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[German Version] (Feb 27, 1486, Nadia/Navadvīpa – c. Jul 9, 1533, Puri), commonly known as Viśvambhara Miśra, also as Kṛṣṇa-Caitanya (lit. “one whose consciousness is Kṛṣṇa ”). After a mystical encounter with Kṛṣṇa ¶ (Kṛṣṇa) Caitanya became a leading holy man of (Bengali or Gauḍīya-) Vaiṣṇavism and of bhakti piety. The brahmin Caitanya preached a personal, loving Brahman and a unio mystica with Kṛṣṇa, which is understood to be expressed in his unification with his lover, the cowherd Rādhā. His followers honor him as an avatāra of Kṛṣṇa or as an androgynous …

[German Version] (Sanskrit; pl. of brāhmaṇa, neut.). The Brāhmaṇas, a collection of sacrificial texts dating from the centuries just after 1000 bce, constitute the second oldest stratum of the Vedas. They comprise in part lengthy prose texts appended to the Vedic collections of the Rigveda, the Sāmaveda, and the Yajurveda, which they discuss and explain. The Brāhmaṇas embody a ritualistic form of religion, in which sacrifices correctly offered (Sacrifice: VIII)…

[German Version] The ethical requirement of ahiṃsā (fem.; lit. “noninjury [of living things]”) is common to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Based on an early Indian criticism of animal sacrifice and the idea of reincarnation, it began to emerge c. 500 bce, initially as an ideal of ascetic living, later as a general virtue of the upper castes. Above all, ahiṃsā forbids the killing of animals, especially cattle, for food (one result being widespread vegetarianism). M. Gandhi transformed ahiṃsā into a commandment of political non-violence and religious love for all living beings. Axel M…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Philosophy – III. Philosophy of Religion – IV. Practical Theology I. R…

[German Version] In Hinduism a liṅga (Sanskrit: “sign, distinguishing symbol, phallus”) is a phallic symbol of Śiva, common in or near temples of Śiva as a cylindrical pillar with a rounded top. It usually stands on a yoni (Sanskrit: “womb, vulva, source”), a bowl-shaped pedestal with a channel. The two together are considered a sign of creative ener…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies The word sacrifice denotes both the living creature or offering sacrificed and the ritual action (e.g. destruction) through which that creature or object is dedicated to a supernatural being. If a distinction needs to be made, English and the Romance languages can use sacrifice (Eng. and Fr.; sacrificio Ital. and Span.) for the ritual action while using victim (Fr. victi…

[German Version] In Hinduism, darśana (Sanskrit, neut., literally “vision, sight”) designates: (a) the mutual beholding of believer and divinity in worship (Pūjā), and (b) a philosophical system, especially the six “orthodox” schools of Vaiśeṣika, Nyāya, Sāṃkhya, Yoga, Mīmāṃsā and Vedānta. In Buddhism, the term denotes either a rational insight or the meditative vision of a celestial Buddha or Bodhisattva.…

[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, and there must be a regular periodic cult that involves more than …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Practical Theology – III. Ethics (Phases of Maturation) – IV. Judaism – V. Hinduism …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Christianity – V. Judaism – VI. Islam – VII. Buddhism – VIII. Indian Religions I. Religious Studies A human society's dietary laws and prohibitions give us an excellent insight into its symbolic and ritual practices. The choice of nourishment (preferences and prohibitions) is closely tied to the overall image that a culture develops of itself, with which it encounters other cultures and which presupposes a specific relationship to nature and transcendence. The dietary laws thus function to…

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[German Version] I. History of Religion – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Dogmatics and Ethics – V. Politics and Jurisprudence I. History of Religion Laws are generally regarded as formulated, i.e. sentential and often codified rules of life and coexistence; this ¶ refers especially to principles of nature (Law/Natural law) and norms of action (Commandment, Ethics). For the modern age, the validity of natural laws arises from hypothetical laws that have been verified through observation and experiments, and have thereby been proven or j…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies “Rites of passage” (Fr. rites de passage) is an expression introduced in 1909 by Arnold van Gennep to mark transitions between two stages of life or conditions of being. It refers primarily to transitions in the life cycle (Sanskrit saṃskāra) such as birth, initiation, marriage, and death (Dying); then also to examinations/ordeals, seasonal transitions (e.g. New Year, new or full moon, harvest), and consecrations (e.g. of a house, or ordination of a priest). Van Gennep elaborated a three-level model that divided rites of passage into …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament – III. New Testament – IV. Church History – V. Ethics – VI. Judaism – VII. Indian Religions I. Religious Studies 1. Greece and Rome. The term “asceticism,” the Western meaning of which was shaped by Christianity, derives from Gk ἄσκησις/ áskēsis, a noun denoting activity; ἄσκεῖν/ askeîn originally meant “to craft/to decorate.” In the 5th century bce, the primary meaning became “to train/to exercise.” The exercise was mostly physical (gymnastics, …

[German Version] is a Sanskrit masculine reflexive pronoun and noun meaning "self, soul, true personality." It is cognate with German Atem, "breath." Since the early Upaniṣads, it has been the Indian term representing various notions of the soul or self. "Ātman" denotes oneself in contrast to someone else; it can mean the breath-soul (cf. Gk πνεῦμα/ pneúma), a homunculus, the individual soul (sometimes in transmigration), the immortal spirit in a mortal body, or mind and consciousness. Already in the Upaniṣads ( Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 3, 7, 3ff.) the …

[German Version] (Sanskrit, masc., lit. “descent”) is the Sanskrit expression, already attested as early as around the 5th century bce, for the appearance or incarnation of a Hindu god, especially of the high god Viṣṇu. The Mahābhārata and Purāṇa texts disseminate the idea that the gods descend from their residences and assume human or animal fo…

[German Version] (Sanskrit, masc. & neut., lit. "spiritual abode, stage of life"). Since roughly the 6th-4th century bce, "āśrama" has referred to the classic Hindu doctrine of stages of life, usually four. A common compound with varṇa, "caste," is varṇāśramadharma, "the law (Dharma) governing the four castes and four stages of life," which comprises the moral and legal norms of those Hindus with whom Brahmin priests are concerned, above all the three upper castes (brahmins, kßatriyas, vaiśyas) (Caste). The four stages in the classical àśrama system and their primary duties are: 1. bra…

[German Version] (anglicized form of Sanskrit masc. brāhmaṇa, “priest, scholar”). In classical Hinduism, the Brahmins constitute the highest of the four castes (I), namely priests and scholars. A Brahmin is the bearer of Brahman; his hereditary status entitles and obligates him to learn the Vedas by heart and to offer sacrifice. The Brahmin caste includes not only …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Taoism – III. Indian Religions I. Religious Studies Against the background of the significance of the body for religious experience, many religions have developed techniques with the aid of which the body can become the instrument of religious and spiritual transformation. These body control techniques are imbedded in an overall religious context that e…