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[German Version] (Dec 12, 1859, Dresden – May 6, 1931, Heidelberg), church historian. Beginning in 1878, he studied humanities and political science in Leipzig, Bonn, Straßburg (Strasbourg), and Zürich; after receiving his Dr.phil. from Straßburg, he studied theology at Tübingen and Halle. From 1887 to October of 1891 he taught at the Rauhes Haus in Hamburg; in November of 1889 he was ordained in Berlin. In 1891 he became associate professor of church history at Straßburg. In 1892 he was appointed…

[German Version] (Oct 4, 1787, Nîmes, France – Sep 12, 1874, Val-Richer, France). The son of politically persecuted Huguenots, Guizot taught history in Paris from 1812 onward. Opposed to Charles X, he adopted a liberal-conservative stance and called for a monarchic constitution in order to secure the achievements of the revolution. His licence to teach was withdrawn in 1822. Guizot's publications were instrumental in paving the way for the revolution of 1830. As minister of education (1832–1837) a…

[German Version] From the 16th century, Klausenburg (Romanian: Cluj; Hungarian: Kolozsvár) was the academic center of Transylvania. Two Jesuit (Jesuits) universities existed only for brief periods (1581–1603, 1698–1773), lyceums and academies served the training of the Reformed and Unitarian (Unitarians/Universalists) clergy. A Reformed theological academy with three chairs was in existence from 1854 to 1862. In 1872, the Royal Hungarian Franz-Joseph University was founded with five faculties (the…

[German Version] (Sep 3, Oliva [today part of Gdansk] – Nov 30, 1955, Düsseldorf), jurist. After studying political science and law, he received his doctorate in 1922 and began a career in judicial service in 1923. Having joined the National Socialist Party, he became a member of the Berlin city council in 1930 and joined the Deutsche Christen movement. On Jun 25, 1933, he became acting president of the Protestant High Consistory of Berlin; on Sep 18 he became its president. In the same year he be…

[German Version] I. General Student associations are the umbrella organizations of student groups and societies associated with universities and colleges, which serve a wide variety of purposes and interests – political, social, athletic, and cultural; they also vary in their denominational association or attitude toward religion, gender, principles of conduct, and attitude toward student traditions. Student societies as interest groups and living units are as old as the universities. The nationes, collegia, and bursae (Bursa) of the Middle Ages were followed by comp…

[German Version] (Mar 15, 1830, Karlsruhe – Jan 5, 1890, Celle). In the family tradition, Frommel had artistic ambitions, but his mother's influence, who had sympathies with the Revival movement (Revival/Revival movements), led him to study theology instead. Won over to the revivalism of neo-Lutheranism by F.A.G. Tholuck in Halle, G.C.A. v. Harleß in Leipzig and J.C.K. v. Hofmann in Erlangen, Frommel left the united regional church of Baden as curate in 1852. In 1853, Frommel became assistant prea…

[German Version] (Mar 14, 1874, Wrocław [Ger. Breslau], Poland – Apr 3, 1943, Berlin), youth/social worker. From 1894, an aid in the shelter for young women, Verein Jugendheim, in Berlin, she served as its superintendent from 1898, and from 1908 as the chairperson of the organization. Gierke promoted age-appropriate care for Berlin school children in day care institutions, arguing that shelters along with schools and parents should correct deficiencies in education and health care. For young women dismissed from school, Gierke demanded a home economics education. ¶ Gierke worked f…

[German Version] (Mar 5, 1803, Calw – Jul 6, 1861, Karlsbad), a historian, studied theology and philosophy at Tübingen, becoming tutor at the Stift there in 1828 and city vicar of Stuttgart in 1829. In 1830, this critic of Christianity, fascinated by Roman Catholicism, and student of F.C.Baur left the ministry. In studies on church history, Gfrörer glorified the medieval empire in romantic and confessional terms. In 1846, he became professor of history at Freiburg; the democratically inclined Gfrö…

[German Version] (Sep 20, 1900, Haarlem – Jul 4, 1985, Geneva), secretary general of the World Council of Churches (1938/1948–1966), afterwards its honorary president. After studying theology and law in Leiden and Selly Oak and participating in the evangelistic Dutch Christian Student Movement in 1924 he became secretary of the World Committee for the YMCA in Geneva. In 1925 he was the youngest delegate to the World Christian Conference on Life and Work in Stockholm. Active with the World Student …

[German Version] (Dec 27, 1870, Elberfeld – Feb 18, 1946, Heidelberg). After studying history and theology, Köhler gained his Dr.phil. in Heidelberg in 1895 and Lic.theol. in Tübingen in 1898. His Habilitation ¶ thesis was accepted at Gießen in 1900. He became associate professor there in 1904 and professor of church history and the history of dogma in Zürich in 1909 and in Heidelberg in 1929. After studying Luther, Köhler worked primarily on Zwingli and demonstrated Zwingli's independent role vis-à-vis Luther, a role that was culturally open and marked by Humanism (III). …

[German Version] 1. Ludwig (Apr 2, 1846, Schwelm – Jan 29, 1922, Bonn), pastor and social policy maker. After studying in Bonn, Berlin, and Erlangen, Weber received his Lic.theol. from Bonn in 1868 and was appointed senior assistant at the Johannesstift in Berlin. In 1871 he was appointed assistant preacher in Iserlohn and in 1872 pastor in Dellwig. Especially as pastor in Mönchen-Gladbach (1881–1914), he organized workers’ groups (Workers’ movement, Protestant), morality societies, women’s associat…

[German Version] I. Church History – II. Practical Theology – III. Missions in the Free Churches I. Church History 1. General Free churches are non-established Protestant bodies in countries or regions where there is a Protestant state church or regional churches. The term is often used more loosely, however, and is liable to impose discontinuities through geographical or political changes which do not correspond to the heritage and sense of identity of particular religious communities. For example, the Evangelic…

[German Version] 1. Adolf von (Jan 6, 1796, Berlin – Nov 23, 1882, Batzwitz [today Baszewice, Poland]), estate owner. As a young officer in Berlin, Thadden-Trieglaff came into contact with the Romantic conservative Christlich-Deutsche Tischgesellschaft; in 1816 he came into contact with the Catholic revival movement in southern Germany (Revival/Revival movements: I, 7). To the displeasure of church and state authorities, he established a homegroup on his estate; in its influential successor, O. v. Bi…

[German Version] I. Church History – II. Church Law – III. Dogmatics – IV. Ethics I. Church History 1. Early Church The first written formulations of church law were assembled in church orders, drawing on Old Testament and New Testament legislation. This occurred at a time when the law was generally transmitted orally, sometimes even only in secret (Bas. Spir. 27 [SC 17 bis, 478–491; Ad Joann. 179–185]). Nothing is known of the original scope of this transitional literary genre. Only ten church orders are known, of which a few have only recently be…

[German Version] I. Church History – II. Legal Considerations I. Church History 1. Europe Since their inception in the High Middle Ages, faculties of theology have been an integral if not absolutely necessary component of European universities (cf. the medical school in Salerno or the law school of Bologna). At universities modeled after the one in Paris, theology, law, and medicine constituted the three upper faculties. From the outset, state and ecclesiastical interests overlapped in faculties of theology…