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1. Origin American pragmatism arose as an effort to oppose both scientism and academic philosophy by holding together the world of practical effects with the world of critical reasoning. 2. Development The word “pragmatism” first appeared in an 1878 paper by Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Peirce asked about the practical conditions that make a term meaningful and then answered: A term’s meaning is the operation one performs and the experiential results one learns to expect from such an operati…

The abuse of illegal drugs, prescription drugs, alcohol, and nicotine is an international problem of overwhelming scope. Although such activities have historically been considered vices and socially unacceptable in the United States and many other countries, some of them have increasingly become more tolerated, although regulated, but in some instances are still legally prohibited. At least until the mid-20th century, Protestant America strongly discouraged drug and alcohol abuse and the use of …

[German Version] The term mission statistics covers the systematic collection and compilation of diagrams, data, and statistics to describe the course of the Christian missionary process throughout the world over specific time periods and in specific areas. Statistical data from the mission field have been collected, described, and evaluated throughout the 20 centuries of Christian history, as we can see, for example, from the works of Augustine of Hippo and Isidore of Seville (600 ce). The Old Testament already contains usable surveys and statistical data. The New Te…

[German Version] (Apr 11, 1853, Kingston, Canada West – Jan 30, 1933, Toronto, Ontario) was ordained in 1879 in the Methodist Church of Canada. During the First World War, Chown was the driving force in the initiative to recruit Methodists in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. After the war he led the Methodist church to form the United Church of Canada. Chown was influenced by modern biblical criticism. Accepting the notion of progressive revelation, he accepted that …

[German Version] (Aug 24, 1810, Lexington, MA – May 10, 1860, Florence), Unitarian theologian and preacher. Greatly influenced by transcendentalism (III), he developed a theology based upon intuition, according to which authority and truth had their ultimate sources not in the church nor in the Bible, but in conscience, which Parker often labeled as the voice of God or higher law. Most Unitarians in his time considered him heretical, but Parker’s thoughts mark the emancipation of Unitarianism from…

This encyclopedia describes empirical Christianity—those facts about the world Christian movement that are measurable. It does this by setting out summaries of the survey data produced every year by a vast decentralized investigation quietly undertaken by churches and religious workers across the world. In fact, for over 150 years now, most of the Christian world’s denominations and agencies have been conducting an annual census which is probably the world’s largest single detailed enumeration. …

In 1968, a group of church demographers met and decided that the time was ripe to undertake, for possibly the first time in Christian history, a comprehensive survey of all branches of global Christianity. It was expected that the task of compiling this resulting encyclopedia would take about three years; in the event, it has taken twelve years. The reason for this lengthy period was that all those originally involved, including the editor, seriously underestimated the immense size and complexit…

[English Version] Parker, Theodore (24.8.1810 Lexington, MA – 10.5.1860 Florenz), unitarischer (Unitarier) Theologe und Prediger. Stark vom Transzendentalismus (: III.) beeinflußt, entwickelte er eine auf der Intuition basierende Theol., nach der Autorität und Wahrheit ihre letzten Quellen nicht in der Kirche oder in der Bibel, sondern im Gewissen haben, das P. oft als die Stimme Gottes oder höheres Gesetz bez. Für die meisten Unitarier seiner Zeit galt er als Häretiker; P.s Ideen markieren jedoch …