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[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Philosophy of Religion – III. Fundamental Theology I. Philosophy An object (Ger. Gegenstand) is anything to which a predicate can be applied, or to which identificatory reference can be made by way of a proper name, designation, or deictic expression, hence anything with regard to which statements can be made and judgments can be passed. (“Individual,” “entity,” or “object” [Ger. Objekt] are frequently employed in this sense in analytic philosophy.) In the eyes of some philosophers, this understanding of the conception of object is broader than the ¶…

[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Fundamental Theology I. Philosophy “Grammar” is derived from Gk γραμματική (τέχνη)/ grammatiké ( téchnē), which originally meant the completion of reading. In Hellenism the term generally referred to philology in the special sense of the linguistic examination of word and sentence formation. Today grammar is generally taken to mean (1) the linguistic examination of word and sentence formation, and (2) the regularities of word and sentence formation in language itself. For phi…

[German Version] Cosmology and Kingdom of God I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament –III. New Testament – IV. Church History – V. Dogmatics – VI. Contemporary Art I. Religious Studies 1. To a vision that has not been tamed by scientific theory, heaven is a realm of the beyond (Hereafter, Concepts of the). Like the netherworld, it invades the human world as air or earth and sea, but it is beyond the experience of mortals; it is concrete, but cannot be entered. Observation of the concrete phenomena confirms the symbol …

[German Version] (Gk ὀρϑότης/ orthótēs; Lat. rectitudo). Plato employed ὀρϑότης in the sense of correctness in epistemological (cf. Rep. 515 d), philological (cf. Kratylos, 384 b-d) and ethical (cf. Gorg. 506 d) mean- ing. Anselm of Canterbury gave correctness (rectitude) a fundamental role by defining truth and justice with the common superordinate concept of rectitudo. ¶ Thus, Anselm defines truth as “correctness comprehensible with the intellect alone” ( veritas est rectitudo mente sola perceptibilis – cf. De veritate, ch. 11). Anselm's discussion of correctness presu…

[German Version] I. Terminology and Problem ¶ The meaning of the word truth – Greek ἀλήϑεια/ alḗtheia, ἀληϑής/ alēthḗs; Hebrew אֱמֶת/ ʾĕmet; Latin veritas, verus – depends on the context where it appears. The meaning of the word truth in a particular context is not the same thing as the definition of the term truth; it is also not the same thing as the “function or role that can be or is ascribed to the expression or term . . . in the various contexts and discourses of daily life, the sciences, and philosophy (and theology)” (Puntel, 927). For Christian theology, the biblical use of the term truth is…

[German Version] I. Philosophy Realism in a given area B means the ontological thesis that names or terms used in a theory of B refer to things that exist independently of human thought. For example, in natural realism the existence of stones, trees, and ¶ tables is assumed; in scientific realism, that of electrons, force fields, and quarks (see V below); in mathematical realism, that of numbers and quantities; or in ethical realism, that of moral values. Critics of realism object, for example, that moral values are an expression of value…