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[German Version] may be divided into three types: dance, procession, and perambulation. The central feature of dance is movement of the human body, whereby the body may function as a single whole, or, as in Africa, different parts of the body may execute quasi-autonomous movements. Dance may carry a wide variety of religious meanings; they range from entertaining the Egyptian goddess Hathor and bacchantic frenzy to inducing ecstasy, which may lead to possession ¶ by non-human beings. Dance that induces possession by the spirit of Christ seems to be acknowledged by Pau…

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[German Version] Proverbs and proverbial expressions are found in all languages and cultures, and often represent international material. The traditional appreciation of proverbs…

[German Version] The small island situated near the modern Asswan in the Nile, called Elephantine by the Greeks, marks the southern boundary of ancient Egypt. Ezekiel 29:10 mentions it by the name Syene (Heb. seweneh). Today, two Nubian villages and an extended, partially excavated area with ancient Egyptian structures and an archeological museum, can be found on the island. It has been the site of German and French excavations (1906–1911), and German and Sw…

[German Version] I. History of the Discovery – II. The Jewish Military Colony – III. Literary Texts On the island of Elephantine in the Nile a large number of ancient inscriptions and documents came to light. Of special importance among them are the Aramaic papyri dating from the 5th century …

[German Version] Cosmology and Kingdom of God I. Religious Studies – II. Old Testament –III. New Testament – IV. Church History – V. Dogmatics – VI. Contemporary Art I. Religious Studies 1. To a vision that has not been tamed by scientific theory, heaven is a realm of the beyond (Hereafter, Concepts of the). Like the netherworld, it invades the human world as air or earth and sea, but it is beyond the experience of mortals; it is concrete, but cannot be entered. Observation of the concrete phenomena confirms the symbol system conveyed by tradition. Its topog…

[German Version] I. Religious Studies …

[German Version] ( in religious studies). The riddle is one of the oldest contrived formations of human speech. Most riddles are encrypted descriptions of persons, things or facts. As indirect communications they challenge the astuteness of the hearer or reader. Appreciation of riddles arises from the enjoyment of playful concealing, seeking, and finding of meaning, and also from the insight that no deeper knowledge can be acquired without striving to understand. Thus oracles can also take the form of riddles. Old Testament riddles (Judg 14:17–20) are playful, as are Christian riddles past ( Joca monachorum, Exeter Book, Strasbourg Book of Riddles, J.A. Comenius) and present. The existential side of the riddle is seen in St. John’s Gospel, where “insider language” is used in deliberately cryptic fashion. Yet its content can be understood by believers – the “initiated” readers of the Gospel – for they have the knowledge required to find the solution. Outside the context of Western Christianity, Vedic India (Vedas) is familiar with cosmological questions posed as riddles within rituals and sacrificial hymns. Likewise, the Zen koan ¶ dialogues, with question and answer, may be regarded as riddles; not designed for rational solving, their intention is to circumscribe inscrutable enlightenment in an encrypted form. In modern times the riddle has been both highly regarded, for example in art (Joan Miró) and lyric poetry (P. Celan), and looked down upon within the church, partly because of its playful character combined with the possibility of ultimate solution. Theology, unlike science (E. Haeckel), does not have to solve riddles; it has to shed light on t…

[German Version] I. The Concept – II. Comparative Religion – III. Old Testament – IV. Ethnology and Theology I. The Concept The scholarly disciplines of ethnology, anthropology, social psychology, and cultural semiotics are closely related. The specific terminology employed in these disciplines differs at a number of important points in German- and English-speaking countries…

[German Version] I. Names and Terms – II. Religious Studies – III. Ancient Near East and Old Testament – IV. New Testament – V. Church History – VI. Philosophy of Religion – VII. Fundamental Theology – VIII. Dogmatics – IX. Judaism – X. Islam – XI. History of Art and Literature I. Names and Terms 1. Devil The secular Greek noun διάβολος/ diabolos comes from one of the meanings of the verb διαβάλλω/ diaballō, “separate, sever,” which led to meanings such as “accuse, slander, deceive.” From the Greek noun came Latin diabolus, from which the English …