Angela experienced a conversion to a life of asceticism and charity during a pilgrimage to Assisi in 1285. In 1291, after her immediate family had died, she joined the Franciscan Third Order. She lived with a female companion; a Franciscan who was related to her served as her confessor. At times a loose circle of disciples (including Ubertino of Casale) gathered about the magistra theologorum. Her confessor translated her ve…

[German Version] (Petrus; Manducator; early 12th cent., Troyes – 1178/1179, Paris). After studies in Troyes (where he became dean of the cathedral in 1147 and a canon of the abbey of St. Loup), Tours, and Paris, in 1159 he succeeded his teacher Peter Lombard at the cathedral school in Paris. In 1168 he became chancellor of Notre-Dame. During his last years, he lived in the Augustinian abbey of St. Victor. From his time as a teacher, many works have survived, mostly never published in print: glosses (Glossa ordinaria) on the Gospels, a commentary on the Psalms and (the first) on the Sentences of…

[German Version] (1026, Bavaria – Jul 5, 1091, Hirsau), who was of noble birth, was entrusted by his parents as an oblate (I) to the Benedictine abbey of St. Emmeram in Regensburg, where he was taught by Otloh of St. Emmeram. While still in Regensburg, he wrote two works on the quadrivium in dialogue form: De astronomia and De musica. In 1069 he was called to Hirsau as abbot (consecrated in 1071). He initially reformed the abbey after the model of St. Emmeram, which had adopted the reforms of Gorze Abbey; after 1076, however, Hirsau came under the influ…

[German Version] (teachers of the church) is an honorific term first used by Bishop Licinianus of Cartagena toward the end of the 6th century (Gregory the Great, Ep. 1.41a). The canonization of theological authorities in Late Antiquity formed a circle of three liturgically venerated Doctores ecclesiae in the Eastern Church (Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, John Chrysostom) and of four in the West (first around 800: Ambrose of Milan, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome, Gregory I the Great). Boniface VIII first officially established ¶ the names of the four Latin egregii Doctores ecclesi…

[German Version] is a form of Christian devotion centered on the passion and crucifixion of Jesus (Passion/Passion traditions). Commemoration of the end of Jesus’ life was always a living presence in the Christian community – despite the criticism of his manner of death by Jews and pagans (1 Cor 1:23), which in turn fostered the Christian interpretation of the cross (Cross/Crucifixion) as a trophy while also discouraging iconographic representation of the crucifixion until the early 5th century. E…

[German Version] ( conversi) are, in the narrower sense, members of a religious community who are not ordained. In the course of history, however, the name fratres laici or conversi has designated various groups of persons. In the early medieval period, conversi were monks who, in contrast to ( pueri) oblati (Oblates: I) who were consigned to a monastery already as children, entered the monastery only as adults. In addition to this so-called “older institution of conversi,” a “younger institution of conversi” arose in the 11th century. It included members of the monastic familia who wer…

[German Version] The suburbicarian dioceses are those in the region adjacent ( suburbium) to Rome. Most have had a checkered history: Albano, Frascati (replacing Tusculum, which replaced Labicum and was de facto an episcopal see from 1058 to 1197, recognized nominally until 1537), Ostia, Palestrina, Porto (united the Santa Rufina [Silva Candida] by Callistus II), Sabina (the result of incorporating the see of Nomentum into the see of Forum Novum; united ¶ with Poggio Mirteto in 1925), Velletri (united with Ostia in 1150, separated once more in 1914, and united with …

[German Version] (died 1115, Antwerp), itinerant ascetic preacher, probably a layman, for some time a member of the circle of Count Robert II of Flanders. In 1112 he is ¶ said to have been in Rome trying to have the islands at the mouth of the Scheldt (Zeeland) removed from the bishopric of Utrecht and placed under the bishopric of Thérouanne (under the archbishopric of Reims). On his return journey, he was imprisoned by the archbishop of Cologne and charged with heresy by the Utrecht cathedral clergy. The stereotyped accusa…

[German Version] village in Latium, in the valley of the Aniene east of Rome. Here Benedict of Nursia is said to have lived in a cave (Sacro Speco) as a hermit and to have later joined with companions to form a monastic settlement in rooms of a former villa of the emperor Nero (monastery of San Clemente). In the years that followed, he is said to have founded ten additional monasteries before going to Monte Cassino in 529. Two of them are still standing today: San Benedetto (Sacro Speco) and, low…

[German Version] I. The term observantia denoted in classical Latin the due veneration of other human beings, especially those who surpass us in age, wisdom, and worth (Cic. De inventione 2.66, 161). In Latin of the imperial period it also came to mean respect for customs and laws (on the relationship with religio, cf. 2 Macc 6:11, Vulgate). From the early Middle Ages, the term was especially applied to religious behavior understood as compliance with divine commands: on the one hand, with regard to keeping church rules in general, especially tho…

[German Version] was the most important translator north of the Alps in the 12th century; he was active for some time in Poitiers. Supported by John of Salisbury and the Abbey St. Denis in Paris, he translated the works and letters of Pseudo- Dionysius Areopagita from Greek into Latin, while avoiding grecisms. The preparation for this work was a commentary on the Hierarchia caelestis. His translations were widely used, especially in the 13th century. Ulrich Köpf Bibliography M. Grabmann, Mittelalterliches Geistesleben, vol. I, 1926, 454–460 W. Berschin, Griechisch-lateinisches Mit…

[German Version] I. Early Research At the dawn of the 21st century, a history of piety is more a desideratum than a reality, especially in Protestantism. In the 19th century, the notion of piety as defined in its modern sense by Pietism, J.W. v. Goethe, and Romanticism and grounded theologically by F.D.E. Schleiermacher did not lead to academic study of the history of piety. To this day, religious scholarship avoids the term; there is no lemma Frömmigkeit in HRWG II, 1990. Not until the end of the 19th century did church history deal with the history of piety, primarily …

[German Version] (c. 1045, Arbrissel near Rennes – Feb 25, 1116, Priory of Orsan-en-Berry), son of a hereditary priest of Arbrissel. After studies in Paris, Robert entered the service of Bishop Silvester of Rennes as a clerk. After further studies in Angers (from 1078) he experienced a conversion to ascetic life, and withdrew as a hermit to the Forest of Craon (Anjou), where he founded a collegiate establishment in 1095, leaving it in order to travel through the countryside preaching repentance (f…

[German Version] An anonymous treatise from the late 14th century, preserved in eight medieval manuscripts. Luther arranged the first printing in 1516, based on a fragment subsequently lost (WA 1, 152f.: “a noble little spiritual book”) and the second in 1518, based on a complete manuscript (likewise lost; WA 1, 375–379: “Eyn deutsch Theologia”). After the Augsburg reprint in 1518 (“Theologia Teütsch”), the title Theologia deutsch became established. The first modern printing appeared in 1843, based on a manuscript formerly in Bronnbach, whose prologue identi…

[German Version] The notion of a new Jerusalem, an eschatological city of God on Mount Zion is already developed in the Old Testament (Zion Pss; Isa 28:16; 54:11f.; Ezek 40:2; 48:30–35; etc.); it was further nurtured by early Judaism (Qumran; 4 Ezra; etc.). The tendency to separate the heavenly Jerusalem from the earthly one, already apparent in the OT texts, became stronger, especially after the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in 70 ce. Thus 2 Bar. 4:2–6 states that the true Jerusalem intended by God is not the visible city; it is instead the preexistent Jerusalem, …

[German Version] (Jan 31, 1911, Avesnes, France – Oct 27, 1993, Clervaux, Luxembourg), a Benedictine monk, was one of the most prolific medievalists of the second half of the 20th century. Having studied in Rome and Paris, he also lectured in various places (esp. in Rome). In 1941, after conducting research on the Scholasticism of the 13th to 15th centuries, Leclercq turned to the partly still unpublished monastic literature of the Middle Ages, especially of the 11th and 12th centuries. His extens…

[German Version] A true (as opposed to “rhetorical”) question (Gk ζήτημα/ zḗtēma, πρόβλημα/ próblēma, ἀπορία/ aporía, Lat. quaestio), seeking an answer that will solve a problem, is a fundamental tool for rational argumentation. It was used already by the ancient Greeks (beginning with the questions of Socrates in the dialogues of Plato) and rabbinic Judaism (in give and take between teacher and student). Formulation of questions became common early on in the theology of the Early Church (reaching a high point in Augustine, e.g. De diversis quaestionibus ad Simplicianum; Quaestione…

[German Version] The city is first mentioned in 912. It was founded in the Anglo-Saxon period and walled by the Normans, and lies at the intersection of important routes. As early as the 12th century there were schools for the artes liberales , law and theology, from which the university developed by the beginning of the 13th century. Following a conflict with the townspeople, most masters and students left Oxford in 1209; some of them founded Cambridge University. When others returned to Oxford in 1214 the university…

[German Version] The Carmelite Order goes back to a community of occidental hermits on Mount Carmel, who were granted a rule by the patriarch of Jerusalem in 1210. It obligated them to a strict contemplative life. The spirituality of the community, led by a prior, was marked by anachoretic traditions, the example of the prophet Elijah, and veneration of the Virgin Mary. In 1240, the Carmelites fled before the growing threat of the Saracens into their European homelands, where …

[German Version] 1. Giovanni (Feb 24, 1463, Mirandola near Modena – Nov 17, 1494, Florence), son of the count of Mirandola. From 1477, he studied canon law, artes liberales, philosophy, and literature, especially in Bologna, Ferrara, Padua, Paris, and Perugia. In addition to Greek, he learned Hebrew and Arabic. He paid several visits to Florence, where he made friends with Lorenzo de’ Medici and his circle, especially with M. Ficino, Angelo Poliziano (1454–1494), and Girolamo Benivieni (1453–1542). …

[German Version] In the 12th century, a scholarly work briefly summarizing the totality of important knowledge in a particular field (Robert of Melun: singulorum brevis comprehensio) came to be called a Summa (later also Summula). Various disciplines were represented: Summa grammaticae/grammaticalis; Summa super Priscianum; Summa dictaminis/artis notariae; Summa logicae ( Summulae dialectices/logicales/logicae); Summa de modis significandi; Summa philosophiae; Summula philosophiae naturalis; Summa de anima, etc. Compendia of civil and canon law were also called Summae…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies 1. The Greek Φύσις/ Phýsis is an abstract personification and an effective divine power. It is not restricted to any particular area of responsibility, and has no cult of its own or special iconography, with two exceptions: the votive relief of Archelaus of Priene (so-called “Apotheosis of Homer,” c. 120–130 bce), and the mosaic of Merida (2nd cent. ce; natura is between heaven, the sea, the Euphrates, the Nile, Tellus etc.). 2. In pre-Socratic natural philosophy (see also Nature), Physis may be personified and thought of as divine power (…

[German Version] I. Archaeology Seals are attested in the ancient Near East since the pre-pottery Neolithic (c. 7000 bce), initially in the form of simple round or oval disks or theriomorphic stamps. Beginning in the late 4th millennium (Susa, Uruk), we also find cylinder seals (Good Shepherd: I, fig.). The latter were in use until the end of the first millennium bce, but they are also found in Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean region. In cultures where papyrus or leather was the commonest writing material, smaller stamp seals were preferred. In Egypt c. 2300 bce, carved stamp seals ca…

[German Version] I. Life – II. Church Historian – III. Systematic Theologian Jul 6, 1912, Berlin-Steglitz – Sep 30, 2001, Zollikerberg/Zürich), Protestant German theologian. I. Life Ebeling began his theological studies in 1930; after studying at Marburg, Berlin, and Zürich, he passed his first theological examination for the examination office of the Confessing Church in Berlin. He prepared for pastoral ministry under …

[German Version] I. General Facts – II. Christianity I. General Facts Lying west of Great Britain in the North Atlantic, Ireland belongs to the British Isles and covers an area of 84,421 km2. Its (esp. in the west) strongly cleft coastline has a total length of 3,173 km. Numerous small offshore islands and reefs played an important role in the history of Ireland as places of refuge, bridgeheads, and the like. The island's interior is relatively flat with a general altitude of approx. 60–120 m above sea level. Mountains, whic…

[German Version] I. Earliest Christianity According to CIJ 2, 1266 and passim, religious teachers known as διδάσκαλος/ didáskalos or רב/ rab (addressed as: διδάσκαλε/ didáskale; רבי/ rabbi; rabbi) existed in Palestine prior to 70 ce (Zimmermann). All four Gospels portray Jesus as a teacher with a circle of disciples who were also responsible for the preservation of his teaching. Q (Logia/Sayings Source/Q), furthermore, emphasizes the teacher’s superiority over the disciple (Luke 6:40 par.). Mark has Jesus being addressed as a διδάσκαλε or ῥαββί/ rhabbí who, in a singular show …

[German Version] I. To the Reformation – II. Modern Era – III. Present I. To the Reformation The term “edifying literature” (or “devotional literature”) embraces all Christian literature that is not liturgical, juristic, merely informative, or scholarly (history, theology) but is meant to edify and encourage piety and Christian conduct. But the boundaries distinguishing e…

[German Version] I. Sociology The popular idea of a town or city is primarily a densely populated and heterogeneous collection of buildings having various uses, provided with specific rights, and always having a market place. The “European city” is however principally understood as being also the arena of city society. Sociology has studied the development of urban societies for about 150 years, because towns are places of close-knit economic growth, social diversity, and innovations and conflicts. To modern sociology the town was simply the laboratory of society. Today in Europe …

[German Version] I. New Testament – II. Church History – III. Dogmatics I. New Testament 1. General: The Greek word αἷμα ( haîma, “blood”) first of all denotes the blood of humans (Mark 5:25; John 19:34) as well as of animals (Heb 9:7, 18–25). Apart from flesh (σάρξ / sárx) blood constitutes a major component of the human body. Thus the expression “flesh and blood” designates the human (Matt 16:17; 1 Cor 15:50; Gal 1:16; Eph 6:12). The blood is the origin (John 1:13), the locus of life (Matt 27:4; Lev 17:11; Wis 7:2; Jub. 6:7; Philo Spec. IV 122f.), the psyche (“…

[German Version] I. Western Hagiography – II. Eastern Hagiography – III. Medieval and Modern Judaism I. Western Hagiography Western hagiography, as a literature that has no scholarly purpose but serves to venerate saints, first followed Greek examples. Its most important genre, the lives of the saints, is shaped less by the panegyric biography of the martyr bishop Cyprian of Carthage, written by the deacon Pontius (2nd half of 3rd cent. ce), than by the vitaes of the desert father Anthony of Padua, written by Athanasius (with two Latin translations), and of Martin …

[German Version] I. New Testament – II. Church History – III. Ethics I. New Testament 1. Discipleship of Jesus in the Gospels An important aspect of the description of Jesus' activity in the Gospels is his call to discipleship. This call is issued unconditionally and requires an immediate decision. When the disciples hear Jesus' invitation to follow him, they obey at once and follow him (ἀκολουϑεῖν/ akoloutheín; Mark 1:16–20 parr.; 2:13–14 parr.; cf. Luke 5:1–11; John 1:35–51). Others, however,…

[German Version] I. History 1. Middle Ages and Reformation. The university, the most important academic institution devoted to teach-¶ ing (Education/Formation) and research today, is a creation of the medieval West. Its appearance marked a deep caesura in the history of Western science, especially in the history of theology (Theology, History/Historiography of). The multiplicity of institutions involved in acquiring and transmitting knowledge (monasteries, cathedral schools, monastery schools, schools run by inde…

[German Version] I. Judaism – II. Christianity – III. Islam I. Judaism Talmudic tradition includes several examples of disputations between Jewish scholars and pagan philosophers or Roman emperors, dealing mainly with the questions of divine unity, the creation and the role of Israel ( b. Sanh. 91a–b; ' Abod. Zar. 10a–11a, etc.). Disputations with representatives of Islam and, especially, of the Christian religion became a central subject in the historical and apologetical literature (…

[German Version] I. Comparative Religion – II. Christianity – III. Buddhism – IV. Monastic Law I. Comparative Religion The term monastery (or cloister) derives from the Christian tradition, where it denotes the living and working quarters, relatively secluded from the outside world, of a monastic community leading some type of ascetic life (Asceticism; see II below). In the broader context of other religions, the term is also tied to the context of monasticism. When certain social structures in non-Christian reli…

[German Version] I. Concept Poverty is a major source of distress. It is a historical circumstance, not a natural condition. We speak of relative poverty when someone’s income is below the mean, absolute poverty when it is below subsistence level. From the perspective of the Bible and contemporary theology, poverty means deprivation but also marginalization, incapacitation, and disfranchisement. Wealth means affluence but also power, exploitation, and oppression (see III and V below). Poverty is a life and death matter. Elmar Klinger Bibliography E. Klinger, Armut, 1990 E.-U. Hu…

[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Fundamental Theology – III. Applications I. Philosophy The concept of effective history ( Wirkungsgeschichte) takes on philosophical significance in the hermeneutics of H.G. Gadamer, where it represents the attempt to clarify the fundamental requirement for understanding texts and make this understanding transparent in its own historically conditioned context. …

[German Version] I. Concept The French term “Renaissance,” which was also borrowed by German and English, belongs to the large group of organic metaphors applied to historical occurrences. Used from the 19th century in sole reference to animal/human life and understood in the sense of “rebirth,” it is assigned in recent research (since Jost Trier) more appropriately to the botanical sphere and explained as “renewed growth,” i.e. as a renewed sprouting of shoots ¶ from felled trees and bushes. Pre-Christian Latin already employed renasci (from nasci, “to be born, to become, to ar…

[German Version] I. The Concept and its Problems – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Judaism – V. Church History I. The Concept and its Problems Since the emergence of historical consciousness in the late 18th and early 19th century, literary historiography has attempted to present literary phenomena not simply as a sequential chronological or lexical (alphabetical) list but in their internal, substantial coherence and its historical development. The notion of literary history goes back to antiquity, but to …

[German Version] I. Terminology – II. Religious Studies – III. Church History – IV. Buddhism – V. India I. Terminology Monasticism is a collective term for an alternative way of life, always religiously motivated, that includes asceticism but is also characterized by a more or less radical withdrawal from society (the “world”) as well as from the monastics' own community of faith. The term monk commonly used in Christianity (from secular Gk μοναχός/ monachós, “solitary,” Lat. monachus, borrowed by way of a hypothetical 8th-century monichus* into Old High German [ munih] and othe…

[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Philosophy of Religion – III. Church History – IV. Fundamental Theology – V. Dogmatics – VI. Ethics – VII. Practical Theology I. Philosophy In a broad sense shaped by daily life in the world, “experience” has been understood since Aristotle ( Metaph. 980b28–982a3) as a kind of knowledge of reality that rests on practical contact and is related to paradigmatic individual cases (Gk ἐμπειρία/ empeiría; Lat. experientia). It does not, therefore, lead to systematic knowledge but remains “knowledge of…

[German Version] I. Terminology The growing popularity of the term spirituality and its equivalents in other Western languages in religious and theological literature is a 20th-century phenomenon. Although the adjective spiritalis (or spiritualis) appeared in early Christian Latin, translating Pauline πνευματικός/ pneumatikós (1 Cor 2:13–3:1, etc.), along with its antonym carnalis (for σαρκικός/ sarkikós) and rapidly became common, the noun spiritualitas did not appear until the 5th century and then only sporadically. In the 12th century, it began to app…

[German Version] I. Early Church – II. Middle Ages and Reformation – III. Modern Period and Today – IV. Chronological List of the Popes I. Early Church 1. Definition. If papacy is defined as the claim (based on Matt 16:16–19; 28:20; Luke 22:31f.; John 21:15–19) of the bishops of Rome as successors and heirs to Peter to leadership along with jurisdictional and magisterial primacy (I) within the universal church, papacy in the strict sense dates only from the Middle Ages in the Latin West. In the Early Church, the point at iss…

[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] I. Religious Studies Relics are the remains (Lat. reliquiae) of individuals endowed with power, such as warriors, chiefs, sorcerers, heroes, prophets, martyrs, and saints – their bodies, their clothing, or objects they have used. Veneration of relics reflects the belief that these forces continue beyond the grave; the intent is to benefit from this power or blessing by erecting structures over the grave, lighting candles or leaving flowers, processions, touching or kissing, or burial near…

[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 – II. Christianity – III. Judaism I. Religious Studies 1. General Clothing fulfills the need for ornamentation and presentation, protection against the weather, and, in certain cases, magic. Appearance and materials follow climatic conditions, economic and technical capabilities (sewing, weaving, etc.), social or fashion conventions, and can be specified according to function (professional attire) or situation (festal attire). Clothing increases the complexity of the optical appearance of its ¶ wearer. It visualizes and makes m…

[German Version] I. Terminology The term wealth belongs to the semantic field that includes kingdom, empire, violence, dominion, and glory. In that context it suggests first an abundance of earthly goods that brings power, then abundance or profusion of almost anything. A distinction must be made between an economic sense of wealth and a broader figurative sense. In its economic sense it means property, possessions, the sum of available goods and values (Value/Values) that substantially exceeds what is considered …

[German Version] I. History of Religion – II. The Early Church – III. Middle Ages, Reformation, Counter-reformation – IV. The Modern Period – V. Martyrs of the Orthodox Church – VI. Judaism – VII. Islam – VIII. Missiology I. History of Religion The term martyrium (Greek μαρτύριον/ martúrion) was coined in early Christianity, where it denotes a self-sacrificial death in religious conflict as a witness to faith Historical and systematic references are found in many contexts, in which comparable terms imply something slightly different. For example, the Islamic šahīd, “witness…

[German Version] I. Church History In Christian usage, the term sacrament has two meanings: a broad meaning corresponding to the New Testament term μυστήριον/ mystḗrion (“mystery”), used as a term for mysteries of the faith in general, and a narrower meaning in the sense of certain liturgical actions that enable believers to share in the salvific grace effected by Christ. While medieval Scholastic theology in the West developed the narrower understanding of sacraments with increasingly precise and subtle definitions, …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Church History – V. Ethics – VI. Judaism – VII. Indian Religions I. Religious Studies 1. Greece and Rome. The term “asceticism,” the Western meaning of which was shaped by Christianity, derives from Gk ἄσκησις/ áskēsis, a noun denoting activity; ἄσκεῖν/ askeîn originally meant “to craft/to decorate.” In the 5th century bce, the primary meaning became “to train/to exercise.” The exercise was mostly physical (gymnastics, …

[German Version] I. Ancient Near East – II. Greece – III. Rome – IV. The Bible – V. Christianity – VI. Judaism I. Ancient Near East Historiography in the classic sense, with a reflective account of historical linkages, developed rudimentarily at best in the cuneiform cultures of the ancient Near East in Hittite and Neo-Assyrian annals and the introductions to treaties; even these documents were usually written to justify the political actions. Around the middle of the 3rd millennium bce, however, there appeared an immense number of all sorts of texts containing more …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies In comparative religious studies, veneration of saints generally refers to the posthumous cultic veneration of a holy person more or less identifiable as a historical individual; it is centered at the place that preserves the saint’s mortal remains, thought to have miraculous powers. Occasionally veneration of living individuals is subsumed under the same category, but this extension results in a dubious diminution of terminological precision, since to this day no one …

[German Version] I. The Concept – II. Religious Studies – III. History – IV. Philosophy of Religion – V. Practical Theology – VI. Islamic Mysticism – VII. Hindu Mysticism – VIII. Taoist Mysticism I. The Concept The concept of mysticism is closely linked to the development of the history of religion in Europe and the term must not be taken and applied uncritically as a general term for a phenomenologically determined group of phenomena in other religions (see also II, 3 below). Attempts at definition are either phenomenolog…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Archaeology – III. Old Testament – IV. Judaism – V. Christianity – VI. Missiology – VII. Funerary Art I. Religious Studies A burial manifests and represents the culture-bound nature of personality and religious traditions that shape community; consequently, it is also a key to the metaphysics of cultural and civil religion. The history of research in religious studies is associated on many levels with the problem of burial. Studies examine agreements and differences …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Antiquity – III. Bible – IV. Church History – V. Practical Theology – VI. Philosophy of Religion – VII. Judaism – VIII. Islam I. Religious Studies No definition of magic has as yet found general acceptance. Approaches that go back to the late 19th century (E.B. Tylor, J.G. Frazer) view magic as a primitive cognitive system, the lowest rung on an evolutionary ladder (Evolution) that progresses with religion and science (cf. also Myth/Mythology: I). Magic in this view is charact…

[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 I. Name and Titles 1. Jesus of Nazareth a. Terminology The appellation Jesus Christ signals a significant tension regarding the figure in question. Although generally understood as a double name, it originated as a fusion of two heterogeneous elements: the theophoric personal name Joshua/Jeshua (Heb. “the Lord help…

[German Version] I. Concept – II. Philosophy – III. Greco-Roman Antiquity – IV. Bible – V. Church History – VI. Ethics – VII. Practical Theology and Pedagogy – VIII. Judaism – IX. Islam I. Concept Traditionally, “education” has denoted the intentional interaction of adults with the younger generation in order-usually-to influence them positively; whether it makes sense to speak of education when negative goals are deliberately pursued is …