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[German Version] I. Life and Writings – II. Theology – III. Impact (Nov 10, 1483, Eisleben – Feb 15, 1546, Eisleben) I. Life and Writings 1. To the fall of 1517 a. Luther was the son of Hans Luther (died 1530), who made a substantial living from the local copper mines, and his wife Margarete (died 1531). He initially attended school in Mansfeld, since his parents had ¶ moved there shortly after his birth; in 1497/1498 he attended the cathedral school in Magdeburg, operated by the Brothers and Sisters of the Common Life. Finally, from 1498 to 1501, he attended…

[German Version] On the basis of 1 Cor 7:25, Catholic moral theology distinguishes between evangelical counsels or counsels of perfection ( consilia) and evangelical precepts ( praecepta) as guidelines for a Christian life. According to Catholic canon law ( CIC 1983, cc. 573–586), the counsels of perfection represent a vocation of particular individuals (c. 574 §1) to radical discipleship (c. 577). As norms of a Christian life made possible by grace, the counsels are a charismatic expression of Christian perfection (c. 573 §1), beyond the precepts given to all. I. Catholic exegesis f…

[German Version] (Jun 4, 1842, Greifswald – Jun 9, 1915, Leipzig) studied in Greifswald, Erlangen and Tübingen and became associate professor at Halle in 1873, professor of church history at Marburg in 1876, and at Leipzig in 1886. He was a student of A. Ritschl, studied G. Contarini, Constantine, H. Aleander, among others, and wrote works on Luther's faith, on indulgences and the Augsburg Imperial Diet of 1530. In Ullstein's Weltgeschichte, he treated the period of the Reformation. He co-founded the ZKG and co-edited the BSKG. Karl-Heinz zur Mühlen Bibliography A. Hauck, “Gedächtnis…

[German Version] I. History of Religions – II. Bible – III. Church History – IV. Systematics – V. Practical Theology – VI. Law – VII. Judaism – VIII. Islam I. History of Religions The term confession refers to various phenomena, including the confession of faith and of sin. A confession of faith can be understood as an officially sanctioned, formulaic summary of the central doctrines of a religious or a confessional community (“denomination”). Recited in cultic procedures and/or in everyday piety, i…

1. History of Religion 1.1. Definition in Religion 1.1.1. General Definition The word “mysticism” has an etymological link to Gk. myō, myeō, mystērion (shut [eyes, mouth], initiate [into the mysteries], mystery), words connoting absorption, esotericism, faith, and relation to the hidden ground of being. A general definition of the term might be “an individual, emotional sense of identification with no specific expressible content in which language points beyond itself to an experience of something that can be …

1. History 1.1. Jesus and the Primitive Community John the Baptist summoned Israel to repentance (Gk. metanoia, Matt. 3:8; Mark 1:4) in view of the eschatological judgment of the wrath of God (Last Judgment). Jesus in his teaching, however, issued a summons to penitence in the form of a saving intimation of the imminent rule of God (Kingdom of God) and the kindness of God that precedes his judgment. Both interpreted the present as a situation of eschatological decision (Luke 3:9, 11; 12:16b–20; 13:3–5; 16:1–7; Eschatology). The call of Jesus to radical conversion, however, was…

1. German The history of Luther research in Germany in the 19th century begins with L. von Ranke (1795–1886) and his six-volume Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation (1839–47; ET History of the Reformation in Germany [1845–47]). Though tinged with Romanticism, this work puts Martin Luther (1483–1546; Luther’s Theology) squarely in the setting of the 16th-century Reformation. J. Köstlin, G. Kawerau, O. Scheel, H. Boehmer, and R. and E. Seeberg continued along these lines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Theologically, A. Ritschl (1822–89) in his three-volume Die…