Religion Past and Present

Get access Subject: Religious Studies
Edited by: Hans Dieter Betz, Don S. Browning†, Bernd Janowski and Eberhard Jüngel

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Religion Past and Present (RPP) Online is the online version of the updated English translation of the 4th edition of the definitive encyclopedia of religion worldwide: the peerless Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG). This great resource, now at last available in English and Online, Religion Past and Present Online continues the tradition of deep knowledge and authority relied upon by generations of scholars in religious, theological, and biblical studies. Including the latest developments in research, Religion Past and Present Online encompasses a vast range of subjects connected with religion.

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Wycliffe Bible Translators

(369 words)

Author(s): Svelmoe, William
[German Version] (WBT). Founded by William Cameron Townsend (1896–1982), the WBT with its field organization, the Summer Institute of Linguistics, is now one of the largest and most influential Protestant missionary organizations in the world with approx. 6,000 members. After 15 years in Guate-¶ mala with the Central American Mission, Townsend began to realize his dream of an organization dedicated to Bible translations (III, 1) into all the indigenous languages of Latin America. He founded a school to train missionary linguists (“Camp Wy…

Wycliffe, John

(1,538 words)

Author(s): Adolf Benrath, Gustav
[German Version] I. Nothing is known of Wycliffe’s early education (he probably came from Yorkshire), but there is good information about the time of his academic training and teaching in Oxford (Oxford, University), where he spend most of his life. After his basic philosophical study (B.A., Merton College, 1356) and related teaching (M.A., Balliol College, 1360), Wycliffe became a secular priest (1361) and began, with the support of various benefices, the study of theology (1363), which he complet…

Wyneken, Gustav Adolf

(196 words)

Author(s): Schwab, Ulrich
[German Version] (Mar 19, 1875, Stade – Dec 8, 1964, Göttingen). After passing his theological examination in Hanover in 1897, Wyneken received his Dr.phil. from Greifswald in 1898. In 1899 he passed the state examination qualifying him for secondary education. In 1900 he became a teacher at the first German private boarding school, founded by Hermann Lietz (Progressive education) in Ilsenburg. In 1906 he and Paul Geheeb opened the Freie Schulgemeinde Wickersdorf. In 1910 he had to leave Wickersdo…

Wyszyński, Stefan

(314 words)

Author(s): Piotrowski, Eligiusz
[German Version] (Aug 3, 1901, Zuzela, Kresy, then part of the Russian Empire – May 28, 1981, Warsaw). After ordination to the priesthood in 1924, Wyszyński served as chaplain in a working-class environment in Włocławek. In 1929 he received his Dr.theol. in Catholic social teaching from the Catholic University of Lublin. In 1930 he was appointed chaplain and professor at the seminary in Włocławek; in 1932 he also became editor of the theological journal Ateneum kapłańskie (“Priestly Atheneum”). Wyszyński headed a “Christian Workers’ University” and founded the Young Ca…

Wyttenbach, Daniel

(266 words)

Author(s): Kuhn, Thomas K.
[German Version] (Jun 26, 1706, Worb, near Bern – Jun 29, 1779, Marburg), Reformed theologian. The son of a pastor, Wyttenbach studied at the Acad-¶ emy in Bern, where he showed an early interest in the philosophy of G.W. Leibniz and C. Wolff. After ordination in 1732, he initially assisted his father in Worb; in the course of an educational tour, he came to Marburg in 1735 to hear Wolff ’s lectures. On his return, he once more assisted his father; after several unsuccessful applications, in 1740 he was appointed deacon at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Bern. His three-volume Tentamen theologi…

Wyttenbach, Thomas

(194 words)

Author(s): Dellsperger, Rudolf
[German Version] (c. 1472, Biel – 1526, Biel) matriculated at Tübingen in 1496, where his teachers included K. Summenhart and P. Scriptoris; he received his Bacc.biblicus in 1504. As sententiarius in Basel (1505–1507), he had a formative influence on Zwingli and L. Jud. In 1507 he was appointed pastor of the city church in Biel; from 1515 to 1520 he was also custodian and canon of the minster of St. Vincent in Bern. In his 1515 doctoral disputation at Basel, Wyttenbach had probably already opposed indulgences; by 1523 at th…