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[German Version] (Sep 12, 1604, Strehlen, Silesia [now Strzelin, Poland] – Mar 5 [?], 1686, Berlin), Reformed theologian and adviser on religious policy. After schooling at the Schönaichianum Gymnasium in Beuthen [Bytom], he began to study theology in Frankfurt an der Oder in 1626. In 1629 he began working as a private tutor in East Prussia. From 1632 to 1640 he broadened his education by traveling in the ¶ Netherlands (Leiden), England, and France. In 1640 he was appointed pastor in Pilten (Livonia; now Piltene, Latvia). In 1643 he was appointed court chaplain i…

[German Version] (c. 1475, Frankfurt am Main – Sep 4, 1537, Mainz) joined the Dominican Order of Preachers (1501), became prior in Frankfurt (1510), received his Dr.Theol. (1515), was again prior in Frankfurt (1516/1517), then regens in Trier (1518), prior in Koblenz (1519), again in Frankfurt (1520–1526) and in Koblenz (from 1527), and finally became professor of theology in Mainz (1532). With the encouragement of J. Cochläus, Dietenberger authored many polemical writings (e.g. Contra temerarium M. Lutheri de votis monasticis iudicium, 1524) and ascetic tractates which did…

[German Version] (Dec 9, 1724, Berlin-Charlottenburg – Jan 26, 1774, Frankfurt an der Oder). In 1739 Toellner was awarded a scholarship at the Francke schools in Halle. In 1741 he began studying philosophy and theology in Halle (encouraged and influenced by S.J. Baumgarten). After 1745 he served as a domestic tutor in Pomerania and Berlin; in 1748 he was appointed military chaplain in Frankfurt an der Oder. In 1756 be was appointed associate professor of philosophy in Frankfurt and in 1760 full pr…

[German Version] (Mar 18, 1733, Berlin – Aug 1, 1811, Berlin), bookseller and writer. After attending the Gymnasium in Joachimsthal, the Latin school of the Halle orphanage (1745–1748), and Hecker’s Realschule in Berlin (1749) he went to Frankfurt an der Oder in 1749 to learn his father’s bookselling business, continuing his education as an autodidact. In 1752 he joined the staff of the Berlin bookstore and in 1758 took over as director. There he became one of the most important representatives of the (Berlin) Enlightenment …

1. Christentum 1.1. BegriffDas Abstraktum Frömmigkeit (= Fr.) und das zugrunde liegende Adjektiv fromm bildeten lange Zeit Polyseme. Bis ins späte 19. Jh. erhielt sich die ursprgl. Bedeutung: Das althochdt. fruma stand für »Nutzen«, das abgeleitete mhdt. Adjektiv vrum ( frumb) wurde im Sinne von »förderlich«, »nützlich«, »brauchbar« verwendet (z. B. »ein frommes Pferd«, »zu Nutz und Frommen«); auf Personen bezogen konnte es aber auch »treu«, »rechtschaffen« und »tüchtig« bedeuten. Als Ausdruck von Ordnungsgemäßheit wurde selbst Gott …

1. Christianity 1. TerminologyThe German abstract noun Frömmigkeit (piety) and the adjective it is based on –  fromm (pious, devout) – were long polysemous. Until the late 19th century, they preserved their original meaning: OHG  fruma meant “benefit,” “usefulness”; the derived MHG adjective  vrum ( frumb) was used in the sense of “beneficial,” “useful” (e.g.  ein frommes Pferd [a useful horse];  zum Nutz und Frommen [to the benefit (of someone)]). As an expression of orderliness, God himself is extolled as fromm in hymns (Hymn [church anthem]): the apostrophe O Gott du…

1. ProtestantismusDie Reformatoren sahen in der Bibel die vollständige, in sich evidente Offenbarung Gottes. Damit war eine spiritualistische Berufung auf zusätzliche innere Offenbarungen ebenso abgewehrt wie die katholische Auffassung, dass sich Gott gleichermaßen in Bibel und kirchlicher Tradition offenbart habe und die Bibel deshalb allein von den kirchlichen Sachwaltern der Lehrtradition (Lehramt), keinesfalls aber von jedermann, recht verstanden und gedeutet werden könne. Diese offenbarungstheologische…

1. AllgemeinZ. (lat. censura; »Prüfung«, »Beurteilung«) wird heute als »autoritäre Kontrolle menschlicher Äußerungen« verstanden [18. 3] und dient der Kommunikations-Kontrolle, in der Regel zur Stabilisierung eines staatlichen oder kirchl. Systems. Diese Kontrolle wird durch verschiedene praktische Maßnahmen realisiert: durch Präventiv-Z., die die Vorlage von Manuskripten vor Druckbeginn zur Prüfung bei entsprechenden Institutionen erfordert, oder Nach-Z. bzw. Repressiv-Z., die Medien nach ihrer Veröffentlichung indiziert und Druckerzeugnisse ggf. besc…

1. Protestantism The Reformers saw the Bible as the complete, self-evident revelation of God. This meant a rejection of a spiritualistic appeal to additional inner revelations as well as the Catholic view that God has revealed himself equally in the Bible and in Church tradition so that the Bible can only be properly understood and interpreted by ecclesiastical ministers of the teaching tradition (Ministry [ecclesiastical]), and under no circumstances by just anyone. This difference in revelation …

1. General considerations Censorship (Lat. censura; “examination,” “judgment”) is now understood as the “authoritative monitoring of human utterances” [18. 3] and serves for communication monitoring, generally for the stabilization of a state or church system. This monitoring is realized by means of various different practical measures: by preventive censorship, which requires the submission for examination of manuscripts by relevant institutions before printing begins, or subsequent or repressive censorship, whi…

[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. Intellectual History – II. Theology and Church History – III. Latin America, Asia, Africa – IV. Missiology I. Intellectual History 1. The Term Equivalents to the term “Enlightenment” are found in all European languages (Dutch verlichting, Fr. les lumières, Germ. Aufklärung, Ital. illuminismo, Span. ilustración). The term is ambiguous almost to the point of equivocation. The history of the German word is especially illuminating. The verb aufklären appears for the first time in Kaspar Stieler's Teutscher Sprachschatz (1691), where it is used in the se…

[German Version] 1. August Friedrich Wilhelm (Feb 4, 1703, Harzgerode – Apr 23, 1786, Berlin), Reformed theologian. In 1722 he began to study theology in Frankfurt an der Oder; in 1724 he served as a domestic tutor in Stettin (Szczecin) and Holland, where he was influenced by Jean Barbeyrac (1674–1744), a critic of confessional tests, and Arminianism (Arminians: I). In 1728 he was appointed tutor to the heir to the throne of Hesse-Homburg. In 1731 he was appointed third preacher of German Reformed chu…

1. EinleitungDas griech. Wort theología (Rede bzw. Lehre von Gott und den göttlichen Dingen), mit dem Aristoteles die höchste Stufe der Philosophie, die sog. Metaphysik, bezeichnete ( Metaphysik 11, 7, 1064 b 1–3), wurde in der christl. Spätantike zunächst für Aussagen über das Wesen Gottes gebraucht, während sein Wirken in der Welt als Schöpfer und Erlöser unter den griech. Begriff oikonomía (»Hausverwaltung«) im Sinne von Heilsordnung gefasst wurde [2. 1081 f.]. Im 12. Jh. nahm Th., wenn nicht rein philosophisch als Synonym von Metaphysik, sondern für die chr…

1. Begriff und DefinitionA. (im Deutschen 1691 erstmals belegt) und ihre europ. Parallelbegriffe enlightenment, lumières, illuminismo, ilustración bezeichnen die wirkungsmächtigste europ. Bildungsbewegung des 18. Jh.s und zugleich deren spezifisches Ziel: alle Autoritäten, Traditionen und Hierarchien am Maß einer neu definierten Vernunft kritisch zu prüfen und abzuschaffen, falls sie deren Gesetzen widersprechen sollten, die gesamte Lebenswelt nach diesen Gesetzen neu zu ordnen und möglichst viele Menschen fähig zu machen, kraft dieser Vernunft ein besseres, glüc…

1. Concept and definition Enlightenment in English is first attested from 1865 as a translation of the German  Aufklärung, which was first recorded in 1691. With their European cognates  lumières (French), illuminismo (Italian), and  ilustración (Spanish), they denote the most influential European educational and cultural movement of the 18th century, as well as its overriding goals: to subject all authorities, traditions, and hierarchies to the critical measure of a newly defined reason, and to abolish them if they ran counter…

[German Version] I. Concept, Presuppositions – II. Development – III. Middle Eastern Church History and Historiography – IV. Religious Education I. Concept, Presuppositions 1. Concept The concept of church history has not yet been studied sufficiently, but it is already clear that since antiquity extraordinarily different conceptions of Christian historiography have been in simultaneous competition over the interpretation of past, present, and future. Often the different methodological option…

[German Version] I. General Preaching (from Lat. praedicare, “proclaim publicly”) is spiritual or religious speech, in contrast, for example, to forensic speech, political speech, or celebratory speech. Its setting is the worship of the community (Ministerial offices), church activities such as evangelism, devotions (Devotion [Attitude]), and ordinations (Consecration/Ordination/Dedication), and – in various forms – the media (see IV below). ¶ Communication in preaching, reduced to its basic elements, can be represented as a triangle of the preacher, th…

[German Version] I. Translations into Ancient Languages – II. Christian Translations into European Languages since the Middle Ages– III. Translations into Non-European Languages in Modern Times I. Translations into Ancient Languages 1. Translations of the Old Testament into Greek a. The first written translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint (LXX), owes its name to the circumstance that the Letter of Aristeas refers to 72 elders who had come to Alexandria from Jerusalem in order to translate the Torah of the Jews into…