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[German Version] I. Folk/Folk Religion – II. Religious Studies – III. Judaism – IV. Christianity – V. Islam I. Folk/Folk Religion In the English-speaking realm, the adjective “folk” marks common cultural pheonomena as expressions of a peas-¶ ant population. The superordinated term “folk-lore,” coined in 1846 by William John Thomas and popularized by the establishment of Folklore Societies (England 1878, USA 1888), in its customary, more restricted definition encompasses the pre-literary tradition, i.e. the narratives and songs…

[German Version] I. Neurobiology and Psychology – II. Religious Studies – III. Ancient Near East and Old Testament – IV. Early Judaism – V. Greco-Roman Antiquity – VI. New Testament – VII. Church History – VIII. Fundamental Theology – IX. Practical Theology – X. Missiology – XI. Art History I. Neurobiology and Psychology Dreams are hallucinatory experiences that generally occur during sleep. Unlike real experiences, they involve associations that are temporally, spatially, and emot…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Greco-Roman Antiquity – III. Old Testament – IV. China – V. India – VI. Missiology I. Religious Studies All ancestors that are worshiped are dead, but not all dead people are ancestors, and not every mortuary ritual represents an ancestor cult. For an ancestor cult, there must be a consciousness of a familial and genealogical connection with the ancestors over one or more generations, …

[German Version] The society was founded in Breklum in 1876 on the initiative of Pastor C. Jensen, to “train and send missionaries for mission among the heathen.” It combined strains of Pietism and Lutheran confessionalism and therefore initially had difficulty developing an effective program. Its work in India (from 1881) produced the Jeypore Evangelical-Lutheran Church. Its presence in Tanganyika (today in Tanzania) from 1912 to 1916 was initially just an episode, but it returned in 1959. In 192…

[German Version] (May 28, 1899, Neudietendorf – Oct 24, 1959, Heidelberg), an influential facilitator and force in missiology (from 1929, teaching posts in Kiel and Hamburg; from 1953, professor of missiology and ecumenical relations) and missions (Deutsche Evangelische Missionshilfe, Deutscher Evangelischer Missionsrat, International Missionary Council, World Council of Churches). He founded the Academy of Mission of the Universtity of Hamburg (1954). His reflections, which grew out of concomitan…

[German Version] (Mar 7, 1877, Geroldsgrün – Dec 14, 1961, Neuendettelsau) worked on behalf of the ¶ Neuendettelsau Mission in Papua New Guinea from 1899 to 1920. He conducted missionary work in the style of local politics. When a crisis of traditional order brought about by colonial history began to manifest itself, conversions of entire groups took place – as tended to happen in Oceania. Keyßer immediately assigned the responsibility for missionary work to these nascent communities as their …

[German Version] (Jul 1, 1839, Aldermaston, England – Aug 6, 1907, Waverly, Australia). Lawes was sent to Niue (Savage Island, dependent on New Zealand) by the London Missionary Society (LMS). During his time there (1861–1872), he taught, translated biblical texts, and developed a local craft organization. He took his experience on Niue with him to Papua (Papua New Guinea) in 1874, where he strengthened the newly begun work of the LMS. In cooperation with Polynesian missionaries, especially Ruatok…

[German Version] I. General – II. Non-Christian Religions – III. Christianity – IV. Religion, Society, and Culture Today I. General Papua New Guinea, a parliamentary democracy and member of the Commonwealth of Nations, is the product of a 1975 merger of the former German colony of Kaiser-Wilhelm’s-Land (1884–1914, after 1920 a mandate of the League of Nations then of the UN) and the former British colony of Papua (1884–1907, after 1902 administered by Australia). The first Portuguese looking for spices named the island Papua (Malay orang papuwah, “wooly-haired people”) in 1526; t…