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[German Version] (Aug 1, 1723, Coburg –Mar 29, 1778, Halle/Saale), began studies in 1742 in Jena and Leipzig, gained his M.A. (1745), became a teacher in the acadmeic gymnasium in Coburg (1747) and, on the recommendation of J.S. Semler, professor ¶ of theology in Halle (1764), received the Dr.theol. (1766), and married Christine Sophie Francke, a granddaughter of A.H. Francke (1767). Gruner was an independent proponent of neology (Enlightenment: II, 4.c); he sought to return the teaching of the church, transformed by Platonism and Aris…

[German Version] (Sep 15, 1756, Hamelin – Jun 26, 1793, Berlin), writer and versatile philosophical essayist who paradigmatically embodied the intellectual contradictions of his time. Following a depressing childhood, shaped by his separatist and quietist father, Moritz became apprentice to a hatter in 1768; he ended his apprenticeship in 1770 with an attempted suicide. He entered the Hannover Gymnasium in 1771. The year 1776 marked the beginning of several unsuccessful attempts to become an actor…

[German Version] (Oct 16, 1717, Halberstadt – May 19, 1786, Hamburg), studied theology, mathematics and physics at Jena and Halle (1734–1738), received the Dr.theol. (1738), became adjunct professor (1741), deacon in Aschersleben (1744), pastor in Magdeburg (1750), senior pastor at the Katharinenkirche in Hamburg (from 1755) and later Senior in the clerical ministry there (1760–1770). The popular preacher and learned theologian (works include Versuch einer Historie der gedruckten Niedersächsischen Bibeln, 1775) was a ¶ combative proponent of late Lutheran orthodoxy (O…

[German Version] (“Friends of Truth”). In 1736, Ernst Christoph Graf von Manteuffel, sometime cabinet minister of Saxony, J.G. Reinbeck, provost of Berlin, and Ambrosius Haude, a bookseller, founded the Societas Alethophilorum in Berlin. There were soon daughter societies, especially in the territory of Saxony (including Weissenfels, Leipzig, and …

[German Version] (Sep 21, 1738, Züllichau – Feb 3, 1809, Frankfurt an der Oder), was educated in the school at Kloster Bergen; he counteracted its culture of Pietism and transitional theology by privately reading the philosophers of the Enlightenment, including J. Locke and Voltaire. He went on to study theology in Halle (S.J. Baumgarten) and Frankfurt an der Oder ( J.G. Toellner). After teaching in Berlin and Züllichau, in 1774 he was appointed director of the Züllichau orphanage as well as professor of philosophy and associate professor of theology in ¶ Frankfurt; he was promoted t…

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. 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. 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. 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…

1. TerminologyThe word “song” – denoting (a) the act of sustaining a melody with the voice, and (b) a composition for singing – dates back to Old English and has virtually identical cognates in all the Germanic languages (e.g. ON söngr, Dutch zang, OHG sang). NHG Gesang, however, was superseded in the sense of “composition for voice” by Lied in the 15th century. According to Grimm’s  Deutsches Wörterbuch, Lied (compare ON  ljóð, OE leóð, ME leth, “lay”) originally denoted making music by plucking strings; OHG glosses render the Latin bardus (bard) as liudari, and the explanatory carminu…

[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…

[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] 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…

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. IntroductionThe Greek word  theología (discourse/teaching concerning God and divinity) was used by Aristotle for the highest level of philosophy, so-called metaphysics ( Metaphysics 11.  7, 1064 b 1–3). In late antiquity, Christians used it initially for statements about the nature of God, while using the Greek word  oikonomía (household management) in the sense of “order of salvation” for God’s action in the world as Creator and Redeemer [2. 1081 f.]. In the 12th century, when theology was used for Christian theology rather than purely philosophically as…

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…