Search

[German Version] I. History of Religion – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Church History – V. Dogmatics – VI. Ethics – VII. Practical Theology – VIII. Church Law – IX. Judaism – X. Islam I. History of Religion In the following comments the term community will refer exclusively to a religiously motivated association of people. From the standpoint of the history of religion, the formation of communities is more the exception than the rule. The fact that associations such as tribes, as well, howe…

[German Version] The German term Reichskirche (“imperial church”), scarcely found in historical sources, denotes the post-Constantinian (Constantine the Great) synthesis of civil and ecclesiastical sovereignty in the “Roman Empire,” whose claim of universal dominion made it different from other states. Only in this sense does the term differ from analogous realities in other territories, called state churches, national churches, or regional churches. I. Imperium Romanum A constitutive element of the Roman imperial church was its attachment to the figure of th…

[German Version] Lübeck's origins go back to the German colonization and Christianization of Slavic Vagria/East Holstein under Henry the Lion, after the failed establishment of the bishopric of Oldenburg c. 972–983 and the destruction of the seat of the Slavic principality at Liubice (Old Lübeck). The German commercial town was founded in 1159 and the bishopric was moved there in 1160; a cathedral, several monasteries, and four parish churches were erected between 1163 and 1229. The small episcopa…

[German Version] the supreme administrative organs of the Confessing Church (Bekennende Kirche), which legitimized the creation of alternative church structures since the fall of 1934. In contrast to the national synods of the German Evangelical Church and to the administration of the church of the Reich under L. Müller, the first “Confessing Synod of the German Evangelical Church” in Barmen (May 29–31, 1934) declared itself the sole legal representative of the German Evangelical Church. (H. Asmussen probably coined the term “Confessing Synod” [ Bekenntnissynode]). Tensions in…